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LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NLM QQ13T75E b EDICINE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE N wnoiivn 3NIDIQ3W do Aavaan ivnouvn SNiDiasw do Aavaan TVNOIIVN 31 EDICINE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE N WNOIIVN 3NI3I03W dO AHVaaiT TVNOIIVN 3NIDI03W dO AavaaiT TVNOIIVN 31 "SShw\ ? r&%/\ 5 / J$&M\ f r&K/\ * X JWirt u EDICINE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE N /NOI1VN 3NIDICJ3W dO Aavaflll IVNOIIVN 3NIDICI3W dO AMVaflll IVNOIIVN 31 Q O- lEDICINE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE r NLM001397526 1 ^7 I !ARY OF MEDICINE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDIC Aavaan ivnoiivn 3nidio3w do Aavaan tvnoiivn dNiDicnw do Aavaan tvnoi (ARY OF MEDICINE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDIC 2 ^5!i\/ Q X/ii£N<5r 2 p_ TVNOIIVN 3NIDIQ3W dO Aavaail IVNOIIVN 3NIDIQ3W dO AavaaiT TVNO ARY OF MEDICINE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDIC Aavaan tvnoiivn SNiDiaaw do Aavaan tvnoiivn snidiosw do Aavaan tvnoi □ o. a | * i "O 0 MEDICINE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDIC ivnoiivn sNiDiaaw do Aavaan tvnoiivn SNiDiagw do Aavaan TVNOI I*> THE CHILD OF PROMISE; OR, TSAAC OF MEDICINE AND ISHMAEL, THE HALF BROTHER, COMPREHENSIVE GLANCE AT THE INSTINCTS AND PREDILECTIONS OF THE "XT*3 RIVAL SCHOOLS .Op. uwl \u>..Ui WILLIAM MELLEN r£4™'/6buol, Doctor of Medicine ; formerly Professo* of CTwuwwfoy and Ibmcotogt} ■ in the Homeopathic Medical College of Missouri ; Member of tHe American Institute of Homoeopathy; of the Massachusetts Homoeopathic Medical Society; of the Massachusetts Surgical and Gynecological Society, etc., etc. WASHINGTON, D. C. H. B. BURNHAM &CO. C357* ISSI COPYRIGHTED BY WILLIAM MELLEN CATE, 1881. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Stereotyped and Printed By JUDD & DETWEILER, Washington, D. C. AS THE CONDITION OF THIS VOLUME WOULD NOT PERMIT SEWING, IT WAS TREATED WITH A STRONG, DURABLE ADHESIVE ESPECIALLY APPLIED TO ASSURE HARD WEAR AND USE. I SSf jioil n«iff Stereotyped and Pbintkd Bt JUDD 4 DETWEILER, Washington, D. C. And he shall dwell with wild men. " His hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him." " For Ishmael" " I have blessed him, and will make tful, and will multiply him exceedingly ;" " But enant will I establish with Isaac," " for an ever- lasting covenant and with his seed after him." " And Sarah saw the son of Hagar which she had bonxe unto Abraham MOCKING! ! " Wherefore she said unto Abraham, ' cast out this bondwoman and her son.'" For " He (Isaac) was a man of Gentle Nature * * * of devout and blameless life." PREFACE. It seems to be very much the fashion in late years for those who have a literary effort to place upon the book mart, to set forth in the preface of these works an alleged valid excuse for "inflicting" the public with the treatise which it precedes, and to request for the errors of omission and commission, which appear in this work, the kind indulgence of the reader, in view of the necessity <3f the author's addressing said treatise to the existing needs in question. Such familiar reference to the shortcomings of a composition by its author brings to mind the tradi- tion of the Irish pilot who, while officiating in his capacity in one of the harbors of the Irish channel, declares that there are many dangerous shoals and rocks in this water-way, but, " Faith, he knows them all, ivery wan." Just then, with a sudden shock, the steamship pounds against a sunken rock. "Sure," says the gallant salt, "and there's wan of thim now." The existing rules and usages of the book interest make it necessary with the reading public that they seek for any literary effort in question. This, to- gether with the ease with which this so-called " inflic- v VI PREFACE. tion" may bo cast from those possessed of it, lends much force to the conviction of the writer that, at least as far as this " child of his brain " is concerned, there is in no sense an infliction imposed upon the reader, unless—and this is an afterthought—those momentous and unwelcome truths which appear in this work should produce upon the average Allo- pathic conscience a positive and abiding infliction. The reasons for the appearance of this book are chiefly three: First. The observation of the writer leads him to believe that a large part of the laity of the Homoeo- pathic system of cure have investigated only the practical claims of this system, there being no facili- ties at hand whereby they may acquire an intelligent comparative view of the historical and scientific claims of the two schools of medicine, without wandering through much that bears but little upon what they seek for, and interests them still less. Therefore, do they possess only the convictions based upon their experience concerning the comparative capabilities of these two systems in their attempts to meet and overcome disease. The fact that such are often compelled to sit by and hear the oft re- hearsed mockeries repeated, without being able to expose them as they might, seemed in itself to the author to be an adequate reason why this work should be undertaken. PREFACE. VII Second. A certain work, by Professor Smythe, entitled "Medical Heresies," which devotes the first ninety-five pages to medical history up to 1790, but sets apart the remainder (more than half) of the book to Hahnemann and Homoeopathy has ap- peared, and since it is, perhaps, the most able of the many constantly appearing attacks upon this school, it certainly deserves our earnest attention. Third. As the more recent and standard works upon " Medical History " profess to give a history of medicine from the earliest ages, but fail to make any allusion either to the work or existence of Hahnemann or Homoeopathy, it appears to the writer that such omission before the reading public should be made good. Consequently, this, the result of the author's humble labors, is tendered to supply the omission, with this proviso,—that these authors, in particular, who are culpable for such defects, do not understand that, by the above statement, we forego or relinquish any of the privileges of copy-right, which our title-leaf certifies to after the duly pre- scribed form. Regarding the many lapses which the author has no doubt are to be found in the subsequent pages, the public need not be told who is responsible there- for; the author only wishes that, at this writing, these could be turned to, for they would certainly be most summarily dealt with. It is only in justness VIII PREFACE. to his friend, Mr. Stephen H. Knight, to say, that through his ready aid, many clerical and typo- graphical errors have been expunged, and that thanks are due for this timely service. As regards his readers, that, in their expenditure in time or money, or both, they will by what they glean from this volume receive an ample equiva- lent, is the earnest and sincere wish of the author. September 10, 1881. 904 Fourteenth Street, Franklin Park, Washington. CHAPTER I. Long before science pointed its first periods, long before the appearance of the rudiments of civiliza- tion, farther back into the night of time than the myths of tradition refer, but coeval with those de- cisive triumphs of man which made the support and perpetuation of the species possible, transpired the birth of medicine. Different races of men have entered upon their beginning at different epochs of the world's history, and among the most primitive individuals which these races have produced, the appearances of pain * or other bodily disorders are experiences as natural as the pangs of hunger or the sensation of bodily cold. Having before them an experience with ail- ments and suffering it was natural that the effects of various kinds of food upon the system would be noticed, that the influence of the application of cer- tain substances upon the external surface of the body would receive comment, and that these things being remembered, they would invoke their help in relieving and overcoming pain and disease. From such observations together with the usage (i) 2 THEIR ANCIENTRY. treatment which grew out of an experience in avoid- ing and encountering physical ills appeared that medicine which was the recourse of the first pro- > genitors of the different races of men. This medicine was necessarily rude and primitive, for men's facilities of observation were narrow and restricted, and, moreover, a sufficient reason to ex- plain the operose or tardy unfolding of the simplest practices now comprised in the medical art which offer succor to the suffering in their time of need, was the inability of their undeveloped discursive faculty either to understand many of the simplest expressions of the natural laws or to witness the more * striking terrene phenomena without acknowledging an extreme fear for what they believed to be a su- perhuman or miraculous manifestation. Passing from that era which saw the human family in its first attempts with medical resource, over an interval which covers a stupendous period of time, at length we reach an age which we owe a passing consideration from the fact of its seeing a mother race in the acme of its power and prosperity, a race supposed to be the progenitor of ancient Greece and her European contemporaries, a race flourishing long anterior to these latter nations and passing from being THEIR ANCIENTRY. 3 before these nations emerged from the darkness of barbarism or at best were but an uncivilized and pristine people. So little is certain concerning the history of this Aryan race—their characteristic features yet unde- termined, and the question as to what was their place of abode a matter concerning which eminent archaeologists disagree—the claims of Europe as well as Asia, to this honor being in turn set forth—that we admit the weight of the prevailing view which avers it only to be fixed as beyond successful dispute that this race appeared, increased, and waxed strong, then waned and passed away to be lost to view for- ever. What we have been able to learn of this race does not contribute to the cause of historic medicine, but the Oriental Indians, sons of Iran, supposed descend- ants of this nation, and inhabitants of that country which lies easterly from Persia to the confines of China, and southerly from the Little Thibet to the Indian Ocean, boasted a high degree of prosperity 3,000 years B. O, attesting the same by ruins, stone memorials, and most of all by that ancient literature, the Sanscrit tongue. In these writings reference to their medicine shows a classification of diseases into 4 THEIR ANCIENTRY. specialties, and a knowledge of the existence of the pulse, and the fact of its examination in their me- thods of judging disease. The Sanscrit literature was maintained to be the exclusive property of the Brahmins, or priests, this class being the acknowledged authorized dispensers of its benefits, hence to them was relegated the office of physician. They held that their medical knowl- edge came to them from heaven, and took occasion to consult the stars, the flight of birds, and certain mystic rites, before offering an opinion as to the character or termination of any particular sickness in question. These have been and still are the un- changeable bias of their medical art. The Chinese people have had a perfected system of chronological data since 2357 B. C.; they exhibit a work upon medicine which lays claim to author- ship in the twenty-seventh century B. C.; this work contains most absurd theories concerning the nature, course, and treatment of disease. It has a most elaborate method for examining the pulse, describ- ing its beat at one part of the right arm for a certain disease, and at a different part of the left arm for other complaints; it also directs in this examination THEIR ANCIENTRY. 5 the use of several fingers upon the pulse, at one time describing their manipulation after a fashion which we should recognize as being similar to the perform- ance of the fingers of the piano player. This medical system which has been, and still is, their standard authority claims by this manipulation the power of determining the seat and nature of dis- eases. This people of paganic worships and prac- tices, of steadfast devotion to their traditions and customs, of uniform deference to their absolute despot, that object of religious awe and worshipful penance, have excluded, until recently, all communication with foreigners this people, though they had pro- duced gunpowder, silk, and the art of printing long before the Christian era, have through all the ages still adhered to the same ideas and practices of the medicine of thousands of years ago, asserting the best treatment for small-pox to be a covering of red for the walls of the sick room and holding the open- ing of the dead for purposes of information to be a crime, punishable with death. It has been supposed by good authorities that the ChaldaBic or Assyrian people once possessed a greater and earlier civilization than the ancient Egyptian nation; still preserved observations upon their science l> THEIR ANCIENTRY. of astronomy running through an unbroken line of nineteen hundred years, this term of time being completed several hundred years before the era of Jesus Christ, and certain cuneiform inscriptions found upon burnt bricks, and still extant, serve to offer evidence of this nature concerning the Chal- daeic Empire. From everything that can be learned of this peo- ple it appears that their priests insisted upon being re- cognized as the exponents of all knowledge, but their medical practice only consisted of such incantations and magical arts as would excite the superstitions of the ignorant people and secure their reverential re- spect and servile obedience. It is with rare interest that we proceed to examine the records and history of a nation, which wonder- ful in its accumulation of the evidences of a past civilization will, to a more marked degree than that of any other contemporaneous people, be found to further the purposes of our subject. The earliest knowledge to be gained of the Egyp- tian nation is from its iconographic treasures, and apart from the question as to which nation may THEIR ANCIENTRY. 7 claim the greatest antiquity in its monumental his- tory, we note, that where these chronicles of other races are scanty, fragmentary, and usually vague and obscure, touching what can be learned of their past, the monuments of Egypt—many of them most famous—exist in great numbers, magnificent ruins, statues, columns, obelisks, temples, sphinxes, colossi, pyramids, and the labyrinth, offering one succession of valuable historical aids. The date of the building of many of these cannot be determined, but to them is conceded a season of great antiquity. Cheops pyramid, the largest of these, has a foundation which covers about eleven acres and a height of about 480 feet, terminating at this altitude in a top about thirteen feet square; this pyramid conforming so exactly with the cardi- nal points that it casts no shade at noon-day. How many centuries of training in architectural science were necessary to qualify these people to produce such a structure ! The hieroglyphics cut upon these monuments ex- emplify the Egyptian records, showing them to be the most authentic, the most complete, the most con- nected, and the most useful to those nations which were destined to appear centuries later, and represent 8 THEIR ANCIENTRY. all that was in their day embodied in the progress of the arts and sciences. Following closely upon this period the practice of papyrus and parchment writing appeared, and hence- forth we may rely upon receiving a more complete description regarding the civilization and history of the Egyptian nation. We learn that they already, to an eminent degree, had perfected themselves in arts, manufactures, and agriculture; by maintaining in their lands, with the aid of systems of irrigating canals, a high grade of cultivation; by displaying in their manufactures great skill in the production of rich dyeing materials, textile fabrics, porcelain, glass; and by being conver- sant in the arts with the imitation of precious stones after a manner as yet unequalled, of preparing enamel and mastic for mosaics, and, finally, by having ac- quired such proficiency in architecture as to have con- ceded to them the most distinguished place among nations to this day. It will be interesting at this juncture to note the contemporary history of Egyptian medicine. We find one Thoth identified with the first mention of this subject; this personage is described as the in- ventor of all the arts and sciences, and is also credited THEIR ANCIENTRY. 9 with a great many volumes which treat upon a number of subjects, among them, medicine. The volumes devoted to medicine adhere to a com- prehensive plan of classification, one volume being devoted to diseases of the eye, one to diseases of women, one to anatomy, one to instruments, one to general diseases, and one to mendicaments. No one speaks of having personally inspected the original writings of Thoth; historians have been unable to fix even approximately the date of his existence, we are not able to obtain any personal information of him or his antecedents, nor can we learn when or under what circumstances those writ- ings ascribed to him were produced. But for the efforts of Galen and M. Houdart to prove to the contrary we should speedily charge these works to a rather late period. In view of these efforts, however, we find our most prominent histor- ians pronounced in the opinion that these writings were a production of numbers of philosophers, living in different ages, who, being prevented by a long es- tablished custom from exhibiting individuality in their works, prefixed all literary compositions with the common superscription of Thoth, and in such a manner as in our time is used with particular reference to authorship. 10 THEIR ANCIENTRY. From the first that can be learned of the condition of Egyptian medicine it has fallen into the hands of the priests who, declaring it to be a sacred art, assert the right to engross its control. The inferior priests —pastophori, or priest-physicians—under the higher order of priests had charge of the disposition of the sick and indicated the employment of treatment. These priests or priest-physicians were such by virtue of lineal descent, for only the posterity of the priest class could become their successors and be taught their peculiar hieroglyphics and instructed in their peculiar attainments. " He who was born a physi- cian was prohibited equally by heaven and by law from abandoning the occupation of his ancestors." It is probable that at a ver}>- early period it was cus- tomary for the sick to be exposed in the public places that those who could speak from previous experience might take opportunity to offer advice. In this way some knowledge of the uses of certain herbs was ob- tained; this knowledge was appropriated by the priests, and, when employed, was used in conjunction with mystical and ceremonial appeals to their divini- ties, for the priests insisted that disease appeared at the bidding and because of the wrath of the gods, and hence the need of ceremonial offerings for pur- poses of conciliation. THEIR ANCIENTRY. 11 Furthermore, the pastophori were confined to the doctrines of Thoth for hints as to the manner of management of the sick, for if disease were met after a method not expressly prescribed in the works of Thoth, should the patient die, the priest responsible for this departure from authorized practices was pun- ished with death. Thus it will be seen that the established formula- ries of the priesthood were not liable to be embarrassed by a comparison either with certain indicated im- provements or by the legitimate results of efforts at research, for the penalty was sufficient to warrant that those having the exclusive charge of the sick would not care to test the merits of suggestions not sanctioned by this authority. That these Egyptians under this status were hin- dered from attempting experimental inquiry into those allied branches of knowledge which go to make the solid ground work of medical science, may be shown by alluding to their ignorance of the first principles of human anatomy. The effects of time upon their dead, victims in wars or other dis- asters, produced the vanishing of all except the bony parts, and forced upon the Egyptians a familiarity with the tournure of the bones, but with this excep- 12 THEIR ANCIENTRY. tion their lack of information in this direction may be shown by referring to their method of embalm- ing the dead, which is described by Heroditus as being performed by first evacuating the contents of the head and body by the use of an iron hook through the nose in the first instance, and by open- ing the body with a sharp stone in the second in- stance. After thoroughly cleaning and washing the body, aromatics and spices were used, then for seventy days the body was subjected to the action of a solu- tion of salt, then being covered with gum, and enve- loped with cloth, was finally left in a condition in which it would remain intact through time unlimi- ted. Now the instruments and means of removing the contents of the body is evidence of a lack of knowledge of its component parts. The superstitious horror with which the people looked upon any attempt to cut or operate upon the dead—the operator upon instituting such pro- cedure was assaulted with missiles and imprecations, used the utmost dispatch while employed, and has- tened to escape immediately upon completing his labors—offers additional evidence in this direction. Again, we would refer to the fact that the school of THEIR ANCIENTRY. 13 the Asclepiadse, upon the Greek isle of Cos, was founded many hundred years later than the period to which we are at present giving attention, and that this school, though known to be thoroughly instructed in the lore of the Egyptian priests, yet had but very indefinite ideas of the structure of the human body, during the earlier portion of its exist- ence. Lastly, we would refer to the views of M. Renouard on this point, who declares that he is justified in as- serting that many of the anatomical and other works claimed to have been possessed by the ancient Egypt- ian priests, were, in reality, the work of some writer of the Alexandrian school since the time of the pur- suit of anatomical dissection and research. The Hebrew nation is closely identified in its earlier history with the Egyptians. These " strangers from the other side," by favor of the Egyptians, occupied a part of the rich country of the Egyptian territory. Certain of the Israelites won favor and prominence both at the Egyptian court and with the learned men of the people. We find Joseph forecasting the days of Egypt's sore trial, and shaping them into a suc- cessful and prosperous period. Later on, Moses be- 14 THEIR ANCIENTRY. came affiliated to the royal household, and was thor- oughly instructed and trained in the learning of the Egyptian priests. Evidence of his ability while at the Egyptian court is attested by the account of Jo- sephus, which mentions an invasion of Egypt by the Ethiopians, whereupon Moses was made a general, and rendered signal service by defeating the invaders and expelling them from Egyptian territory. Again we find him excelling the wise men in their hieratics, and amazing the priests, as well as the royal family, with his surpassing skill in his manipulations with their magical arts. Previous to the escape of the Israelites from Egyp- tian bond-service the intimate relationship and inter- course between these two nations must necessarily have familiarized each with the other's usages and customs, so when we find the Israelites beginning their exodus under the leadership of one so thoroughly conversant with the lore and methods used in Egyp- tian medicine we are not surprised to find the medi- cal art of the Israelites to be at first nearly like that of the Egyptians, except so far as it might come into collision with the interests and influences of the Hebrew religion. The knowledge acquired by Moses of the require- THEIR ANCIENTRY. 15 ments of health and the nature of disease may be partially appreciated by turning to the book of Leviticus, where the laws of life with reference to health are discoursed upon, and the sagacity dis- played in marking out the difference between certain skin diseases is manifest. We soon find, however, that the Levites or priests are following the example of the Egyptian brother- hood, and that they take the charge of medical affairs and associate them with their priestly func- tions. We may believe that later on these things continued very much after this fashion, for we are told that in Solomon's time there appeared a work said to have been written by this sovereign which taught how to treat disease by natural methods, and which was seized and destroyed by a high priest (Ezechias?) because it would damage the weal of the Levite order and trench upon their ordinances of sacrificial ceremonies. Lest there may be those who will be disposed to wonder at the considerable mention in these pages of subjects of general historical interest, it is desira- ble that the pertinency of these matters should be made clear in the following explication of the more 10 THEIR ANCIENTRY. prominent corollaries which have been already set forth. Claiming that medicine entered upon a duration of existence contemporaneously with the first races of men, we have made the effort to indicate the position of medicine in the early states of the ancient nations, to regard its general advancement and to note the highest degree of excellence which it reaches during the progression of the different nations through their many phases of existence. The grasp of enlightenment manifested, and the high degree of civilization arrived at by certain of these ancient races are subjects of attention, for it becomes necessary that we appreciate these matters if we are to ascertain if-the progress of medicine were commensurate with the proficiency developed in the arts, manufactures, and other features of an advancing civilization synchronous with it. We have read of the skill acquired by the ancient Chinese in the manufacture of gunpowder and of silk; we have read of the wonderful records upon astronomical science which attest how well versed the ancient Assyrians were in astronomy thousands of years before the Christian era; we have read of the marvelous civilization of the ancient Egyptians, THEIR ANCIENTRY. 17 of their comprehensive schemes of agriculture, and of their accomplishments in the manufactures and arts that yielded fabrications which to this date en- counter no likeness, unless it be in the products of nature's own laboratory; and we are also familiar with the mention of enduring examples—master- pieces of engineering ingenuity and execution—of which we learn, from the annals of man, that so far back as those annals can acquaint us these memorials are still found standing, hoary with age, and offering to future generations an archetype which none have attempted to follow, and the processes of the con- struction of which none have been able to explain. It must be patent enough to the reader that these evidences already referred to teem with wonderful examples of the skill, ability, and genius of these ancient races, substantiating it beyond peradventure that these nations must have reached both an envi- able point of cultivation and a high degree of intel- lectual development at this time. With this understanding of their powers, aptitudes, and possibilities before us, it seems incongruous in- deed that in no case in the history of the ancients have we seen that the medical art was permitted to be illumed with the enlightenment and erudition of 9 18 THEIR ANCIENTRY. the day, or that there was incentive offered or effort prosecuted that this medical art might reach a de- gree of perfection commensurate with the progress made in the several phases of their civilization as just instanced. On the contrary, the blighting hand of the priestly orders encompassed it within the grasp of its exclu- sive and jealous care, from which it is not found to take upon itself a different complexion than that which superstitious practices, mystical incantations, or the like, can confer. The student of the early history of man knows full well that there is no natural quality of the human mind more marked or so eminently inherent as that of superstition or the tendency to regard with superstitious fear and awe even the simplest expressions of nature's forces when their cause or character is not understood. To draw the breath of life is not more natural than this, and it was the recognition of this natural quality that led the priest class to throw the halo of superstition and of magic not only about the investitures of religion but around the medical art as well, with the aim of assuming its control, preferring that their medical skill remain unchanged and unimproved rather THEIR ANCIENTRY. 19 than that the spirit of research be free to open up innovations and new currents of thought, which might be troublesome by conflicting with their dogmas, abridging their powers, and possibly revo- lutionizing their whole fabric of government, of priestly autocracy and of rule. However, in the course of the elaboration of the cabal that was the aegis of the priesthood of Egypt, it became necessary that certain important difficulties should be overcome before the complete fulfilment of its perfection of design could com- mend it, and when in the interest of the priesthood, methods were produced for the achievement of this end, we find in medical and correlative matters that these people are able to offer results which compare favorably with their efforts in the arts and in other vocations. „ An instance of this is the Egyptian process of embalming already described. Their doctrine of " trial of the dead " held it forth to the inquirer into a future life, that should the tenets of their dogmas be recognized and so acknowledged before the priests, it was the good office of this order to deposit the deceased in the catacombs, there to await unchanged the summons to the Elysian fields of Aahlu. 20 THEIR ANCIENTRY. While a plan of catacombs might not be surpass- ingly difficult to project, the need of the procure- ment of a process of preparing the dead so that it might be able to successfully withstand through an indefinite period the assaults which the forces of the seasons would induce, was apparent at this point of the unfolding of their system of faith. • This called for the production of a master mind, for the undertaking was beset with additional diffi- culties by the vigorous proscription against the ac- quirement of any degree of familiarity with the nature of the subject in question. Hence the methods are found to be both ungainly and prim- itive in what is comprehended as the " Egyptian process of embalming," although this process has presented such marvellous results in the direction desired that we are justified in classifying it among the greatest achievements of this wonderful people. In conclusion, there are three different points to which we wish briefly to refer: First. The high capacity and mark of genius which the memorials of these ancient people attest. Second. That in medicine, and such branches of knowledge as relate to it, the ancients showed as great aptitude and as much natural competency as in other matters. THEIR ANCIENTRY. 21 Third. That the medical art was shackled to mys- tic practices, and amalgamated to irrational forms of worship by a governing priestly class who were ever ready to construe any matter in question as a threat- ened encroachment upon their prerogatives or powers, which should be so dealt with by them as to render any weakening or prejudice of their investitures im- possible. CHAPTER II. It is with fresh interest that we turn from this study of the marked features of the medical art of the most ancient nations to investigate in connection with our subject the general aspects of ancient Greece, a nation which, though at this time in its infancy, was destined, from the pinnacle of its progress in the arts and sciences, to exert an influence unequalled and incalculable both in measure and value upon those races of men which were yet to be. The first accounts of ancient Greece were pre- served at a time when inscriptions or parchment writing were not resorted to or known, and it is believed that at the time of Homer and for a while thereafter no method of writing was used, the min- strels and rhapsodists banding down orally, from one to another, the earliest of the Grecian narra- tives, in this way preserving them for us. Through these we are made acquainted with the grand epic poems of Homer, and it was the rhap- sodists who carefully reared to future generations the handmaid of literature—Grecian mythology. This authority places the origin of medicine with 23 24 THEIR ANCIENTRY. Apollo, and refers to the achievements of other of the mythological deities with the powers of healing. It will be unnecessary to enlarge upon these ac- counts or to more than allude to the names of Chi- ron, iEsculapius, Machaon, Podilarius, Achilles, Teucer, Melampus, and Orpheus, who appear most prominently in medical mythology. It was not unusual for the Greeks—especially during the heroic period—to deify those who in wars or battles displayed personal prowess, and while it is true that extravagant recitals extolled the gifts, and in nearly every instance ascribed the possession of surpassing healing powers to these heroes, it is also true that pronounced or startling medical accomplishments alone were as often the occasion of the deification of the holder. iEsculapius was said to have been the son of Apollo, by Coronis, daughter of the King of Thes- saly. He is accredited with having been the pupil of Chiron, and to first have cultivated medicine, and with such marked success that divine honors were conferred upon him, and thereafter among the Greeks he was styled the God of Physic. The mingled voice of paean and of adoration rose in his honor, and such fabulous accounts of his THEIR ANCIENTRY. 25 wonderful powers were related as the ability to raise the dead—a number of instances being named. This, however, amounted to an indiscretion on his part, for Pluto, the ruler of the lower world, behold- ing with fear and jealousy this threatened depopu- lation of his kingdom, determines to clear his domains of this pestilence, and thinking to divorce the doughty iEculapius from all that is included in a partnership with the corporeal member, bears him o'er the Styx, and leaves him within the inner con- fines of this circling stream, there to reflect upon such offences as must not needs be. The successors of iEsculapius were his sons Ma- chaon and Podilarius, who acquired great repute from the practice of their profession in the Trojan war. The direct descendants of iEsculapius were accorded the exclusive control of the practice of medicine, and the numerous temples which were consecrated to the God of Physic, and which were the dispensaries where the sick and afflicted came seeking relief, were consigned to their charge. These descendants of iEsculapius were called Ascle- piadse. Historians are pretty generally agreed that cer- tain of the prominent features of the Grecian reli- 2G THEIR ANCIENTRY. gion are borrowed from the Egyptians. The fact that Greece presents a situation easy of reach and access by those ancient nations which at an early time were in the zenith of their fame and power, together with the known recurrence of famine and civil wars in Egypt are reasons which would, in themselves, answer for the appearance of Egyp- tian colonies, and for the engrafting of features of Egyptian customs and doctrines into the Grecian civilization.* We are interested in this, for wo find the medical art in Greece in the possession of an exclusive caste, after the plan of the Egypto-Inclian nations, and being handed down from one generation to another, and to only such of their lineage as may satisfac- torily pass their secret initiatory tests. The Ascle- piadae in their method of practice had recourse to mysterious incantations and the like, and upon grievous visitations, as the appearance of a pestilence among the soldiers in the Trojan war, superstitious rites and atonements were resorted to. This, with the exception of the recital of cures, which the reci- * Athens is said to have been settled by the Egyptians, and Argos is also claimed to have been colonized by them about the seventeenth century B. C. THEIR ANCIENTRY. 27 pient was under obligation to bring duly inscribed upon a tablet—votive tablet—for exhibition upon the Avails of the temple, and the employment of simple dressings and the like upon wounds, com- prehended the compass of the art of healing for several ensuing centuries. We noAv note the appearance of one who is known as the first philosopher. Pythagoras was born in Samos, about 570 B. C.; his father was the wealthy Mnesarchus. He received instruction at the hands of learned men of the highest repute, after which, according to the prevailing belief of the ancients, he visited, in turn, Egypt, Phoenicia, Babylon, Chal- dea, and India. Pythagoras left no written memorials, so far as is known, and this, together with the fact of the ex- istence of many inaccurate and fabulous statements of his disciples concerning him, renders acquaintance with his history difficult. It is not certainly known if he ever saw the countries above-named, but it seems probable that he lived for a time in Egypt, for he became thoroughly familiar with the mysteri- ous lore of the Egyptian priests. We also find that he asserts and embraces the doctrine of the Hindoo priests of metempsychosis. 28 THEIR ANCIENTRY. Pythagoras was well informed in astronomy, at this time a Chaldaic science, and seems to have been acquainted with what we recognize as the Co- purnican theory, which makes the sun the centre of Cosmos. He made also most exhaustive mathemat- ical researches, following in this the Phoenicians and Egyptians in their excelling accomplishment, and he is said to have discovered the proposition that the square on the hypothenuse of a right angled triangle is equal to the sum of the squares on the sides. (Diog. Laert. VIII, 12.) He is also said to have paid particular attention to medicine. (Diog. Laert. VIII, 12, 14, 32.) Pythagoras is credited Avith having been a noted athlete, and with having advocated the need of the cultivation of gymnastics and music; also with having held to the necessity of self-restraint, tem- perance, simplicity in personal attire, silence, virtue, and uprightness in the affairs of daily life. He also is said to have abstained from the use of animal food. The epithet of first philosopher is applied to him because, on a certain occasion, being asked what he was called, he invented this term, (love of wisdom,) in contradistinction to the title of sophist, (wise,) then in general use. THEIR ANCIENTRY. 29 Upon his return to Samos he rapidly gathered about him a circle of pupils, who showed great respect for " the master." Pythagoras marks, and was the cause of the ap- pearance of a new era in Grecian intellectual advance- ment, which had as great an influence upon med- icine as upon the other arts and sciences. His methods are seen to be diametrically opposed to those of the Asclepiades, who transmitted their rites only to those of their caste, and enjoined secrecy Avith these transmissions. It was the aim of Pythagoras to discuss the pri- mary causes, and to establish, with certainty, human knowledge generally. We can readily understand why he should have been unfavorably received by the ruling caste in Greece, and how, by the tyranny of the ruler Polycrates, he was soon driven from the country. From Samos he went to the Grecian colony of Crotona, in southern Italy, where he established himself. The treatment which he received in Greece probably carried its lesson with it, for we here find him invoking the aid of organization and of politics, teaching his pupils, under the injunction of secrecy, and allying himself and his school with the aris- tocratic party. 30 THEIR ANCIENTRY. The mysteries of this new order of Pythagoreans, and the strength which this organized union devel- oped did not avail, for we read that his enemies set fire to the building where an immense gathering of his folloAvers Avas being held, causing the death of a great many of this order. It is uncertain Avhether Pythagoras himself per- ished at this time, or Avas starved to death soon after, as claimed by some authorities; at any rate, the dis- sipation of the sect followed. It Avill not be in place here to attempt to judge the systems and discoveries of Pythagoras, or to more than refer to his peculiar theory that postu- lated his philosophy upon numbers as the unit of being, but we wish to give the talents and work of Pythagoras the prominence Avhich they deserve, and to show that though the Pythagoreans Avere dispersed and persecuted, yet they continued to proclaim the teachings of " the master " throughout Greece Avith the effect, Avhen the Asclepiadae found their secrets becoming common property of compelling their priests to lift the veil of secrecy, and to demonstrate their ability to lead in the powers of indoctrination, if they Avould have their institutions continue to hold their position as centres of learnino-. THEIR ANCIENTRY. 31 The natural outcome of this change was the free discussion of the principles and practices of the medical art. It is at this time that a family appeared upon the theatre of medical events, a family whose representa- tives occupied a- prominent place in the medical profession continuously for three hundred years. Hippocrates I, said to be the fifteenth in descent from iEsculapius, we give but brief mention, but Hippocrates II, one of seven, in a direct line of this name, merits our most earnest attention. He was born about 460 B. C. It has been previously mentioned that in several localities in Greece temples dedicated jp iEsculapius Avere erected Avhere medicine Avas separated from other branches of knowledge and made a mysteri- ous art, and after the occurrence of the events just narrated, it became usual to attach medical schools to these temples for the instruction of those seeking to acquire a proficiency in the art. The isle of Cos possessed a temple and medical school which had become perhaps the most cele- brated of any, and it was here that Hippocrates II devoted himself to obtaining a thorough and exhaus- tive knowledge of Avhat was there taught in these 32 THEIR ANCIENTRY. branches. After finishing here he left his own country and traveled in the principal cities of Europe and Asia for the purpose of further perfect- ing himself in the lore of his profession. After his return he wrote a number of works which, from a medical point of view, rendered the age in which he lived memorable. It is difficult to determine the number or value of his Avorks because of the use of his name by many writers who came after him, but Galen claims to be able to distinguish some of the genuine writings of Hippocrates. Hippocrates was the author of an important revo- lution in medicine. The grand principle upon which he stood, was to observe carefully the aspects of nature and to draw his deductions therefrom. In the use of this accumulation of facts Avhich observa- tion had revealed, he sees the operation of universal law and not the influence of good or evil powers. His descriptions of acute diseases, as we find them at this day even, are wonderfully accurate, and his deductions and comments are often able and prac- ticable. I will here notice the important observa- tion referred to him, to the effect that during the reign of epidemics, the most unlike even of inter- current affections Avill take upon themselves a com- THEIR ANCIENTRY. 33 mon likeness; that is, there will be features common to all. Again he says that nature has an inherent spontaneous curative power, which is of itself com- petent to cure disease. He says, first, every morbid state consists of an affection and reaction; second, the affection is the product of a morbific cause; third, the reaction is the exercise of the vis medicatrix naturae. The medi- cal school of Cos, before his time being the most prominent one in Greece, became now, through his efforts, famous indeed. His wonderful skill and brilliant cures were noised to the farthest corners of the known Avorld. Cited cures of noted personages Avere carefully inscribed and handed down to future generations. Unfortunately for him, as it was for several gener- ations succeeding, a knowledge of human anatomy could not be obtained. The Grecian religion taught the necessity of the immediate final disposition of the dead, to free the soul from torment. The preju- dices of the priesthood and the people forbade the examination of the dead, even for the advancement of anatomical knowledge. Pythagoras made himself familiar with the anatomy of animals by dissection; he also studied 3 " 34 THEIR ANCIENTRY. the anatomy of the human hair, skin, and nails, and we have no reason to think that Hippocrates was possessed of a better anatomical knowledge. The ideas of Hippocrates concerning the internal structure, composition, and functions of different parts of the human body seem ridiculous to us at this age, and AArhen he attempts to theorize, with this knowledge for his basis, Ave are not surprised at the outcome. His theory of the four elements and the four humors held that these elements, heat, cold, dryness, and moisture, were the four elements which, combining in varying proportions, constituted all the bodies in nature. That the human body con- tained blood, phlegm, and tAvo kinds of bile, yelloAv and black. In health these Avere in due proportion, a preponderance of one being the appearance of a humor which, in passing out of the economy, would have the effect, as regards the organ enlisted, to leave painful conditions with it. The theory of coction and crises held that the morbific material in the economy to be evacuated properly should undergo coction, the totality of the forces of the economy having accomplished this, the symptoms improved, the crisis Avas at hand, which with the emunctory discharges, terminated THEIR ANCIENTRY. 35 the disease in favrorable instances. If a sickness terminated unfavorably, it Avas owing to the ina- bility of nature to elaborate the morbific matter or to produce coction. It is believed that the prominent physicians of the intervening centuries have, in turn, improved and perfected this theory ; at all events, this theory has had supporters doAvn to the present time. Of the theory of fluxions his Avork on the " Regions in Man," says : " Fluxions are also caused by heat because the tissues become rarefied when heated, their pores enlarge, and the humor they contain is attenuated, so that it flows easily Avhen compressed." ..." For there are more ATeins in the upper part of the body than in the loAver, and the soft parts of the head are thinner and need less hu- midity." To these absurd ideas Ave append the theory of treatment. Holding that the phlegm augments in Winter; the blood in the Spring ; the bile in the Summer; and the atrabile in the Fall, the rule for treatment to induce action in the sys- tem contrary to that produced by the cause of the diseases, led to the enunciation of the famous thera- peutic huv contraria contraribus curardur. The cause of disease being considered an excess of one of the THEIR ANCIENTRY. humors, the one in question was attacked by a remedy Avith contrary properties. Hippocrates employed in his treatment blood let- ting to syncope and fainting, clysters, cataplasms, and suppositories, drastic purgatives, emetics, diu- retics, and laid great stress upon dietetics. In surgery he undertook something more than the simple dressings of the Asclepiadae; wrote a work upon Avounds of the head; in depressed fracture of the skull used the trepan; used the actual cautery; originated a perfected method of bandaging; reduced dislocations and adjusted fractures; and used obstet- rical forceps in difficult labor. We find the prejudices of the age of Hippocrates imposing complete ignorance upon all in certain subjects, and Ave also find that he lapses into the gross error regarding these subjects of producing a priori theories concerning them, theories Avhich are only of interest as exhibiting hoAv preposterous a statement and Iioav false a position even Plippocrates may assume. In propagating such theories as "the four ele- ments," the " theory of generation," etc., and in insti- tuting " humoral pathology " we find him forgetting his own injunctions to his contemporaries, " that the THEIR ANCIENTRY. 3< nature of man can not be well known without the aid of medical observation, and that nothing should be affirmed concerning that nature until after having acquired a certainty of it by the aid of the senses." HoAvever, the ATalue of his work cannot be over- estimated. The mystic veil had been torn from the medical art, and his labors haA'e laid an enduring foundation, upon which the imperishable structure of medical science will rise, vast, imposing, and faithful to the demands of an exact and accurate compliance with all the laws of nature. Though he asserts the laAv of contraria, he further says that diseases are also cured by the similar action of medicine; that is, remedies with properties similar to the morbific cause. The Hippocratic work " On the Places in Man " seeks to illustrate this laAv of similia by stating that the same substances which cause cough, vomiting, stranguary, and diar- rhoea will also cure those complaints. The Hippocratic treatise upon Ancient Medicine declares that remedies sometimes effect a cure not by reason of contrary or similar properties, but that they operate in an inexplicable manner. Hippoc- rates has been called the father of medicine, and in consideration of these foregoing statements, we can 38 THEIR ANCIENTRY. iioav affirm that he is entitled to this appellation in its broadest sense, and, therefore, those of the pro- fession of every school Avho folloAV a course of truth and rectitude, and from a standpoint of proper quali- fications are conscientious in their service in the cause of humanity, have an equal right to regard him as the paternity of their profession. Hippocrates II died Avhen about one hundred and three years of age, and Avhile Socrates his contempo- rary and Pythagoras before him, each met violent deaths because they Avcre supposed to threaten the Avelfare of the religious system of their day, AA-e may understand the immunity of Hippocrates from persecution if Ave remember that it Avas Pythagoras and his followers that established the right of dis- cussion of the medical art, and Avhile Hippocrates AA^as satisfied Avith what had been Avrested from the priests by the Pythagoreans, and it would have been of Socratic temper to have contested, in the spirit of agitation, the right to explore still other fields, such for example as anatomical research, Hippocrates simply undertook a work that he was permitted to engage in to the extent of his abilities. CHAPTER III. OUR ISHMAEL ENTERS UPON HIS CAREER. While Hippocrates lived, his fame and prestige, together Avith the spirit of veneration with which his followers regarded his work and teachings, placed him in a position above others so elevated as to render his course and theories unchallengeable, and to give to him a poAver to direct the course of med- ical thought, well nigh absolute. Immediately after his death we find an era of confusion appearing in the medical Avorld. In the school of Cos even, exception to the theories and practices of Hippocrates multiplied on every hand. This experience of the medical faculty in encounter- ing a new and disturbing factor led them to regard the force of sagacity and the Avisdom of election which the priesthood had displayed in completely controling and shaping, through an efficient and potent organization, the appearance and course of different methods of medical inquiry, and to believe that the interests and the future of their medical fraternity needed the security of some such protec- (39) 40 OUR ISIIMAEL ENTERS ting invest as the above sodality had afforded the priest class. They proceeded, with this purpose in view, to systematize the principal theories and dogmas of Hippocrates. The Dogmatic sect in medicine was the result, an organization in the medical world Avhose scheme had no intent to command control in gov- ernmental affairs, and could not hope to hold the life of an opponent in its grasp as a coercive means of thwarting antagonism to its tenets, as did its archetype, the priest class of the ancients, but which, nevertheless, believed that, from its position of au- thority in medicine as representing the true and only Hippocratic teaching, this school could not only place the stigma of fraternal unAvorthiness upon a dissenter, but could, by its affirmation that his accepted and avoAved opinions were pernicious and false, place him irrevocably beyond the pale of medical competency, with only disgrace and obloquy to his credit. Though at different periods Ave shall find this, the dominant school, employing different methods of coercion as regards its opponents, we can readily understand why this weapon, used at this age, would be of all others the most effective, if we remember UPON HIS CAREER. 41 that at this epoch the interchange of ideas was by oral methods only. For the art of printing being not known, and the methods of hand inscription or writing so tedious and slow as to render manuscript making onerous and seldom undertaken except for the purpose of preserving to futurity the opinions and observations of prominent philosophers—the dissemination of knowledge was restricted to such narroAV channels as only spoken address* could extend, and these runlets and their sources being under the misdirection of Dogmatism, Ave find a prominence and unAvonted Aralue attached both to the strictures and antipathies of the sectators of this organization. This school, Avith its colossal reputation, occupied therefore a vantage ground from Avhich it could successfully withstand all attacks possible to be made upon it under this condition of civilization and of letters; and we shall find this fact so true that in proportion as means are developed for send- ing forth the erudition of the age in a current with so broad, so constant, and so free a floAV that whoever will, may to the fulness of his desire, quaff thereof freely, in that proportion do we find the dogmas and * With exceptions as just noted. 42 OUR ISIIMAKL ENTERS fortified theories of the dominant school assailed, until during the establishment of the Alexandrian library, the antagonism fearlessly takes shape. Under recognized leaders, and Avith a definite pur- pose and unity of action, this antagonism at length is able to effect the discomfiture of Dogmatism, the dissolution of its favorite theories, the overthrow of its most celebrated dogmas. The Dogmatic school, or first medical sect, is gene- rally regarded as having been founded in the first generation after Hippocrates, and when, generations later, the Empiric school took a determinate form in its antagonism to Dogmatism, Ave find these two sects Avaging an unremitting conflict with each other, and Avhile on one hand the strength of the Dogmatic school lay even more in being in its ten- dencies in harmony Avith the prejudices of the dominant philosophers than in its prestige: on the other hand the prosperity of the Empiric school depended upon the increase and diffusion of knowl- edge. Alexandria, the intellectual metropolis of the world, offered in its museum facilities for promoting the increase as well as the diffusion of knowledge. The study of anatomy Avas here aided by the authorization of dissections of the human body. UPON HIS CAREER. 43 Fostered by the sovereign, these methods of research ^ could not but develop neAV and unlooked for facts, Avhich the Empiric school Avere ever ready to seize upon to employ in the overthrow of the dogmas and theories of the dominant school. The effects of such assaults may be imagined, and as the pursuit of knoAvledge could not here be prostituted to the cause of a sect, therefore toAvards the hand of the foreign invader Dogmatism turned, in the hope that its ad- versary would be disarmed of this most potent weapon, Avhich had demonstrated a competency to inflict such mortal injury. When after "the birthplace of modern science" had been turned to ashes by the torch of the invader, and the Empiric school from immaturity of age and purpose was unable to rally from the shock of its disabilities, Dogmatism, from the remnants of its antagonists, sought and obtained the material with which to repair her OAvn disfigured and damaged economy. In other words, the Empiric school, to- gether with the other lesser dissenting organizations Avhich flourished in the days of the Ptolemic library of Alexandria, became extinguished with the fall and destruction of this dynasty, and were merged or embosomed in the dominant sect. 44 OUR ISIIMAEL ENTERS That characteristic feature which we have already recognized as pre-eminently peculiar to the Dogmatic school, of assuming an inherent right to declare what is the true and only exposition of all new or unsettled subjects Avhich appear upon the medical horizon, we notice still presenting itself as promi- nently as ever, as indeed it will be found to do throughout the entire future history of this school. We shall see that the exercise, by Dogmatism, of this aptitude of putting forth the plenary and orth- odox ultimatum relative to matters of medical theory and treatment, which the discoveries of science presently demonstrating to be untenable and dangerous, gives rise, particularly in later times, to these arraignments, in which the most prominent scientific observers stigmatized, in the most emphatic terms, the blunders and incertitudes of the ruling school in medicine.* * That the proper significance may be attached to the above, we append a few extracts from the writings of some of the most famous among the scientific and learned men of their time and who pass judgment upon the merits of the system of the dominant school. The renowned and philosophical Bichat whose researches and discoveries in anatomy and physiology have placed him in a most enviable position in the profession says : " To what errors have not mankind been led in the employment and denomi- nation of medicines. * * * The same identical remedies have UPON HIS CAREER. 45 The sons and son-in-law of Hippocrates, Thes- salius, Draco, and Polybius, were the founders of the Dogmatic school and the successors of Hippoc- rates. These, with Diodes and Praxagoras (of whom there is some mention, though only very vague and unsatisfactory accounts,) were the last of the Ascle- piadae. It Avas, at this period, considered necessary among the erudite to acquire a knowledge of medi- cine as Avell as of the other branches of learning, and hence we often find the prominent philosophers of the day expounding upon and referring to medi- been employed under different names according to the manner in which they were supposed to act. * * * So true it is that the mind of man gropes in the dark when guided only by the wild- ness of opinions. * * * Hence the vagueness and uncertainty our science presents to-day—an incoherent assemblage of inco- herent opinions ; it is of all the physiological sciences that which best shows the caprice of the human mind. What do I say! It is not a science for a methodical mind, it is a shapeless assemblage of inaccurate ideas, of observations often puerile, of deceptive remedies and formulas as fantastically conceived as they are tediously arranged." John Abercrombie, a celebrated physician and surgeon, ranking the first consulting physician of Scotland, in his time, (first half of the nineteenth century,) declares that " medicine has been called by philosophers the art of conjecturing—the science of guessing." Sir Astley Cooper, F. K. S., an eminent English surgeon and professor of anatomy, author of several standard medical and surgical treatises, and surgeon to the king, exclaims : " The science of medicine was founded on conjecture and improved by murder." 40 OUR ISIIMAEL ENTERS cine with the air of a familiar. Indeed, Ave find certain philosophers, partly because of their indoc- trinations and matchless repute in letters, becoming authority in medicine to the extent that their expo- sitions of abstract medical questions are accepted because of the Aveight which their authorship at- taches. Plato, and afterward Aristotle, became ardent supporters of Dogmatism, and brought valu- able help to the aid of this school in counteracting the effect of the opposition of the adverse sects. Plato's philosophy of synthetical and intuitive From the great Francis J. V. Broussais, a name familiar to every student of physiology and of medicine, we quote the asser- tion, that " when I would seek a guide among the authors es- teemed the most illustrious and to whom medicine confesses itself the most indebted, I found nothing but confusion, all was, so to speak, mere conjecture." Dr. J. Mason Good universally conceded to have been one of the most prominent physicians, accomplished linguists, and note- worthy authors of his day, exclaims that " the science of medi- cine is a miserable jargon, and the effects of our medicines upon the human system in the highest degree uncertain, except that they have already destroyed more lives than war, pestilence, and famine combined." Lastly we add the evidence submitted by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, professor of anatomy, and a brilliant and prolific author and poet of the nineteenth century, who tells us that " with the exception of morphine and sulphuric ether, I firmly believe that if the whole materia medica could be sunk to the bottom of the sea, it would be all the better for mankind and all the worse for the fishes." UPON HIS CAREER. 47 methods tested the truth of all propositions or dis- coveries by mental intuition solely, Avithout the aid and entirely independent of phenomenal evidence, hence we may expect to find him to be grossly in error when he attempts to explain the nature and causes of phenomena, for Ave see him depending upon imaginary analogies in evolving his assump- tions, the absurdity of some of which may be instanced by referring to his descriptions of the arrangement and location of certain of the parts of the human body. Aristotle, his pupil, aviio pursued different and better methods of philosophical investigation, ac- quired, under more favorable circumstances, even a greater ascendency over the minds of the erudite of his day as Avell as over those that folloAved him dur- ing the_ succeeding centuries. These philosophers, though not, properly speaking, attached to the medi- cal profession, yet Avere in their time the exponents of the Dogmatic school in medicine. In an assumption of Aristotle's Ave find a legacy bequeathed to Dogmatism, (and of necessity there- fore its accepted doctrine.) This assumption de- scribes a means of communication betAveen the heart and trachea that provides for the direct pas- 48 OUR ISHMAEL ENTERS sage of a current of inhaled air into the cavity of the heart. The harmful influence of this absurd doctrine upon the treatment of many diseases may be imagined. The wonderful conquests of the Macedonian cam- paigns under Alexander lent an extraordinary impetus to the intellectual activity of the time, and the results of these campaigns extended facilities for the acquisition of knowledge, by which the Alexan- drian library and museum were materially aided in the establishment of the "mathematical and prac- tical schools of Alexandria, the origin of science." The founding of these schools, and the successful organization of the other institutes which should go to make Alexandria the great centre of letters and of science, drew the philosophers and students from every quarter of the known world, and we shall, henceforth, during Alexandria's glory, find the most prominent Greek philosophers identified with her and her schools, and giving the world the benefit of their labors as residents of Alexandria and devotees at her shrine of learning. It is about this period that AA7e find the disruption in the profession, producing distinct and opposing sects in medicine. The Empiric sect at Alexandria UPON HIS CAREER. 49 was, according to Celsus, founded by Serapion, though other authorities fix it upon his teacher, Philetius. It will be noted that after the dissolution of this school at Alexandria, its past history reposed with its opponents, and of the very numerous writ- ings of which there is mention, and which we have every reason to believe were made by many promi- nent physicians of this school,, none have been dis- covered, and it is generally conceded that, without exception, all have been destroyed; hence it is from the comments of its opponents that Ave may learn of its organization, doctrines, and work. The sects, as opposed to each other, were called Dogmatists and Rationalists, or Empirics. The Empirics declined to subscribe to any of the Dog- matic doctrines or postulates. We have already attentively followed the assumptions of the Dogmatic school as regards what it claimed for its dogmas and edicts upon all problems in medicine, settled or unsettled, and, bv*its assumptions of what shall be the accepted views of medical matters, how it claimed, from these postulates, to arrange and direct the proper medical treatment to be employed. The Empirics let no opportunity pass to oppose all this, preferring to commence at the beginning, 4 50 OUR ISHMAEL ENTERS and from beneath the accumulated debris of centu- ries of Dogmatic falsity, to disinter the truth, and, under its immaculate insignia, to observe and culti- vate those methods of treatment which experience Avould prove to be the most useful and beneficial to afflicted mankind. Serapion attacked the tenets of Dogmatism with much poAver and vehemence, denouncing the theory of the essence of disease as absurd and false, and the assumption of the theory of prevailing humors, etc., together with the laAv of contraria, was exclaimed against in emphatic terms. The most characteristic feature of Dogmatism, was to resort to the attempt to solve medical phenomena by recourse to recondite and dreamy theories; on the other hand the Empirics professed to exclude all theories from their system, preferring to be guided solely by the minute description of the symptoms of a disease, depending upon the personal observation or related account coming under the careful obser- vation of unexceptionable authority. The name of a disease had but little weight with them, the total assemblage of symptoms was carefully noted, and such treatment exhibited as had been found to be most successful against such a concourse of symp- UPON HIS CAREER. 51 foms. Any given set of symptoms with the success- ful methods used to overcome them, Avas termed an Empiric theorem, and each Empiric physician en- deavored to acquire as many theorems as may be. Thus it Avill be seen that the Empiric school, by imposing fixed and Avell-defined rules forproceeding, in observing and estimating disease, and in persist- ently opposing the false and unsettled theories which were a basis of the treatment of the Dogmatists, con- ferred upon the medical art and upon man an invalu- able service. It is probable that the arguments of Greek Pyr- rhonean skepticism offered encouragement and sug- gestions Avhich Avere of A^alue to the Empirics in refuting the definitions of the Dogmatists, for the Empirics declined to accept or consider any propo- sition Avhich could not be submitted for examina- tion to the senses. The Empirics endeavored to avoid the error, into Avhich the Dogmatists had fallen, of searching for and assuming to be familiar with the essential cause of disease ; in so doing, they rejected all theories from their system, answering inquiries into abstract questions by declaring it to be impossible to explain Avhat is inappreciable to the senses, and, therefore, it must be Avrong to perplex o2 our isiimael enters oneself Avith inquiry into occult causes. This in- duced among the Empirics an indifference amount- ing, in such matters, to apathy, and Ave find Galen authority for the statement, that in the pursuit of anatomical and physiological knoAvledge, the Em- piric school made no progress. In other Avords, the teachings of the Empiric school would enjoin upon its followers the uselessness of at- tempting to discover the underlying causes which produced certain chains of symptoms; hence Ave see they Avere prevented from simplifying their methods, the result being that their record of symptoms mul- tiplied to such an extent as to produce dire con- fusion. Attempts at arranging these into species, or of placing those of a genus together, did not result in obviating the difficulty, and this Aveak side in the Empiric system led to the appearance of another sect, the Methodists. The great object of this sect was to simplify the practice of medicine, Asclepiades, its founder, claim- ing that all the tissues of the body Avere pierced with minute pores, and that disease was simply a condition of contraction or expansion of these pores, he denounced the heroic treatment of Herophilus, and substituted the employment of friction and UPON HIS CAREER. 53 physical exercise, and placed great stress upon diet. This theory was amplified by later Metho- dists, but, OAving to a lack of harmony among themselves as to what diseases constricted and Avhat dilated these pores, it finally became remodeled to / the extent that two new classes of disease appeared in their category, to divide the honors Avith the two classes abo\re mentioned. The Methodists, or "Solidists," as they are also phrased from their belief that disease resided in the tissues and from their opposition to the "rlumoral" theor}-, that of disease being occasioned by some pre- ATailing blood humor, as the Dogmatists assumed, did not cultiATate the study of anatomy and physi- ology to so great a degree as did the Empirics, and Ave find them as essentially dogmatic in their as- sumption of theory as the Dogmatists themselves. An offshoot of the Methodists Avere the Pneumatics, and still another sect, the Episynthetics or Eclectics, appeared. Tliese latter, in the bewilderment of the many presenting theories and systems of medicine, declined to adhere to any fixed principle for guidance or belief, but left each practitioner to choose a feAv materials from each of the different systems Avith AA7hich he could erect to himself an edifice, the com- 54 OUR ISHMAEL ENTERS ponent parts of which, coming from these several sources and intended for very diverse uses and neces- sarily differing extremely in their character and nature, Avould apparently produce a structure as heterogeneous as the most eclectic taste might re- quire. For more than three centuries, just preceding the Christian era, Alexandria Avas the home and centre of science and literature. During this time science, art, and the liberty of criticism Avere fostered and protected by the ruling Egyptian dynasty. The medical art progressed here after a manner which had seen no parallel in history, the controversies and disputations betAveen the differing medical schools having the effect to bring into especial prominence the exclusive advantages and conceits of each system. This " divine school of Alexandria " Avas the only place where, previous to and during this period, the dissection of the human body Avas permitted. Here dissection and vivisection Avere not only permitted, but facilities for unimpeded investigation after ana- tomical and physiological facts wore offered. We, therefore, may expect to find that great advancement Avas here made. The physicians identified with Alexandria and UPON HIS CAREER. 55 her institutions, and enjoying her unexceptional facilities for the promotion of discoveries in ana- tomical and physiological knoAvledge, frequently im- mortalized themseh^es Avhile in the pursuit of their chosen branches of research, Erasistrates and Hero- philus being, perhaps, the most prominent in this particular; the latter, it is said, dissected upAvards of six hundred human bodies during his investigation into anatomical science. Concerning the future of Alexandria, we find that certain political events arose and cut short her mili- tary authority and infkience, Avhich Avas, hoAvever, in extent of time, not great, HoAvever, from a point of view Avhich shall give due appreciation to her intel- lectual achievements, Avithout enlarging upon her progress in the different branches of knowledge, only referring to such names as Euclid, Archimedes, Ctesibus, Hero, Apollonius, Hipparchus, and Ptolemy as connected Avith her schools and the discoveries made in them—aside from the unhappy effect, ex- tending doAvn through intervening centuries to this present time and arising from the intellectual mis- direction here instituted by Aristotle and the Dog- matic sect in medicine, AAThich misdirection perverted the influence of Alexandria in the near future, and 56 OUR ISHMAEL ENTERS thereafter from the true aims of scientific research as applied to medicine but Avhich insured the em- ployment of a priori methods in her supposed cause—aside from this, indeed, we may affirm that the adherence to those simple and truly philosoph- ical methods of investigating nature and her laws, Avhich, under Alexandria's fostering care, Avere sub- ject to no check or limitation as regards the direc- tion or scope of proposed inquiry, but attended, as they were, Avith such Avonderful results as Ave haAre already noted, invested her Avith a hitherto unex- ampled measure of authority and influence in the realm of science, and Avill assure to her, as the inter- vening eighteen centuries already bear Avitness, a future authority and influence Avhich shall be strengthened and augmented in proportion as that science progresses and develops Avhich she originated, and during the darkness of prejudice and ignorance carefully cherished and propagated. The OA^erthrow and desolation of the ruling dynasty of the time Avas attended with the extin- guishment of this spirit of scientific researcli. The different schools of medicine Avere therefore affected to such extent as to exhibit a condition of complete apathy. UPON HIS CAREER. ■ )i After the vanishing from view of the Ptolemic dynasties, had the general state of enlightenment been such as to appreciate and patronize the purposes and efforts of the Empiric school, AAdiat this school had already achieved would have marked but the conclusion of the first period of its mission, in which eA'ent Ave should have seen all the opposing sects of Dogmatism attracted to its standard, and reuniting them under its leadership, in the ardor which attends noAV issues, the Empirical school then Avould have effected, Avith that success which characterized its past, the utter demolition of other of the false posi- tions of Dogmatism. However, the intellectual darkness which folloAA^ed the destruction of Alexan- dria, Avas destined to cover all the scientific lore so carefully nurtured and cultivated there, lying fallow through many centuries to come. With the exception of the Dogmatic, these schools of medicine could not seem to rally from their paralytic state, and Ave shall readily understand Avhy, if Ave consider, as has already been set forth in these pages, that the salient traits of Dogmatism were agreeable to the prejudices of the dominant philoso- phers; for from their station as expounders of wisdom there was something alluring in the a priori methods \ 58 OUR ISHMAEL ENTERS of invoking the imaginative faculties to their aid in shielding their prejudices while interpreting facts or unfolding theories. This, together Avith the later feature of Dogmatism—its intolerancy of opposition in matters Avhich implicated the fundaments of the system—was an autocracy Avhich the schemes of Dogmatism assumed, and under the shelter of which her exponents might repose and feel an assured pro- tection from any danger of the thorough exposure of their errors, Avhich an unrestrained discussion would produce. These characteristics to Avhich Avere attached in- creased Aveight and poAver as being the true methods and expedients of Aristotle, Avere indispensable to Dogmatism, that hydra which exhibits from its un- cauterized Avounds received at the hands of the Em- pirici renewed development and superadded powers and fastening its tentacles about the prostrate forms and institutes of the medical progress of the past, extracts from them their combined roborant quali- ties, by Avhich, in addition to its oavii inherent capaci- ties, it is enabled to display a degree of vitality upon which the continued attrition of two thousand years will produce no perceptible enervating effect. From this time we find but little attention bestowed UPON HIS CAREER. 59 upon either dissection of the human body or practical research. The undisturbed occupation of the medi- cal arena by the Dogmatists gave the a. priori methods the exclusiAre charge of anatomical and physiological topics and Ave find this general condition of medical inquiry to continue through many ensuing centuries. Celsus Aulus Cornelius, a Roman of whom there is much doubt concerning the time at which he lived, his origin, or eATen his profession, Avrote in an admir- ably pure, concise, and elegant style many treatises, remarkable for their force and ability, upon a wTide range of subjects. Of these, such subjects as rhetoric, philosophy, jurisprudence, war, agriculture, and medi- cine have attracted attention, though at present ex- cepting his AA7ork upon medicine and a feAV others of his scattered writings, none are extant, This Avork, "De Medicina," consisting of eight volumes, has come down to us, and was for many centuries widely noticed. It is generally accepted that Celsus appeared upon the theatre of medical events in the second century of the Christian era, and it is probable that he Avas a contemporary of Galen, for we find that the latter does not refer to him in his own Avritings. Although we have some accounts of the surgical as well as the medical methods of Celsus, it is gener- (iO OUR ISIIMAEL ENTERS ally thought that he devoted himself in medicine to literary Avork, aiming to distinguish himself in his compilations and history by a purity and elegance of diction, and an impartial and correct depiction of his subject. Galen, of whom avo have just made mention, was a man of wonderful genius and extraordinary ac- quirements. Born in Pergamos, about the year 131 A. D., he had, in his early youth, the advantage of the tuition of his father, an architect by profession, and also avcII versed in the erudition of the time. Afterwards being placed by his father under the tutorship of those professors most celebrated in their several provinces of learning, he became thoroughly conversant with such branches of knowledge as philosophy, mathematics, and dietetics. Finally, however, he decided to devote himself exclusiA^ely to medicine and its offices. He applied himself to this art, pursuing an equally comprehensive plan of study, traveling in distant countries, and attach- ing himself to various schools for the sake of acquir- ing information. It is credibly stated that one of his longest so- journs Avas at Alexandria, whither he betook him- self to become more familiar Avith anatomy. With- UPON HIS CAREER. 01 out doubt, his talents and accomplishments place him as the most eminent physician of his age and school, Avorthy of being ranked as the peer of Aristotle. This brilliant man Avas the author of a great many (several hundred) treatises upon med- icine, and was the first who gave to literature and the profession a complete system of medicine. Upon finishing his education in medicine, he repaired to his native city, Pergamos, to engage in the practice of his profession, but a revolt breaking out there, he left the city, and Avent to Rome, where he acquired a widespread renoAvn as a skillful and brilliant physician. Upon the appearance of a pestilence of an epidemic character in Rome, he embarked therefrom for Greece, returning soon after, hoAvever, at the instance of the Roman Emperor. Xoav that the Empiric school and its coadjutors Avere no more, and an indorsement of the principles for which they had fought against Dogmatism would not revert to their benefit, avo find the exponents of Dogmatism tacitly acknoAvledging a consciousness of those vulnerable points of their school and against which the Empirici had directed its most successful assaults, by showing an inclination to avail them- selves of the equipments Avhich the Empirici had 02 OUR ISHMAEL ENTERS worn and so long identified Avith their methods, and also by a desire to appropriate any degree of eclat which the sole use and custody of these equipments might attach. Celsus and Galen are each amenable to this in- dictment. Though Celsus displays in his attachment to " Hippocratean methods," no less than by his endeavors to adapt his observations to his theoretical concepts, his allegiance to the Dogmatic school, (for example, Avhere he accepts the doctrine of coction of humors and with such unfortunate results,) yet we see him declaring in favor of certain of the views of the eclectics, and at another time testifying to certain excellencies in the peculiar practices of the Metho- dists. Galen, in more exact phrase, declares himself to be attached to no sect, but to study and use from all, and if Ave knew nothing more than this of him Ave should class him and his statements as being dis- tinctly eclectic. We may believe, however, that this sentiment of his is pronounced for effect only, his practice and utterances stamping him most conclu- sively as a strong adherent of Dogmatism. He accepts the Dogmatic theory of the four elements, which teaches that all changes in the bodv occur UPON HIS CAREER. 03 because of the action of those elements; he also creates a division of eight kinds of temperaments in Avhich these elements are compounded in different proportions; he also indorses Aristotle's theory con- cerning the human soul, which holds that the soul is divided into three parts; one of which is vegetative and resides in the liver; one irascible and resides in the heart; and one, being rational, dAvells in the brain. From such theoretical bases for his starting point, and Avithout examination or corroboration of pre- senting conditions, he does not hesitate to declare the rationale of all the phenomena of the economy. He declares his colleagues in medicine to be " ignorant or punctilious dialecticians, Avhose dis- cussions are frequently repugnant to the most com- mon sense." The insignia of dogmatism, " contraria contraribus curantur" he uplifts as the distinctive symbol of the school, and to the assumption, of his predecessors subjoins his OAvn subtleties of reasoning, presenting, therefore, as we see, " Dogmatism, amplified, ex- plained, and pushed to its last consequences." Galen and Aristotle may be justly represented as the equally supporting pillars of the edifice of Dog- matism. 04 OUR ISHMAEL ENTERS Galen had, as we may noAv appreciate, such a passion for theorizing that this preoccupation pre- vented his applying himself to the accurate descrip- tion of disease in which Hippocrates so wonderfully excelled. He prided himself upon his skill in prog- nosis, and does not shoAV much taste for surgery; his brilliancy and genius, as exhibited in his many works Avhich treat upon medical subjects, conceded to him more than to any other physician before him the position in the Dogmatic school of being not only its exponent, but its oracle, the dicta of the master Avas accepted because of sits source, and became not a matter for discussion, but a belief, a faith. Without undervaluing the talents and learned accomplishments of Galen, it is nevertheless true that his appearance was a misfortune for the med- ical art; not in vieAv of the possibilities or the bene- fits Avhich his talents might have accomplished in other directions in the cause of mankind, but because the scheme of Dogmatism perfected in the Galenic mould, at one fell bloAV, cut short his as Avell as its oavii limited usefulness; for its spirit, grasp, and control of the medical Avorld by indicating Galen as its locum tennis, gave to those hypotheses UPON HIS CAREER. 05 and subtleties, Avhich Galen furnished in explana- tion of the phenomena and functions of the economy, a Aveight and authority intended to be infallible in its character. Physicians, therefore, found the interrogation of nature, in the pursuit of the study of medicine, neither profitable nor inspiring Avhen the dicta of Galen Avas constantly disputed in the prosecution of original fields of research; consequently, we shall find the medical art through the next sixteen hun- dred years to be securely bound hand and foot by the tethers of the Galenic school of Dogmatic medicine. With the disappearance of the medical schools into the vortex of Dogmatism ; with the disposition of charlatans (or those Avhose methods are deceit and artifice) and quacks (or the uneducated and grossly ignorant) to appropriate the remaining vestige of the Empirici—its good name and prestige—AATith the result that they ultimately bring it and them- selves into degradation and disrepute ; with onty a fragment or form of the Alexandrian school in exis- tence from the halcyon days of Rome down through its degeneracy; Avith no comprehensive library or educational centre extant, Avhich could to any appre- 5 06 OUR ISHMAEL ENTERS ciable extent take the place of the first or Ptolemic library and museum of Alexandria; and with the Dogmatists in the exclusive and complete control of medical progress and development, in the continued tenure of which they desired to adopt only such features of the Alexandrian methods as the trans- planting of its system of slave clerical labor for manuscript making, Avith intent to produce and preserve what Avould prosper the cause of Dog- matism, we see the scheme of the Dogmatic school, with all that it implies, practically unopposed, com- plete and undisputed in its sway in the province of medical science and thought. As a consequence those circumstances and condi- tions which would result from the fullest exercise of the purposes and influences of Dogmatism would appear and choke all else in their domain by the press of their rankness and exuberance. An ex- ample of the results of the influence of Dogmatism under these, its most favorable circumstances, is shoAvn in the servile condition of the profession; for freedom of thought and inquiry had been abridged and estopped until, in the nature of things, the pro- fession had acquired an abjectness of disposition AA-hich suspended the progress of medical science, UPON HIS CAREER. 67 until, from the time of Galen, Ave find the profession with folded hands, passiA'e and satisfied, displaying no disposition to take up the cause of medical progress and further its promotion. Indeed, the medical writers of the Christian Avorld from the time of Galen, for more than a thousand years, were, in the language of Sprengel, but " frigid com- pilers or blind Empirics, or feeble imitators of the physician of Pergamos." The gloom which fell upon Christendom, and en- veloped it during the next thousand years, pre- cluded the interposition of the helping hand of the correlative sciences, which so often, under other cir- cumstances, in the discovery and propagation of neAV truths, had led and stimulated medicine to new and better directed efforts in the cause of her own progress. So much need, at this age, had medicine to depend upon her OAvn gropings that we find the priesthood subA^erting their own trusts and assuming and directing the care of disease, employing expia- tory offerings, sacred ointments, the repeating of talismans, the burning of amulets, the Avearing of sacred and blessed charms, declaring such methods not only suitable and eminently adequate, but also 08 OUR ISIIMAEL ENTERS UPON HIS CAREER. the only legitimate and proper relief for the suffer- ing to look to, asserting moreover that, to obtain alleviation or relief from suffering by other methods than those directed by the church and her rep- resentatives, Avould debar the offender from the function of her beneficent offices, and dispossess him of that staff upon Avhich he needs must lean through the valley and shadoAV and up the celestial mountain. With medicine under the complete autocracy of Dogmatism, and Avith such external influences as the above to affect it, avo may, from the foregoing, fully appreciate its degraded and stationary condition in the Christian Avorld from the time of Galen to the fifteenth century; the only illuminate rays which fell upon this art here being such Galenic "com- pilers" as Oribasius of the fourth, Aetius of the fifth, Alexandria, Trallianus, and Paulus of the sixth century. From this time, through the dark ages to the fifteenth century, the gloom thickens, Avhen sudden developments in the civil and political situation of the Christian world are found to bring about neAV and unlooked for changes in the condition of science and of literature. CHAPTER IV. THE DESCENDANTS OF ISHMAEL PROTECT AND NURTURE THE NAMESAKE. At this period, Avhen the European countries were shrouded in the darkness of ignorance, a sudden and unlooked for change Avas Avrought in the condi- tion of an original and unmixed race, Avhose home AAras a peninsula in the soutliAvestern extremity of Asia, to a great extent an arid and barren desert. The Arabs, proud and Avild in their freedom and independence, with " their hand against every man and every man's hand against them," Avere the only people of antiquity Avho could boast of never having suffered the invasion of the foreign conqueror to prevail. One appearing among them, and proclaiming himself a prophet of the liA'ing God, succeeds in inducing this nomadic people to renounce their paganic religion and practices and to espouse and acknoAvledge the new religion preached by Mahomet, the Prophet. The endorsement of Mahomet's claim to the power of revelation by his folloAvers helped (69) 70 THE NAMESAKE IS to make it appear that his utterances had the sanc- tion of divine authority, and these, with his writings, Avere collected to make the Mahometan Bible or Koran. The firm belief of his disciples in his power to perform miracles; his reputed visit to heaven, Avhere he is alleged to have talked Avitli Moses, the prophets, and even Deity himself; the talismanic cry of " There is but one God and Mahomet is his Prophet;" his simple, abstemious, earnest life, consecrated to God and his fellowmen; the religious system Avhich lie founded, so peculiarly avcII adapted to the nature and race characteristics of his people—being a half religious and half military system—were each cal- culated to aid to a considerable extent in making the future great undertakings of this race possible. Mahomet, before his death, at about fifty-one years of age, saAv the firm establishment of the neAV relig- ion upon an enduring basis, but he did not leave behind an organized government Avhich could Aveld and hold together those poAverful factions united under a common religion. Mahomet's martial chiefs, however, effected a coalition under the leadership of the father of a wife of Mahomet, who was styled lieutenant or caliph. PROTECTED AND NURTURED. 71 The Mahometan-religion enjoined frequent ablu- lutions, prayers, fasting and almsgiving; sanctioned polygamy; taught the unity of God and, concerning a future life, the doctrine of predestination, saying of this " No man can anticipate or postpone his prede- termined end. From the beginning God has settled the place in Avhich each man shall die." The im- plicit acceptance of this, and the added conviction that it Avas the duty of all Mussulmans to aid m the diffusion of Islam, and to prosecute its acceptance, if need be, by fire and sword, were competent, Ave may believe, to incite the religious ardor and enthu- siasm, Avhich this faith must produce upon this Avarlike people. With this understanding of their convictions and nature the accounts Avhich history gives us of their wonderful conquests and exhibitions of personal bravery may be read Avith much interest and appre- ciation. Under their first Caliph, Abu Bekir, they entered upon an era of foreign conquest, The Per- sian Empire Avas invaded and finally conquered. The subjugation of Syria Avas effected and the cities of Damascus, Emessa, and Jerusalem, were reduced by these victorious Saracens. The whole of Asia Minor being at the mercy of 72 THE NAMESAKE IS the Mahometans, the Caliphs turned their eyes toward the west, and Amrou, one of their generals, who was sent against Egypt, subdued this country with its cities, Memphis and Alexandria. The Avords ascribed to the Caliph Omar: "If these writings agree with the Koran they are useless and need not be preserved; if they disagree, they are pernicious and should be destroyed," Avere said to have referred to the library then at Alexandria, and to have been the reason of the destruction of this later collection. From this point the Saracens gradually extended their conquests over the Avhole of northern Africa, conquering and absorbing the Moors, who adopted the language, name, religion, and customs of their Arabian masters. Again pushing onward they crossed the straits of Hercules, took Mt. Calpe, (Gibraltar,) invading Spain, and ultimately taking possession of most of her towns and citadels. After these feats of arms the Mussulmans again looked northward and beyond the Pyrenees, and again taking up the SAvord of foreign invasion they penetrated to the centre of France. At this moment, the Franks thoroughly alarmed ceased their inter- nicine warfare and united to do battle to the common enemy. Under the leadership of Cha rles Martel, upon PROTECTED AND NURTURED. 73 the plains of Poictiers the Saracen army Avas defeated and scattered Avith terrible slaughter, being shortly afterward compelled to relinquish their hold upon a large part of their European conquests. With this allusion to the rise and triumphs of Mahometanism Ave shall be able to appreciate the influences Avhich gave rise to their subsequent found- ing and promoting of science and learning in the East. The time came as a result of the extensive con- quests of the Mussulmans AArhen an intellectual stimulus Avas engendered among these conquerors, and Avhen, after the time of Omar, others succeeded to the Caliphate avIio had different and more liberal views than he or his predecessors, their religion, before, an anthropomorphic one, became, Avith these later and more philosophical followers of Mahomet, a religion AAdiose God Avith his attributes they con- tended it was impossible to determine or know of through a knowledge of the attributes of man. Such philosophical features of Mahometanism operating as an incentive, to many of the more advanced Mussul- mans, resulted in their attempting to establish for the glory of Mahometanism a celebrated and un- equalled centre of scientific and literary knowledge, 74 THE NAMESAKE IS which should example, to such an extent as her triumphs of conquest had done, the poAver and fame of Islam. Omar Avas assassinated about (.550 A. D., and about one hundred years later Caliph Almansus founded for the capital of the Empire of the Caliphs the city of Bagdad, Avhich situated upon the banks of the Tigris, sixty miles north of Babylon, became, under his fostering care, a magnificent city of picturesque groves, palm trees, minarets, and mosques. It is said to have finally reached a population of two millions of inhabitants and to have become the great centre of commerce and Avealth. The caliph shoAved great zeal in protecting and encouraging letters. The philosophers of Alexan- dria dispersed at the destruction of the library and museum, as well as those who were obliged to flee from Christendom as heretics, Avere attracted to Bagdad by the generous spirit displayed by this caliph toward all, avIio without distinction of country or religion, Avere by reason of their talents and erudition, able to assist in establishing a treasury of scientific and literary knowledge in this capital. A large number of scholars devoted themselves to translating the lore of Greece into PROTECTED AND NURTURED. 75 Arabic, and the writings of Aristotle, Euclid, and Galen, received especial prominence, and were, in fact, the basis and beginning of Arabian letters. Soon the diffusion of knoAvledge, Avhich its systematic encouragement effected, occasioned the establish- ment of schools, colleges, mosques, and hospitals, together Avith libraries, Avhich in Bagdad, Damascus, Alexandria, and CordoA^a, (in Spain,) reached notable proportions. These Mussulmans exhibited a love of splendor Avhich was displayed in their cultiAration of decora- tive painting and music ; in science they introduced the system of Arabian numerals, algebra, and astronomy into Western Europe. Science and learning with this foothold, and under later caliphs, Avas even more ardently patronized, and took rapid strides in progress. Medicine received distinguished attention, and was prosecuted Avith vigor and success. It was probably the second century of the hegira that saw the first gathering of the erudite under the patronage of the Arabian dynasty. These philoso- phers, from a disposition to follow Galen and the Galenic methods, were culpable to the extent that they confirmed certain of the prejudices of the Mussulmans; therefore, the further development of 76 THE NAMESAKE IS anatomical and physiological knoAvledge was inter- fered with and interrupted by the prohibition of dissection and like investigations. In place of such research and inquiry these philo- sophers evinced an inclination to devote themselves solely to translating and delineating upon the tenets of Galen in declaring their position upon any medi- cal topic. From this time until the eleventh century Ave find the names of many earnest and able toilers within the belongings of Arabic medicine, of tliese Avicenna, though pronounced the most talented and gifted of them all, and sometimes called the " Prince of Physicians," is a fair type or representative of his associates in Arabic medicine. Avicenna early evinced a great thirst for knowledge and de\^oted himself to a thorough and exhaustiAre study of the writings of Aristotle, later he turned his attention to medicine, and became an ardent admirer of Galen, whom he follows implicitly in his methods and bias, even surpassing them in his speculative efforts to pronounce upon the nature and treatment of disease depending in regard to the latter, in true Galenic fashion, upon a preconceived hypothesis rather than upon actual observation, believing that the first duty of the physician was to defend the tenets of Galen from any and all objectors. PROTECTED AND NURTURED. 77 With the Arabic physicians, however, there ap- pear three distinguishing marks: First. Though a servile following of Galen was early established, the imperfect translations of his writings being plenary in their supposed ultimate dicta, yet merit and the result of research, within those limits not expressly forbidden, was, by those Arabic protectors of science and letters, fully recog- nized ; and, therefore, we see that, in certain direc- tions, valuable accessions were made to the general store of medical knowledge by accurate and minute descriptions of diseases, Rhazes being first credited with having written of the small-pox and measles. Second. By their explorations into the vegetable kingdom, the materia medica became greatly en- riched, such herbs as rhubarb, jalap, looch, cassia, senna, manna, and many aromatics being thus introduced. Third. The Arabian art of alchemy was a con- tingent Avhich contributed very materially to Arabic medicine. Alchemy, springing from a belief held at this time that the other metals could be trans- muted into gold, Avere but the correct method of procedure understood, led to much secret effort to discover the process of transmutation. Thus, at 78 THE NAMESAKE IS length, appeared a new class, the Alchemists, whose ignis fatuus still led them on, unrewarded as re- garded their absorbing aim, yet, though each alche- mist zealously guarded his labors in secret by using in his memoranda cabalistic characters and secret signs, their incidental discoveries of new chemical combinations, processes, and substances, served to prosper, not onhr medicine, but the several arts and sciences then extant. Presently they manifested more definite ideas of their subject; and notions, Avhich smacked strongly of a familiarity Avith the teachings of Aristotle, came to view. They regarded gold as having a characteristic "form" separable from its gross part, by Avhich, if it could be isolated and controled, the alchemist could produce the precious metal; this idea extended to the other precious metals, and, finally, was applied to the animal kingdom, the belief being that the human organization had also a special formative force which, could it be controlled, would make eternal existence and enduring youth possible; as a consequence, their labors in quest of the " Philoso- pher's stone " and the " elixir vitse " were persistently pursued. Some idea of the familiarity of these Arabian PROTECTED AND NURTURED. 79 alchemists with some of our most useful chemical compounds may be formed from the fact that Geber, who lived in the eighth century, and AAdio contended that all metals were composed of mercury and sul- phur combining in different proportions, is accred- ited with having produced nitric acid, hydrochloric acid, corrosive sublimate, and red precipitate; and Ave also find the early Arabian physicians with sul- phuret of arsenic, sulphate of copper, sulphate of iron, and borax among their medicinal agents; besides this. Avhen Ave meet Avith such of our drugs as alcohol, naptha, and camphor, bearing the marks of their christening, together Avith the many others before mentioned, Ave cannot but feel that but for one primordial misfortune the history of Arabic med- icine would have shone with an effulgence that Avould have eclipsed the Alexandrian school—that misfortune being the application, in true Galenic style, of the speculative method of explaining nature, taking the Galenic errors of fact and doctrine as essential postulates, and from them producing more extended ones of the falsity that may be presented as the fruits of purely speculative and imaginative methods of ratiocination. It would not be in place to give mention to these 80 THE NAMESAKE IS and other matters transpiring in Saracenic medicine were it not that a correct understanding of their bearing upon our subject renders it essential; the same may be said of those synchronal incidents of a general historical character, some reference to which Avas unavoidable if we Avould have a fair apprecia- tion of those underlying causes which Avrought change at this epoch in the medical art. The several physicians prominent in Arabic medi- cine, beginning Avith Rhazes in the east, and ending Avith Avenzoar and Averroes of the Saracenic school of Spain, will not, therefore, receive individual at- tention. Neither will their astrology (though en- hanced by them, and employed both separately as Avell as in its assumed application to the healing art,) receive more than this passing acknoAvledg- ment. With what has been said concerning the Arabian age of civilization Ave will now turn to Europe in tracing the devious course of medical progress. The deserts of Tartary furnishing the barbarous Turks to effect the conquest of the Arabian dynasty and the consequent dispersion of science in the east, leave only Spain under the rule of the Saracens. Presently the Arabs,* with the wealth and civiliza- PROTECTED AND NURTURED. 81 tion acquired here by them are, together with the brilliant school of Cardova, despoiled and overthrown by the Vandalic Christians, Avhile the Saracens themselves are hurled from their last land of con- quest, This was the final act which contributed to the placing of the Avhole Christian world under the gloom and darkness of the most complete supersti- tion and gothicism. 6 CHAPTER V. WHEREIN THE FORMER PROMINENT TRAITS OF ISHMAEL NOW BECOME HIS SECOND NATURE. The state of medicine in Christendom, during the period of Arabic prosperity, had been one of retro- gression—as has already been observed in these pages—the methods of medicine in treating disease being limited to the use of relics of martyrs, cere- monial observances, supplicatory entreaties to deity, .and the like. This condition of the art continued supreme until about the twelfth centuiy, although it Avas not Avholly relinquished then, for the darkness of apathic ignorance which settled upon the world in the eighth Avas not lifted until far into the fifteenth century. During this age the management of medicine rested with the priests or their immediate subordinates. The relics of martyrs and importunities that the good offices of the church be extended were the sole expedi- ents resorted to. After a time, however, and partly, at least, through the commercial intercourse of the (83) 84 ISHMAEL'S SECOND NATURE. Jews betAveen the different nations, by which means some knowledge of the Arabian and Grecian Avorks was acquired, attention began to be turned to the translation of these writings, and, later on, the wars of the Crusaders contributed to this incentive, so that at length we find the convents and ecclesiastical bodies giving their sanction, and supervising and offering facilities for instruction in "physic," and that, too, Avithin the pale of their sacred investitures. The unvaried sonaunce in the medical events during the dark ages is at length relieved by the work of the medical school of Salernum. This city, in the south of Italy, being in the way of the most convenient route from Europe to Palestine, was the point of departure by Avater to Asia for the Crusaders, and this is one reason Avhy Salernum • and its medical schools acquired prominence. In the tenth century even the afflicted were at- tracted to this beautiful haven, desiring to enlist those of the medical school of Salerno in their cause. At this time only the efficacy of prayer and atone- ments were employed, but soon the translation of the Arabic and Grecian medical works led to the use of other modes of treatment of disease in conjunction with the above. ISHMAEL'S SECOND NATURE. 85 The merit and repute of this medical school con- tinued to increase from this time, it being the first to extend a prescribed course of study to its students and to attest therefor by proper credentials as to the satisfactory completion of such a course. The greatest celebrity of this school was reached in the thirteenth centuiy, Avhen Frederick II, King of Naples and Sicily, by his systematic and substantial encouragement placed it under the most auspicious circumstances possible. Other kings were prompted to a like action, and soon the universities of Paris and Bologna excelled and obscured this the most cele- brated medical school of the Dark Ages. From this time we shall find schools of medicine in operation, with regular and prescribed courses of instruction to offer, and conferring upon those Avho satisfactorily completed such courses the titles of licentiate, master, and bachelor in this art. The dominant school in medicine reasserts itself in Europe at this point in the control of all matters medical, and assuming charge of the medical uni- versities, which, under the patronage of the different sovereigns, prospered and multiplied, reiterates its allegiance to the ex cathedra of Aristotle and Galen by terming itself the Galenic School of Medicine. 80 ishmael's second nature. True to the genius of their archetype these secta- tors transplanted Arabian astrology to their system of medicine, urging this absurdity as the doctrine of medicine, in the light of Avhich medical facts should be explained and medical treatment ex- hibited. Their theory of simple and judicial astrology claimed to be able to foresee and account for the occurrences in a human lifetime, occasioned by the influence (because of their alleged relative position at a stated time) of the sun, stars, and planets, these bodies being supposed to be possessed with the ability to issue certain influences from themselves which Avould effect fortunate or unfortunate results, as the case might be. The Hippocratic axiom, that only the result of repeated actual observation was predicable, Avas here repudiated, and the Aristotlean and Galenic method of assuming the impossibility of error among its exponents, and of asserting the poAver of evolving from the subtleties of their imagination or inner consciousness a full and perfect interpretation of natural laws, was here brought into prominence, as it had been in so many former instances. The result was that this system of astrology was generally ishmael's second nature. 87 accepted, in its full bearing upon medical thought, in the different schools of medicine throughout Europe at this time. The greatest service rendered to medicine at this period Avas by one Andreas Vesalius, whose researches and labors resulted in the founding of the modern science of anatomy. As a youth he displayed a great thirst and appetency for anatomical knowledge. Though, immediately preceding his time, several dissections of the human body had been made, yet these had been, to a great extent, unsatisfactory, for the Italian professors, who had undertaken these dissections, had aimed to make such investigation subseiwient to, and but an indorsement of, the dicta and authority of Galen. Vesalius placed himself under the best advantages that the ablest teachers and most excellent schools could offer, but could but be disappointed with what he received. He then took most extraordinary means for following his natural inclination in his search for anatomical facts. He struggled both with bird and canine vultures for the bodies of criminals, and disinterred bodies from the cemeteries "at the risk of incurring the accusation of the capital crime of sacrilege." 83 ishmael's second nature. He suffered even more than this, for he was con- demned to death at the hands of the Spanish In- quisition, but he persevered in his seeking for anatomical knowledge. . By publishing treatises, he contended and also demonstrated that Galen's opin- ions and teachings were false, that any one could, by actual observation, give the same evidence as he in the premises. Because he took this course he encountered the fiercest opposition and stigma of the dominant Galenic school, and also because he " threw off this yoke of authority which had been imposed by a blind veneration of the opinion of the ancients, and ventured to concei\re the possibility of error in the writings of Galen," he Avas upbraided and de- nounced as a schismatic and heretic unworthy of confidence, upon whom it Avas justifiable to heap the greatest obloquy. He met the issue squarely, hoAvever, and to him more than to any other man is due the credit of having proved by his triumphs that, as regards the facts of science, the unsupported assertions of Galen, Aristotle, or any of the other ancient moguls of Dogmatism, were neither oracles nor necessarily true because of their origin. ishmael's second nature. 89 If the war of Vesalius upon the tyranny of Galenicism settled the question of the probability of inaccuracy with the ancient lights of Dogmatism as regards their indoctrinations and methods in anatomy, it also prevailed Avith equal force concern- ing their fallibility in the other medical sciences, establishing it as clearly in physiology as in anatomy, that actual observation and demonstra- tion were more competent than the cabal of Galen or Aristotle in a*erifying a fact or method before the medical world. Contemporaneously with Vesalius there appears one Paracelsus who is also a laborer in the medical ATineyard, the record of whose Avork bears out the claim, made for his memory, of the contribution of a most useful and advantageous life to the cause of reformation in the medical art. Under the title of Paracelsus this man—the son of a physician, a native of Switzerland, educated by his father, and then by him placed in the several leading medical schools of his day—became a person of most pronounced talents and independence. He defied the censure and imprecations of his Galenic opponents, and in his written efforts, as well as in public, assailed the bumptious egotism of the 90 ishmael's second nature. Galenists, and the self-satisfaction Avith Avhich they viewed their OAvn defective and erroneous methods and doctrines in medicine. His hostility to the Galenic theory of Plumoral Pathology, his antagonism to their strong evacuants, and the redundancy of drugs in the mixtures and prescriptions of the dominant school, his familiarity Avith and neAv vieAvs upon dietetics, and his introduc- tion of the chemical substances into the materia medica Avould have proved either one of them to have been an efficient reason for the visitation upon him of the combined gall, anathema, and malignity of the locum tenens of Galenicism. The righteousness of the cause of this doughty Avarrior gave him a like advantage in the province of medicinal agents and their application to disease, over his opponents, that Vesalius obtained in certain directions, and his bloAvs against Galenicism Avere no less effective than those of the rare anatomist of the sixteenth century. Later, Avhen the dominant school renounces its alchemic and theosophic tenets, Ave find it, in its assaults against the influence and Avork of Para- celsus, pronouncing upon him the epithet of astrol- ogist and alchemist, although his writings show him ishmael's second nature. 91 to have antagonized the claims of astrology, and to have neither sympathized with the Alchemists, nor to have been recognized as among their number by the Alchemists themselves. The fact that he Avrote and successfully contended for the recognition and use of chemicals is the only conceivable apology for the appearance of the latter charge. For many years allusion to Paracelsus or his labors in medicine created very much the same effect upon the adherent to Galenicism as do the bright colored garments of the chulos upon their victim in the fiesta de toros. This school has raised, argued, and decided, much to its satisfaction, the question of the erratic char- acter and immoral and dissolute habits of Paracel- sus, and assert that he was possessed of most consum- mate self-conceit, and cite as evidence in this that, while he was professor of medicine and surgery at Bale, he publicly burned the writings of Galen, and was compelled to flee the country therefor shortly afterward. Their claim that he pretended to have discovered the elixir vitse is dwelt upon in conjunction with the asseveration of his death in a hospital at the age of forty-eight from indulgences in a period of drunk- 92 ishmael's second nature. enness and debauchery. HoAvever, these attacks upon his personal character do not affect the quality or value of his Avork in its relation to medical refor- mation ; neither does the fact that he occupied an onerous position before the Avorld, Avhen to take his independent stand was to suffer persecution and misrepresentation, appear any the less great. More- over the attempt to shoAV that he .was anything else than a great man—when great men were feAV— proves to be but abortive and unsuccessful. The empiricism of Paracelsus, though so often antagonized by the Galenists, was nevertheless founded upon principles of a more enduring char- acter than the hypothetical physiological elements of Galen, for careful observation was made his basis as this quotation from him will evidence. " There are two kinds of ways and paths, or two methods and fashions, by which to arrive at a knowledge of the arts. The one teaches and conducts to the truth; the other to illusion. The erring and A~agabond discourses on the understanding and reason are the causes of error, which occurs when they are per- mitted to guide us. Experience and that Avhich is found familiar and in accordance with nature, and which produces like actions, is the cause of truth and certainty." ishmael's second nature. 93 The bias and tendencies of the dominant school Avere consistently pushed to their ultimates, and we therefore find the adherents of this school assuming for themselves, as Galenists, most extraordinary en- doAvments, for from proclaiming the ability to pro- duce imaginatiAre hypotheses concerning Avhich they claimed to present the true and only explication, Ave noAv find that they assert their derivation of knoAvl- edge of mooted matters in medicine to be from the Deity—to be a matter of inspiration. These assump- tions Avere those of the Galenic school at this time, and Avere by its representatives very generally ac- cepted and assumed. HoAvever these alleged poAvers were not to any extent applied to anatomy or the allied sciences, for this field was occupied at this time by an indefatig- able force of folloAvers of Vesalius, the results of whose efforts had placed these branches beyond the limits of Dogmatic control, only leaving the Galen- ists the intricacies and marvels of disease phe- nomena, and the methods and manner of the action of curative means to hypothecate upon. Naturally the course taken by the Galenists, as above described, led to the promulgation of the doctrine that disease Avas caused and controlled by 94 ISHMAEL'S SECOND NATURE. demons; and contrary to common sense as this pre- posterous doctrine strikes us to be, yet it Avas the doctrine which spread and for years held the med- ical schools of Europe. Painful as this condition of things was concerning the nature and treatment of disease, Ave shall turn Avith a feeling of relief to ascertain of the state of anatomy and physiology at this time, after Vesalius, Fallopius, Eustachius, and others made many discoveries in anatomy, contributing much to its advancement. We also find Fabricius describing the values of the veins, and William Harvey making known the mechanism of the greater and lesser circulation. These Avith the deportment of the blood corpuscles in the capillary circulation, Avhich, by the aid of the microscope, Avas demonstrated by Malpighi, exampled an aggregate of progress in marked con- trast to those branches of medicine still under Galenic method of ratiocination, though the other sciences, as chemistry and astronomy, are found to have kept pace Avith anatomy in their measure of general advancement. It would seem, as if when this amalgamated school of fallacy, superstition, and malignancy, had, from the force of external influence, abandoned its last isiimael's second nature. 95 absurdity—for through the printing press and the Reformation congeric forces had arisen—in the memory of its past blunders and errors, both of omission and commission, it Avould for the future engage a more tolerant bearing toward those Avho declined to accept the infallibility of its imaginative poAvers of dicta. Much as this Avas to be hoped for, aatc do not, how- ever, find it to be the case; for if, as we have seen it doAvn from the ancient days of Aristotle and Galen, on through the dark ages to this seventeenth century the inborn bent of this school has been to procreate a chimera AA'hich shall engross their obeisance and fealty for a brief time until its instability explodes it, leaving its AA'orshippers to bring forward neAver and even greater imaginative follies, only to receive in turn the same experience at the hands of Dog- matic medicine—uno avulso non deficit alter* The conceit of this school Avill also be found to continue on, eA'en cIoavii to the present moment, always occupying the same position of distinction and honor; a conceit Avdiich maintains that it shall reside supreme within the faculty of Dogmatic medi- * When one is torn away another succeeds. 96 ishmael's second nature. cine, to be known as its own prerogative and endowed efficient genius; a conceit which declares and affirms from the fullness of this assumed ability and auto- cracy Avhat shall be the views and interpretation of such phenomena as have bearing upon the medical art, and Avhat shall be the accepted theories and predictions concerning them. This is the Avorst attribute of the dominant school in medicine, and also its most prominent one. A due appreciation of this trait will explain the source of the misdirection given to thought in its attempts to develop the medical art. We shall give but little attention to those fantasies, the controling and directing theories of the dominant school, that appear in the later centuries, believing that to make more reference to them than the claims of our sub- ject demand will prove both tiresome and unneces- sary. We now turn our attention to the career of an English physician Avhose talents and distinction in his profession, together Avith his efforts to raise the status of medical science, are deserving of a promi- nent place in history. Thomas Sydenham was born in 1624, at Dorset- shire, England, he was educated at Oxford. His ishmael's second nature. 97 degree in medicine was the only degree he ever received. He went to Montpelier, in France, where he followed the methods and inculcations of the professors of the medical school in that place. In 1660 he settled in London, to undertake the practice of his profession. His brother physicians did not regard him kindly, and Avhile settled herej his reception by them Avas always marked by this feeling on their part. The College of Physicians declined to receiATe him as a fellow, making him a licentiate only. However, his marked abilities and very extensive practice, soon placed him in a most prominent position before the profession. He has been styled the English Hippocrates, and he shows us more points of likeness to the " Father of Med- icine " than any one that has gone before him. His AA7ritings give us many theoretical concepts of the nature and causes of disease and of other matters. Both the ancient and English Hippocrates being human, the influences of their time and surround- ings contaminated them, though they each produced theories which unfortunately appear not to their credit, yet these theories and their acceptance by the profession were not their absorbing aim but matters of minor importance. 7 98 ishmael's second nature. Their great work and aim was the careful inter- rogation of nature with a view of studying the unfolding of the manifold forms and features of different diseases, that their true nature might be understood. Thus, Sydenham's aim was, by devot- ing himself to patient and careful research, and trusting that the result might prove of some addi- tional help to suffering humanity, to alloAV the great theoretical follies and all that pertained to them to be monopolized by the College of Physicians. This course of his carried him on to another work which he now instituted, and in so doing opened the way for one to follow avIio should bequeath an im- measureable benefit to mankind. The particular attention paid by Sydenham to the study of sj'mptoms and their significance—together with his careful folloAving of the effects of medicine upon these symptoms—were of great value to the medical art, enabling him to show the great efficacy of cinchona in fever and of cooling remedies in small-pox. The superiority of his new method of treatment of this disease over the old methods saved many thousands of lives in his day. After his death, his fame and work were exalted, and himself held up as the typical representative of ishmael's second nature. 99 Dogmatism. In fact, hoAvever, these innovations and valuable researches of Sydenham in his labors for the adA'ancement and promotion of medicine were at the time adversely receiA'ed by Dogmatism, the antagonism and execration of this school being visited upon him, though afterAvards these researches revTerted to the honor of Dogmatism, while on the other hand the contagion of its tendencies were un- fortunately to some extent communicated to Syden- ham himself as sIioavii by his oavii Avritings. In contradistinction, hoAvever, to his school, he declined to urge his AueAvs upon the profession, shoAving in- stead a remarkable tolerant spirit. In this century the old and absurd theories of the Chymical sect were reATiATed, and, Avith some amplification, became the accepted system of Galenicism, though in the last part of the seventeenth centuiy the Iatro-mathe- matical hypothesis succeeded this. George Ernst Stahl, born in Germany, in this century, became knoAvn to the medical world in the beginning of the eighteenth. Of poAverful and brilliant mental mould, from a familiarity with the later theories, and a study of the Avritings of Von Helmont, as Avell as those of Becher, the physicist, .Stahl, from his own reflections, constructed a theory 100 ishmael's second nature. concerning the nature and cause of the phenomena of life. He held that every change, and, therefor e every disease Avas caused by an anima or spiritual principle which dwelt in the body, producing its development and controlling its powers and func- tions. For a long time this doctrine Avas very generally accepted by the dominant school, its influence and logical sequences producing another great change upon the methods of medical treatment. Stahl distinguished himself in other directions, giA7ing fresh impetus to chemistry by furnishing the phlo- giston theory. He died in 1734. Contemporaneously with Stahl, Herman Bcer- haave occupied a place in the medical profession which, from its eminence and from his own personal popularity, A\7ent to make his a most influential posi- tion. He has sometimes, because of his combined incongruities and brilliancy of parts, been termed an eclectic. He died in 1738. In the year 1735, John Brown, an afterward noted physician, Avas born of obscure Scottish parents. He was a pupil of Cullen and the originator of a system of medicine which, in its turn, received prominence at the hands of the dominant school. ishmael's second nature. 101 This system taught that life is only sustained by incitation, " It is only the result of the action of incitants upon the incitability of organs." It also held that the only pathological condition Avas one of sthenia, or asthenia. In the main, the treatment used in this Brunoian system Avas, on the one hand, stimulants, and, on the other, bleeding, pur- gatives, and opium. We iioav AA'ill engage in an unusually lengthy con- sideration of the salient points in the history, as Avell as the Avork undertaken and accomplished by one of the most extraordinary men that has adorned the realm of medicine. The call for this rather lengthy revieAv AA'ill be apparent before avo have finished, and it will suffice if Ave here state that it concerns one Avho founded a rival school of medi- cine, Avhich, to this day, occupies the field Avith Dog- matism, contesting and contending against this school at nearly every step, and, in this way, to an extent that no other adversary of Dogmatism has done before her, coerced and constrained the domi- nant school to vacate its injurious tenets and for humanity's sake, pursue new and more desirable methods. 102 ishmael's second nature. Samuel Hahnemann was born in Saxony, Ger- many, in 1755. As a boy, Hahnemann displayed a great desire and an equal aptitude for study, but his father being a porcelain painter, and in poor circum- stances, decidedly discouraged his longing for the higher branches of knoAvledge. HoAvever, avo learn that he disobeyed his parents to that extent, that he designs and produces a lamp Avhich shall assist him to gratify his craving for knoAvledge Avith safety Avhile the others of the family arc Avrapt in sleep. His schoolmaster, having a great admiration for his unusual abilities, without remuneration, took the young prodigy and gave him the desired instruction, and only concluded Avhen his pupil reached his tAven- tieth year. " On leaving school it was the custom to write an essay on some subject, and Hahneman selected the someAvhat unusual one of " the Avonder- ful structure of the human hand." Who Avould not like to see how the boy Hahnemann treated this subject, his selection of which shows a strong bias toAvards natural science."* From the hands of his benevolent schoolmaster, he Avas able to enter the University of Leipsic, where, in order that he might procure the necessaries of life while pursuing the * Dudgeon. ishmael's second nature. 103 curriculum of study, he took private pupils to instruct in French, English, and German. He went to Vienna subsequently that he might devote himself to medicine and follow in the hos- pitals the practical as well as the theoretical teach- ings of his chosen profession; his limited means failed him, hoAvcA'er, before completing his courses of study, and therefore he Avas only too willing to accept the position offered him of family physician and librarian to the Governor of Transylvania. He had been fortunate enough at Vienna to secure the friendship of the great Dr. Von Quain, who, very probably, Avas the means of his receiving at this time this, to him, most fortunate offer. After remaining here tAvo years he repaired to the University of Erlangen, where he graduated in medicine in 1779. From here he returned to his native land, Saxony, where he settled in a small country toAvn to practice his profession, and shortly after accepted the position of district physician. Three years from this time he relinquished his practice in Gommern, to go to Dresden, where, he served for a year as physician to the hospital. Contemplating noAV, in the light of his last eight years experience in medicine, the darkness and 104 ishmael's second nature. uncertainty of medical methods, and reflecting con- cerning those fallacious and delusive means which were the regularly enjoined practice of orthodox medicine, and which abounded in those unfortunate results, the natural outcome of the strict following of these prescribed methods, Avitnessed by Hahne- mann himself, both in his own practice as Avell as in the practice of his profession in the hospitals and also in that of his colleagues, he found himself acquiring a strong abhorrence and disgust of the practice of medicine as understood and folloAved at this time. To quote his OAvn words in reference to the result of his reflections and cogitations: " It Avas painful to me to grope in the dark, guided only by our books on the treatment of the sick—to prescribe, according to this or that {fanciful) view of the nature of diseases,, substances that 0AAred only to mere opinion their place in the materia medica; I had conscientious scruples about treating unknown morbid states in my suffering fellow-creatures Avith these unknown medicines, Avhich, being poAverful substances, may, if they Avere not exactly suitable, (and how could the physician knoAV Avhether they were suitable or not, seeing that their peculiar ishmael's second nature. 105 special actions were not yet elucidated ?) easily change life into death, or produce neAV affections or chronic ailments, Avhich are often much more diffi- cult to remove than the original disease. To become in this way a murderer or aggravator of the suffer- ings of my brethren of mankind, Avas to me a fearful thought—so fearful and distressing Avas it, that shortly after my marriage I abandoned practice, and scarcely treated any one for fear of doing him harm, and, as you knoAV, occupied myself with chemistry and literary labors." Having noAV retired from active life, and residing in the adjacent village of Lockowitz, near Dresden, Ave may belieA^e that, in the privacy of solitude, his deliberations and meditations Avere productive of results which, in future years, stood him in good stead in the elaboration of his original and useful disco\7eries. During this hermitage, however, he devoted much patient work and study to the science of chemistry, and in the course of the next few years many Aralu- able papers were given to the world from his pen, which establish at once his talents and great sagacity as well as his profound and thorough knowledge of chemical facts and processes. 106 ishmael's second nature. Of these valuable papers of his upon chemical subjects, which may be counted by the dozen, those upon the deportment of metallic substances and upon the nature and art of testing Avines attracted noticeable attention for many years, while his treat- ment of the subject of "Poisoning by arsenic, the remedies for it, and its medico-legal investigation," Avas a model of acumen and poAver, and has, until a recent day, been an authority often quoted. Beside these literary efforts, previous to the year 1790, he made translations from French, English, Latin, Greek, Syriac, and HebreAV, upon divers sub- jects, such as Medicine, Physiology, Chemistry, the Arts, etc., these manifold efforts stamping him as a man of breadth and erudition. We may believe that during this period of his life Hahnemann, though not engaging in the practice of medicine, often felt a yearning for it and its associations, and at such times, or when illness appeared within his own household, the question Avould return to him with added force—why is not the noblest art of man reclaimed from its gropings in darkness? Why has she not a sure and guiding principle, Avhich, as a trusty star in the east, shall pilot her on the royal highAvay to certainty and success in the cause of suffering humanity? ishmael's second nature. 107 Filled with these longings and freed from preju- dice, his poAverful mental faculties were in an acute and receptive state. In 1790, Avhcn engaged upon a translation of Dr. Cullen's Materia Medica, Avhile engrossed Avith the drug cinchona, he Avas struck with the fever condition which Cullen stated Avas produced by it. Having had intermittent fever him- self some years previously, and seeing a similarity betAveen the cinchona symptoms of Cullen's, and the symptoms of his OAvn sickness cured by this medicine, he set about experimenting relative to its effects upon the healthy human system. This fact Avas to him " What the falling apple Avas to NeAvton and the SAvinging lamp in the Baptistery at Pisa to Galileo." The results of his observation of the action of Peruvian Bark upon the healthy or- ganism, Avas the discovery of the principle of drug action, and, therefore, a scientific basis for their medical employment. For several years Hahnemann made no effort to make known his newly acquired knoAvledge. In- stead of this, when in 1792, he Avas offered the trust and management of the Insane Asylum in Geor- gethal, which was accompanied with a fulsome salary, he gladly accepted, seeing opportunity here to pursue and verify his neAv discoveries. 108 ishmael's second nature. We see this sagacious man instituting here radical improvements outside of the field of medication by originating and employing the moral treatment of the insane, he says: " I never allow any insane per- son to be punished by bloAvs or other painful cor- poral inflictions, since there can be no punishment where there is no sense of responsibility; and since such patients cannot be improved but must be rendered Avorse by such rough treatment." As it was in the latter part of 1792, Avhen Pinel, avIio claims to be the first, tried this method Avith the insane Ave may safely assume that to Hahnemann belongs equally the honor of bringing forward what has since proven to be a great innovation in the treatment of this unfortunate class. The complete and happy recovery of the Hano- verian Minister brought the name of Hahnemann and the institution prominently before the public. In 1796 there appeared from the pen of Hahne- mann, in the then leading medical journal in Germany, (Hufelands,) an article under the title, " On a neAV Principle for ascertaining the Remedial PoAvers of Medicinal Substances." In this paper he emphatically states that chronic diseases are better cured by those medicines which produce a similar ishmael's second nature. 109 action upon the healthy human organism, and de- mands that remedies be proved upon the healthy, and also says: "Every efficacious remedy produces in the human body a peculiar species of disease; and the more powerful the remedy the more pecu- liarly distinguished and severe is the disease pro- duced." At intervals through this decade appeared also from his pen " Are the Impediments to Certainty and Simplicity in Practical Medicine insurmount- able ?" (1797.) " A case of Colicodynia quickly cured." •Antidotes for some Heroic Medicinal Sul(stances." (1798.) " Some kinds of Continuous and Remittent fevers." "Several Periodical and Hebdomadal diseases." " Observations on the Three Current Modes of Treatment," (1801.) These convictions aroused at once most unfriendly criticism, displaying feelings of animosity towards their author, and continuing uninterruptedly. Some years previous to 1796, Hahnemann, in a preface written by himself to an English work Avhich he had translated says, that the " original informs me, even in London, medical frankness requires the aegis of anonymousness in order to escape being chid." HoAvever, the numerous attacks upon his opinions, 110 ishmael's second nature. as well as the reproach and abuse which was launched against him, direeted attention to his de- ductions, Avith the result that men of ability and high standing Avere attached to them, and espoused them, and added their efforts to his to defend his position before the medical world. Previous to the year 1801 Hahnemann had (advo- cated reform only in medicine, attempting, by investi- gation and experiment, to lead the dominant school to renounce their present fallacies, as taught in their then accepted theories of Brunonism, and to investi- gate the results of his inquiries in the action of drugs, as presented in his many treatises upon this subject, and to pass upon these fairly. Remembering the emphatic and denunciatory judgments of some of the most prominent physi- cians in the dominant school regarding the compe- tency of the Dogmatic methods, and, finding his experience to more than corroborate these opinions, he probably thought this call for reform not unrea- sonable.* He, therefore, claimed liberty of medical opinion and action, and concluded his essay on " VieAV of Professional Liberality at the commence- ment of the Nineteenth Century," (1801,) by adjuring See foot note, page 44. ishmael's second nature. Ill his colleagues in these words: " Physicians of Ger- many be brothers, be just." In pursuing his observa- tions and study of drugs, in accordance Avith his vieAvs as published in 1796, that " the true remedial poAvers of a medicine for chronic disease" could only be known by ascertaining its action upon the healthy body, and that, to OA^ercome a curable dis- ease in a safe and speedy manner, the drug must be used that produces the nearest " similar morbid con- dition," he met with a measure of success which he had hardl}r dared to hope for, and, very naturally, ceased the making of prescriptions containing many drugs, but used that drug, in accordance with his new principle, Avhich had produced the nearest similar action. Success in his new treatment naturally gave him a rapid and increasing reputation, and having reason to believe that the apothecaries did not furnish as pure drugs to his patients as they ought, Avishing to feel sure of the cause of failures in his practice, he began to prepare his oavii drugs. The physicians of Konigslutter, where he now had a large and growing practice, who were doubt- less jealous and unAvilling to be placed Avhere the skill of Hahnemann could be a criterion by which 112 ishmael's second nature. their own success might be judged, spurred on the apothecaries to harass him by claiming that he Avas transgressing the Uiav by the compounding and sell- ing of prescriptions. He answered that his prescriptions Avere uncom- pounded drugs, that he gave but one medicine at a time, and that the spirit of the law intended to dis- criminate against the prosecution of the drug busi- ness by the ignorant, and that the medical man, in cases of emergency or for other reasons, should enjoy that privilege. However, this was decided against him, and being too honorable to prescribe in secret or to doAvn his conscience and place his patients in the hands of the apothecary, he resolved to leave his large and increasing clientage and many dear friends, to seek more congenial surroundings for the prosecution of his life Avork. Plis neAv methods had now developed so far that he Avas able, in a very short time, to establish a great reputation by the comparison of his results at the sick bed with those of the other physicians. He Avas dreaded alike by the physicians and apothe- caries, Avith the result that Ave find poor Hahne- mann driven from pillar to post. He left Konigslutter in 1799, and Avithin the next ishmael's second nature. 113 two years he abandoned successively, five or six of the different toAvns in Germany where he had at- tempted to establish himself. Such persecution as this added to the cares and responsibilities of a large family, together with the personal opprobrium with which his traducers loaded him, must have exasper- ated and soured his naturally benevolent and sweet disposition. From the time of his being compelled to leave Eulenberg, in Saxony, on account of the persecution of the superintending physician there, we may believe that he became more and more discouraged at the possibility of not achieving what he had been so many years striving for—a reform of Dogmatic medicine. Therefore, when in the continued experience and observation of the true action of medicine, he sees enhanced results from the most ultimate division and dilution of medicines, and announces this new discovery with the result that more ridicule and anathema than ever is heaped upon his devoted head, we may understand why, after, in 1801, hav- ing, in a most convincing and effectual essay on Brunonism, clearly exposed the absurdities, inconsis- tencies, and dangerous methods of this system, he, 8 114 ishmael's second nature. in 1805, Avrote two powerful papers on " Esculapius in the balance " and " The Medicine of Experience " which foreshadoAV those intentions, now fast assum- ing definite shape, of severing his connection Avith the Dogmatic school, that in freedom from restraint, he may perfect and develop his new methods into a new system of medicine. Previous to 1808 Hahnemann spoke of medicines exhibiting " specific action," and he employed this term in connection with his use of medicine in the light of their "similar" properties. After the year 1808, however, he gives us the word homoeopathic, as applied both to the action of remedies and to his new principle or laAV, terming it the " Homoeopathic LaAv of Cure." In these essays during this year and in many other papers, which in the next two years appeared from his prolific pen, he is constantly bringing to vieAv the development of his new system, until in the year 1810 he fully, and after the aphor- istic method, sets forth in an elaborate treatise (" The Organon of the Rational Art of Healing,") his new system, its preeminent excellence as compared to the old, and its direct antagonistic position to the instincts and genius of the dominant school. In doing this he gives these definitions of the ishmael's second nature. 115 systems of medicine. He defines the " homoeopathic " action of a drug to be an action that is as near aa possible similar to any particular disease, and the term " allopathic " action to include an effect which is not only opposite to that of the disease but in- cluding everything essentially of another character, even if not strictly opposite. Hence he who accepts and applies this homoeopathic action of drugs in disease, and therefore indorses this essential law of cure, " Similia Similibus Curantur," becomes identi- fied with the Homoeopathic school of practice, while he who endeavors to combat disease by employing ► agents or medicines that produce another or opposite disease and cycle of symptoms is in the recognized practice of the dominant school Avhich, from the words aXXoq, another, and 7ra#o?, affection, or its English allopathy is called by Hahnemann the Allo- pathic School in contradistinction to the Homoeo- pathic School of Medicine. " Without ever regarding that which is really dis- eased in the body it (allopathy) attacks those parts which are sound, in order to draw off the malady from another quarter and direct it towards the latter."* "The pernicious results of such a prac- * Organon. 116 ishmael's second nature. tice, at variance with nature and experience, may be easily imagined."* If, however, now, from the malignant personal, as well as other unfair attacks, he is exasperated and irritated beyond measure, and exhibits an inclination to answer the Dogmatic assertions concerning medical matters in a like Dogmatic spirit, these things, with other lapses from his true genius, must be taken as human, and con- sidered in connection Avith the attending circum- stances, for these lapses are but ephemeral in prac- tice and but a shibboleth to the future adherents of this school of medicine. In the Organon his thorough and studied expo- sition of the homoeopathic method is clear and Avell defined. Claiming that it is the duty of the physi- cian to "search after that which is to be cured in the disease," and so acquaint himself Avith all the presenting symptoms, he declares, first, that, "in the cure of disease, it is necessary to regard the funda- mental cause and other circumstances," and that "the three necessary points in reality are, to ascer- tain the malady; second, the action of medicines; and, third, their appropriate application." Besides this, he lays stress upon a proper regard for diet and surroundings, and also submits, "In disease the * Organon. ishmael's second nature. 117 vital power is primarily disturbed, and expresses its internal changes (sufferings) by abnormal alterations in the sensations and actions of the system." These quotations are from the Organon which - further declares that, by the results of the proving of the action of drugs upon the healthy, there are shown such effects upon the " vital powers" as to beget diseases, or cycles of symptoms which closely simulate certain diseases, and that the exhi- bition of this remedy, Avhen it is the closest similar symptom producing medicine, to a given disease, will demonstrate an unequalled effect for cure. To express this action or poAver of drugs the laAv similia similibus curantur was brought forth, this being now the essential law and corner-stone of Homoeopathy. To administer several drugs together, each of which had received separate study by proving, would not be in conformity Avith this principle, for many of these medicines are direct antidotes to each other, and also indirectly so upon certain of their single symptoms, and, therefore, the results would be confusing, and such practice a blind one. Because of these considerations, and where homoeopathy is ap- plicable, only that drug should be applied against disease that Ave knoAV to be its nearest similar ; this 118 ishmael's second nature. led to the assertion of the axiom that only one drug should be administered at a time, and not a mixture of many, until reason for believing that another medicine Avas better indicated, when it should be substituted. In the continued observation of this laAv an addi- tional feature was also developed. In the employ- ment of the crude drugs, after their homoeopathic indications, a varying and uncertain degree of im- pression upon the patient Avas produced, particular attention was given to this fact and led to much thought and study concerning the most favorable method of preparing medicines that a definite and reliable action might be secured. In a paper published in 1801, "On the Power of Small Doses of Medicine," etc., Hahnemann manifests already positive ideas upon this subject, he says of pills, bolus, and the like, as then prepared for ad- ministration : " It (the pill) slides almost completely undissolved over the surface of the intestinal canal, invested with a layer of mucus, until it (in this manner itself covered with mucus) completely buried in excrement, is speedily expelled in the natural manner;" we may understand Avhy this eminent chemist, pharmaceutist, and physician devoted him- ishmael's second nature. 119 self to finding an improved method of preparing drugs. Finally, he announces that the particles of a solid medicine should be separated from themselves by being thoroughly mixed by grinding and incorpora- tion with a substance Avhich is both inert upon the human system and easily assimilated by it. Sugar, which is contained in the milk of the goat, being obtained from it, displays these qualities, and is, Avith these solid drugs, by the rules and processes of Hahnemann's method of trituration, the Arehicle employed. With liquid drugs, such as tinctures of plants the method of dilution by succussion, etc., which Hahnemann directs, is employed. Hahnemann claimed for these simple methods a presenting of many hundred times more surface of a given quantity of a drug to the surface of the assimilative parts, and also by this minute sub- division of the particles of a drug and their associa- tion with this excellent A7ehicle (sugar of milk) to render it more thoroughly assimilative by all the fluid and solid parts of the body and therefore more efficient in impressing the system. Hahnemann and his followers were well repaid for their researches and patience with this question, 120 ishmael's second nature. by obtaining more reliable and vastly more brilliant results from the use of such methods in preparing their medicines. It is well knoAvn that many people display idiosyncracies or peculiar sensitiveness to- ward the action of different drugs, one person with one, and another with a different drug. Complaints from such persons of suffering from the effects of a medicine were, at his time, and are to-day, a com- mon experience with physicians. For this reason, and also because he believed that medicines, by their crude strength, often aggravate for a time, at least, the disease under treatment, Ave find Hahnemann continuing to attenuate still higher, by his methods just mentioned, his medicines, and with the consequence that better and hap- pier results in treatment were obtained than here- tofore. Seeing in these results substantiating evi- dence of the value of the similar action of drugs in overcoming disease, and believing that such a pre- paration of medicine Avould only impress the system by acting upon the vital power, and through its influence there produce this train of symptoms, which were similar to those produced by the disease, (for the physiological or drug effect produced by the disease could not have here caused this curative ishmael's second nature. 121 influence, for the dose, by the method of adminis- tration, contradicted this,) he heralds this additional feature as a most effective reinforcement of the Homoeopathic method of cure. Briefly,then, his Organon presented the "great law of cure," similia similibus curantur, as the important essential and necessary principle of Homoeopathy, and the sequential features, the natural outcome of this, appear: First, the proving of drugs upon the healthy. Second, the administration of a drug singly that we ma}7 act intelligently and profitably. Third, the preparation of remedies according to the homoeopathic methods of trituration and dilution, this being a substantial and most needed help to the essential features of homoeopathy in their application to disease. In the next year, 1811, appeared the first volume of Hahnemann's Materia Medica Pura, in which were collected those provings, which he, in late years, had been so diligent in procuring. This book was welcomed and studied with much eager- ness. Desiring now to place himself in a position where he could present his new methods of medical prac- tice to physicians and medical students for their 122 ishmael's second nature. consideration and investigation, in the words of Dr. Dudgeon, " he resolved to give a course of lectures upon the system to those medical men and students who Avished to be instructed in it. In order to be allowed to do this, hoAvever, he had to pay a certain sum of money, and defend a thesis before the Faculty of Medicine. To this regulation Ave are indebted for that able essay, Be Helleborismo veterum, which no one can read without confessing that Hahne- mann treats the subject in a masterly Avay, and dis- plays an amount of acquaintance with the writings of the Greek, Latin, Arabic, and other physicians, from Hippocrates doAvn to his oavii time, that is possessed by few, and a poAver of philological criti- cism that has been rarely equalled. This thesis he defended on the 26th of June, 1812, and it drew from his adversaries an unwilling acknowledgment of his learning and genius, and from the impartial and worthy dean of the faculty a strong expression of admiration. When a candidate defends his thesis, he has what are called opponents among the exami- ners, who dispute the various opinions broached in the thesis; but the most of Hahnemann's opponents were schooled into such an amiable state of mind by this display of learning, that they hastened to ishmael's second nature. 123 confess they Avere entirely of his way of thinking, while a feAV, Avho Avished to say something for form's sake, merely expressed their dissent from some of Hahnemann's philological vieAvs. This trial, which his enemies had fain hoped Avould end in an expo- sure of the shalloAV charlatan, triumphantly proved the superiority of Plahnemann o\'er his opponents, even in their own territory, and Avas a brilliant inauguration of the lectures Avhich he forthwith commenced to deliver to a circle of admiring stu- dents and grey-headed old doctors, Avhom the fame of his doctrines and his learning attracted round him." From the year 1808, on through the intervening years to 1845, the year of his death, we find works, monographs and papers, appearing in the defence or elaboration of Homoeopathy. Noav, (1810,) with the appearance of many able physicians, to be folloAvers of his, and zealous Avorkers in the cause of Homoeopathy, this new school of medicine obtains a sphere and field of usefulness broader and more extended than could be contemplated while unfold- ing a biographical synopsis of Hahnemann's life. Therefore, after we have considered those indict- ments and criminations which are inimical to 124 ishmael's second nature. Hahnemann especially, we will turn to vieAV the aspects of Homoeopathy, its relations to its assumed object and to the dominant school in medicine, and to attend upon these Avith the other occurrences in the medical art of sufficient import to repay us for such study, and Ave shall find that, in pursuing this course, the subsequent history of Hahnemann and his achieA7ements in the cause of homoeopathy will receive as prominent notice as a work of this character will permit, We have spoken of the per- secutions and detractions Avhich followed him from the middle of the last decade of the eighteenth century and which rendered his development of his new methods so difficult, and noAV let us inquire into the nature of the objections made to the course which he pursued, and of the personal charges made against him. That of being a heretic was among the earliest and probably the most frequent of the charges against him. He Avas guilty (and his Avritings proved it) of announcing opinions which did not accord with those of the established and dominant school in medicine. He had dared to evince dis- satisfaction with the accepted methods of Dogmatism, had objected to them, and had endeavored to sub- ishmael's second nature. 125 stitute other and better methods for them. These doings and expressions stamped him as a heretic. In looking at this indictment calmly Ave find that if Hahnemann spoke of the success and practices of the medical methods of Dogmatism disparagingly, and asserted dissatisfaction Avith them, he Avas but indorsing—though in no more emphatic manner— the opinions of those among the most prominent of his predecessors and contemporaries, illustrations of Avhich Ave have already read in these pages. One from the pen of him Avho for centuries was the great figure head of Dogmatism, and who, in exhibiting his egotistic pretensions to surpassing knowledge, says, of his felloAV physicians, that they are " ignorant or punctilious dialecticians, whose discussions are frequently repugnant to the most common sense," while Hahnemann's contemporary, Bichat, tells us, " It is not a science for a methodical mind. It is a shapeless assemblage of inaccurate ideas, of obserA7ations often puerile, of deceptive remedies and formulas as fantastically conceived as they are tediously arranged." Hahnemann never said anything more condem- natory of the methods and skill of Dogmatic med- icine than this, and we shall find, presently, that, 126 ishmael's second nature. since this time down to the present, others have been (mayhap when under exasperated circum- stances, from the failures of the orthodox treatment, and so betrayed into a spasm of unreserved frank- ness) as emphatically clear and equally as denuncia- tory in their conclusions concerning the merits of Dogmatic medicine. We need not say that none of these physicians have been placed beyond the pale of the Dog- matic school, and pursued and maligned as heretics because of this, so let us seek farther for a reason for the persecution of Hahnemann. A minor charge, not urged with the same frequency and persistency as the last, was, that he sold secret medicines. He did claim that he had discovered a prophylactic and wonderful remedy for scarlet fever, and would furnish it to physicians for trial, but would not tell its name; but, when assailed for hav- ing a secret remedy, he immediately divulged its name, and said that the reason why he had withheld it was because he knew it would not receive the im- partial attention that it otherwise would. At another time he believing (by a cursory ex- amination maybe) that he had produced a new chemical and medicine, sold some to different per- ishmael's second nature. 127 sons, but afterwards, finding it to be borax, made known his mistake and promptly refunded the money to the purchasers. We can readily under- stand the statement of his suffering from poverty, when persecuted and driven from one place to another, and Avho would wonder, if at such times when thus reduced, he furnished remedies when ap- plied to for treatment, and then exhibited some retali- ative spirit by refusing the apothecaries and physi- cians a knowledge of his methods of cure ? Again, the public Avere repeatedly warned not to be defiled by his touch, for he AA7as a quack. This term is prop- erly applied to an ignorant practitioner in medicine, if he be honest or deceitful in his methods it matters not, but a lack of proper previous preparation and qualification renders him properly speaking a quack. What a misnomer as applied to Hahnemann, one of such unusual acquirements and erudition, as his translations no less than the evidence of those most prominent in his day in chemical science attest. Professor Christison, referring to, quoting and accepting Hahnemann's treatise upon arsenic, thus making Hahnemann's opinions his own, is unstinted in his praise of Hahnemann's chemical profundity, as also is Professor Berzelius, who says: "That man 128 ishmael's second nature. would have been a great chemist had he not been a great quack." Though Berzelius is competent to judge of Hahnemann's accomplishments in the natural sciences, yet Ave may reserve to others the judgment upon his medical qualifications. Concern- ing these, Ave may say he pursued the regular courses in Leipsic, Vienna, and Erlangen, and at the medical school of the latter city he regularly graduated in medicine, and as this school was endorsed and duly recognized by the Dogmatic faculty, we therefore see that this charge is not well founded. If it was intended instead to attach the allied epithet of " charlatan," and one Avhich we also find frequenlty applied to Hahnemann, we shall find this equally inapplicable. A charlatan, in fact, is one who applies trickery, deceit, and vain preten- sions to the practice of medicine—this definition being one which, we have no doubt, will not be objected to, for it is the generally recognized mean- ing of the term—let us see if it is applicable to the sage of Homoeopathy. Those who have taken pains, from an interest in the matter, to inquire into the natural aptitudes and moral qualities of Hahnemann all agree that the ishmael's second nature. 129 first impression one gets concerning them is of his remarkable SAveetness of disposition, this being always spoken of as his most prominent trait, and so through his youth we so often hear of his amia- bility and quiet mildness of manner. As we do not hear of his great brilliancy of parts, but always some reference to his SAveetness of mind, together with his natural aptitude and quiet enjoyment of study, we may take tliese natural gifts into considera- tion in inquiring as to his proclivities as a man. In every case the testimony of his biographers recount concerning his "acknowledged benevolence" and "genuine philanthropy."* Therefore, when we find that the only specification brought in support of this charge is that he insisted upon pretending to the public that his new methods Avere wonderfully successful, thereby drawing largely from the other physicians' practice, and because he continued to insist upon this in spite of the declaration of the Dogmatic faculty, that his methods were false and even worse; when we see that it is only upon a fall- ing back on the infallibility of the Dogmatic assumption of the dominant school that these perse- cutors of Hahnemann rely for establishing their 9 * Marcy. 130 ishmael's second nature. charge of "charlatan" Ave at once recognize that it is only after the same pattern of assault as that which this same school had, as Ave have seen, pre- viously directed upon such men as Vesalius. Moreover, every abuse of this kind was heaped, most mercilessly, upon Harvey, because of his pro- mulgation of the real use of the blood vessels, and of the true method of the circulation of the blood, thereby offending the Dogmatic faculty by presum- ing to overturn their concepts and assumptions, just as Vesalius before him had done upon anatomical questions. However, Ave find this difference, and this only, between these great reformers and Hahne- mann, that, after a time, the versatile Dogmatists retrimmed their sails and shaped the bearing of their ship of medical knowledge into a new and dif- ferent course of hypothesis. In other words, they were willing to reconsider the strictures Avhich they had placed upon these dis- coverers and reformers in medicine, and would sIioav their broad spirit of forgiveness by receiving them back with open arms into the faith, and also renounce the old and prevailing dogmas of the school and accept the new and diametrically oppo- site teachings of these discoverers. ishmael's second nature. 131 This Avas not the case with Hahnemann's discov- eries, and we shall readily see ample reasons why, to this day, he and his methods are yet antagonized, Avhen Ave consider that the acceptance of these neAV methods Avould, necessarily, utterly demolish (or, at least, the supporters of the dominant school appear to think so) those interests, of a financial character, which have been, since Hahnemann's time, inti- mately attached to, as, in fact, they were previously created by, Dogmatism. Another charge brought against Hahnemann, and confidently, though in the memory of previous dis- comfiture, is that of being a " schismatic." He cer- tainly did promote and Avas mainly instrumental in effecting a separation of man}' adherents of Dog- matism from this school of medicine to form a new school and in antagonism to it. His Avere not the methods of a superficial and brilliant man Avho Avould throAV off the scheme of a neAV faction in medicine for the sake of the fame without demon- strating the need of it, or subserving the general good by so doing; to the contrary, the history of his struggles Avith his conscience, and then his endeavor to reform medicine, the evidence of the need of which reform was abundant as the most distin- 132 ishmael's second nature. guished physicians of Dogmatism had affirmed, is a matter of record. This record also sIioavs that after years of % patient and laborious investigation, after gradually and surely unfolding the better and far more successful methods of practice, submitting during these years to the most malicious and persistent attacks, and becoming convinced that his efforts for reform in the dominant school AArere and would be unavailing, (that these neAV principles of treatment might live and be tried upon their merits and thus serve humanity,) he severed his further connection with Dogmatism, and as Ave have seen, after announcing the homoeopathic law, established the new school in medicine. There are other points upon which Hahnemann was assailed, but we shall find these to have an equal or greater bearing upon homoeopathy as well, and, therefore, we will now turn to the consideration of the early status and future progress of this school in medicine. CHAPTER VI. THE APPEARANCE OF ISAAC. The Homoeopathic School now became an entity indeed, for Hahnemann attracted to his side enthus- iastic adherents to his neAV methods and discoveries, both from the classes of medical students of the Leipsic University and from the ranks of the profession, all of whom exhibited equal zeal and earnestness in developing the truths of this new school. From this nucleus, at Leipsic, this school steadily developed, materials and fabric being steadily brought forth by the neAV and energetic followers, for the building up and perfecting of the edifice of homoeopathy. When to such yeoman ser- vice was added the experienced direction and masterly labors of Hahnemann, Ave may not wonder that the working of these neAV fields Avould produce an abundance of new and much needed materials. The suggestions of a practical experience, as Avell as the submitting of these materials to the careful examination of practical tests, Avould result in fast systematizing and giving shape to the form of polity of the School of Homoeopathy. (133) 134 THE APPEARANCE OF ISAAC. The action of drugs upon the healthy system was the most prominent of the neAV branches of knowledge assiduously cultivated by the Homoeo- pathic School; and this was so partly because of the hitherto totally neglected condition of this necessary department of medicine, and partly because, Avith the new system of treatment, so much stress Avas laid upon the absolute need of a knowledge of such action in order that the medicines might be used intelligently. Therefore, beside the further comple- tion of the Materia Medica Pura, of which Ave have already spoken, many other treatises appeared upon this branch alone, in the literature of the new school within the next few years. The position of the Homoeopaths in relation to Allopathy, or Dogmatism, during this period, may be appreciated by some reference to the preface to Hahnemann's Materia Medica Pura. He says: " The day of a true knowledge of remedies, and a true system of therapeutics, will dawn, when physi- cians shall abandon the ridiculous method of mix-t ing together large portions of medicinal substances Avhose remedial virtues are only knoAvn experiment- ally, or by vague praises, which is, in fact, not to know them at all." He goes on to say, further, that the THE APPEARANCE OF ISAAC. 135 theories Avhich have hitherto swayed the minds of the profession must be abandoned, and that the principle that every single medical substance may aid to cure a disease by applying it, when indicated, in accord- ance to its homoeopathic action must be examined. He refers to the methods of a carpenter in his trade. Had a carpenter a piece of Avork to perform of which he had not a thorough understanding, were he ignorant of the kind of Avork for which each tool Avas best adapted, also had he not a correct knoAvledge of when to employ each tool, but arrang- ing them together, impelled them at the work in question in a promiscous and indiscriminate man- ner, that Avould be compared to the method of allopathy. Were he, instead, to acquire an intimate acquaint- ance Avith the character and uses of each tool, learn- ing by observation Avhich one would do the best work upon certain materials, and then, in their turn, as each was called for, employ these simply and skillfully, he often might use an insignificant or slender tool,, yet one better adapted to the purpose, than if it Avere of an imposing and menacing aspect. This Avould seem on the other hand to be after the manner of the neAV school of medicine in its methods of shortening and overcoming disease. 136 THE APPEARANCE OF ISAAC. Those reformers in the medical art, antecedent to Hahnemann, of whom Vesalius is a fair type, had, as we have seen, though Avith the effect to. bring upon themselves much personal rancor and malice from the representatives of Dogmatism, finally effected the full relinquishment on the part of Dog- matism of its opposition and persecution, and a full and complete adoption by this organization of those facts for which they had so devotedly stood and borne the brunt and shock of their onslaught. Such men as Malpighi, Vesalius, and William Harvey, established certain facts triumphantly on behalf of the human race for all futurity, and now that the prejudice and malice in relation both to themselves and the cause for Avhich they contended has entirely disappeared, their place in history and among the great discoverers is vouchsafed to them. On the contrary, hoAvever, even at this day, and after a greater length of time than was necessary to accord to.either of the above-mentioned benefactors of mankind, his place in history, Ave still find it too soon to give to Hahnemann the place Avhich he shall occupy, because of the bitter prejudice and malev- olence which still so prominently enter into a con- sideration of his name or work, or that of the school of which he was the founder. THE APPEARANCE OF ISAAC. 137 Hence, the true merits and usefulness of his dis- coveries cannot be fairly and justly weighed, and there is need, in the case of Hahnemann, that a longer time transpire, than in the case of Vesalius; we can easily appreciate this, if Ave consider the different nature of his task. In our day, and Avith the knoAvledge which has accumulated concerning the nature of mechanical force, A\7e haA7e learned not only to recognize the force of inertia, but also to knoAV that the form under which force is used is an important consideration. For it is found that, if understanding the forms of work, a form of force be used, Avhich can be utilized Avithout loss, that the proposed effect is most successfully and economically produced. We find that our knoAvledge of motion, thus obtained, applies to the motion of animals as Avell as the motion of other bodies. If a body is to be raised to a small height we find it is most easily and therefore economically raised by the use of levers. In the use of the lever obtains the weight to be moved, the power to move it, and the fulcrum, or prop of the lever. We make a distinc- tion of three kinds of levers, with particular refer- ence to the position of the fulcrum. The third kind of lever, of which this figure is an example, 138 THE APPEARANCE OF ISAAC. i- p Lt~ F shows the power P between the weight W and the fulcrum F. When Ave find that it is the provision of nature, in the mechanism of man, to provide this class of levers, Ave can see how Avisely she has so provided, for if the motive force, in the case of the long bones of the leg, Avere brought to bear directly on the resistance to be OA7ercome, it would require a large amount of motive force to perform Avhat now is, with such little motive force, easily produced. Now Ave are coming to a consideration of this. Supposing the lever (that is the bone) of the leg has become broken in different places between the end IFand the point of the attachment of power, P. The results will often be the raising of that part of the lever still attached to the power, Avhile the disunited pieces will be found at varying angles and distances from it. The remedy by readjusting these pieces and keeping them in a position to make reunion possible, is treatment Avhich is of a mechanical character, requiring the application of unyielding forces equally along the broken lever, Avhich shall keep the broken fragments in exact apposition after their replacement has been effected. If this illus- THE APPEARANCE OF ISAAC. 139 tration is true of the human frame, as regards the employment of mechanics in treating Avrongs to the system, it is also as true that chemicals are often needed as in poisoning and other maladies Avhich require chemical helps. It Avas through such men as Vesalius and Harvey and Malpighi, with his microscope, that the proper direction to such knowl- edge Avas made possible in medicine, for, by the dis- covery of anatomical, physiological, and chemical facts, the nature of such occurrences could be cor- rectly appreciated, and the proper chemical, mechan- ical, or surgical treatment offered. What easy and simple tasks these compared to that life work which a previous state of ignorance imposed upon Hahnemann. For when the Gal- enists turned with rage to the works of Galen, and shoAved the heretic, Vesalius, Avhere Galen emphati- cally said that the heart had an important bone in its anatomy, how easy for him to dissect heart after heart before them, and to demonstrate their error. Again, with Harvey, by actual demonstration, by vivisection, how easy to show the circulatory system to be a true hydraulic machine, with its pump, valves, and pipes, intended to force and carry the , blood through the economy. 140 THE APPEARANCE OE ISAAC. In comparison to tliese Iioav herculean a task is undertaken by Hahnemann! How difficult to dem- onstrate the departures from a state of health in those insidious diseases which implicate those vital organs, where either, because they are enclosed by a bony box, as the brain, or lie deep Avithin the other viscera, examination is difficult and sometimes im- possible, or Avhere, on account of their inter-depen- dence, a disturbance in the functions of one pro- duces an unknoAvable quantity of malnutrition in another! For an injury or disease in one organ, irritating its nerves, produces (as is supposed) an abnormal condition of the roots of these nerves located in the spinal cord, and they, in turn, by contiguity of surface, communicate this condition to roots of adjacent nerves, through these, affecting a vital organ, and producing serious disturbance there, or, in a reflex Avay, disturbing the sympathetic or other systems. If there are Avrongs in the assim- ilative organs, or failures in the organs Avhose work it is to carry off the Avaste and broken down tissues of the system, or if there are certain deformities which existed from birth, or from bad processes of development, or from disease, as lesions or secondary diseases, or if there are such factors as habit, toler- THE APPEARANCE OF ISAAC. 141 ance, acclimation, or like varying external condi- tions at the time of examination, each has its indi- vidual effect, and renders the study most difficult and embarrassing. These are illustrations of other more minute and complicated processes of diseases, which we must remember affect not one part alone of the body, and are not as easy of abatement or removal as is the weakened bolt with its worn and slipping thread, for the bolt can be repaired in such a manner as makes the illustration not analagous to the diseased vital organs of the human body. These are ex- amples enough to show Iioav difficult (if, indeed, it be not impossible) it is with the mutual and coexisting influences between the various tissues, organs, and systems of the human economy, together with their separate and often conjoint influence upon that very obscure and always most important factor, the vital force, to demonstrate, after the manner of the chemist or anatomist, the actual and absolute effect, or measure of interval traversed from disease and toAvards health, by the administration, at any time, of a given medicine. Because, from the nature of the undertaking it was impossible to so demonstrate the absolute and 142 THE APPEARANCE OF ISAAC. unvarying condition produced upon the diseased organism, and as to repeated and reneAved experi- ment to reproduce and continually load the absolute result into the floundering ship of Dogmatism, till to saA7e and bring her safely into port would neces- sitate the throwing overboard of its ballast of pre- judgment and prejudice; because in the nature of things this Avas impossible, therefore the Dogmatic sect still found it safe to assume the position towards this neAV curative method that these Homoeopathic medicines Avere tasteless and Avithout smell, and therefore Avithout efficacy or power, and demanded that an absolute and unvarying effect by them be conclusively demonstrated. Concerning the latter objections made, what better evidence has ever been brought forward of the appeal of any medical sect to those popular preju- dices which sprung from the bias of the ignorant and unthinking masses ? Who will attempt to show there is a necessary relation between the medicinal virtues of substances and their effect upon the taste and smell ? The answer brought forward to such objections was, that substances that are conceded to be poison- ous to the human system have no taste and no smell; THE APPEARANCE OF ISAAC. 143 therefore, are they without potency? Of the other strictures the Homoeopaths did not attempt what from its nature Avas impossible, nor could they demonstrate what from its nature was unknoAvable. They have not tried to sIioav absolute results as could Vesalius with the anatomy of the heart, but they could give results as compared to the results of Allopathic treatment as Avell as compared to their own from year to year, and decade to decade, that shoAved Avhat the further development of their science Avas effecting in a practical Avay. Again, they were met by the Dogmatic faculty with the statement that certain diseases appeared, and then, running a defined course, would, from their nature, exhaust themselves and disappear from the economy; also, in this connection it Avas said, that distressing symptoms Avould arise and vanish suddenly without outside interference, and they say because you cannot tell Avhich symptoms Avere cured by homoeopathic drugs, and which disap- peared unassisted by treatment, therefore, homoeo- pathic methods are unreliable and deceptive. To this, a partial answer Avas given to the effect that, this objection, if taken as asserted, it would apply equally to all systems and methods, and, if true, how 144 THE APPEARANCE OF ISAAC. could Allopathy claim to be efficacious ? Why is not it, also, therefore, " unreliable and deceptive 9" but we may more fully meet this question while answering the next objection. The Dogmatists also said that the drug provings of homoeopathy could not be reliable; Iioav did they knoAV but a small quantity of some other drug had been unconsciously taken at the same time, which would either produce the symptoms exhibited or antidote the one being proved ? and, also, Iioav could one discriminate betAveen the true drug symptoms and imaginative ones? If it is not possible to show abso- lutely what are the effects of medicine and what not in the progress of disease, and if, by the simple method of Vesalius, this problem cannot, because of its character, be absolutely solved, homoeopathy claims that it can, by comparative and inductive methods, solve this with certainty and correctness. The comparative and inductive method will care- fully observe the action of a drug upon the healthy organism of many under differing circumstances, localities, and differences of age, sex, etc., and a careful record of these observations will show, by a comparison of them with each other, which are the symptoms of the imagination and which are those THE APPEARANCE OF ISAAC. 145 produced by other causes aside from the drug action, and also which are the prominent and significant symptoms of the drug. This same comparative and inductive method is then applied to the drug in testing it in the light of these provings at the bed- side. Let us go a little farther yet in this, that these two last objections may be fully met. When a homoeo- pathic physician is treating certain diseases and symptoms and sees, them disappear under the ex- hibition of a certain remedy, if the disease and other intercurring circumstances do not explain the alleviation of symptoms, and he is led to expect this effect from his knowledge of the characteristic action of the medicine, he assumes it as a curative effect of the drug, but not yet conclusively, until after con- tinued experience in this disease he sees this ameliorating effect produced repeatedly by this indicated exhibition of this medicine. Or, if others report by the same comparatiA7e and inductive method the same results from exhibiting this drug under like circumstances then, in spite of the diffi- culties which nature has thrown in his way, he will announce with positiveness concerning the power 10 146 THE APPEARANCE OF ISAAC. of this drug, under these homoeopathic indications, to cure or abridge this disease. Now, Homoeopathy clearly shoAvs that each drug has, upon the system, its own peculiar and elective action, this disease producing action being certain, and always, Avhen experimented with under the same conditions, producing the same results—one drug, after being given to a healthy person, display- ing, upon a localized surface in a certain portion of the economy, an eruption of a positive and peculiar character—another drug, Avhen exhibited under like circumstances, producing, in a certain circumscribed portion of one lung, a pulmonic or inflammatory condition—another drug exerting an elective action upon the kidneys, producing disease Avhile its influ- ence is at work, which speedily disappears with a cessation of its use. Despite these facts, as well as the additional one demonstrated by Homoeopathy, that remedies should be used in the application of medicine in removing disease, that experiment proves to exert a specific action in health similar to this diseased condition under treatment—such facts, with their verification in the treatment of disease, having established the law as expressed by similia similibus curantur— THE APPEARANCE OF ISAAC. 147 despite this, we say, Allopathy wholly ignores such properties and uses of drugs, declaring such methods to be false and harmful. At that time, (1820,) Dogmatism having experi- enced, under the critical examination of Hahne- mann, within the last twenty-five years, such com- plete discomfiture and rout, as regards its dogmas and doctrines, (such finished and perfect exposures of false and injurious methods in medical treatment, as the then accepted doctrine of Brunonism received at his hands, (1808,) being examples of his repeated and effective showing of the dangerous practices and theories employed and defended by this faculty,) renounced its old, and assumed a new position, peculiar as well as compromising to itself, although one which it was compelled from necessity to adopt, since there was nothing better or tenable presenting itself in this premise, nor has there been anything to this day. It became apparent to the Dogmatic faculty that nothing had been productive of so much injury to this school as an organization, than these exposures by Hahnemann of the illustrations of the aptitudes and instincts which preeminently, since its inception, had influenced and ruled Dogmatism. 148 THE APPEARANCE OF ISAAC. When, therefore, Dogmatism refused to become purged of this vicious nature, and to throAV over " its immense commercial and corporation interests " in its old and established order of things, and accept the efforts of Hahnemann to reformation in med- icine; and Avhen later, at Hahnemann's hands, a rival school in medicine sprang forth which bade fair to give the future Dogmatic edicts in theory as rough handling as Dogmatism through Hahnemann had just received, there appeared this modification of its policy. There was to be no loss of authority or assump- tive power over the direction of thought, for this thing was to be subject to the indorsement of the Dogmatic faculty ; but it was the will and expres- sion of Dogmatism, as concerning this question, that its adherents should use their own inclinations and follow their own predilections within certain limits; within these limits they could accept the theory of Brunonism, or Hoffman's, Sydenham's, or Stahl's hypotheses. Animism or expectant tenets or later cellular or neuro-pathological theories could be entertained singly and in their author's purity, or combined and amalgamated. By such fanciful theories, then, the adherents were to be guided THE APPEARANCE OF ISAAC. 149 in the treatment and management of disease. New and analagous theories strictly Avithin these limits could also be developed subject to the indorsement of Dogmatism, but Avithout these circumscribed limits the Allopath must not dare to direct himself, and the vigilance and penalties exerted to enforce the strict keeping of the faithful within these bounds, we shall presently, most carefully, and attentively consider. This neAV state of things, hoAvever, was nothing but a summons by Dogmatism of certain of the prominent features of the Empiric School, upon which it had Avaged unceasing Avar in the time of the Ptolemies, but which it now desired to capture and appropriate for its OAvn especial benefit and profit. In fact, then, Dogmatism emerges into vieAv in this the nineteenth century as Enipiri&sm; the adherents of this school so regarding this phase of matters with them, and for years it was so known. This regard of the changes of dogma with the dominant school was in place here, for Ave had turned from a consideration of the homoeopathic methods of treatment and of the allopathic objections thereto, and were to inquire, as the Allopathic School reject the truths affirmed by the Homoeopathic School, as 150 THE APPEARANCE OF ISAAC. well as the methods of treatment to which they point, if the doctrines of Dogmatism and its treat- ment of disease would make a better showing, if the fire of argument, under Avhich avo have seen Homoeo- pathy to stand unscathed, were to be turned upon the elder half-brother in medicine. With the knowledge wc have already acquired while standing upon the ever shifting sands which border upon the sea of Dogmatic fancy Ave shall not be surprised to learn Avliat, through the eighteenth century, appears in the accepted methods of treat- ment by the dominant school. First, there was used at this time a class of preparations—many hundred of them—called antidotes, many of Avhich Avere a legacy from and may be taken as examples of the "assembled wisdom" bequeathed to Dogmatism by antiquity (upon Avhich it plumes itself so highly.) These preparations or antidotes Avere generally given in late years another term, so that they be not con- founded Avith the class of chemical antidotes, they were therefore referred to as Theriaca. This term is suggestive of molasses, and Avas probably applied because these preparations had its consistency and appearance. We find one theriaca to be an electuary composed of one hundred and fifty different in- THE APPEARANCE OF ISAAC 151 gredients, and mam' others contained upwards of sixty different substances. Some of these antidotes Avere dismissed from the British Pharmacopoeia in the middle of the eighteenth century, but others Avere prescribed up to and even later than the period Avith Avhich Ave are now engaged, (1820.) Some of the ingredients in these last are most loathsome, such, for instance, as viper's flesh, or vipers of a taAvny color, which were to be boiled until the flesh dropped from the bones, and this to enter into a theriaca for administration in the case of some poor afflicted mortal Avho was so unfortunate as to fall into the hands of a physician of the domi- nant school; or, again, Ave might refer to the treat- ment of hydrophobia by a standard authority in Dogmatism, Avho, for this complaint, directed the keeping of the patient under water while the Psalm miserere was sung. We might point to him Avho Avas an authority e\7en as late as the time of Avhich Ave noAv Avrite, (1820,) an authority than whom none among the shining lights of Dogmatism stood higher. In the treatises upon the practice of medicine, by Thomas Sydenham, we find that he directs the ad- ministration of such as the powder of stag's tail, bull's tail, boar's tooth. For pleurisy he prescribes 152 .THE APPEARANCE OF ISAAC. the bleeding of ten ounces of blood from the patient and the giving of the " expressed juice of horse dung" also the "spirit or volatile salt of man's blood, and of vipers, and crab's eyes, etc.," hog's lice Avas another ingredient of the allopathic prescription. Bleeding and drastic purgatives Avere the most relied upon, however, in a very large class of dis- eases. The common and then Avell known saAV, " Physick, lies a bleeding," being intended to direct the efforts of " Physick " into its widest and supposed most useful channel. The use of both bleeding and purgatives in these times will be appreciated Avhen Ave come to consider the Brunonian theories Avhich now influenced the direction of thought as applied in selecting medical treatment. This system, hold- ing most diseases to be a condition of sthenia, and only to be cured by reducing the patient, the un- fortunate Avas bled to fainting and syncope, and drastic purges administered to effect the same re- sult. We may have an idea of the use of these methods of Allopathy if we turn to the remark of Dr. Benja- min Rush, a most eminent American physician, whose medical treatises were as prominent and as markedly able as any other of the medical works THE APPEARANCE OF ISAAC. 153 which appeared with them in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Dr. Rush declares that during his experience in medical practice, he has, in the bleeding of his patients, drawn enough blood to float a seventy-four gun man-of-Avar. To the reader it may appear to be a difficult matter for the Allopaths to make such treatment as the above consistent Avith their laAv of contraria, the insignia which they fly at the mast head of their ship of Dogmatism, and point to as the concentrated essense of medical truth, the allusive figure of the assembled medical wisdom of the ages; but the reader may not be familiar with the elasticity of this wonderful laAv of contraria, or of the many incongruous shapes, the product of Dogmatic fancy, which this law has been called upon to cover in times past. The possibilities of this law in this direction will be apparent if Ave consider the methods of Dogmatism, and remember, also, that it is not possible for a treatment to be employed that will not present some phase or effect that is different or opposite in some of its particulars; how easy then for this medical school so prolific in theory and imaginative assumption to bring forward a new theory applicable to this treatment, which shall 154 THE APPEARANCE OF ISAAC. give unusual prominence to this element of differ- ence betAveen the treatment and disease, and so at once corroborate the application of the law of con- traria, and substantiate the propriety of the Allo- pathic use of this treatment under these conditions. The Allopathic school, then, in rejecting the new methods of the Homoeopathic school of dealing with disease, as Ave have seen; in denouncing its mode of preparing medicinal substances as both too simple and unscientific to merit consideration, de- claring that the very small quantity of a single drug, Avhen put into so much sugar of milk and submitted to trituration, made it a conjectural matter which part of this mixture contained the drug, and, even if it Avere administered, would not purge as it should, or produce emesis or diuresis, or any other physiological effect, and, unless such effect were produced, the disease could not be removed; also, in declaring the Homoeopathic law of similia similibus curantur false, and warning the faithful of the heresy of the teachings of the Homoeopathic school, and advising adherents of Dogmatism of the necessity of the employment of discipline in its ranks, as regards these heretical methods in par- ticular, pronounced against each and all of tliese THE APPEARANCE OF ISAAC. 155 methods and principles, and forbade the faithful to touch thereof. In their stead the Dogmatic school had to offer the long prescriptions and filthy mixtures (of which those which Ave have noticed are extreme examples) and the use of the lancet in bleeding or of drastic drugs in purging, that the excessive depletion of the strength of the system by the us^of one or both of these methods of robbing it of its flowing elements of strength might be accomplished, as a necessary means in the efforts of cure. Aside from the fact that these, the prominent and characteristic methods of Dogmatism, more than carry their condemnation upon their face, we now see that the demurrer filed against Homoeopathy by Dogmatism, and, without effect, applies with its full force against the ancient school of medicine. In fact, if we consider that a disease attacks a person, and being limited, eventually disappears of itself, what reason will Allopathy have to claim, that because it has reduced the patient by purging and vomiting, that this method of treatment has aided the cure? Surely any rational thinker Avill speedily conclude that it is nearer the truth to say that the patient recovered in spite of such treatment and not because of it. 156 THE APPEARANCE OF ISAAC. Iii the arena of logic and argument the Homoeo- pathic principles and law having, at every point, utterly vanquished Allopathy, we shall hereafter find the dominant school falling back almost wholly upon what has been to it before this time, its favorite auxiliary and indispensable reserved force, upon which it has often called to sustain the brunt and onslaught of Homoeopathy, AA7hen not to receive such help would have been to suffer the most complete and utter rout of the foot and horse of Dogmatism. This ally of which Allopathy has never lost sight, nor forgotten the consciousness of possessing, is called by name mockery, Avhich in different phases we distinguish as ridicule; mimicry; derision; con- temptuous sneers, etc. This ally, as we have said, Allopathy will fall back, and depend upon almost exclusively in the future, in the treatment of its rival in medicine, in argument, as well as in its persecution of Homoeopathy in their mutual field of labor. About this time a famous Austrian Field Marshal and Prince, sick, and given up as incurable by his physicians of the dominant school, repaired to Leipsic for treatment by Hahnemann, and while under his care died. Upon this, the charges were THE APPEARANCE OF ISAAC. 157 made on the part of the apothecaries, that Hahne- mann had by his medicines caused the death of his patient, and by their influence or desperate meas- ures, (ignoring the fact that none that they could produce could demonstrate a more thorough and exhaustive pharmaceutical and chemical knowl- edge than he,) finally succeeded in obtaining an injunction preventing Hahnemann from dispensing his OAvn medicines. Instead of accepting the issue made here, and entering the lists, Hahnemann now, in his sixty-sixth year, longing for release from such strife, accepted the offer of physician in ordinary to the Prince of Coethen, an ardent admirer of his. The enthusiastic coterie which surrounded Hahne- mann and re-enforced him in his endeavors to advance the cause of Homoeopathy were thus left without his able advice and direction to aid them in their work, except so far as he could, in a Avay, help them from a distance. The rich increase of homoeopathic material within the next ten years, the result of the laborious study and research of the homoeopathic co-workers was astounding, such men as Ernest Stapf, Fred. Ruckert, Frantz Hartman, G. W. Gross, Con- stantine Hering, Moritz Mueller, and many others contributing to this work. Most of these were 158 THE APPEARANCE OF ISAAC. physicians who Avere regularly educated and received into the Allopathic ranks and of acknowledged ability. These materials appeared in a new edition of Hahnemann's " Materia Medica," and in five volumes of his " Chronic Diseases," in treatises upon Dietetics, manuals of Therapeutics, essays, and the Homoeo- pathic periodical "Archives," first published in 1826; these, as Avell as many other papers, were from the pens of the more recent co-laborers in the School of Homoeopathy. From the year 1821, and through this decade, the neAV School of Medicine not only spread over Ger- many but Avas transplanted into every quarter of the civilized Avorld. In 1821 it appears in Italy, in 1823 in Russia, and before 1830 we find it established and flourishing in France, Great Britain, and America. From Avhat Ave have seen in Germany Ave may not anticipate that the Allopathic profession evinced a Avillingness to accord those of the Homoeopathic profession Avho appeared in these countries either fair or equitable treatment, and presently we shall take up this topic and endeavor, by a fair presenta- tion of the facts, to get a true understanding con- THE APPEARANCE OF ISAAC. 159 cerning the history of the reception and difficulties, placed by the dominant school, in the way of the neAV school and its profession. From 1830 marked differences arose between Hahnemann and others prominent in the Homoeo- pathic profession, and as Ave shall have occasion to refer to this matter shortly, Ave will leave it here until the proper place is reached to show the cause and results of this difference in detail. CHAPTER VII. " OH ! BEWARE, MY LORD, OF JEALOUSY; IT IS THE GREEN- EYED MONSTER WHICH DOTH MOCK THE MEAT IT FEEDS ON." The afflux of visitors to Coethen from foreign parts, drawn thither by the Avonderful repute of Hahnemann, and for the purpose of securing his advice and skill, brought with it a beautiful and wealthy young French lad}7, Avho made an impression upon Hahnemann (noAv five years a widower) that was fully reciprocated, and led to their engagement and subsequent marriage, (1835.) Shortly after this time he removed to Paris where he spent the evening of his days, still engaged in his professional and literary labors under most com- fortable and felicitous circumstances. Eight years after his removal to Paris, in the year 1843, and at the age of eighty-nine, Hahnemann calmly and peacefully passed from this life. We may believe that the mockery and intolerance which had persecuted and followed Hahnemann in life, continued to assault his memory after his death. One of the most prominent medical journals in 11 (161) 162 oh! beware, ishmael. Great Britain and Ireland, the " Dublin Medical Press" said at this time: " It appears that old Hah- nemann, the inventor of Homoeopathy is dead, hav- ing prolonged his existence by infinitesimal doses of nothing to eighty-eight years, greatly to the consola- lation and edification of the patrons and patronesses of quacks and quackery." The old mockeries and criminations which had been so many times iterated and reiterated concern- ing Homoeopathy, were now brought forward by the representatives of the dominant school Avith fresh zeal and virulence. The often repeated fiction, Avhich to this day we hear recited, varying only in its application to different localities, that Homoeo- pathy puts an ounce of epsom salts into the Thames, at Oxford, and expects a teaspoonful of the Avater at London to purge, was reproduced. Whereas, Homoeo- pathy never pretended that its small doses produced a direct physiological effect upon the human system, as a poisonous and gross dose of a drug would, but always referred to the effect produced by the homoeo- pathic triturations and doses of a drug, as being a manifestation of the rousing of or impression upon the vital power of the economy, and designated this effect of homoeopathic doses, (as did Hahnemann before them,) the dynamic effect of medicine. oh! beware, ishmael. 163 Again, the world Avas repeatedly informed that consistent Homoeopathic treatment was to give the " hair of the dog for his bite." If a child fractures its skull by a fall upon the stony pavement the Homoeopath (if he were not to compromise his professions) Avould cure it by again subjecting the injured caput to a collision with the same stones, for "like cures like, you know." Concerning this, it seems useless to repeat that this is not in accordance with the laAV of similia but of identity. If one had a certain set of symptoms, and he had produced them with some poisonous chemical, the taking this chemical would be pre- scribing in accordance with the law of identity, for the identical substance is the self-same substance; if these symptoms, however, were caused by disease, and a drug, in homoeopathic dose, administered, that was its nearest similar in its pathogenetic action; why this would be, together with the proper con- sideration of external conditions, in accordance with the law of similars, (" Like cures Like.") Sometime in the decade of 1820, Wilhelm Lux advanced the theory of Isopathy, or the cure of disease by the reapplication of its cause, and ad- vanced the laAV of jEqualia sequalibus, and we find 104 oh! beware, ishmael. that Allopathy gave some indorsement of this, the law of identity, by declaring that a prepared fox's liver would cure liver disease. Again, we are sneeringly told that Homoeopathy is a revelation in medicine, a faith; this is not true in any sense, for a revelation is a perfect and com- plete entity in itself, while Homoeopathy is only a department of the field of medicine, (the therapeutics of the art of healing,) Avhich Avas, in its infancy, gradually developed, imperfect, and full of mistakes, (which were, when discovered, promptly eradicated, as were the mesmeric assumptions, so soon after their entrance into the pale of the Homoeopathic School,) but Avith the efforts of its scientific delvers and toilers in the field of experiment, has become more and more advanced and perfected, and com- mensurately more useful to suffering humanity. Then, again, we have been, at intervals, constantly informed that similia similibus curantur is not true, and that Homoeopathy is a humbug. Supposing the assertion "similia similibus curantur is not true" be assumed, then the question is, are the teachings of Allopathy and is the law of contraria any more true? Which is the nearest truth,and, consequently, which of the most use to man ? oh! beware, ishmael. 165 Again, it is charged that the only effect upon the sick produced by homoeopathic treatment is through the imagination; and this, because of the success in the treatment of children's diseases, (which is fully as great, proportionately, as with any other class of complaints,) and because of the success in disease Avhere the imagination cannot enter as a factor, is shown to be an untenable assertion. How often AA7e hear that the treatment of the Homoeopathic system is unscientific, because it is neglectful, in that no attention is paid to dietetics and hygiene, an assertion that can be shown to be a misstatement by referring to the Avritings of Hahnemann, from the last centuiy forward. They demonstrate to us how well he kept pace Avith his time, both upon the subject of dietetics and upon that of surrounding influences, and his papers " On making the body hardy," "On dietetic conver- sation," "Things that spoil the air," are pertinent examples, as well as by the very extensive literature of the Homoeopathic school on Public and Private Hygiene, Dietetics, and other branches of preventive treatment. In giving our attention now to the methods of oppression and persecution which Allopathy has 100 oh! beware, ishmael. always exerted towards the new school in medicine, we will, before leaving the recitals of occurrences in the German medical world, only state concerning it that the course towards Homoeopathy here, with which Ave have become familiar, met with a temporary success, for, in or about the year 1830, and for the twelve succeeding years, governmental laws which, under Allopathic influence, Avere created and put in force forbade the Homoeopathic physicians to pre- pare or dispense their medicines. In or about the year 1827, Dr. Quin and two other physicians simultaneously appeared in England as adherents of the Homoeopathic school, and practis- ing its principles. At this time, and for thirty years thereafter, a physician, in England, was not con- sidered to be duly qualified unless he possessed the diploma of the University of Oxford or of Cam- bridge, or that conferred by the Archbishop of Can- terbury, and a license of the Royal College of Physi- cians of London, also the general practitioners must possess the diploma of the Society of Apothecaries.* In 1833, Dr. Quin, having attracted public atten- tion by his large and growing practice, was notified and admonished to cease practicing until he had *A. C. Pope, M. D. oh! beware, ishmael. 167 been duly examined and licensed under the common seal of the Royal College of Physicians. Dr. Quin was not a fresh student, but an old prac- titioner at this time, and probably conscious, that in certain of the abstract and superfluous points of medical knowledge, which from lack of use in prac- tical experience are speedily out of memory's reach, catch questions would be likely to be more than he would be equal to. He also felt the sensitiveness, Avhich all plrysicians possess to a greater or less extent, of having laid himself liable to an imputa- tion of not possessing the necessary and indispens- able high order of intelligence requisite for the medical mind. In other words, he feared that because he was a Homoeopath, therefore, he Avould not receive the equal and fair treatment that his Allopathic brethren would in their examination before this board. For this he had the courage to defy their injunc- tions, and to dare to continue to practice despite their mandate and admonition. It may be observed in this connection that the demand upon Dr. Quin to appear before the examining board was nothing more than was required of every practicing Allopath " within seven miles of London," but we shall see if 168 oh! beware, ishmael. his apprehensions, relating to this question Avere not substantiated by medical events in the near future. An element Avhich asserted itself about this time, and thenceforward, an element Avhich is often most conspicuous and always influential, an element over which the allocutions of the Allopathic faculty pro- duce no apparent result, and therefore has sorely tried and embarrassed the dominant sectators, is the clientage or laity of Homoeopathy. After examin- ing, from a practical standpoint, the merits of the new school of medicine, accepting its claims, and declaring in faA7or of trusting to its competency, as concerned themselves and their oavii, Avhere the offices of medicine Avere required, this class has ever exhibited an inclination to uphold the hands of the Homoeopathic profession in its unequal fight for a fair and equitable consideration before the law and the public. It is to the opposition and influence of this element against the efforts of the Allopathic faculty to create laws in governmental bodies, which were to vest in the Allopathic faculty full poAA7ers in affairs of medi- cine, or to create laws intended to directly proscribe the Homoeopathic profession, and by a persecution similar to that of Hahnemann's time discourage oh! beware, ishmael. 169 and blot out this healthy rival of Dogmatism; it is to this class, indeed, that Homoeopathy owes, in a great measure, that its opportunity for advancement and progress in future Avas made possible. The attempts made in Parliament to enact such laAVS as that presented in 1858, Avhich vested it with a proposed Allopathic medical council to decide if any duly qualified practitioner were practicing "irregularly," and if so, to erase him from the register, and so, by the application, of the law, com- pel him to desist from practicing his profession, were frustrated, however, by the hands of the Homoeo- pathic laity members of this house. In fact, the activity of many men most prominent in their profession or business, and influential in municipal and gOArernmental affairs, in advancing the interest of Homoeopathy and in identifying themselves with its undertakings, was no doubt a reason for instigating the Allopathic profession to prosecute its animosity to the new school with re- newed vigor. The success and popularity achieved by the Homoeopathic physicians in London were duplicated in4he other large cities of Great Britain. Dr. Black and Dr. Russell, in Edinburgh, by their large and 170 oh! beware, ishmael. growing reputation, called attention to the claims of the neAV school, and soon the ire and horror of the faculty of the celebrated medical school here was provoked by the announcement of Dr. Henderson, the able and celebrated professor of Pathology at this University, that he had investigated and ac- cepted the principles of the neAV school of medicine. For this reason and upon this ground the effort was made under the leadership of Dr. Syme, his colleague, to dispossess him of his position in the faculty, and it Avas finally successful. Shortly after the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh (the Allopathic society here) passed this resolution, " that the public profession of Homoeo- pathy shall be held to disqualify for being admitted or remaining a member," and immediately there- after expelled Dr. Henderson from the society. Shorty after this Mr. Pope having followed the prescribed course of medicine at this University, regularly and in due time presented himself to the board of examiners for examination for graduation and his degree in medicine. It Avas made known that he had been investigating the teachings of the new school, and upon concluding his examinatieji, he was asked if he was intending to espouse Homoeo- oh! beware, ishmael. 171 pathic principles, and upon his ansAvering, that at present he could only say that as yet he was only investigating this system of medicine; his case was carried before the faculty, the outcome of it all being that Mr. Pope Avas compelled to leaAre the University without his diploma, not because of a failure on his part to comply with any of the re- quirements, or because his examination was not satisfactory in every way ; the reason of the refusal of the faculty to grant to him the degree of the University being, that he Avould not bind himself in advance of his inATestigation of the subject not to favor or practice Homoeopathy. Soon after this, the University of Aberdeen, St. Andrew's, as well as other universities in Great Britain, indorsed the position of this University of Edinburgh, and resolved to take the same ground, and thereafter declined to permit candidates for examination to appear before them if they refused to renounce the principles of Homoeopathy. The court of examiners of the Society of Apothe- caries, a society whose diploma was essential to those medical practitioners who practiced medicine under the law as we have previously shown, declared that " in their capacity of examiners they will refuse 172 oh! beavare, ishmael. their certificate to any candidate who proposes dur- ing the examination to found his practice on what are called Homoeopathic principles." Later, the secretary in reply to an inquiry in 1853, answered: ' Sir : The Court of Examiners still refuses to admit any person who calls himself a Homceopathist. " I am, sir, yours, etc., " H. Blatch, Secretary." Lastly, if we turn to the " Provincial Medical and Surgical Association," and study its action upon this question, and also pay particular attention relative to the bearing and influence of this association upon medical matters, we shall gain more insight than ever into the organization and true methods of Dog- matism controlling the affairs pertaining to and affecting the realm of medicine. This association Avas first formed in the year 1833, and was intended to ha\7e jurisdiction in Great Britain outside of London. Its first announcements and meetings proclaimed that it would be composed of members, the most prominent physicians in the se\7eral provincial towns. This association was created that Dogmatism might live, its laws and code were to be the accepted law and faith of each and every institution and oh! beware, ishmael. 173 individual who, in his profession, desired to be identified with this school. The laAvs of this asso- ciation, Avhich were intended to govern the members of the Allopathic profession, AA7ere gathered together into a code, and received the title of the " Code of Ethics of the Medical and Surgical Association!" Henceforth let no individual adherent of Allop- athy, nor any institution as a medical college, med- ical society, or other representative body of Dogmatic medicine, dare to disregard or break this code of ethics. For, as it Avas to this association, that each and every of the above mentioned looked for in- dorsement as to their orthodoxy in medicine, so, therefore, they must not only leave it to this associa- tion to decide for them what shall be their course of action in professional and medical matters, as well as Avhat is the right and what the Avrong thing from a moral point of view, but they must so thoroughly understand and carefully folloAv this code of ethics that, Avhether they be college, society, or individual, they suffer not the excommunication of this .associa- tion to be uttered against them, else those now their associates and brothers in the faith will not approach or have professional intercourse with them, lest, by so doing, the association Avould declare their gar- ments to be defiled also. 174 oh! beware, ishmael. We understand now why this unanimous and harmonious action Avhich was, and is always, ex- plained, as for the good of Dogmatism, appeared, and to show that this spirit, as well as this modus operandi, from and after this time, Avas not peculiar to this quarter of the Avorld but extended to most distant portions also, Ave Avill, after considering the action of this association in relation to the new school of medicine, pay some attention to the medi- cal arena in America. At the meeting of this, " The Provincial Medical and Surgical Association of Great Britain," at Brighton, in 1851, these resolutions were presented and passed: " First, That it is the opinion of this Association that Homoeopathy, as propounded by Hahnemann and practiced by his followers, is so utterly opposed to science and common sense, as well as so completely at variance with the experience of the medical profession, that it ought to be in no way or degree practiced or countenanced by any regularly educated medical practitioner. Second and third, That as Homoeopathists have spoken contemptuously of medicine as regularly practiced, it is derogatory to the honor of members of this Association to hold any kind of professional inter- OH ! BEAVARE, ISHMAEL. 175 course Avith them. Fourth, That real Homoeopathic practitioners, those who practice Homoeopathy in com- bination with other systems of treatment, and those who hold professional intercourse with Homoeopathists ought not to be members of this Association." We Avish also to append these resolutions, passed in 1826 by the College of Surgeons of Ireland: "That no fellow or licentiate of the Royal College shall pretend or profess to cure disease by the decep- tion called Homoeopathy, or the practice called Mesmerism, or by any other form of quackery. It is also hereby ordained that no fellow or licentiate of the College shall consult with, meet, advise, direct, or assist any person engaged in such deceptions or practices, or in any system or practice considered derogatory or dishonorable by physicians or sur- geons." Although in the decade of 1820, Dr. Gram intro- duced Homoeopathy into the United States by settling in NeAV York city, to there enter into the practice of his profession, yet for some years the persecution and ridicule Avhich Avas visited upon him, as well as upon those Avho followed him and shortly afterward rep- resented the neAV school in this and its neighboring States, Avas a localized effort on the part of Allopathy, and so continued until 1847. 176 OH ! BEWARE, ISHMAEL. The personal enmity exhibited by the Allopathic profession towards Dr. Gram, a man of spotless honor and of unexceptional qualifications for those times, (having been educated in one of the promi- nent universities in Europe, and there taking one of the highest degrees,) is well established and a matter of common knoAvledge. After this time, (1847,) however, we find the methods of oppression and mockery Avhich Allopathy persistently pursues toAvards the neAV school of medicine in the United States, being concordantly employed in all parts of the country, and under the direction of an acknowl- edged controling power. From this time a National Medical Society asserts itself, known as the American Medical Association, and since we have learned of the intent and scope of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association of Great Britain, we shall be interested to learn of the position and bent of this society as regards the younger half-brother in medicine. We find this Association to be composed of mem- bers Avho are delegates from a recognized Allopathic medical society or college or like institution and of medical practitioners in " regular standing" Avho have received the unanimous vote of the Association. OH ! BEWARE, ISHMAEL. 177 We find their term " regular practitioner " defined to their satisfaction in this portion of their " Code of Ethics," " no one can be considered as a regular practitioner or a fit associate in consultation, whose practice is based on an exclusive dogma," etc. We may better understand the aims and drift of this organization, and its intent to duplicate in America the position, power, and place occupied by the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association in Great Britain, if Ave give attention to these declared acts created by the American Medical Association for the purpose of guiding and governing the Allo- pathic profession in the United States. " Resolved, That no State or local society shall hereafter be en- titled to representation in this Association that has not accepted its Code of Ethics. "Resolved, That no State or local society that has intentionally violated or disregarded any article or clause in the Code of Ethics shall any longer be entitled to representation in this body. ''Resolved, That no organization or institution shall be con- sidered in good standing which has not adopted its (The American Medical Association) Code of Ethics." We see, therefore, that the power of disciplining and of governing every individual member of the Allopathic profession in this country, is as absolute with this National Allopathic Society as it is with 12 178 oh! beavare, ishmael. its archetype in Great Britain, with which avo have become someAvhat acquainted. For if every practicing physician (having previ- ously followed the prescribed curriculum of medical study and being regularly graduated in medicine) applies to his local medical society for recognition and membership, Avhich a proper personal examination and thorough scrutiny of his credentials should secure, by the evidence of this connection with this local society, his standing as a medical practitioner is placed before his neighbors and beyond cavil, and, therefore, himself distinguished from the ignorant and unqualified pretenders to a knowledge of the curative art, who are found in every locality. It was also of equal importance that the several medical societies be duly and generally recognized as the proper exponents of this function and as representatiAre of the dominant school in their premises. This may also be found to apply with equal force to the several medical colleges, for if it should appear that such an Allopathic College was under the ban, as regards the supreme authority in ortho- dox medicine in the country, how very materially would it affect the number of students seeking OH ! BEWARE, ISHMAEL. 179 admission at its doors Avhen it was appreciated by the medical Avorld, that this ban would prevent any Allopathic medical society or physician from recog- nizing the virtue of the diploma of this college? Hence, the dicta of the American Medical Asso- ciation, as represented in its Code of Ethics, was duly acknowledged and adopted by each and every medical society and college in the country and its tenets carefully observed. We shall better under- stand the absolute authority of this supreme council if we follow it in an instance of its application of its method of discipline. In the year 1870 the American Medical Associa- tion held its meeting at Washington, D. C, and among the other regularly chosen delegates Avhich assembled there to participate in this meeting Avere the delegates from the Massachusetts Medical Society, the recognized Allopathic State Society of Massa- chusetts. These delegates received their requisite credentials from the Massachusetts Society, and pre- sented them in due form and at the proper time. When the American Medical Association took action towards these delegates, though premeditated by the association, yet Avholly without notice as regards the Massachusetts Medical Society, it Avas, both to its delegates and itself, a complete surprise. 180 OH ! BEAVARE, ISHMAEL. This Association refused the right of the delegates of the Massachusetts Medical Society to sit in this meeting of the American Medical Association until their right to appear as delegates should be deter- mined. Later, after investigation, the Association finds " that the Massachusetts Medical Society voluntarily and improperly furnishes shelter and gives counte- nance to irregular practitioners, to such extent as to render it unworthy of representation in the General Assembly of American Physicians." In other words, the Massachusetts Medical Society had fallen from grace, and no longer represented true ortho- doxy in medicine in the State of Massachusetts. Let us see if this discipline has its intended effect. Although the expression, " irregular practitioner," is rather indefinite and lax, there was not here any doubt of its intended application; in fact, we have already seen it to be the term Avhich is most com- monly used to designate the Homoeopathic practi- tioners, and to be synonymous, in this connection, with " quack," " charlatan," and the like, in their application to the new school of medicine. In consequence of this action of the Supreme Allopathic Council, the Massachusetts Medical So- OH ! BEAVARE, ISHMAEL. 181 ciety, at its next meeting, in the succeeding year, (1871,) " Resolved, That if any fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society shall be or shall become a member of any society which adopts as its principle in the treatment of disease any exclusive theory or dogma, (as, for example, those specified in Article 1 of the By-Laws of this Society,) or himself shall practice or profess to practice, or shall aid or abet any person or persons practicing or professing to practice according to any such theory or dogma, he shall be deemed to have violated the By-Laws of the Massa- chusetts Medical Society by "conduct unbecoming and unworthy an honorable physician and member of this Society."—By-Laws, VII, 5. " Resolved, In case the society concur with the councillors in the foregoing resolution, that the President of the Society shall appoint a committee of five fellows (to hold office one year, and until others are appointed) to bring before a board of trial any fellow who, three months from this date or after, shall be found chargeable with the offense set forth in the foregoing resolution." Against whom these resolutions were directed Avill be readily understood if Ave knoAV that there A\rere at this time several members of the Massachusetts Medical Society who had been admitted as members thereto, yet after finishing the course of study at the medical school of Harvard University, (Allopathic,) and entering upon the practice of medicine as a true and orthodox Allopath, had become disgusted and discouraged with the results of Allopathic methods, and were led to investigate the induce- 182 OH ! BEAVARE, ISHMAEL. ments which the success of Homoeopathic practice evidenced. These persons had recognized the truth of the principles of the neAV school of medicine, and avowed as much, as well as a determination to use these in the sick room Avhere they would establish better results. That those physicians were educated after a manner that would be most gratifying to the Allopathic sense, must be acknoAvledged Avhen Ave knoAV that this is certified to by the diploma of the first Allopathic medical school in this country, and that they Avere the physicians at whom these resolu- tions were aimed, Avill be more fully appreciated when we quote the resolution which was passed before the above, but probably because it was found to be inadequate to the purpose was folloAA7ed by those which avc have just read. This resolution ran: " Resolved, That the Massa- chusetts Medical Society hereby expels from fellow- ship all those who publicly profess to practice in accordance Avith any exclusive dogma, whether call- ing themselves Homoeopaths, Hydropaths, Eclectics, or what not, in violation of the Code of Ethics of the American Medical Association." Those summoned by virtue of the action of the OH ! BEWARE, ISHMAEL. 183 Massachusetts Medical Society, as set forth in the before quoted resolutions, were each and all physi- cians Avho were known to be admitted Homoeopaths. The summons read as follows : "Northampton, Mass., November 4, 1871. "To-------, M. D., "Sir: Charges having been preferred against you by a commit- tee of the Massachusetts Medical Society of " conduct unbecom- ing and unworthy an honorable physician and member of this Society," to wit: " by practicing, or professing to practice, accord- ing to an exclusive theory or dogma, and by belonging to a soci- ety whose purpose is at variance with the principles of, and tends to disorganize the Massachusetts Medical Society." " You are hereby directed to appear before a board of trial at the Society's rooms, No. 36 Temple Place, Perkins Building, on Tues- day, November 21, 1871, at 11 o'clock a. m., to answer to the same, in accordance with the by-laws and instructions of the Society. " Samuel A. Fisk, " President of the Massachusetts Medical Society." The gentlemen thus summoned obtained a tempo- rary injunction from the Supreme Court which com- pelled adjournment of the society for a time. The charges and specifications which the board were compelled to bring forward when the temporary injunction disappeared, were as follows : " The committee now specify that the exclusive theory or dogma referred to in said charges, is the theory or dogma known as Homoe- opathy, and the Society therein referred to, whose purpose is at variance with, and tends to disorganize, the Massachusetts Medi- cal Society, is the Massachusetts Homoeopathic Medical Society. 184 OH ! BEAVARE, ISHMAEL. " The committee file the following as further specifications : " Charge I.—That you are guilty of an attempt to disorganize and destroy the Massachusetts Medical Society. " Specification 1.—That you have joined, and are a member of, a certain society, known as the Massachusetts Homoeopathic Medical Society, whose purposes are at variance with, and which tends to disorganize, the Massachusetts Medical Society. " Specification 2.—That you belong to, and are a member of, a certain society called the Massachusetts Homoeopathic Medical Society, which adopts as its principle, in the treatment of disease, a certain exclusive theory or dogma known as Homoeopathy. " Charge II.—That you are guilty of conduct unbecoming and unworthy an honorable physician and member of the Massachu- setts Medical Society. " Specification 1.—In that you practice, or profess to practice, medicine according to a certain exclusive theory or dogma known as Homoeopathy. " Specification 2.—In that, while a member of the Massachu- setts Medical Society, you have joined, and are a member of, a certain society called the Massachusetts Homoeopathic Medical Society, which adopts as its principle, in the treatment of disease, a certain exclusive theory or dogma known as Homoeopathy, and whose purposes are at variance with, and which tends to disor- ganize, the Massachusetts Medical Society. " Specification 3.—In that you are a member of a certain so- ciety, called the Massachusetts Homoeopathic Medical Society, which adopts, as its principle in the treatment of disease, a certain exclusive theory or dogma, known as Homoeopathy, whose pur- poses are at variance with, and which tends to disorganize the Massachusetts Medical Society. " You are hereby further reminded that, to try the same, the Board of Trial stands adjourned to April 29th, 1873, at 11 A. M., at 36 Temple Place. " George C Shatttjck, " President of the Massachusetts Medical Society." OH ! BEWARE, ISHMAEL. 185 The manner of conducting the trial is exhibited by the action taken on the following demands made by the Board of Trial: " 1. That the trial should not be held with closed doors, but that their friends should be allowed to be present. " Demand refused. " 2. That reporters for the press should be allowed to be pres- ent ; that as this was a matter affecting the character of the ac- cused, the public had a right to know the evidence produced, and the manner of conducting this trial. " Demand refused. " 3. That the accused be allowed legal counsel, since it is pro- posed to disposess them of rights, privileges, and personal property. " Demand refused. "4. That they be allowed to have an advocate, not a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, present to advise them. " Demand refused. " 5. That, as they have reason to object to the record of the Secretary, a phonographic reporter of the trial should be appointed by mutual consent, and sworn to the faithful perfonmance of his duty. " Demand refused. " 6. That the accused may employ a phonographic reporter. " Demand refused. " 7. That an amanuensis, not a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, be allowed to sit beside the accused and assist him in taking notes of the trial. " Demand refused. " 8. The right to peremptory challenge. Demand refused. " 9. The right to challenge members of the Board of Trial for good and sufficient reasons. " Demand refused."* * Pages 1015-'17-'18, Transactions American Institute of Hom- oeopathy, 1876, Vol. II. 186 oh! beware, ishmael. Of course we do not need to be informed that the result of this was anticipated and arranged before its commencement, for we know that its inception and institution was because of the edict of the American Medical Association in these premises, and such direction was not issued that a fair trial of those alleged offenders should obtain, but that they should be expelled and dislodged from the Massa- chusetts Medical Society. If, after carefully reading these methods of disci- pline, asserted by the Supreme Council of Dog- matism, "in the middle of the afternoon of the nineteenth century," any one should infer that the sole reason of such action and course toAvards the new school was the thorough rout and extinguish- ment of this school, they should here correct them- selves, for the policy and course of the dominant school renders the belief necessary that more often of late years those subsidiary interests, which are looked upon by the Allopathic faculty as of so much importance, were also considered, and because the old and usual oppressive policy of Dogmatism would here exert immediate results to the profit of the dominant school in this direction, therefore was it continued and energetically prosecuted. oh! beware, ishmael. 187 Let us point this with a good illustration. We now can understand that not only is the Allopathic physician prevented by his accepted code from con- sulting with a homoeopath, for full Avell he knows that if such code be departed from by his own act that his local society must either expel him or else be in danger of being itself put under the ban by the State or National Society, but we shall see that this policy of the dominant school will assert itself in full force in the charitable institutions. We know that at this day those humane and necessary institutions, the public hospitals, in this country, aggregate, in their first cost, millions upon millions of dollars, which Avas, of course, met by drafts upon the public purse, (a public, by the way, that has a large and rapidly increasing minority, influential and Avealthy, who are pronounced in favor of em- ploying the method of the neAV school of medicine,) and when Ave consider the prominence which those having the medical management of these institu- tions must acquire, and the reputation and benefits which those physicians must reap, because of their occupying a position which carries the care and responsibility of so many and varied diseases, Ave must at once recognize the immense advantage to 188 THE APPEARANCE OF ISAAC. be acquired by any school of medicine over other schools, by the complete monopoly of the manage- ment of public hospitals; for such a position, under honest and economical administrations, even, must result in the placing of many and important favors to the credit of the controlling school and of the linking of their interests, to a greater or less extent, with that of other and influential corporeal bodies. The Allopathic school has, by insisting that here its Code of Ethics must enter, and with it rule supreme, declined to, in any way, permit the new school to conjointly occupy the public hospitals, in the sense that, if one be carried to such public insti- tution Avho has been accustomed to and prefers the attention and care of a physician who uses homoeo- pathic methods in his treatment, and though such a patient be accepting the hospitality which the free wards here offer, under no circumstances can such patient (even though we find this hospital to be sup- ported by a tax-paying public, one-fourth of whom are pronouncedly and always for placing themselves and their own under the care of the physicians of the new school) presume to call in and advise with a physician of the new school, though such request as regards any Allopathic physician in regular standing would not be refused. oh ! beware, ishmael. 189 So successfully is this policy of the effectual ex- clusion of Homoeopathic physicians from public institutions as physicians executed, and thus a full, fair, and continued comparison of the results of the treatment of the different schools in the hospitals, that mankind, in general, might profit by such comparison prevented, that Ave find the medical branch of the Federal army in the late civil war so thoroughly and efficiently managed in the interest of the dominant school that, in no instance, did a Homoeopathic surgeon succeed in entering the army as such, the very few that did succeed in obtaining appointments as surgeons succeeded because they presented their diplomas obtained from a regular Allopathic college, and, Avhile in the army, acted with and comported themselves as Allopaths, so far as could be discovered. We may not charge this to a lack of patriotism upon the part of the Homoeopathic surgeons, for many not succeeding in obtaining appointments entered the army as privates; numbers upon num- bers of Homoeopathic surgeons so doing, and subse- quently declaring that the fear of their possible subjection to the tender mercies of the representa- tives of Allopathy being far greater to them than that of the other fortunes of war. 190 OH ! BEAVARE, ISHMAEL. We shall speedily recognize the possibilities of such complete success if Ave remember that a surgeon in the army has an absolute military rank, and that his functions cannot be questioned by officers in other branches of service,* and also that the board which has final and full poAvers to act upon all applications for position in the medical corps of the army, Avas chosen by those representatives of the Allopathic faculty then in place upon this corps, and that such choice was made from members of this corps solely, it Avould seem hardly necessary to add. Extended illustrations of the experiences of Homoeopathic surgeons Avhile endeavoring to secure positions upon the medical corps of the army at the beginning of the civil war, are to be met with in the literature of the Homoeopathic profession in the several States; those interested in acquainting themselves Avith such examples are directed to the second volume of New York State Homoeopathic Transactions, page 208, which gives an account of the application of Dr. T. D. StoAv, which Avas filed by him in 1861, and though filed in due form, and * The Surgeon General has rank of Brigadier General of the Army. OH! BEWARE, ISHMAEL. 191 fulfilling all the requirements of the laiv, was yet rejected because he was a Homoeopath. With this following of the course of action and bearing of the dominant school towards its rival in medicine, in which is shown its efforts to cause legislation, Avhich Avould place the infant half- brother in medicine Avhere the hand of his elder could asphyxiate his more helpless relation, we shall be ready to appreciate the needed assistance to the cause of the new school, Avhich was rendered Avhen the element known as the laity entered the lists to defeat the designs of Dogmatism here, but since this time it has, in a field where the laity could not follow to take part, persistently and ruth- lessly used e\7er effort and every unfair means to subvert the true aims of medicine, if only the young rival of Dogmatism could be crippled and the interests of Dogmatism advanced. Believe, as we believe, no more, no less, That we are right, and nothing less confess; By the Code of Ethics and its mandates we abide And concede such other things as with it coincide. Think ye as we think, and do as we do, And then, and only then, we'll fellowship with you. That we are right, and always right, we know, For the " assembled wisdom of the ages " tells us so, 192 OH! BEWARE, ISHMAEL. And to be right is simply this to be Entirely and in all respects as we To deviate a hair's breadth or begin To question, or to doubt, or hesitate, is sin. ' 'Twere better that the sick should die than live, Unless they take the medicine we give; Let sink the drowning if he will not swim Upon the plank that we throw out to him; 'T were better that the world stand still than move In any other way than that which we approve. CHAPTER VIII. " PROVE ALL THINGS; HOLD FAST THAT AVHICH IS GOOD." With this showing of the predilections and bent of the sectators of the dominant school, which we see equally well illustrated in their determination to remain secure and unmolested Avhile they "sat by the flesh-pots," as well as by their oppressive and uncharitable animadversions, which they endeavored to obtrude upon the new school of medicine, we will noAv try to more fully appreciate by a careful and impartial consideration the charges Avhich they lay at the door of the new school, charges which we have seen to abound in accusations, assumptions, and pretexts, and brought forward by them to justify their course of action. The quotations which have just been given were shown to be the acts of representative bodies and societies of the dominant school of medicine. In these several quotations the assumptions, charges, and pretexts are found to consist of—First, That Homoeopathy is opposed to science and common 13 (193) 194 PROVE ALL THINGS. sense, and completely at variance with the experience of the medical profession. Second, That Homoeo- pathists have spoken contemptuously of medicine as regularly practiced. Third, That it is derogatory to the honor of members of the Association to hold any kind of professional intercourse with Homoeo- paths. Fourth, That the " deception called Homoeo- pathy," is quackery, and that no member should "consult Avith. advise, direct, or assist any person practicing Homoeopathy." Fifth, That Homoeopathy is an exclusive dogma. Sixth, That no one can be considered as a regular practitioner or fit associate in consultation whose practice is based on an ex- clusive dogma. Seventh, An adherence to the Homoeopathic practice is conduct unbecoming and unworthy an honorable physician. Eighth, "In that you are a member of a certain society called the Massachusetts Homoeopathic Medical Society, which adopts as its principle in the treatment of disease a certain exclusive theory or dogma known as Homoeopathy, whose purposes are at variance with and which tends to disorganize the Massachusetts Medical Society." This last is a quotation from the charges made by the Massachusetts Medical Society, and upon which PROVE ALL THINGS. 195 those members on trial were judged and prejudged and therefore expelled from this society, and we Avish to direct particular attention to the spirit of self-seeking here exhibited. For what was the art of medicine instituted, and why is it maintained ? For the self-aggrandizement of some body of a few hundred aa71io avow them- selves (as regards a population of hundreds of thousands for whom they assume to act,) to be a close corporation, and the custodian and sole recep- tacle of all medical knowledge ! Is it for the mer- cenary aims and purposes of these few that medical science is fostered ? The purpose of Homoeopathy is at variance Avith and tends to disorganize the Massachusetts Medical Society, and, therefore, is deserving of the anathema and obloquy which all truly good Allopaths should heap upon it. Avaunt with such inanity; withhold your slanders and misrepresentations, and show which is the most efficacious method of treating disease, and which the practice that will best serve humanity in the safest, speediest, and most pleasant manner; give the world some of your results after investigating Homoeopathy, and what have been the comparative results in the treatment of disease by the two schools, 10(5 PROVE ALL THINGS. and see if you can from this sIioav Avhy you should inveigh against the neAV method of healing and not accord to the infant, but promising child, of medicine a " fair field and no favor." The reader, hoAvever, shall not be deprived of the privilege of vieAving such comparison. Dr. Routh, a distinguished Allopathic physician, in a treatise entitled the " Fallacies of Homoeopathy," gives these statistics of the comparative results in the Vienna hospitals in HOMOEOPATHIC TREATMENT. ALLOPATHIC TREATMENT. Deaths, per cent. Deaths, per cent. Pneumonia .5.7 ■. . 24 Pleuritis . 3 .... 13 Peritonitis .4 13 Dysentery . 3 . . .22 Dr. Routh tries to explain this showing by claim- ing that more severe cases presented themselves at the Allopathic hospitals than at the Homoeopathic, but an eminent Allopathic physician, Dr. Wylde, asserts, concerning this point, that " the cases he saw treated at Dr. Fleischman's Homoeopathic Hospital were fully as acute and virulent as any he had observed elseAvhere." In 1855 the House of Commons ordered printed PROVE ALL THINGS. 197 the comparative death rate during the malignant epidemic of Asiatic cholera in 1854, and this report showed: Asiatic Cholera—Deaths under Homoeopathy, 16.4 per cent.; Allopathy, 59.2 per cent. Here is a carefully and correctly prepared table of death rates in 1870,1871, and 1872, in the private practice of physicians of the city of Boston, Massa- chusetts. ALLOPATHIC. Year. No. of Physicians. No. of Deaths. Average deaths to each Physician. 1870___________ 218 233 233 3,872 3,369 4,575 17.76 1871- ________ 14.46 1872 _. ___ 19.63 Total -_ 684 11,816 17.27 HOMOEOPATHIC. 1870____________ 40 44 54 402 363 446 10.05 1871 ___ — 8.25 1872 _______ 8.26 Total_______ 138 1,211 8.77 198 PROVE ALL THINGS. A question to be considered here is, were the Homoeopathic physicians having as large an average practice as the Allopaths? We leave the answer to each reader. Are the Homoeopathic physicians in your own city, as a rule, more or less busy than the average Allopath? An insurance company, the Homoeopathic Life Insurance Company of New York, (claiming that, as a business venture, there is greater profit in insuring the lives of those who employ homoeo- pathic treatment in disease, and having now years of experience and facts to indorse its statement, that they point to the report of the Insurance Commis- sioners of New York, which give the rate of mor- tality of this company as less than the average of insurance companies, hence, therefore, its peculiar feature of less rates to Homoeopaths is grounded in permanence,) furnishes the following statement over the signature of Dr. J. B. Tuttle, a physician to the Michigan State Prison for years : PROVE ALL THINGS. 199 02 en si s5 o C *- T3 JS & P. 3 O .J .verage convicts num. ■5 13 * . CO O o *~ —i o OSrQ ■—' 15 c3 -2 O "5. <5 H H H Under allopathic treatment in 1857, 1858 and 1859-.. 435 39 23,000 $1,078 Under homoeopathic treat- ment in 1860, 1861 and 1862 ___ . 545 20 10,000 500 " This improvement was obtained, notwithstanding I had to con- tend, during the years 1861 and 1862, with epidemics of small- pox, of which there were thirty-two cases; of measles, of which there were thirty cases; and of sporadic cholera, of which there were forty-four cases. Many of these latter were of a very severe type; but all were successfully treated, and speedily cured, by in- finitesimal doses, and without any resort to any kind of 'heroic medication.' " And here I may remark that the success of the Homoeopathic treatment was so great that many of its opponents attempted to account for it in other than the right and legitimate way. They affirmed that the good health of the inmates of the prison was owing entirely to the abundant supply of pure artesian water which had been introduced a short time previous to my appoint- ment. But they failed to see that the water lost its efficacy soon after Homoeopathic practice was abandoned, and that it did not regain its virtues until that system was again adopted in 1872 ; all of which may be seen by referring to the Prison Reports duiin«- the ten years when Allopathy was ' in ' and Homoeopathy was 'out.' "Taking another and later comparison, we find that, in round numbers : 200 PROVE ALL THINGS. Under Allopathic treatment in 1870, '71 ~ Under Homoeopathic treatment in 1873, '74. 5 s= 33 o ■AX. 24,000 11,000 $1,800 900 " While the average number of convicts during the last two years was greater than ever before in the history of the prison." These comparative tables are produced here for the reader's benefit, and not to meet the question for the Massachusetts Medical Society, for, as we have seen, they ignore such facts, and decline to concern themselves Avith them. Those charges against the neAV school that haA7e been here numbered three, four, six, and seven, respectively, are of a nature impossible to offer ansAver by argument. They are, each and all, asser- tions from authority, and, as far as can be seen, without basis of fact, or evidence that there are existing reasons springing from a scrutiny or exam- ination of the subject; they are, indeed, possible only because the position of authority of the allocu- tion Avas such as to render such authority competent PROVE ALL THINGS. 201 to assert that " it Avas derogatory to the honor " " for a regular practitioner to associate," etc. These assumptions rest so exclusively upon au- thority alone that we will find them to apply equally to any other subject, for instance, why Avould it not read with equal force thus, " The deception called the telephone is quackery, and no member shall be considered a fit associate in consultation who resorts to, or is in the practice of, using this shallow delu- sion." " The acknowledged and persistent use of the telephone is conduct unbecoming and unworthy an honorable physician." What exception could the regulation Allopath, who finds it best to harbor and use telephones in his office and business, make to the above were it brought against him by the act of the Supreme Allopathic Council, that Avould not, with equal force, be found to hold equally well for the poor perse- cuted Homoeopath in his efforts for the establish- ment of the Homoeopathic principles. The charge that Homoeopathy is an " exclusive dogma" is, as we have seen, the most frequently asserted one. It refers of course to its law of similia, and we are continually confronted with the assertion that it is claimed for this law that it is " exclusive " and " universal." 202 PROVE ALL THINGS That it is an exclusive and universal law we con- tend, but no doubt the Allopath, Avith his reserve of invective, will find that the significance by him attached to the expression " exclusive dogma," and exclusive or universal law, is neither shared by the Homoeopathic profession nor acknoAvledged to be a fair significance to attach thereto. The assumption of the average Allopath that the law of similia is supposed to be bronght into requi- sition to act at the bedside to the exclusion of all other natural laws is too puerile to merit considera- tion. Does it keep the patient upon his couch ? Does it keep him Avarm ? Does it nourish him ? Does it provide the other necessary ameliorating or curative measures when mechanical helps are called for, as in fractures ; or chemical helps, as in poison- ing? Neither does the Homoeopathic school pretend that the law will be universal in the sense that it will trench upon the limits and sphere of other laws. The law of gravitation is called a universal law, but it will not act or produce results in the matter of chemical combinations of bodies, but the laAv knoAvn as the law of multiple proportions, or when one chemi- cal is capable of forming several combinations with another, that it ahvays does so under the law of PROA7E ALL THINGS. 203 definite multiple proportions ; thus, neither the law of gravitation nor the law of similia has any force in the matter of the chemical combination of bodies. We may understand then that each and all laAvs are operative in their limits, and exclusive in their appli- cation there, and universal, in the sense that where- ever the necessary conditions can be brought about (as the bringing the necessary chemical solutions together, properly diluted and at the suitable temper- ature, will establish an exhibition of the working of the laAV of chemical affinities,) an operation of that laAv Avill ensue. Concerning the charge, which we have numbered "two," let us remember the assertions of Bichat, already quoted in these pages, also that of Sir Astley Cooper, who said: "The science of medicine was founded on conjecture and improved by murder." Dr. Andrew Combe, an eminent English physician, said: " In fact medicine, as often practiced by men of undoubted respectability, is made so much of a mystery and is so nearly allied, if not identified, with quackery, that it would puzzle many a rational looker on to tell which is the one and Avhich is the other." Where are the Homceopaths who are greater offenders than these, and yet Sir Astley and the rest remained unpunished for their declarations. 204 PROVE ALL THINGS. Those assertions, which Ave have numbered " one," we will now entertain by dividing it into three parts—First, What of this experience of the medi- cal profession, which it is asserted Homoeopathy offends by being at variance with? Those who have carefully perused the preceding pages will be apt to opine that it would be an exceedingly difficult matter not to be at variance Avith some of the many experiences of Dogmatic medicine, but let us see what Dr. Paris, an ex-president of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, says of this ex- perience of the Dogmatic school. He says: " We shall not be surprised at the very imperfect state of the Materia Medica, as far as it depends upon what is commonly called experience." He says: " Dr. Ray attempted to enumerate the virtues of plants from experience, and the system serves only to commem- orate his failure; Vogel likewise professed to assign to substances those powers which had been learned from accumidated experience; and he speaks of roasted toad as a specific for the pains of gout, and asserts that a person may secure himself for the whole year from angina by eating a roasted swallow." Very possibly Homoeopathy may be "at variance with it." The statement that Homoeopathy is opposed to PROVE ALL THINGS. 205 science is untrue, as witnessed by the fact that the recognized principles upon Avhich science is based are acknoAvledged and followed by the toilers in the vineyard of Homoeopathy, and, since the results of the labors of these Avorkers are to develop neAV facts in Homoeopathy and to advance its usefulness, as exampled in its unfolding and developing the effects and character of drugs as regards their action upon the human system, Homoeopathy, therefore, claims to be strictly in accord with science, and to experi- ence new and reinforced strength each year by the advances and discoveries of the natural sciences. If a science is a " positiA7e knoAvledge of facts based upon a laAV or laAvs in nature," then, from what avc know of Homoeopathy, we recognize it as a science of therapeutics, (not exact and perfect in all its departments for Avhat science is,) but in that it represents positive knowledge, first discovered and first developed by the neAV school in medicine in the light of and Avhile standing upon the laAv of similia. Therefore are those justified who assert Homoeopathy to be a science. Let us now make some inquiry as to the validity of the claim that Allopathy has to a scientific basis. Let us see, from the testimony of those the most 206 PROVE ALL THINGS prominent in their ranks, if the dominant school can, in the field in which it tries to assert itself, to the exclusion of its rival, shoAv a possession of posi- tive knowledge. The eminent Moliere says, " most people die of their remedies and not of their diseases." Dr. Pereira, in his great Avork on Materia Medica, says, that Dr. A. T. Thompson and Dr. J. Murray regard mercury as a stimulant, Dr. Cullen asserts it to be a sedative, and Dr. Orfila believes that it is neither. A standard Allopathic authority, " Taylor on Poisons," says, " Four grains of opium * * * * killed a man in nine hours." Pereira's Materia Medica says that the common dose of opium is from one-half a grain to five grains, but these doses " are by no means to be regarded as the limits." These drugs—mercury and opium—we know are not neAV and strange ones, but, on the contrary, have been used by the dominant school for hundreds of years; that they are drugs most commonly employed is also a patent fact, and one which by turning to " Wood's Practice" (a recent and acknoAvledged standard Allopathic authority in America) we shall illustrate. We find that this work in the treatment PROVE ALL THINGS. 207 of one hundred and fifty kinds of sickness directs the use of mercury in one hundred and three. We noAv can judge of the positive knowledge possessed by Allopathy, and of its position as regards science generally. To the asseveration made by Dogmatism, and held up before the Avorld as a heinous offence, that Homoeopathy is " opposed " to " common sense," let us now gi\7e careful attention. Dr. Wm. B. Carpen- ter, the eminent physiologist, accepts Dr. Reid's definition of the term common sense, who says that it is " the first degree of AATisdom," that it is to "judge of things self-evident" in contrast to the office of " ratiocination " or " second degree of reason," Avluch is " to draAv conclusions that are not self-evident from those that are." Dr. Carpenter says further: * " This is the form of common sense by which AAre are mainly guided in the ordinary affairs of life; but inasmuch as Ave no longer find its deliverance in uniform ac- cordance, but encounter continual divergencies of judgment as to what things are " self-evident"— some being so to A whilst they are not so to B, and others being self-evident to B that are not so to A— it cannot be trusted as an axdocratic or infallible authority:" •'-Mental Physiology, p. 472. 208 PROVE ALL THINGS. To what extremities are the scctators of Dogma- tism driven when they must conjure up to their aid such an unreliable Avitness ! It will be seen that in this connection they completely ignore that very respectable and rapidly increasing power the client- age of the Homoeopathic profession, Avhich Ave find represented in the social and political economy of this country in all the liigher Avalks of life. Such for example as a commander-in-chief of the Federal army in the last Avar, a chief executive, and man.v cabinet ministers, those the most prominent as poets, authors, ministers, lawyers, as Avell as others influ- ential and prominent in commercial circles, are found employing and pronouncedly in favor, and always Avilling to rally in the cause of the new school in medicine. In America, alone, Homoeopathy has millions upon millions of supporters, and it is also a notori- ous fact concerning the Homoeopathic laity of America that if this clement, as compared to the number of the clientage of the Allopathic profession, is as is one to seven, that the comparative propor- tion of these two elements in the more enlightened and cultivated classes Avould be as is three to eight. Those conversant with the i'acts will recoo-nize PROVE ALL THINGS. 209 that justice-is not here given to the minority, but we would prefer to underestimate their side of the question rather than the other. This element is here referred to, for Ave have been n-ivino- some attention to the assertion that Homoeo- pathy is opposed to common sense; now, while it is an insult to treat in this manner this very respect- able and influential element, we shall see that its influence has not been Avholly ignored by the Allo- pathic profession. We remember the drift and tendencies of Dog- matism at the time of Hahnemann's withdrawal, and for a time thereafter. From this condition of the misdirection of the medical art, under the in- fluence and aims of Dogmatic instinct, some com- petitive influence is found to steadily and unceas- ingly be at Avork upon the Dogmatic mind, an influence that ruthlessly robs their hypotheses and assumptions of their fanciful coverings, exposes them in their bare falsity and so leaves Dogmatism nonplussed and dumb. Again, by exhibiting before Dogmatism the heretofore unequalled results Avhich this, its competitor in the medical arena, has pro- duced, the neAV school imparts to it an unconscious 14 210 PROVE ALL THINGS. desire to pursue new directions in medical thought and research. Although the average Allopathic mind will refute the statement just made Ave shall presently see the steady approach of the Dogmatic school to the positions of the neAV, until it has stood for some time upon its threshold, unwilling to enter and identify itself Avith what it has so opposed, and towards Avhat it has displayed so much hatred and malignity. Nevertheless, adverse to longer permitting the now school to monopolize its legitimate fruits of original research and labor, and forced by the pressure Avhich an intelligent public mind will often exert, it seizes upon and asserts Avhat it has not displayed and does not display, any natural leaning or attachment for, acknowledging the necessity of prescribing, for the good of its OAvn future health, the taking of this expedient, Avhich it has, as we shall now see, swal- loAved, and with difficulty succeeds in retaining within its econoniA7. CHAPTER IX. ""OH! BEAVARE, MY LORD, OF JEALOUSY; IT IS THE GREEN- EYED MONSTER AVHICH DOTH MOCK THE MEAT IT FEEDS ON." It is easy to recall what, from the inception of the new school and thereafter, Avere its most prominent marks of distinction—its law, similia; the necessity for the proA7ing of drugs upon the healthy; the administration of such small doses of a drug, that the physiological or perceptible drug effect upon the healthy system by such dose was impossible, (as purging, vomiting, etc.;) the favoring of preparing doses that, from their simplicity, as well as for the reason that the method originated with the neAV school, were ridiculed as were those who used them; these all Ave recognize as the prin- cipal features Avhich are characteristic of the new school of medicine. Let us uoav quote from some of the Allopathic authorities, which, to-day, are standard works in their school. Dr. Symond's Encyclopaedia of Prac- tical Medicine, vol. IV, p. 375, says: "Upon this ground we are disposed to suggest the use of strych- & (211) 212 THOU MOCK EST THE MEAT nine in tetanus: not that Ave have become followers of Hahnemann but that it is a simple and undeniable fact that disorders are occasionally removed by remedies Avhich have the power of producing similar affections." The avell-known Allopathic Avork to Avhich we have already referred, Dr. George P. Wood's Thera- peutics, vol. I, p. 32, declares: " The same medicine may produce opposite effects in health and disease. Thus cayenne pepper, which produces in the healthy fauces, redness, and burning pain, acts as a sedative in the sore throat of scarlet fever. A concentrated solution of acetate of lead acts as an irritant, while the same solution, very much diluted, will act as a sedative." That the subject of "drug-proving upon the healthy" is receiving attention by the Allopathic profession, at this late day, may be shown by re- ferring to a work upon " Therapeutics," by Dr. Sydney Ringer, a work that has run through many editions in a fe\v years, and has, perhaps, met Avith a larger sale than any other medical work in this decade. The basis of this work is the study of the action of "individual drugs" upon the healthy; and the preface to the sixth edition tells us that the action THOU FEEDEST ON. 213 of the drug is studied upon the skin, mouth, intestines, blood, etc. The results of his study are remarkable, inasmuch as he not only finds, in most cases, the same remedies most efficacious in certain diseases that Hahnemann did more than fifty years ago, but, like Hahnemann, he asserts that a minute dose of this medicine acts more promptly and surely. Dr. Ringer's treatment, then, for fever and inflam- matory conditions is not, as in Hahnemann's time, bleeding to fainting, purging, and the like, but he says, " The power of aconite to control inflammation and to subdue the accompanying fever is remark- able."* He also says a solution of bichloride of mercury, " of a single grain in ten ounces of Avater, in doses of a teaspoonful, is very efficient" in diarrhoea.* Here, then, we have it, from an authority in Allopathy Avhose views and methods, if Ave judge from the liberal patronage his book receives, are more sought for than those of any other Allopathic author, that one-eightieth of a grain of mercury is the proper dose in this disease! What intelligent Allopath Avill asseverate that one-eightieth of a grain of this chemical will produce a drug or physio- logical effect ? * Hand-book of Therapeutics, p. 422, op. cit., p. 236. 214 THOU MOCKEST THE MEAT This is only one illustration of many, and serves the purpose, in that two of the principles for which Homoeopathy has so resolutely fought are here un- deniably conceded by its antagonist, viz., first, the necessity of drug proving upon the healthy, and, second, the efficiency of the minimum dose. We Avill iioav make some excerpts from a paper presented by a prominent Allopathic physician, Dr. Henry G. Piffard, to an Allopathic medical society, " The New York Academy of Medicine," in the year 1877. He says here, in speaking of the method of preparing medicines by trituration, that, at the present time, the United States Pharmacopoeia directs that but six preparations be triturated. The first four mixtures to be rubbed "together until thoroughly mixed," one mixture is to be rubbed "together into a fine powder." The most explicit direction being imposed upon the sixth, that of mercury and chalk, the direction being that they should be rubbed " together until the globules cease to be visible." He then turns to remark concerning the homoeopathic triturations, and repeats the direc- tions of the Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia which the Homoeopaths employ and acknowledge as their authority in pharmaceutics. THOU K ICED EST ON. 215 He says that, " as many of these triturations con- tain, in a convenient bulk, the doses that we com- monly prescribe, they at once become eligible prep- arations for our use, provided they are as convenient to dispense, and as uniform and certain in their effects, as the preparations which we ordinarily employ." " In order to settle in our oavii mind the relative value of trituration, we have, during the past year, carefully investigated a feAv of them, more particu- larly those of mercury, arsenic, and iron." " The first chosen for trituration Avas the lx trit. of mere. viv., and it Avas compared A7ery naturally with our OAvn analogous preparation, the hydrag. c. creta. Examined under the microscope, the mercury in the former Avas found to be in a state of extremely minute subdivision, the majority of the separate globules being smaller than red-blood corpuscles, and many of them so small as to be endowed Avith Brunonian movement. Fine samples of hydrag. c. creta. obtained from BroadAvay drug stores were then examined. These Avere found to vary greatly in their gross appearances, and likeAvise, under the microscope. In some there appeared to be a notably larger proportion of mercury than in others, and in 216 THOU MOCKEST THE MEAT all of them the metallic globules Avere very much larger in size (average) than those in the mere, viv." * * * * * * " The fact of the absorption of solids at one time deemed impossible has now been so thoroughly demonstrated, and especially as regards mercury, that we are prepared to understand Iioav minute subdivision will facilitate absorption when larger particles would pass the bowels Avithout effect, or simply produce local effects varying with the nature of the drug employed. We should therefore ex- pect that a given quantity of drug being used, the promptness of its specific effects Avould vary im- mensely with the size of the particles of which it is composed. If Ave submit this rational conclusion to the test of clinical experience in the cases of hydrag. c. creta. and mere, viv., we will find it easily verifi- able. The latter given in doses containing the same amount of mercury, as the former will produce the more prompt and decided effects." He further goes on to describe the specific or bad drug effect pro- duced by larger doses of drugs, which is obviated by using a trituration in small doses. In speaking of another chemical salt which he has experimented with in trituration, he says, in its THOU FEEDEST ON. 217 common dose, that it " frequently produces gastral- gia and diarrhoea is Avell known, and personally we believe that this is due to the local irritation pro- duced by them, and not to any elective action of the drug. Since Ave have used the trit., however, in pref- erence to the ordinary pills, patients more rarely complain of disagreeable sensations. We have further been enabled to materially reduce the size of the dose in order to obtain the desired effect. In other words a large proportion of the drug is utilized for specific purposes, Avhile a small amount remains to give rise to local irritation." He recommends not only the very large number of chemical combinations he so administered, but also asserts that many Aregetable substances can also be, to more advantage, administered in this prepara- tion, both as regards greater facility, accuracy of dosage, and certainty of effect. He also says, Avith " The city practitioner at night a feAV triturations, carried in a pocket-case, Avould often enable him to meet emergencies Avithout the hour or half-hour's delay in having a prescription prepared." " To the country practitioner they are invaluable." In con- clusion, he is willing to give due credit to the Homceopaths for their development of this mode of 218 THOU MOCK EST THE MEAT preparing pharmaceutical substances, but not willing to allow them to longer enjoy a monopoly of their use. After this very extended consideration of these several assumptions, charges and pretexts of the representative bodies of the dominant school, in reference to its rival in medicine, we Avill be content to rest here, after referring once more to the assump- tion numbered six in the last chapter. Here, it Avill be seen, the reference to themsel\res, of the Allopathic faculty, is by the term " regular," and as Ave so often find this term so used by them, and that of "irregular physician," by them, applied to those of the Homoeopathic profession—in fact, as these arc the terms which Allopathy most frequently employs to distinguish the tAVO schools, let us here quote the action taken upon this subject in June, 1881, by the National Homoepathic Society, (" The American Institute of Homoeopathy.") The president, (J. W. Dowling, M. I).,) in his annual address, states that "no medical body has ever given a definition of the phrase " regular physi- cian," and as the members of this body claim to be regular physicians, and as Ave have the same right to define the words regular and irregular, as applied THOU FEEDEST ON. 219 to medical practitioners, as any other organization, and as this is the oldest national medical organiza- tion, and as there is much in the right of priority, would it not be Avell for this institute, taking Webster's Unabridged Dictionary as its guide, to define, for the benefit of the medical profession at large, the phrases "regular physician" and "irregu- lar physician ? " Webster defines the A\*ord regular as, conformed to a rule; agreeable to an established rule, laAAr, or principle; to a prescribed mode, as a regular practice of laAV or medicine; governed by rule or rules; steady or uniform in course; not sub- ject to unexplained or irrational variation; instituted or initiated according to established forms or dis- cipline, as a regular physician. Taking the history of medicine for the past fifty years as our guide, I would ask to Avhich system does the term regular, accepting Webster's definition, apply ? " "Resolved, That the president's definition of the words regular and irregular, as applied to schools and practitioners of medicine, be adopted by this Institute as correct." * CHAPTER X. " MEDICAL HERESIES." Of the many attacks upon the new school of medicine, by the adherents of the Allopathic faith, which are constantly and unremittingly appearing, a book, which has been presented to the public very recently, under the title of " Medical Heresies," written by Professor G. C. Smythe, of Indiana, not only deserves to stand among the rest as one of the most able of them, but it also presents to the read- ing public a feature of novelty, inasmuch as in its preface the author informs us that he takes the very unusual course of conducting his criticism of Homoeopathy fairly and from a "scientific stand- point," and "without ridicule." There is something so rare and uncommon in this announcement that avc turn to a perusal of its pages with increased interest. In the beginning of the first chapter Ave learn that with the disappearance of the Brunonian methods occurred the " death of Dog- matism," and that from this time its successor, the " rational" school, has appeared to fall heir to its estate. For some reasons this might seem a very 221 222 " MEDICAL HERESIES." advantageous position for the dominant school in medicine of to-day to assume, inasmuch as it in this way at one master stroke assumes no further respon- sibility for its most embarrassing sins of omission and commission. However, when we look carefully at this new posi- tion asserted for his school by Professor Smythe, we fear there is but slight chance that he will be in- dorsed by his brother sectators of the Allopathic faculty. This school, in these latter days, has seen one after another of its strongholds assaulted by Homoeopathy, until at this time it has but little (as Ave have seen) to rely upon and flee to, except its claim that being the school of antiquity, and, there- fore, representing the " assembled Avisdom of the ages," its competency in medicine is ex-cathedra (absolute and ultimate.) It is unnecessary if avo have followed the preced- ing pages here to take further space to shoAV Avhy Professor Smythe will not be sustained, for our reader will at once recognize how very patent is the fact that Allopathy will refuse to permit the Homoeopathic school to be designated (as it Avould by this admission) the elder school in medicine. If we were to consider seriously this statement of "medical heresies." 223 Professor Smythe's, we should wish to learn further of the incidents and time of the alleged " death " of Dogmatism, just Avhen did it occur? Surely the decease of an organism thousands of years of age Avould have excited some remark at the time, and yet the members of the dominant school in med- icine, through the first decade of the nineteenth century, make no mention of the occurrence. Again, when " death " bad fully asserted itself there would haA7e been suspension of the natural functions, and also some exhibition of the new school (Avhich Pro- fessor Smythe says succeeded to the Dogmatic) of its rights of succession. At different periods the Dogmatic sectators have arrogated to their organization different names. We have seen that for hundreds of years, from about the twelfth to the fifteenth century, it preferred to be called the Galenic school, not that it was not the same Dogmatic school, for neither themselves nor Professor Smythe deny this; for the Galenic school is, and has been, recognized as possessed of the same distinctive marks, and to be the same identical Dogmatic school of a thousand years before. Why should the Allopathic school of the nine- teenth century claim to be a different school ? That it 224 "medical heresies.'' has the same distinctive marks and characteristics, the reader knows full well. What does Professor Smythe then claim as different in ancient Dogmatism in its tendencies and bias ? Even the term applied to his neAV school, the " rational" school was used to desig- nate Dogmatism two thousand years ago. However, as Ave have said, since there is no probability of Professor Smythe being supported in this assump- sion of his by his colleagues in the Allopathic school, there is little need of our giA7ing further attention to it. It Avill be remembered by the reader that the position assumed in these pages, as regarded the true relation of Hippocrates to the profession, Avas that, as the Dogmatic school Avas not founded until after his death, therefore, the claim that he is the true representative and paternity of Dogmatism is not tenable; and, further, it will be remembered that the effort Avas here made to indicate which part of the profession has the right to regard him as its paternity. Noav, some, from reading here, may have thought they found good reason to believe that, by these definitions, the Dogmatic sect was without knoAvn paternity; to such Ave would, for their comfort, suggest that they turn to the twenty- " medical heresies." 225 fifth page of the work " Medical Heresies," where they will find' the statement that the ancient Egyptian priest-physicians Avere taught "venesec- tion by the hippopotamus, which, it is said, per- formed this operation upon itself by striking its leg against a sharp reed and opening a vein in this way, and, after the blood had flowed as long as it thought proper, filled the wound with mud," and in this connection intimate, if, from this statement and authority, it would not be well to consider if, in the hippopotamus, Ave have not the father of Allopathic medicine. The professor, after devoting the first ninety-five pages to the subject of medical history down to 1790, gives over the remainder of his book of two hundred and eighteen pages to a consideration of Homoeopathy, and, by this complete consecration of his Avork, as regards the nineteenth century, to this subject, we early distinguish the position which the new school occupies in his subject, in his opinion. The opening pages upon this subject allude to the new school as "Dogmatic," and, at intervals on through the subseqent pages, reference is made to that "exclusive dogma" or law, similia, which so sorely tries the soul of the average Allopath. 15 226 " medical heresies." Our reader has become acquainted, from the quotations in these pages, of the Supreme Allopathic Councils of this country and Great Britain, with the chief and almost only offense charged to the new school—the basing of their practice upon an " ex- clusive dogma"—in asserting and acknowledging which the}7 are found "guilty" of conduct "un- becoming and unworthy an honorable physician." While reminding our reader of this, and while pointing to the position of Professor Smythe, just remarked upon in the last paragraph, we wish to refer to the very extended and exhaustive effort made by the Professor in the subsequent pages, where he quotes pages by the score from Homoeo- pathic literature, to prove Avhat?—That there are many Homoeopathic physicians Avho use the " high attenuations," and rely upon them solely in the treatment of disease; that others use the medium and " Ioav attenuations," and then he submits proof to establish the fact that there are Homoeopaths who resort to mixed prescriptions and drugs in certain instances. Here, the Professor says, Ave have, in the Homoeo- pathic family, divisions, and the following of a variety of courses, with different members of this school " MEDICAL heresies." 227 For this work, by so eminent an authority in the dominant school, and for his successful endeavor to overturn, what, above all others, is the charge brought against the neAV school by the old, to wit, that it is based upon an "exclusive dogma," etc., eA7ery member in the new school in medicine should acknowledge his gratitude. The Homoeopath has learned that it is of no use for him to refute this charge, for it is as often re- peated thereafter, and with no more recognition of such refutation than if the traducer were deaf, but now we have this Allopathic authority, who asserts and proves beyond the shadow of a doubt to the reasoning mind, that the new school of medicine is not "exclusive." It has a law and principles upon which it stands, but by the evidence here adduced by Pro- fessor Smythe we find it conclusively established that there is " liberty of opinion and action " in the new school of medicine, and no tenet or supreme council to gainsay it. Our reader may now, after turning to the exhaus- tive proofs upon this point, adduced by the Pro- fessor, inquiringly add, what is there now left among those objections and charges brought against the new school by Allopathy, that has not, in one way or another, met with complete refutation ? 228 " MEDICAL HERESIES." If the reader will turn to pages 101-102 of "Medical Heresies," he will find the words: "It has been the rule with all schools of medicine, and will continue to be so for all time, that the therapeutical appreciation of remedies is based upon the patho- logical conditions knoAvn to be or supposed to be present in the case to be treated." While it is un- fortunately true, as the Professor acknowledges to be the case, that disease is, and always has been, treated by the Dogmatic school according to their theoretical notions of the character " supposed to be present" of the disease, the new school, as we have already seen, is established upon better and surer methods of reaching and overcoming disease. However, we find this point waived here, and we see the professor following the plan so often pursued, when it is held up to the Allopathic physician that the law of similia, and the other incidental and useful principles of Homoeopathy, are now acknowl- edged and indorsed by the most eminent of the Allopathic school, of showing his dislike for the school which these principles represent, leaving the questions and devoting himself to a consideration of the views and theory of Hahnemann concerning the method of action of the Homoeopathic remedies, MEDICAL HERESIES." 229 denouncing them and their originator, and follow- ing upon this with a general denunciation of the new school of medicine. We, therefore, find the professor proceeding from this page (102) on to make liberal quotations from Hahnemann's writings, and to labor by these to establish what has been, and is already, recognized, viz., that Hahnemann endeavored to explain, by a theory of his, the mode of action of the Homoeo- pathic remedies. Hahnemann does this by suppos- ing, with Stahl, that the soul is competent, by its influence upon the physical body, to produce ab- normal or diseased conditions. We shall recognize the striking similarity of his views to those of Stahl if Ave quote these words of Hahnemann's, from the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth pages of the introduction to the Organon, he says: " Diseases will not * * * cease to be dynamic aberrations, which our spiritual existence undergoes in its mode of feeling and act- ing ; that is to say, immaterial changes in the state of health." This is the basis of the " transcendental pathology" which Professor Smythe arraigns, and for the production of which poor Hahnemann is so thoroughly condemned. Of these theories of Hahnemann's we may say 1 230 " MEDICAL HERESIES." that they were consistent Avith the most advanced facts and discoveries of his time, but no position or division of the new school of to-day, accepts his theories, but alludes to them only as evidence of the ability of their originator, and though they admit them to be erroneous in the light of modern science, yet they ask how it could have been possible for Hahnemann to take the facts of science Avhich were to be brought forth after his death into consideration in his vieAvs of the causes of disease. HoAvever, let us here point to one marked differ- ence betAveen these vieAvs and theories of Hahne- mann, and those of the sectators of Dogmatism. While with the latter, the diseased conditions " sup- posed to be present" Avere a basis of treatment, with Hahnemann the treatment Avas to be strictly and ahvays in accordance with Homoeopathic prin- ciples and the laAV of similia, In other words, these views were given to us to explain for our delectation the manner of the action of remedies. t We shall soon see, as we have said, that the differ- ent positions of the Homoeopathic school do not accept or defend these theories—not that there may not be some Homoeopathic physician who does accept them, for he is at liberty to do so if he so chooses— " MEDICAL HERESIES." 231 but speaking for the Homoeopathic school of med- icine of this time, we say Avith confidence that the obsolete vieAvs of science of fifty years ago are not asserted by the neAV school, and any insinuation that this school does not liA7e in the light of and keep pace Avith the times will be emphatically denied by its adherents. This applies to the views and theories of the past, but not to those truths and facts which have been from time to time brought forAvard by their discov- erers and left as a legac}7 to the future generation of man, for these are immutable, and to endure as they always haA*e, and to eternity. Because of the entertainment of these theories, then, poor Hahnemann is to receive the condemna- tion of futurity, while Stahl, Avhose theory of the cause of disease Avas in no essential much different, is still accorded a high place in the history of the Dogmatic School of Medicine. When we come to consider that Lord Bacon " gravely prescribes hen- bane, hemlock, mandrake, moonshade, tobacco, opium, and other soporiferous medicines as the best ingredients for a witch's ointment," and that Sir Walter Raleigh firmly believed that " the old crone, with her tall hat, crutch stick, and black cat nestling 232 " MEDICAL HERESIES." on her shoulder, was one Avho had dealings with the devil, and Avho, through the might of Satanic aid, could scatter the seeds of misery broadcast wherever she listed; "* and when Ave know that these are prominent and venerated men of science of the past, and that no such absurdities can be laid at Hahnemann's door, it seems a little strange, in view of the immense good Hahnemann did do in his unfolding of the law of similia in its application to diseased conditions, and of his other improvements in the healing art, which the Allopathic authorities noAv acknoAvledge; that even a greater position in letters and in science cannot be accorded him by them than is given to the average Avorker in the field of science, during the morning of the nine- teenth century. Farther on, at page 127, Professor Smythe, in combatting in the most valorous manner these theories of "transcendental pathology," says: "If our organs are not in good Avorking order and our circulating fluids are depraved, our vital force will be lowered, but will not be and cannot be diseased, Hahnemann and his folloAvers to the contrary not- withstanding." *Ewald. " MEDICAL HERESIES." 233 We feel exceedingly sorry to see the Professor submit these vieAvs, and chiefly for two reasons. The first, because they are false, and as he is Avriting in the " middle of the afternoon of the nineteenth century," there is onus attached to such falsity that Avill not apply to the case of Hahnemann. Secondly, Ave are sorry, because they are not only false but unfortunately are unmistakably a part of the Brunonian theories of sthenic and asthenic condi- tions of the A7ital poAver. The eminent Dr. Alison, Avho died in 1859, also asserted, in one of his very last works, that inflammation Avas " a local increase of a vital property," and treated this by bloodletting to lower this vitality. All this is as plainly Brunonism as anything can be, and noAv after the Professor has, with much solemnity, read the funeral sermon over the grave of what he thought was Brunonism, we here find it residing Avithin his corporosity, appar- ently as lively and robust as ever. The professor should knoAV that already there are many in his school of medicine that have given over the idea of the increase and lowering of the vitality as being its only possible variation. At the present time very different ideas of the changes of the vital power are gaining ground, and before 234 " MEDICAL HERESIES." many years Ave shall see the Allopathic profession, regarding the vital power as undergoing aberra- tions, aside from such rises and falls as increased or decreased strength may induce. The next chapter is occupied with a consideration of the provings of remedies. These he is not in- clined to think Avell of, and chiefly because there can be no " therapeutic force " in the Homoeopathic preparation of medicines. On page 150-152 he giA7es us his computations as regards the Homoeo- pathic methods of preparing dilutions and tritura- tions. The first difficulty that he experiences in this is in the preparing of the thirtieth dilution from the mother tincture, he tells us that " it is unneces- sary to pursue the steps of this calculation," but that to effect the results will require millions upon millions of vials, and this he attempts to represent by the figure one folloAved by sixty-one ciphers; nor is this half the difficulty, for there must be, he says, twelve times as many strokes as vials, and would take a man who works ten hours a day, seven days a week, and makes sixty strokes a minute, " 661 quad- rillions, 882 trillions, 919 billions, 336 millions, and 1,050 decillions of years " to prepare this. Also, the professor tells us that to manufacture what Avould " MEDICAL HERESIES." 235 be contained in the above-mentioned vials would be required of alcohol alone 10 quintillions, 774 quad- rillions, 186 trillions, 46 billions, 511 millions, and some thousand and more hogsheads full. Now I wish to answer these statements and objections of the professor's satisfactorily, and to do so Avill take this way. The City of Washington has poor hospital facili- ties. While in New York city the hospitals have one bed to every 117 inhabitants, those of Philadel- phia one bed to every 250 inhabitants, those of Balti- more one to 150, Washington has only one hospital bed to every 2,000 inhabitants. The homceopaths recognize this fact, and are striving to increase the number of hospital beds here by engaging their best efforts to establish a Homoeopathic hospital. Now, if the professor will agree to make half of a purse of five thousand dollars, the author will pledge the other half, providing Ave further agree that if the author cannot, according to the rules of Hahnemann, prepare the thirtieth dilution from a mother tincture and alcohol, so that the medicine, alcohol, and all the paraphernalia used in the entire process shall be completely encompassed in a pint pot, and that the whole process of this production 236 " MEDICAL HERESIES." of the thirtieth dilution, after this manner, Avill not take more than two hours; if the author cannot accomplish this under these conditions, then the purse of five thousand dollars shall go to increase the beds in such Allopathic hospital in Washington as the professor directs; Avhile if he succeeds in accomplishing Avhat is above indicated, the five thousand dollars shall be placed to the credit of the fund for the new Homoeopathic hospital that is to be. An early acceptance of this offer will be grate- fully acknowledged. The conclusion of Professor Smythe that the attenuated doses of Homoeopathy, from their minute- ness of subdivision, cannot produce effect is an illustration of a priori reasoning which he, as an exponent of Allopathy, is consistent in making, but which all Homoeopaths will thoroughly repudiate. Please tell us, Professor Smythe, is the contagious principle of scarlet fever any more gross than the highest potencies of Homoeopathic medicines? What Allopathic authority has been able to show the size of malarial poison, or to isolate and demon- strate it? What can you say of the poison with which the mad dog inoculates his innocent victim ? Because it exists in so minute and fine a condition " MEDICAL HERESIES." 237 that microscopical and chemical tests will not dem- onstrate it, Avill you also say that it is too minute a substance to be possessed of poAver ? The eminent savant, M. Davaine, submits to the French Academy these results of experiments by himself. By the injection of septicaemic blood, he says: "The blood of one rabbit killed by the one ten millionth part of a drop was injected into five rabbits, in doses of one hundredth millionth, one billionth, one ten billionth, and one hundredth billionth, and the trillionth of a drop—all died within twenty-five hours." CHAPTER XI. " But man, proud man, Drest in a little brief authority, Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd,— His glassy essence,— * * * Plays such fantastic tricks before high Heaven, As make the angels weep." The next (last) two chapters are especially devoted to the making clear, with the help of abundant quo- tations, (the current Homoeopathic literature being called upon to furnish pages by the score,) of the fact that there are open questions in the new school of medicine upon Avhich the Homoeopathic profession do not unite, but on the contrary make these un- settled questions subjects of controversy. These "diverse opinions," "obstacles," and "follies," as Professor Smythe denominates them, are discussed by the Professor in a manner to which the average Homoeopath must necessarily take exception. The reasons for the misapprehension of the Professor, in his discussion of the principles and views of the Homoeopathic school, are chiefly two; and do not surprise us when we consider that they would naturally influence and bias any adherent of the (239) 240 MOST IGNORANT OF AVHAT dominant school in his examination of a medical system. We do not wonder that the Professor misapplies the fact that there are so many views advanced upon the subject of Avhat shall be the proper potencies and number of repetitions of the dose with Homoeo- paths, but the Professor should remember that he is iioav investigating matters Avithout the pale of his school, and that the Homoeopathic school of medi- cine presents new7 features to him, inasmuch as its adherents are at liberty to entertain most extra- ordinary views upon these open questions without in any way affecting their standing or fellowship Avith the other members of the profession. This is illus- trated, even in the views of some Homoeopathic ph}7sicians in regard to the mode of action of Homoeopathic remedies; for these physicians, (being exceedingly few in number,) having a prepossession for the religious sect of spiritualists, incline to be- lieve that the action of Homoeopathic remedies is consistent with their religious faith. The very opposed views of prominent Homoeo- pathic physicians upon the question of " potency," and the relative value of the " key notes," are other instances of this liberty of action, for we now see HE'S MOST ASSURED. 241 that, unlike the Dogmatic school, the new school is so broad and comprehensive in its genius that though the most opposite views obtain with different of its adherents upon these controversial matters, and though each vieAV is defended as regards the opposing ones with much warmth and vigor, none of these controversalists are, in any sense, the less orthodox in their relation to the neAV school of med- icine than any other of the followers of Hahne- mann. In fact, we only acknoAvledge by our position in these matters that Ave are sure that in this direction much is to be learned. Here our science is yet im- perfect, and these are the methods of labor, each in its own way, for the further development of this branch of the system of Homoeopathy, and as from the results of such scrutiny, investigation, and debate in the Homoeopathic ranks, upon these open questions much has been developed, therefore, confi- dence has been and is felt that more value and profit will result from the continuance of these efforts. The Professor Avill therefore see, that by his ex- haustive efforts in this direction, he has raised to himself a man of straw, which, with evident satis- faction, he most thoroughly demolishes, for we can- 16 242 MOST IGNORANT OF AVHAT not but see that his bringing forward some state- ment advanced by a Homoeopathic brother, with considerable buoyant confidence, does not, therefore, establish it as the true and accepted statement of the Homoeopathic school upon this subject, to be placed beside the principles and law of Homoeopathy which Hahnemann asserted, and which the adherents of this school so zealously uphold and vindicate; on the contrary, he must take these statements as do the profession of the new school—to be tried by the ordeal of examination and experience, and then be accepted for Avhat they are worth. The Professor tells us that these differences give us two species of Homceopaths, the Eclectic-Homoeo- paths and the Straight-Jackets. As it is just as well to stand upon the facts Avith this as well as with all other matters, let us investigate this question, that we may judge more intelligently of the subject in question. It has already been remarked that, in or about the year 1830, there appeared marked differences as between Hahnemann and those his most prominent colleagues. From what we have learned of the course of the dominant school toAvards Hahnemann, and of the unrelenting manner Avith which he was HE'S MOST ASSURED. 243 hunted down by them and persecuted, Avhen we come to consider that, in the earliest days of the new system of medicine, that for years, in his isolation, he was the tangible embodiment and representative of the new school, it is e\7ident that such experience as Avas his could not but embitter, roughen, and materially transmute many of those lovely and prominent traits of his natural character and dis- position. Therefore, when, in folloAving carefully the history of Homoeopathy, we find that in later years, and particularly subsequent to the year 1830, at which time he has reached his seA7enty-fifth year, he does not seem to be inclined to tolerate friendly criticism from his confreres, and even presents many of his ideas to the then rapidly growing profession of his school in a dictatorial spirit, and seems to feel it a matter of the nature of a personal insult that any part of his vieAvs and observations are not received unquestioned, we do not acknoAvledge these as evidences of the true genius of Hahnemann, but as the combined result of his accumulated years, and 1 the imbittered and petulant mental status superin- duced from the years of subjection to Dogmatic malevolence. 244 MOST IGNORANT OF WHAT The differences in the profession of the new school began to take form previous to this time, when, with Hahnemann at Ccethen and Dr. Moritz Mueller, occupying the position vacated by Hahnemann, at Leipzic, the Homoeopathic journal, the " Archives," etc., nominally under the editorship of Drs. Stapf and Gross, but, in fact, managed by Mueller, Avas attacked by Hahnemann. In these later years of Hahnemann's life Avork, Ave find him constantly preferring the higher preparations of the Homoeo- pathic remedies, and, after a time, Ave find him using the thirtieth potencies almost exclusively. When spending the evening of his days at Paris he declared himself in favor of these higher prep- arations, but we find that the Leipzic Homceopaths do not folloAV him, to the extent that they insist upon the exclusive use of the higher preparations. We find, then, this difference in the Homoeo- pathic ranks, that the quick and active mind of Hahnemann, so alert and prompt to seize upon the legitimate and consistent outcome of his initiative, had, in declaring in favor of the higher prepara- tions of medicines, induced a number of his fol- lowers to accompany him upon this new ground of his choosing. On the other hand, Mueller and the HE'S MOST ASSURED. 245 rest, who were gathered in the more conservative fold, men of pronounced ability and talents, repre- sented the sober, cautious, plodding, straight-forward, and unimpeachable mind in the Homoeopathic school. As, doAvn to this day even, these divisions in the ranks of Homoeopathy have continued to exist, let us consider carefully the prominent issues prevailing Avith each portion of the new school. The term Eclectics or Eclectic-Homoeopaths we shall presently see to be a misnomer as applied to the Leipzic Homoeopaths. This division seemed to be more partial to the use of the lower attenuations, and to give especial prominence to pathology and the causa occasionalis. Dr. Frantz Hartman, a col- league of Mueller's, speaks, in his able work upon " Therapeutics of Acute and Chronic Diseases," etc., of the necessity of keeping informed of the recent im- provements in diagnosis through the advancement constantly made in physiology and pathology, that the various diseases may be better understood, that their true similimum may be applied and the proper external conditions understandingly employed. He also says that he wishes to silence " our opponents," the Allopaths, by shoAving that it is imperative, if the true Homoeopathic remedy be chosen, that the 246 MOST IGNORANT OF AVHAT causa occasionalis and pathological state be known, not supposed; for, he says, a remedy seeming to be the true similimum might appear not to be Avhen these elements are admitted into the case as factors; thus, a rheumatic cold, Avith the usual symptoms, would point to several remedies, if such cold Avere superinduced from drenching the skin in a cold storm, there would be a reason for the exhibition of the remedy rhus tox. Again, " Avhat physician would not give cocculus against a febrile state, char- acterized by flushed cheeks and nightly sleepless- ness, if he knew that homesickness was the exciting cause ?" " Physical and mental Aveakness, resulting from blood letting, hemorrhage, waking, night sweats, onanism, venereal excesses, etc., finds a spe- cific in china, provided the weakness is the principal suffering, and not a mere S37mptom of a more general and deep-seated disease." The insinuation that these, the " low potency," or " liberal" wing, Avere any more favorably inclined to Allopathy than the other portion of the Homoeo- pathic profession will be readily appreciated when Ave consider the treatment of one Dr. Fickel, who managed to ingratiate himself with the inspectors of the Homoeopathic hospital at Liepzic, and re- he's most ASSURED. 247 ceived the appointment there as physician to this hospital. When it was shoAvn that he had practiced imposition upon the Homceopaths, that he had no sympathy with the Homoeopathic principles, and was in fact practicing bad Allopathy, he was deposed from his hospital position, and was glad to take himself aAvay from the neAV school and its profession. Again, the assertion so often made by the Allo- pathic profession and repeated in " Medical Heresies," by Professor Smythe, to the effect that the Aving of the Homoeopathic profession, which he terms the "straight-jackets," or the "Hahnemannian's," re- gard the vieA\Ts and opinions, as well as the facts and principles Avhich Hahnemann brought to light, all as necessarily true, because he uttered them, that the "Organon" is their "Bible," and Hahnemann's utterances be absolutely, finally, and fully accepted, because of their authority, are statements without foundation and without fact. For, though some individual physician of to-day may so incline to believe, or if there Avere some relatives or admirers so ardent as to be willing to stand upon this definition of what they accept re- lating to Homoeopathy and Hahnemann, though they would still be regarded as good Homceopaths 248 MOST IGNORANT OF WHAT as any of their colleagues, the assumption that any considerable number of either wing of the Homoeo- pathic profession were consonant with this is not true. The Professor endeavors to establish this by quot- ing the resolutions passed by the International Hahnemannian Association. A perusal of these resolutions will develop the fact that these Hahne- mannians assert here only an indorsement of the use of the high preparations and a plain and full affirmation of the principles of Homoeopathy as enunciated by Hahnemann. The next Avords of Professor Smythe, after finishing the quotation, are, " The foundation of this Association and the adop- tion of this platform of principles is a return to the pure, inflexible Dogmatic Homoeopathy of Hahne- mann." Although the Professor here acknowledges that it is the principles of Homoeopathy which the Hahne- mannians accept, carrying them in the Professor's opinion to the pure Homoeopathy of Hahnemann, yet we find him in common with all other Allopaths, imposing upon this very respectable and talented coterie of gentlemen, the theories and views of past generations. HE'S MOST ASSURED. 249 That this is a slander easily refuted we will dem- onstrate by taking the statement of Constantine Hering, the pupil and colleague of Hahnemann, who came to America to extend and increase the fame of the neAV school; whose memory stands to- day, at once, a monument to Homoeopathy as Avell as to that wing of the school known as Hahne- mannians, for none were more prominent in either than he. In the fourth American edition of Hah- nemann's Organon, in the introduction by Dr. tier- ing, he says, that " all Homoeopathic physicians are united under the banner of the great law of cure of similia similibus curantur, hoAvever they may differ in regard to the theoretical explanation of that law or the extent to which it may be applied," thus es- tablishing that even Hering acknowledged the difference between accepting the principles of Homoeopathy, (for it is this that makes one a Homoeopath,) and the theoretical creations that were often proffered to keep these company. The application of the term eclectic-homoeopath, or eclectic, as applied to the other Aving, Ave have before referred to as being a misnomer. To better understand the true significance of the term eclectic, as used in this day, let us in retrospective remind 250 MOST IGNORANT OF WHAT our readers of eclectics of ancient times. It will be remembered they were a set of physicians Avho could not identify themselves with any fixed principles, and, in fact, had no basis or foundation upon which to stand; in other words, there was no unition of these eclectics upon any principle, except that they asserted that no medical sect represented all the truth in medical science, and, therefore, each eclectic was to choose, from every direction, those things " which he considered best." Beside the Eclectic, the Empiric and other ancient schools admitted that new medical truths were dis- covered and developed outside of their several limits, so we see that the first proposition was not peculiar to ancient Eclecticism. The pretension of these (Eclectic) physicians held that it is safer to rest it with the individual experience, reason and judgment to decide concerning the medical theories and methods of their ancient time, in fact, it Avas " indi- vidualism erected into a dogma." The medical sect, which in modern times, appropriated for its oavh use the appellation of this ancient term as applied to medicine, we shall find to possess distinguishing traits entirely different from those of the ancient sect of Eclectics. HE'S MOST ASSURED. 251 Some years ago, there practiced in Boston, Massa- chusetts, a physician, Dr. Thompson, who took objec- tion to the practice of the Allopathic physicians in the use of such chemicals as mercury and antimony ^ and proclaimed that in their place he used prepara- tions of roots and herbs. He speedily acquired a decided local reputation, and other physicians ac- cepted his position in antagonism to the accepted tenets of Allopathy. The legitimate successor of Thompsonianism is the modern school of Eclecticism, and its principles may be stated by taking Dr. Scudder, of Cincinnati, a physician than whom none have been so promi- nent in the modern Eclectic school. In the intro- duction to his Eclectic Practice of Medicine, he tells us that "disease, wherever met, and in whatever form," is an impaired vitality, and, therefore, we not only " reject bleeding, but the use of mercurials, of antimony, etc." Dr. Scudder also says that other schools claim to have exercised, and to still exert their right of appropriating that which is best from every source, " and in this respect are truly eclectic;" therefore, as this is not a distinguishing feature of the modern Eclectic school, what has been enumerated above should be looked to as what 252 MOST IGNORANT OF WHAT eminently does distinguish the modern school of Eclecticism as such. That the term of Eclecticism has no application with the members of the Homoeopathic profession is patent enough, for none of its profession are will- ing to recognize and assert the principles as set forth by Professor Scudder. Eclectic Homoeopath has an application, hoAvever, as regards the very consider- able number of physicians of the Eclectic school of medicine, Avho having examined the principles of Homoeopathy, recognize their value, and to a greater or less extent employ them. The term " Eclectic," or Eclectic Homoeopath, as applied to "liberals," or low-potency practitioners, is therefore, as has been contended in these pages, a misnomer, but applica- ble to another class of physicians. The assertions which attempt to affix to the Hahnemannians the full acceptance of theories harmonious with the scientific status of fifty years ago, because they are found in the Avritings of Hahnemann and applied to his new discoveries, are also, as we have seen, not in any sense true; these are not the distinguishing marks of these Avings of the Homoeopathic school, but the fact of the existence of such divisions are but admission that the developments of the natural he's MOST ASSURED. 253 sciences and the advancement of Homoeopathy have not yet reached a stage where the profession can receive light enough to fully and finally explain Avhat, as yet, from the ignorance of mankind, neces- sarily continue to remain open questions. An illustration of this is the differences as regards the extent of the applicability of the laAV of similia, as Dr. Hering declares,* but we have every reason * For instance, there are no species of burns which are more dreaded by the physician, as offering at once, by the complete and penetrating destructivity of the tissues in contact as well as by the slow and most unsatisfactory process of repair and recov- ery that they present, as is exhibited when accidents occur with the chemical agent sulphuric acid. Now neither wing of the Homoeopathic school of medicine would condemn the prompt external and local application of cal- cined magnesia made into a paste with water, for we know that such application will, by the operation of the law of chemical affinity, produce between these two substances (the magnesia and the acid) a new substance—the sulphate of magnesia, a harmless substance, and grateful change from that of the terrible irritant poison, sulphuric acid. The prompt use of this local antidote has not only worked marvelous results in completely removing the poison in such acci- dents, but through the subtle and complete efficiency of the law of chemical affinities the acid is found to be so effectually reached and overcome in the minute pores and tissues adjacent to the burn that the charred surface immediately presents and unceasingly fol- lows the most rapid processes of complete repair and recovery. On the other hand, were a congestive disease of the inner ear to produce a neuralgia of the nerves in the face, the recognized treatment by the old school of liniments and flying blisters applied 254 MOST IGNORANT OF WHAT to believe that these differences will finally inure to the benefit of this obscure question, in that aid from the controversies subsequent upon these differ- ences Avill presently be manifest. We therefore see that these differences, extant in the new school of medicine, are not disintegrating in their nature as regards this school, also the party feeling is not truthfully pictured by its opponents; on the contrary, the relations of these two factions are after this fashion. The liberal Homoeopaths recognize the consistency and thorough honesty of the exclusive high potency brother who will not, under any circumstances, give potencies other than the high, sending such patients as require other treatment to some brother physician, as the physician sends his surgical cases to a surgeon, and they also notice the remarkable adeptness and skill acquired by these Homceopaths in selecting the true Homoeo- pathic remedy. locally to the seat of pain would not be indorsed by the Homoeo- pathic physician, be he high or low potency in his tendencies, but, recognizing the exciting cause and its character, he would administer internally a remedy whose homoeopathic action was similar to the action (both as to location and character) of the disease, and would see its prompt efficacy manifested in conquering the existing complaint. HE'S MOST ASSURED. 255 The chidings extended to him by such, the liberal gracefully and pleasantly receives as from one con- sistent and honest, but Avhen he recognizes, " ye mon- grel physician," one who is ever ready to expound upon the necessity of "elevating " the practice of Hom- oeopathy, and to improve every opportunity for ser- monizing concerning the efficacy of the high poten- cies, when it is perfectly well knoAvn that such physi- cian is unfortunate as concerns his natural abilities for the healing art, and the result of his work an often exhibited failure in pursuing the correct methods of prescribing, till tacitly acknowledging his lack of results he flees to the lowest potencies, and there, at last, failing completely, another and more able physician is called, who, with the simple and correct prescription, achieves prompt and immediate relief, this "mongrel," choosing to assume that his suc- cessor had not exhibited as faithful a regard for the principles of Homoeopathy as did himself, by his pratings continually strives to distract attention from his own incapacity and to make such attacks as this upon his brother's orthodoxy an apology for his own incompetence; before such it is true enough that the liberal Homoeopath poses in neither a com- plaisant or charitable attitude. 256 MOST IGNORANT OF AVHAT The closing remark of Professor Smythe, in his effort to demolish not " Medical Heresies " but Hom- oeopathy, is: " This kind of Homoeopathy will not stand the test of recent advances in science," Avhich is further qualified on page 132, Avhere he says, " yet its (horn.) fate is certainly sealed, and, in a few short years it will be numbered with the delusions of the past," is neither an uncommon nor unique statement but, withal, rather singular, if Ave consider that, in the first days of Homoeopathy, the positive assertion was often offered to the suffering Allopathic profes- sion in Hahnemann's immediate locality, that the days of Homoeopathy Avere numbered. Again, when Dr. Quin defied the examining board of the Royal College of Physicians, they said, let Homoeopathy alone and it will die in a year or two. Professor O. W. Holmes also said of Homoeopathy, more than a quarter of a century ago, that it would very soon be a thing of the past, and now, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and eighty-one, the science of Homoeopathy, protected and fostered by the organization known as the IJomoeopathic School of Medicine, exhibits in the United States twenty-three State medical societies, ninety-two local societies, seven medical clubs, thirty-eight hospitals, HE'S MOST ASSURED. 257 (containing 1,682 beds,) twenty-nine dispensaries, (treating annually 117,000 patients without charge,) eleven colleges, sixteen medical journals, and a med- ical profession of seven thousand physicians, in round numbers; this is the evidence upon A\7hich Professor Smythe asserts that Homoeopathy's " fate is sealed, and, in a feAv short years," will be non est. This statement is on a par Avith those so frequently heard and read in AVashington lately, and wherever the establishment of a Homoeopathic hospital seems to be among the probabilities of the near future. We are told that no reason obtains Avhy the Homoeopaths should possess hospital facilities that will not equally Avell apply to the hydropaths, clairvoyants, electricians, "rubbing doctors," etc., when as regards such means of treatment as hydro- pathy, electricity, and the like, the facts relating thereto show these to be neither a system nor a school of medicine, but a means resorted to only in the treatment for the cure or alleviation of certain diseases or conditions; whereas, we have seen that both Homoeopathy and Allopathy present valid claims as schools of medicine, inasmuch as they possess colleges where elementary instruction in anatomy, physiology, pathology, chemistry, etc., 17 258 MOST IGNORANT OF WHAT He's MOST ASSURED. is given, the systematic and thorough education in medicine generally is prosecuted, and Avhere the relation of the natural sciences as aids in the rein- forcement of these systems of medicine in the treat- ment of all classes and features of disease is held up. Therefore, Homoeopathy is competent to be trusted (through its representatives in the profession) in the care and responsibility of all kinds and classes of disease, and particularly in this matter. So Avhen we remember that by the great and critical public in no system or school of medicine is absolute authority rested, but on the contrary, every and all methods and systems are always before this potent element in the sense of being on trial; when in the light of this shoAving, Homoeopathy lays claim to be distinguished from such restricted means of relief as hydropathy or electricity, and to resemble Allopathy, in that as we have seen, it presents a valid title as a system and school of medicine, we find every follower of Hahnemann insisting that its place in medicine is not where its adversaries would locate it. CHAPTER XII. "HENCE, HORRIBLE SHADOW! UNREAL MOCKERY, HENCE!" — Concerning the query as to the possibilities of Allopathy in its relations to the cause of suffering humanity, it would seem that it now only remains to shoAV that no change in heart of this school of medicine, has to any appreciable extent, manifested itself within the last decade. In undertaking to demonstrate that at the present moment the Dogmatic theories still hold the same place in the scheme of Allopathic medicine as they were found to exert hundreds of years ago, Ave shall not deem it necessary to give extended examples, but by a well taken illustration to establish the fact of the present position of Allopathy as regards this its heretofore prominent characteristic feature. It is with diffidence that we iioav attempt to pass iudgment upon the ruling theories of the dominant school in medicine of to-day, for the time is not yet at hand Avhen they may be exposed in the repletion of their iniquity of blunder and falsity; however, (259) 260 HENCE, HORRIBLE SHADOW ! one case in point, Avhich we shall here cite, will in- dicate their intended character and reach, as well as the necessity of our manifesting doubt as to their assumed value in their intended scope and applica- tion. Our quotation from Professor Smythe, upon the nature of the "vital force," Avhich appears on page 127 of " Medical Heresies," where he says, emphati- cally, that a depraved condition of the fluids of the body or other arising conditions represents only a lowering or raising of the vital force, and that other alteration does not appear with this vital force, gives us a good illustration of what may be procured from almost every Allopathic authority upon the subject of vital power, and which is, as these author- ities so often asseverate, a repetition or indorsement of the Brunonian theory of vital force. This doctrine of the vital movement of the Brunonian system of medicine, from Professor Glisson's assistance, asserted that in every muscle there resided an especial and specific vital property, and that contraction of the muscle was but an arousing of this vital power. Dr. BroAvn, discussing the question of a separation of this question into one of irritability and sensibility, (as Dr. Haller UNREAL MOCKERY, HENCE! 261 endeavored to do,) waives this point, by asserting that the " capacity for action," residing in the muscle, was aroused by "exciting" or stirring up this vital property, and that everything producing vital action must therefore act as a stimulus or excitant. " This doctrine of vital motion," says Dr. Radcliffe, (1876,) an eminent English authority, " is, with little change, the doctrine at present in favour." The Homoeopathic scientist feels at liberty to oppose this theory, the application of which, in the treatment of disease, we have seen do such untold and irreparable injury, and the facts against this theory will most conclusively and completely estab- lish its utter fallacy. For instance, concerning the condition of an animal at the time of birth; your attention is directed to the fact that this animal is an ego made up of many different tissues, organs, and constituent parts, each of which, with the progress of develop- ment, soon assumes a perfectness of form as regards its intended service to the general economy, and which, at this time, has now become a typical one of its parent and race. Your attention has also been called to the continued appropriation of air and food by this animal, and regarding its growth • 262 HENCE, HORRIBLE SIIAD0AV ! and development you may, by referring to the pro- cesses in the stomach, by Avhich the food is reduced to a state of absorption by the action of chemical processes, capable of imitation in the chemist's laboratory, explain to a certain extent the phe- nomena of this growth and development. Also its endowments of moA7ement by the action of the muscles upon their levers, you may account for upon mechanical principles and laAVS, and even Avhen it is demonstrated that certain exigencies call forth the aid of a reserve force or power held in abeyance, but employed when required, you may think that this power may be but the locking up of opposing forces within the economy by their equilibrium or mutual balancive power. However, conceding that these observations be true as far as they may go, yet Ave shall find that much that is remarked concerning the phenomena, which this animal in his development will present, will remain unexplained by the operation of chemi- cal or mechanical laws. Following our observations we shall see that the time presently arrives when the groAvth of the animal seems to have ceased. It has now become typical of its race and parent, and for a certain time seems to remain in statu quo, appar- UNREAL MOCKERY, HENCE! 263 ently only engaged in repairing its Avaste of wear and tear of tissue until another stage presents itself, and Avhat appears to be a deficit account with the external conditions is opened, an account that can only be kept balanced by payment at the expense of latent power and disintegration of tissue. The organism becomes, in this way, " by the ravages of time," daily more and more exhausted, until at length barring the appearance of disease previously or at this time, the animal calmly and quietly rounds his earthly experience " with a sleep." Recognizing this as a typical illustration, and that the tissues of this animal in death will yield the same chemical elements as in life, also, that the history of this living animal has been one of inces- sant change toAvards an end by some agency, evi- dently a predetermined one—for has not his history been that of the expedience and end of those of his race (exclusive of disease and accident exemplifica- tions) that have gone before him—we see in this study of ours the existence of something more than those influences which we have already recognized. What this is in its nature and character we are not ready to say, but we recognize it as a directing agency. 264 HENCE, HORRIBLE SHADOW ! How much more relation or scope this directing agency or vital force enjoys we decline to theorize concerning but, with these facts before us, we feel inclined to compare this vital stimulus with its powers and endowments, as regards the human organism, to the master builder in his relations towards his workmen, their helpers, tools, and ma- terials. If, in delineating upon the Brunonian theory, we ha\Te seen muscular and other actions occur, which we are sure are illustrations of the operations of natural laws, recognizing the truth of the aphorism that the amount of terrestrial material and force is immutable and unalterable, and, there- fore, disagreeing with those Avho consider such actions of the economy as the inherent vital power or force, we characterize such phenomena as the results or acts of the vital power, which are to be compared to this vital poAver as is the labor per- formed by the workmen under his directing agency and guidance to be compared to the master builder. " Where a step stirs a thousand threads, The shuttles shoot from side to side, The fibres flow unseen, And one shock strikes a thousand combinations." We might carry this illustration yet further, by UNREAL MOCKERY, HENCE! 265 supposing that the master builder, through tempo- rary deafness, is dissatisfied with the strength of the blows delivered by the workmen in their labors, and so standing by, directs their more rapid and forcible deliA7ery. Now, if in convoking external help to restore the proper condition of affairs, the agent employed the Allopathic methods, the force of the blows would be directed against by bleeding or purg- ing each workman that his strength might become reduced, and so the bloAvs lessened in rapidity and force, Avhile if the principles of the new school of medicine were resorted to the deafness in the case of the master builder would be aimed at, this being removed, reaction and complete recovery of all the deranged forces would immediately supervene. Now let us regard this Brunonian theory of vital force which, as we have seen, looks upon this prop- erty of vitality as residing in the muscle, becoming awakened, when excited, by some stimulus, and so manifesting itself by contracting this muscle ; let us see if this theory is consonant with recent observa- tions and established facts. If according to the tenets of the Brunonian theory there is any complaint that will demonstrate an ex- alted vital action, such a one as epileptic convulsions 266 HENCE, HORRIBLE SHADOW ! will do so, with its rapid succession of most vigorous and powerful contractions of a greater part of the muscular system of the body. Observations have demonstrated that a division of an artery (temporal artery,) when such convulsions were at their height, allowed black venous blood to escape from it in the usual way.* We all know that an exaltation of the vital action we connect with the sending of bright red arterial blood to the nerve centres, but black does not, under such state of things obtain, except there be sudden asphyxiation. Again, sometime after death, and generally within twenty-four hours, the muscles of the body assume a condition of unyielding contraction which does not disappear until putrefaction is here established, this is called a condition of " rigor mortis." In the poisoning of a rabbit with strychnia, sub- cutaneously, the cramps, superinduced at the outset, developed into spasms, which carried the animal upon his toes, bending him backward against some object. After the death of the rabbit it was noticed that no change of position had occurred, the animal continuing so poised, and in a condition of " rigor * Radcliffe. " : UNREAL MOCKERY, HENCE ! 267 mortis," until at the fourth day putrefaction asserted itself* Of course it is in place here to ask, if the Brunonian theory that the muscular contraction is representative of the vital property be true, why such contraction Avas not dissipated with the extinc- tion of life, which in point of fact Avas not the case, for the rabbit was not displaced from his peculiar position, in which he could continue to poise only by the contraction which placed him there. This rather extended treatment of the Brunonian theory of vital power was undertaken that the in- telligent reader might appreciate how very mislead- ing and false are its positions and assumptions. The reader would have acquired an even better conception of the prevailing theories, which to-day represent the accepted doctrines of Dogmatism in their abundance of absurdity and paradox, if some of the other theories had been set forth in the place of the foregoing illustration. The instance here cited not only demonstrates that the most prominent characteristic of Dog- matism, the invoking of the imaginative faculty for the production of fanciful hypotheses with which to * Op. cit. 268 HENCE, HORRIBLE SHADOW ! enlist the prejudices of the time still obtains, but that this case in point is one that was already the accepted doctrine of the Dogmatic school prior to the nineteenth century, and has so continued to hold this position in Allopathic medicine doAvn to this time, when it is found to be "the doctrine at present in favour." (Radcliffe.) That it may be evident whether there be at the present day the same course of intolerance as in the past exhibited by the exponents of the dominant school towards the rival school in medicine, the latest bearing of the Allopathic faculty toward the Homoeopathic profession Avill iioav be noticed. In 1826 a part of the territory of Michigan was set apart in the interest of a university then con- templated. The Legislature of the State of Michi- gan, in 1837, established this university, and, in 1850, a medical department was added to it. The State constitution vests it with eight regents, elected by the popular vote of the State, to govern this university. We have already referred to the power of the laity, or that congeric force external to the professional world, in matters affecting the promo- tion and advancement of the Homoeopathic science of medicine. UNREAL MOCKERY, HENCE! 269 The Legislature of Michigan, in 1855, amended a law, to read in these words, " The regents shall have power to enact ordinances, by-laws, and regulations for the government of the university; to elect a president, to fix, increase, and reduce the regular number of professors and tutors, and to appoint the same, and to determine the amount of their salaries: Provided, That there shall ahvays be at least one pro- fessor of Homoeopathy in the department of medi- cine." Under the authority of the above law, created by the State Legislature, the regents were empowered to disburse the salaries and funds, with discretionary powers accorded to them, provided they, under this law, furnish at least one Homoeopathic professor. It seems that there were influences which were suf- ficient to induce the disregard, and resist this last proviso of this laAV, for, though the friends of Hom- oeopathy took such legal measures as the applying to the Supreme Court for a mandamus to compel these regents to carry out the above law, they suc- cessfully delayed such legal measures until, in 1867, when the university, needing further pecuniary aid than its income from the townships ceded to it in 1826 brought it, applied to the Legislature for this aid. 270 HENCE, HORRIBLE SHADOW ! This the Legislature agreed to grant and to procure by levying a tax of one-twentieth of a mill upon the dollar of all taxable property, providing " that the regents of the University shall carry into effect the laAv Avhich provides that there shall ahvays be at least one professor of Homoeopathy in the depart- ment, and appoint such professor, at the same salary as the other professors in this department; and the State treasurer shall not pay to the treasurer of the Board of Regents any part or all of the above tax until the Regents shall haA7e carried into effect this proviso." With a vieAV of this grant of the Legislature, subject to the order of the treasurer of their board, they established a Michigan school of Homoeopathy, at a distance from Ann Arbor, the location of the University, and appointed Dr. Hem- pel a professor, at this school, at a salary of one thou- sand dollars per annum. Evidently the intent of all State enactments was to accord to its citizens seeking an education in medicine equal opportunities within its State Uni- versity, whether they be preparing themselves as Homoeopathic or Allopathic practitioners, for the creating chairs of Homoeopatic Therapeutics and Materia Medica would enable such students to pur- UNREAL MOCKERY, HENCE! 271 sue these branches, and at the same time avail themselves of the courses in anatomy, physiology, chemistry, etc., upon which both schools of med- icine place due stress, and of course agree concern- ing in every particular; this these students could do, and also avail themselves of those A7aluable opportunities which ever}7 large university extends. HoAvever, by the action of the Board of Regents, this struggle for the accordance to all of equitable treatment was prolonged. In 1875 the Legislature approved an act, which affirmed that " The Board of Regents of the Uni- versity of Michigan are hereby authorized to estab- lish a Homoeopathic medical college as a branch or department of said University, which shall be located at the city of Ann xVrbor. The treasurer of the State of Michigan shall, on the first day of January, 1876, pay out of the general fund, to the order of the Board of Regents, the sum of six thousand dollars, and the same amount on the first day of January of each year thereafter, Avhich moneys shall be used b)7 said Regents exclusively for the benefit of said department." At last, after many years, could the University of Michigan offer to those of her citizens " who desire 272 HENCE, HORRIBLE SHADOW ! to be thoroughly indoctrinated into all that pertains to a scientific and systematic course of study," a course of instruction within her walls where the " requirements of a thorough scholarship" and the demands of the "Homoeopathic Intercollegiate Con- gress" could be extended. Doubtless these matters have been wearying to the reader, but their careful perusal will be profit- able, for we have now carried him to a point from which he can judge intelligently of the action of the American Medical Association at its last regular meeting in 1881. This Supreme Council of Allo- pathy, which has been before now the subject of considerable attention upon our part, having in view the fact that there was a flourishing department of Homoeopathy attached to the medical department of the University of Michigan, Resolved, " It is not in accord with the interest of the public or the honor of the profession that any physician or medical teacher should examine or sign diplomas or certifi- cates of proficiency for, or otherwise be specially concerned with, the graduation of persons whom they have good reason to believe intend to support and practice any exclusive and irregular system of medicine." UNREAL MOCKERY, HENCE! 273 If our readers keep before themselves the dis- ciplinary methods of this American Medical Asso- ciation, as exemplified in its treatment of the delegates of the Massachusetts Medical Societ}7, and already set forth in these pages, it will occur to them what is the present position of the Professors of Anatomy, Physiology, and other such chairs of the Medical and Surgical Department of the University of Michigan. These professors educate in their respective branches the students pursuing also the courses which treat of Homoeopathic medicine, and are therefore required by the University to examine them and certify as to their proficiency. Noav the members of the Allopathic profession, by their acts as professors in the University, in the eyes of the American Medical Association, attach both to themselves and the State and other societies of which they are members, stigma and dishonor; and we may believe are liable to have such castiga- tion and penalties meted out to them by this Supreme Council of Allopathy as will insure a care- ful observance of the mandates of this council. This reference to the course of bearing towards the new school of medicine by the American Med- ical Association, in the year of our Lord 1881, 18 274 HENCE, HORRIBLE SHADOW ! has been made at this time that the reader may judge if there be any change of heart in the Allo- pathic faculty as regards the Homoeopathic pro- fession. That the dominant school, at the present time, still is wont to summons to its aid, as of yore, its ally mockery, it Avould be superfluous to take space and effort to corroborate for the reader's benefit, when all are in possession of competent evidence to clearly establish this fact. Surely, if the current literature of the dominant school can exhibit a single periodical in which, during any year, there has failed to appear slanders and mockeries con- cerning the new school in medicine, we shall will- ingly qualify this last statement. From the time of that prominent Allopathic authority, James T. Simpson, M. D., doAvn to the present, what Allo- pathic physician has not entertained his listeners with some modification of Dr. Simpson's most de- lectable mockery upon Homoeopathy? What lay- man in medicine has not been told by ye Allopath that Johnny Smith had reveled in a box of Hom- oeopathic medicines, mixed them up, and finally fired the whole down his precious neck to get rid of them, and lo ye regular declares the upshot was UNREAL MOCKERY, HENCE! 275 that no purging, emesis, or any drug conditions supervened, and, therefore, Avhat a humbug and Avhat a fraud Homoeopathy must be! Or, mayhap he chose to polish off this " humbug " by quoting that delectable bit of poetry (?) which Dr. Barr Meadows giA^es his readers in his concluding words attacking Homoeopathy: " Thus have we robbed Similia of its trappings, Its base assumptions and presumptuous ravings; And viewing thus its native nothingness— Behold this 'Great Something,' Naked Lies."* We may noAv appreciate that the lesson which the history of medicine with the antique races teaches to future generations Avas completely lost upon the sectators of Dogmatism, for if the complete subversion of the offices of medicine to the interests of the priest-class was the distinguishing feature of the history of the medicine of antiquity, so it was also the reason Avhy such marked poverty of im- provement in the medical art was at this age mani- fest. We say that these lessons of antiquity were with- out profit to Dogmatism, for if no distinctive prin- * Errors of Homoeopathy. Dr. Barr Meadows, Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, etc. 276 HENCE, HORRIBLE SHADOW ! ciples are found associated with the medicine of antiquity, and if the Aveal of the human race as regards the possibilities of the medical art were made secondary by the governing priestly class to their own interests and investitures; if the aim and effort of this autocratic class was not to open up the lights of science and folloAV the truth fearless of Avhere it might lead them; but, on the contrary, to set these matters one side and to struggle for the possession of the power and fat emoluments that could be acquired by careful manipulation of the offices of medicine; if these are true, as we have seen, concerning the priestly orders of the antique races, they certainly are, in every sense, true of the history of the Dogmatic School of Medicine down to this day. Abundant evidence of this has already been set forth in these pages. We have seen that it matters not, that at different times more than two hundred theories have, in their turn, been summoned by Dogmatism to represent what should be the accepted explication upon medical questions, and that after serving as the basis for the application of most injurious methods of treatment have been displaced by this autocracy for fresher and more fanciful hypotheses. UNREAL MOCKERY, HENCE! 277 Little care the Allopathic faculty that Sir William Hamilton, one of the most prominent literateurs of his day, and so looked upon and recognized by the prominent scholars and thinkers of Great Britain at that time—little care they that this distinguished authority tells us that " Homoeopathy and the Avater- cure are iioav and here (Edinburgh) blindly anathe- matized as heretical; in the next generation it is not improbable that these same doctrines may be no less blindly preached as exclusiA'ely orthodox. Such is poor human nature ! Such is corporate—such is medical authority." * The true reason, then, why the dominant school complacently aucws its past, and subsequently upon such experiences as are peculiarly its OAvn suffers no apparent discomfiture, but Avith brazen face and positive tone reasserts that in the Dogmatic faculty poAver is delegated to pronounce as to what is con- sonant with the truth in medicine, and what is not; the disfigurement or demolition of these then matter nothing to this school, so that its chief aim, the places of poAver, and the poAver of authority, are permitted to dAvell in it. Hence, this systematic and persistent persecution * Discussions, etc., page 638. 278 HENCE, HORRIBLE SHADOAV ! of the new school. But how short-sighted this policy of theirs is, the reader will noAv appreciate, for it is easy to see that the vitality of the new school in medicine rests not in the Homoeopathic profession, but in a more potent element, the laity. Hoav puerile such attacks upon the Homoeopathic profession, Avhen if it Avere possible for Allopathy to wipe out of ex- istence, at one fell sweep, the Avhole Homoeopathic profession, we are justified in asserting that such is the recuperative capacity the Homoeopathic laity has so often demonstrated in rallying to the support of this cause as against the onslaughts of Dogma- tism, as Avould be competent to raise up a profession to represent and employ the medical truths which they believe in, and look to when their application is required or needful. Nor is this more than the neAV school in medicine deserves, for if Allopathy is the strife for power, Homoeopathy has been a struggle for liberty. Thus, it will be seen that Homoeopathy has wisely declined to enter the lists with Allopathy upon its issue, and is not and has not been in the effort to dispossess the dominant school of what Allopathy fain would continue to hug to its bosom; on the contrary it is a struggle with Homoeopathy to obtain the right to UNREAL MOCKERY, HENCE ! 279 dissent from the false tenets of Allopathy, and still be recognized in the exercise of this right to that extent, that humanity shall not, in any instance, suffer through the barriers which Allopathy Avould endeavor to place in the path of duty Avhich the vagaries of disease make it necessary that every physician shall conscientiously follow. We have already seen that the adherents of the dominant school in medicine exalt the doctrines of Allopathy into a medical faith, that they by direct- ing their medical colleges to compel students, who in regular course graduate from their institutions, to declare that they will renounce the truths of the neAV school even before they have been investigated by such students, make their diplomas not certifi- cates of knowledge, but confessions of faith, thus placing such colleges in a position consistent Avith the medical system which they represent. This medical faith which is grounded in the ever shifting sands of popular prejudice, this Ishmael of medicine for a reason as competent as that relating to the younger half-brother in medicine will not " cross the Stygian ferry; " on the contrary, " I" * * " will make fruitful, and will multiply him exceed- ingly." HoAvever, at this epoch, he has been and 280 HENCE. HORR1BLK SUADOAV ! still poses before us as a mocker, therefore, from the pale of civilization will he be cast out to dAvell and exercise his peculiar offices Avith the paganic and barbarous races; for the hand of every educated mind will be against this Ishmael, Avhile this outcast Avill, as his instincts and predilections have ever in- fluenced him to act in the past, continue to raise his hand against everything that opposes his as- sumption of poAver and of rule. The civilized world will thereupon assert its preference for employing the good offices of the Isaac in medicine in overcoming disease, that man of gentle nature, a clear definition of Avhose ex- ponent Avas so many years ago concisely set forth by one of the most prominent and eloquent authors— William H. Holcombe, M. D.—in the ranks of the Homoeopathic profession. Dr. Holcombe tells us that a Homoeopathic physi- cian is one who uses all the surgical, obstetrical, mechanical, and chemical measures where indicated, and who in the vital or dynamic sphere is guided by the Homoeopathic laAV— Similia Similibus Curantur. 7 Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service VW 3 W./ p Bethesda, Md. US. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public ^ I ^W I Health Service o /' V £ - o 33|AJSS U,l|OSH *" :>!|clnd'3JDJlaMPUD > 'uonDsnpg 'U,I|D3H £ jo )ueuj)jodao sn Z PW 'op^OS 0 33IAJ3S u,t|°8H £ 3!|qnd'3JDJI3MPUD o 'uo^oDnpg 'u.ipaH Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Servi< f'\ YK I Bethesda, Md. 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