cWcjyt:
f^"      THE QUESTIONS
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LIFE  AO DEATH;
A REVIEW OF
ALLOPATHY
AND DEFENSE OF
PHYSIO-MEDICALISM,
BY WILLIAM n. COOK, I. D,
N
^J
"V.
      Cincinnati:
COOK & GALLINGrEK, PUBLISHEES,
     132 WEST SIXTH STREET.
/
 
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The Physio-Medical Recorder,
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The   Physio-Medical   College   of   Ohio,
                   ESTABLISHED IN 1836.
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                          FACULTY.
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D. MCCARTHY, M. D...........Professor of Medical and Operative Surgery.
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W. H. COOK, M. D.....Professor of Botany, Therapeutics and Materia Medica.
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For all the tickets of the Professors..................................$60 00
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                          WM. H. COOK, M. D., Dean, Cincinnati, Ohio. 
J   Jkbieto   of  JIlflpa%,
  In the book of Job occur the words, " All that a man hath will he give for his
life."  This expression at once appears to be a truth, and almost every man
would say that it was correct.  But it must be remembered that it came from the
lips of Satan, and so should be received with  many doubts and a great deal of
allowance.   If a man was placed where he had to choose  between death  and a
given amount of money, he would, of course, prefer to live and let the money go.
But this is only when the question stares him in the face so bluntly that he can
not turn around it nor look beyond it.   Place it some distance off; put it  so far
back that an hundred opportunities for pleasure and profit lie between him and it,
and many chances to one but he will shut his eyes to the  question of death and
run riot in  eating, drinking and making  money, without stopping to think how
soon he may deprive himself of existence.
  There  is too little good thinking done on the subject of medicine.  There are
enough pills, sirups and various other patent  nostrums advertised and taken; but
it is too often the case that the common  facts  and principles of medical science
are not inquired into nor reflected upon.  Men discuss politics almost constantly;
and banks, stocks, ra;lroads, telegraphs and woman's rights, are ordinary subjects
of conversation; yet the laws of eating, drinking  and sleeping; of breathing, ex-
ercise and taking medicine, are almost excluded from among the intelligent topics
of conversation, and a lecture on physiology is thought to  be as sleepy as a set
declamation, unless  made attractive with  foolery and long stories.  So current has
this indifference become, that an old stanza has been used to express it:
                " God and the doctor we alike adore,
                Just on the brink of danger,  not before;
                The danger passed, both are alike requited,
                God is forgotten and  the doctor slighted."
  As every man, woman and child are liable to sickness, at some time or other in
their lives, nothing would seem more rational  than that they should take  an in-
terest in  learning to keep well as long as  they could, and to have their health re-
stored in the shortest space of time when they got unwell.  It is a question which
directly concerns themselves, their time,  their  money  and  their ease.  If  it had
to do only with somebody else, we might be excused for putting it off; but as  it
comes home to each and all of us personally, neglecting to make any inquiries
about  it  is to overlook our nearest and dearest interest; and to leave all our
thinking on this subject in the hands of others, is to intrust them with the monop-
oly of a  theme which is of more importance to every one than  any amount of
riches he can possibly gain.  It has been estimated that, by greater care  in fol-
lowing nature's laws, the average period of a man's life has been prolonged from
thirty to  thirty-five years.  If this has been accomplished by obedience so simple,
within the last century, it is not too much to say that ten years more might be
added  to each man's existence, if he would take time to study and employ the 
2
A  REVIEW OP  ALLOPATHY.
 best means of preserving his health.  Who is there that would willingly and de-
 liberately sit down and take away ten years of his life without any motive or any
 inducement?
   At the present time, there are two conflicting systems of medical practice prom-
 inently before the public, each with its disciples, friends, journals, books and col-
 leges.  The oldest  of these is the Allopathic system, that which uses calomel,
 arsenic, opium and  blood-letting, and is variously known as the " regular" and
 mineral practice.  The other is called the new or  Physio-Medical system, and  is
 known by its using none but vegetable medicines, and only the perfectly harmless
 vegetables at that.  As the whole art of medicine has for its objects the relief of
 suffering and the preservation  of life, every man's interests should at once lead
 him to inquire which of those two systems is most  likely to accomplish these re-
 sults.  Which will ease pain  the quickest,  fortify  the  body against disease  most
 effectually, cure the sick  soonest, and prove most  valuable in building up feeble
 constitutions and saving strong ones?  The importance of these questions  is evi-
 dent, and needs no addition of words to make every man feel  it; but "who can
 decide when doctors disagree ?"  This question can be very easily answered, as  it
 is one which, in this free country above all others,  is to be settled by the people.
 To do this, it is not necessary that  every man should seek to qualify himself for
 the duties of a physician.  In this respect, our country is much like the territories
 of the French Duke, who, when he asked his  " court fool" what craft was followed
 by the greatest number of his people, was at once  answered, "  Physic."  As the
 Duke doubted the correctness of the reply, his subject offered to  give him the
 necessary figures on the question next day.   On the following morning, the " fool"
 set out for the court with his face tied up as  if he had the toothache; and before
 he arrived at the palace he had more than two hundred prescriptions for his malady.
 In like manner, almost every man we meet in America is a prescriber; but while
 goodness of heart dictates the prescription, much mischief is now and then done
 by every body thus taking to himself the duties of  a physician.  What is wanted
 is for every person to obtain a sufficient knowledge of physiology to avoid the or-
 dinary causes of disease, then  get an outline of the principles and  plans  of the
 two  schools of medicine,  and after that, watch the practice  of each and see for
 himself which class of practitioners cure their patients soonest and have the least
 number of deaths in proportion to the number of cases  they treat.  These  means
 of information are open to every person who will take the trouble to  use them;
 and, when carefully used, they will  enable each person to form  his own opinions
 upon the two systems of medicine and to decide for himself to which one he will
 intrust his body when sickness overtakes him.
                         allopathy deserves praise.
   The only way to judge  of any man, or any body of men, is to take their own
 words and study them.   This is the way to obtain the best knowledge of the op-
 posing systems of medicine.  The charges of one sect against the other are not to
 be taken  as proof of any thing; for those who are interested in a given subject
 are very likely to get excited over  it and then say very rash things about their
 opponents.  Let us, therefore,  in inquiring into Allopathy, listen to her own great
 men, thus giving her every opportunity to have her cause presented  fairly and an
 impartial  judgment passed upon it.  In doing this, all praise must  first be ren-
dered for  the many good things there to be found.  Allopathy  has  given  us our 
A  REVIEW   OP ALLOPATHY.
3
 science of Anatomy entire; in Operative Surgery she has done nearly every thing
 that has been  done;  Botany and Chemistry have been laboriously cultivated by
 her sons; Physiology has been investigated by them with most praiseworthy dili-
 gence, and every collateral branch of medical science is deeply indebted to their
 talents, money and patient labor.
   Far be it from us, then, to enter upon any tirade against Allopathic physicians
 merely because their opinions  differ from our own, or seek their injury by de-
 tracting from their merits or concealing their deserts.  Honest differences of opin-
 ion do not render personal friendship impossible; and while each  party is at  full
 liberty calmly  to state the light in which it views  the position of its opponents,
 and to give an explanation of its own position  and the reasons for occupying it,
 full credit should  be given by each for all  the good that belongs to its rival.  So,
 in examining Allopathy, its claims to our respect are cheerfully  acknowledged;
 and it is only its errors, not its virtues, that we  seek  to expose.  With these ex-
 planations we  will proceed to examine several of the tenets of that  system of
 medicine, reviewing those which are the most mischievous and which lie at the
, foundation of the others.
                     MAN CONSIDERED A CHEMICAL FABRIC.
   The leading, almost the corner-stone error  of Allopathy, lies  in viewing the
 human body as a mere chemical fabric—made up of definite chemical atoms, and
 moved and operated solely by chemical powers.  This opinion was most  largely
 dilated on by Professor Liebig of Germany; and his  propositions  on the  subject
 have been taken up and enlarged by such men as Dumas, Lehmann, Faraday and
 Carpenter, in Europe;  and Draper, Youmans, Silliman and Dunglison, in Amer-
 ica.   Professor Youmans has gathered the  pith of the subject in a single sentence
 of the preface to his  class-book on Chemistry, where he says: " The physical
 system of every human being may be  looked upon as a chemical laboratory, in
 which exactly  the same kind of changes are carried  on as are produced  by  the
 working chemist in his shop, and by means of similar instruments."  With such
 ideas as these  for a starting point, and looking upon the arteries, veins, stomach,
 liver,  kidneys,  brain, etc., as so many test-tubes, furnaces, retorts, filters and cru-
 cibles, and the blood, bile and other fluids,  as so many agents  and  re-agents pro-
 duced by purely chemical actions, they have considered man much in the same
 light as a skillful housewife would consider a freshly-made barrel of soft soap—a
 thing  of simple construction, made up of  so  many atoms of this, and so many
 of that, and  nothing  more.  In all the  Allopathic colleges throughout the two
 hemispheres, and in  almost every regular  text-book published  in the countries
 of Europe and America, this idea is made the pivot around which all other ideas
 are  made to revolve.  Different  articles of food are spoken of as containing so
 many  atoms of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen  and  nitrogen; blood is resolved into
 such and such proportions of albumen, fibrine, hematin, salt, phosphates, etc., and
 these again are divided into their several ultimate equivalents.  The same is done
 by the gastric juice, the bile and the spittle; the bones, muscles, skin,  hair, liga-
 ments, nerves and brain; till finally the whole human structure  stands before us
 as a mass composed of coal, oxygen, saltpeter, phosphorus, brimstone, salt, lime,
 water, etc., the several proportions and the  ultimate elements  of which  are given
 in figures, to the last practicable fraction of an unit.
   But the operation by no means stops here.  This is only the beginning of things; 
4
A  REVIEW OP  ALLOPATHY.
and the next steps are to show how the various atoms of one part change places
and form new unions so as to make bile from blood at one point, muscle  fiom it
at a second, urine at a third, nerves at a fourth, and so on through  every tissue,
excretion  and secretion, and every variation of tissue,  excretion and secretion
through the entire body.  Not an act, from the digestion  of an apple to the beat-
ings of the pulse, the twitchings of a nerve, or the elaboration of a thought, but is
sought to be explained upon these chemical formulae.  Lehmann has written three
large volumes on these formula?; Simon has written one volume; Liebig three, and
other authors have caught up the lead and issued  books by the dozen.  The cen-
tral idea of them  all has been summed up by the Westminster Review, which
says that chemico-physiologists resolve  man into forty-five  pounds of saltpeter
and five pails of water.
  The extent to which this notion has been  carried, may be seen in the popular
opinion about medicines disagreeing with one another.  We all know that to  mix
aquafortis and hartshorn together for a dose,  is to imitate the mixing of soda  and
cream  of tartar.  The two agents will unite, chemically, to form  something en-
tirely different from either;  and  any supposed advantage that was to  have been
derived from using such articles, will, of course, be lost.   And it is because Allop-
athists resort so largely to  the use of the chemical agents, that people  have been
impressed with the idea that medicines "may not  agree."  If they did not build
their philosophy upon this chemical theory, they would not be found using such
quantities of chemical agents; as it is, the majority of their medical means are of
the inorganic class of substances, and are concocted into various forms and done
up into various compounds by means of the regular paraphernalia of a chemist's
laboratory, and in accordance with the common laws of chemical affinity.  Calo-
mel, arsenic, iodide of potassium, white vitriol,  sugar of lead,  muriate of iron,
phosphate  of lime, morphine, quinine, and  many other articles in general use
among those physicians, are all examples of this mode of preparing agents;  and
they are  employed mainly because of their having been thus manufactured—their
chief virtue being attributed to the fact of their being a part of the chemical  the-
ory of man and disease.
                      ERRORS OF THE CHEMICAL THEORY.
  Chemistry is a definite science; that is, it  deals in definite and positive quanti-
ties.   It teaches that two substances unite in  certain proportions, and that they
never  do and never can be made to unite in any other than  those  proportions—
which are defined to an  exact fraction, by weight.  Whatever chemistry does,
therefore,  it does  positively and in a mathematical manner, never suffering any
variations, no matter how circumstances or quantities may vary.  This being the
rule in one case, and in one department of nature, it must be true in all other
cases and departments; so if it really is chemistry which forms the juices and puts
together the tissues of the human body, nothing will be more simple than to find
out the kinds and  quantities of the substances in a part, and then imitate them.
 No proposition is scientific unless it can be applied in practice; and the chemistry
of man must stand or fall by this simple test.
   About  the  simplest thing for  chemistry  to attempt to imitate, is  the gastric
juice of  the stomach.  This fluid is used for the purposes of digestion, and it has
 been obtained directly and in its purest state from the stomach of one man (Alexis
 St. Martin), and the stomachs of great numbers of animals. 
A  REVIEW  OP  ALLOPATHY.
5
  " The  gastric juice has been examined by numerous chemists," says Simon.
" The nature and  composition of the Gastric Juice  *   *  have been the subjects
of much discussion among chemists," says Carpenter.  The  truthfulness of these
remarks is  quickly seen when we  come  to  read what different writers have said
about it.   Todd and Bowman say that " It is of great importance to determine the
precise composition of this fluid:" yet Dr. Prout tells us that it is composed chiefly
of free muriatic acid; Dunglison says it also contains acetic and phosphoric acids;
Gmelin and Tiedeman found no  phosphoric acid, but got muriatic and acetic, as
also butyric acid.  Bernard says lactic acid is  the chief ingredient, admits no
acetic acid, and says that the muriatic acid in it is not free, but mixed with other
ingredients.  Lastly, Bernard and Lehmann are not sure that it contains any mu-
riatic acid at all, but that this product is the result of decomposition of lactic acid
in distillation!  All these are eminent authorities, and yet see how unsettled they
are about this one simple juice.  A comparison of their analyses proves that they
disagree so widely that no one can say that the nature of  gastric juice is known;
yet each urges  his own opinion on us as correct science, and proceeds to build a
theory of digestion on it.   Such conflictions as these show that chemistry has not
and can not deal  with the organic juices, and that it is  out of  its  sphere when it
attempts any such operations.
   But allow that any one of these men was right, and it follows that, if he knows
the exact chemical recipe for gastric juice, he can send to the drug store and have
it put up at pleasure.  And this has been tried many times, and is  advertised as a
fact every day—the  pepsin of newspapers being this so-called home-made gastric
juice.  Now what is the reality?   Simply that  no chemist  has ever yet made a
drop of fluid that would at all compare with nature's  own product.  Todd  and
Bowman tell us that the components of gastric  juice can not be determined with
 exactness; and every physiologist at once frankly admits that, no matter whose
 formula be taken, the artificial compound " has little or no solvent power on  the
 food," and pieces of meat put in it "undergo no change of any importance."
 Thus all their  analyses are crude suppositions, and their asserted " positive sci-
 ence" falls to the ground like dust on the very first attempt to test it by putting it
 to use.
   In the same  manner, the analyses of blood, saliva, urine, muscle, fat, and every
 other fluid and solid in the body,  contradict one another, and not a single point is
 settled in regard to any one of them.   Throughout fifteen large volumes that we
have carefully and patiently examined on this  subject, we do not find the least
agreement; but all is confusion, variance and uncertainty.  And in the same way,
when these mystic formulas are applied, we find  that  every fact and common  ex-
periment in nature  are against them.   Not one of them but conflicts with  the
others, and even  undermines itself; and all of them together stand in direct oppo-
 sition to the every-day  experience of life.  It is  this kind of science which tells us
 that a mixture of beans and ashes will  form an article of diet forty times more
nourishing than wheat; that butter and cheese contain all that man need eat in
 order to sustain himself in  the most vigorous health; that tea is full of nourish-
 ment, and that the moral depravity of the  Irish nation is owing to the chemical
 components of their potatoes !
   But the Allopathic chemists do not stop here: they go  on to tell us that every
 action of muscle is dependent upon chemical changes; that every movement of the 
6
A  REVIEW  OF  ALLOPATHY.
 blood, lungs, stomach and brain, is the result of chemical unions going on in the
 atoms of the parts, and that the principles of chemical affinity build man up from
 a mere cell no larger than a mustard seed, and then hold him in all  his courses of
 action and make up the sum and substance of what is termed life.  And yet these
 same authors tell us that  no man knows, or can know, the uses of a muscle, nerve,
 eye or tongue, by chemically analyzing it; that the differences between the blood,
 saliva, milk, etc., of  two individuals cannot be accounted for by chemistry; and
 that no one can tell, by it, the why and wherefore of the most simple act performed
 in the human body.   These acknowledgments are made  by the chemical  physiol-
 ogists themselves, and at once prove  that, in thus failing to produce the least prac-
 tical result, even in the most simple  cases, chemistry is wholly inapplicable to the
 science of life, and must work the widest mischief when it attempts to wed itself
 to physiology.
   But the Allopathists  are  not content to drop  the  subject on an  exposition of
 these, its failures and absurdities.  They go on to apply it in their  use  of medi-
 cines, and try to explain the action of their favorite remedies on the principles of
 chemistry.  We are told by them that  calomel is a physic because it unites with
 certain elements here,  a  reducer  of inflammation in virtue of its  operating on
 other elements there, and a purifier of the blood by its  power to unite with and
 chemically neutralize atoms of virus hither and yonder.   The compounds  of iron
 are said to strengthen by entering into combination with the elements of the blood-
 cells; phosphorus is said  to  seek  a  chemical union with the brain and nervous
 structures; arsenic is reputed to have an affinity for fat; and copper,zinc,lead, tin,
 strychnine, etc., etc., all have special chemical tendencies and powers attributed
 to them.  The next point is, that, the elements of a tissue being known, we have
 simply to give medicine containing those  elements to cure it when diseased.  This
 is the position actually taken and defended by many of the most enthusiastic and
 learned of the  chemical physiologists.   It naturally grows  out of the arguments
 and  positions  of their  doctrine, which assume that man can chemically make
 bones, muscles, lungs and  brain at his pleasure, thus becoming a creator by means
 of the instruments in his laboratory, and without reference to Deity or the "breath
 of life."  Draper, Carpenter, Youmans and others, give out this idea in the most
 decided language; and the Allopathic journals teem with accounts of cures  thus
 wrought, and of formulas  for making different tissues.  Among the many prescrip-
 tions of this kind, none are more explicit than those mentioned by Dr. Wood, in
 his Practice of Medicine.   This is the  highest Allopathic authority on this conti-
 nent, and it says: " The salts of the blood, when deficient, must be supplied by
 their introduction into the system.  *  *  *  The salts of  potassa  are indicated
 in scurvy, and  chloride  of sodium [salt] in  gangrenous tendencies.  An  excess
 of alkalinity is  to be counteracted by mineral acids," etc., etc.  It is amusing to
 notice that, throughout  this  entire  display of chemical science, this, that and the
 other deficiencies are "supposed," and  "conjectured," but that they are actually
 deficient is by no means known.  The cure of consumption by supplying the lungs
 with the phosphites and  hypophosphites  of lime, has been the fashion for the last
five years, and is a fair sample of chemical practice.   The best comment that can
be made on the whole  system of such absurdities, is found in the fact that Allopa-
thists themselves admit that they lose a  larger per centageof consumptive patients
than  ever before.   A similar failure  of the chemical application of remedies in 
A  REVIEW  OP  ALLOPATHY.
7
 gout, rheumatism, small-pox, measles, typhus, and many other forms of disease, is
 at once admitted, aye, noticed and  recorded, by their  own best authorities; and
 when whole volumes teem with acknowledgments of this character, who can ask
 for any thing more than such wholesale self-condemnation?
                         DO NOT UNDERSTAND DISEASE.
   One very decided objection that we have to Allopathists, is found in their ac-
 knowledged ignorance of disease.   This may  sound strange to persons unac-
 quainted with the facts in the case; but when we  examine their books, we find that
 one eminent author tries to make out that disease is a something in the blood; an-
 other as earnestly labors to show that it all comes from some unknown difficulty
 in the bile, urine or other fluids; a third insists that it arises from the organs them-
 selves;  a fourth looks upon the whole matter as so many cases of worms, and a
 fifth is enthusiastic in trying to convince us that all disease consists in itch!   A
 stranger medley of contradictions could  not well be imagined;  and the student who
 patiently wades through the great volumes of Eberle, Payne, Watson, Broussais,
 Harrison, Rush, Brown, and other standard writers of that school, will get as much
 for his pains as the night traveler who plunges  through a marsh in search of a
 Jack-o'-lantern.   When he comes out, jaded and disappointed, he will be prepared
 to say, with Bichat, " Medicine is an incoherent assemblage of incoherent ideas.
 *  *  It is not a  science for a methodical mind;"  and to agree with the learned
 Forbes, of England, who, after fifty  years' practice, complains of  the "ignorance
 of the natural history of diseases" peculiar to the Allopathic profession.
   Allopathy says this of itself, and we only quote her own words  as given us by
 her ablest and most honored men. A moment's reflection will be enough to con-
 vince any one that there can be no science, no certainty, no safety, where there are
 such open differences. And what can we think  of  a man who attempts to  treat
 disease by given means, and yet tells us, at the very start, that he does net under-
 stand what disease is? We laugh at the Yankee who, when called to see a some-
 what strange case, frankly acknowledged that he did not know what was the mat-
 ter, but said he would give something that would throw the patient into fits, and
 then he would cure him, for he was death on fits.  A greater  absurdity need not
 be looked for; yet Allopathy occupies the same ground when  it attempts to cure
 disease without understanding it.  We would not intrust our money, our locomo-
 tives, our bank stocks, real estate, watches, or even our horse-shoeing, to a man
 who told us he did not know anything about doing such business; then, what wis-
 dom can there be in trusting our lives to a class of men who give medicine without
 knowing why, and use the most poisonous articles in their practice?  Far better
 would it  be to leave nature to herself than to open a destructive war upon her in
 such a style as this.
                         USING POISONS AS MEDICINES.
   The last grand error of Allopathy with which we find fault,  is the plan of using
 poisonous agents in the  treatment of disease.   They employ a great many very
 innocent agents;  but "Poisons make the best remedies," is the expression of
 Hooper, and Allopathy accepts it and acts upon  it.  They look upon  disease  as
something dreadful, and employ desperate measures  to drive it out; and their use
 of poisons has become so well known, that it is a  common thing to hear people
 talk of a certain  dose either "killing or curing."  How often, too, do we  hear
those practitioners speak  of having given a certain patient enough of this or that 
8                  A  REVIEW  OF  ALLOPATHY.
 agent " to kill a well man."  In all their books, beginning with Wood's Practice
 of Medicine and running down to the smallest edition of the vade mecum, the one
 idea prevails of treating disease (of which they say they know nothing) by using
 agents  that will make  a  different disease somewhere else, just as the Yankee
 threw his patient into fits.  And what do you think they do after they have made
 this new disease?  Why, they leave that to nature to cure; and if she can not do
 so (as often happens in the maladies following the use  of  mercury), they give a
 new poison to start a third difficulty, and then leave the body to get rid of that as
 best it can.  It is make disease  to cure disease; stir up a morbid action in one,
 two or three places, in order to divert it from its original site, and at last turn the
 patient over for nature to rid the frame of  the poisons and  then patch it up to the
 best of her ability.  Is it not rational to suppose that, if nature had been let alone
 in the first  place, she would  have cured the original malady in a much shorter
 space of time than she could afterward heal that and also the new ones made by
 the doctors?
   The Allopathists themselves assure us that the best of their agents are poisons,
 and we know that they generally measure them  out by grains and drops, lest they
 should give a few atoms more than could be borne, and thus kill their patients
 outright.  Calomel, corrosive sublimate, arsenic, opium, zinc (in  the form of the
 various vitriols), antimony, lead, strychnine, henbane, deadly nightshade, copper,
 muriatic acid, oil of vitriol, and dozens of  other articles in common use by them,
 all partake of this poisonous character.  How are the uninitiated warned against
 touching them; how do our rats and cockroaches disappear before them.  Whole
 volumes have been written by the " regulars" to point out the horrible symptoms
 they will  produce, and to  tell the measures which may be tried as antidotes to
 them.  Every Allopathic author who speaks of them, gives pile upon pile of tes-
 timony against them.  The history of their use is one constant round of physical
 horrors:  bones  eaten into holes like a honey-comb; teeth rotting away  into black
 stumps; nerves shaking and starting like aspen leaves in a wind; stomachs revolt-
 ing with the  thousand horrors of dyspepsia; muscles withering like dry sticks;
joints tottering; breaths as revolting as the upas; scrofula, rheumatism, gout, con-
 sumption, typhus and cancer;  these are some of the sequences of Allopathic prac-
 tice.  Let every man look at his neighbors and note the pains, complainings, mis-
 eries and broken constitutions of those whose family medical adviser is an Allop-
 athist.  Go into a district where Allopathists have the sway, and  count the num-
 ber of fresh graves made every year, and then mark the woe-begone countenances
 of every man, and especially  of every woman, you meet,  and next inquire how
 much each family pays for doctor  bills.  Do these things, and you will soon see
 why it has passed into a belief that a " regular" physician can make business for
 himself for  a lifetime if he  has one year's fair practice.   This  done, turn to
 Christison's treatise on poisons, and there read accounts of disease caused by Allo-
 pathic remedies (!) till your very blood curdles.
   The object of medical practice is to relieve suffering and cure disease; but every
 such idea is lost in Allopathy, which directly and deliberately upholds the art  of
 increasing suffering and making more disease.   The thought of giving a sick per-
 son, when feeble and depressed, agents that a well man would not dare to take—
 agents which we employ to kill rats and destroy vermin—is  a perfect burlesque
 on medical science.  Our own learned and  honest Dr. Rush said of this practice 
A  REVIEW  OF  ALLOPATHY.                  9
that it had "assisted in multiplying diseases, and increased  their mortality," and
the inconsistency of the whole thing is enough to make every thinking man turn
from it in horror and disgust forever.
                        ALLOPATHY DEFENDS HERSELF.
  The errors which have been mentioned are only a few of those which are pecu-
liar to Allopathy.   There are many others which are as plainly to be seen as
these:  but the ones we have  examined give support, in one way or another, to
nearly all the remainder, and may be called the foundation wall to  the house of
regularism.   With a basis so uncertain, so loosely put together and so open to the
censure of every fact and all the common-sense of nature, it is not to be wondered
at that the other parts of the establishment are  in  a tottling condition;  and Dr.
Chapman, the lion-hearted Professor of Allopathy in Philadelphia, well knew what
he was saying when he told the profession that this system  of  medicine was full
of " absurdities, contradictions and falsehoods."  And it would have fallen to the
ground long ago had it not  been for  its containing  some valuable facts, for the
disposition among its disciples to accept fancy speculations because they require
less hard thinking than does the unfolding of truth, and for the blind and thought-
less encouragement that was formerly given to it by the people.
   But Allopathy defends herself in a rather peculiar train of arguments, the lead-
ing  points  in which we will, in all fairness, mention.  Thus, they say that their
agents are safe in skillful hands.  This simply means that some of their men,
after a long apprenticeship at ruining people's health, have learned to form a good
idea of how much poison a  given person can take without showing  its ill effects
too plainly.  Jehovah gives His stamp to  every article when he makes it, and no
man can alter or undo any of His creations. As bodies  of a chemical composi-
tion are alike in all their particles, every atom  being of  the same nature as the
whole mass, a grain of such an agent must have the same kind of an influence as
an ounce; but it may not kill, because God has mercifully fitted the body to resist
the action of moderate quantities of all poisons.  The nature of the agent is not
changed, then; and as no man has the least control over an article  he has once
put into the stomach, nothing is more preposterous than to talk  of skillful hands
guiding or modifying the action of any chemical remedy. To  use such an  argu-
ment is to set one's self up above nature;  and for the Allopathist to  employ it, is
simply to show his ignorance of what has been said on this subject by such men as
Chapman, Waterhouse, Harrison, Wood, Eberle, and the whole host of his own
most learned brethren, who unite, in one voice, to proclaim directly the contrary,
and explicitly to tell us that an agent, when once given, is beyond human  control,
and that no man  can tell what ravages  may be committed  by the most  ordinary
and " safest" dose.
  " But we  are the regular physicians,"  say the Allopathists.  " Our system  is
more than a thousand years  old, and must be true, because it has descended from
the ancient  Fathers of medicine."  Such  an argument, offered in America, pro-
vokes  a smile.  It would do well enough to use in Russia, Austria or Timbuctoo,
where  the grossest follies are clung to if they are only old;  but here, where every
thing is brought to the unchanging test of truth, this kind of logic is but an excuse
for what is beyond the possibility of being defended.  Allopathy is, indeed, in  a
weakly condition when it shrinks from having its tenets inquired into, and protects
its iniquities behind its grey  hairs. But Allopathy has nothing to boast of in its 
10
A  REVIEW  OP  ALLOPATHY.
past; and a more discreditable excuse could not well be found.  It is  but a little
more than one hundred years since its practices consisted in giving boiled frogs,
mashed lizards, lion's brains, toads, filings of skulls, roasted snakes, crab's eyes,
rotted human livers, etc., etc.  These things constituted the strong remedies (!) of
their materia medica.  If Allopathy is proud of her age and her regularity, then
should she go back to the wizard broths and stews of Sydenham  and repent the
apostasy  which made her become irregular by departing from the  use  of such en-
ticing medicines.  If she is not  willing to do this, then  should she at least keep
silence before men, in the remembrance that her  calomel, arsenic, copper, etc.,
came into use, and her whole theory of chemical physiology and chemical  physic
into existence, by the exertions and money of Bombastus Theophrastus Paracel-
sus, an English sot and quack, compared with whom Townsend, Holloway, Brand-
reth and  " old  Dr. James" are learned gentlemen.
  In further extenuation of their errors, they set up  the claim that they are im-
proving.  Now we love consistency, for consistency shows honesty of  conviction;
but how can Allopathists defend themselves in one breath by claiming to be right
because they have " come down  regularly," and in the next breath say that they
are improving, and are, therefore, something different from what they used to be!
These two arguments do not go together very well; and one is apt to suspect that
they are used to suit different occasions, and not  because the Allopathists  them-
selves have any confidence in them.  That they bleed, blister, salivate and starve
less than they used to, we know and are glad to see; that they give less calomel,
corrosive sublimate, arsenic, lead and copper than they used to, is another favora-
ble sign.  But if this has been gained, the  credit of it is due to the Physio-Medi-
calists, and not to them.  They  moderated  their poisoning and depleting processes
because they had to—because the people were tired of it and would  not endure
so much  of it any longer. And even these forced changes, which  deserve no
praise, have been but partial.   The alteration has only been from the use  of the
stronger poisons to that of the milder ones—but all the while it is poisons, poisons.
And their improvements are more like a series of shiftings than of reforms.  All
their labors and  expenditures are huddled around  the  old errors which we have
been exposing; and while they  cling to those as the pillar of their strength, the
hinges of their love, the sun of their faith, all their additions will be but putting
so much gaudy paint upon a mud cottage—the central mass of abominations will
absorb and defile it all and sink  the good in the common abyss of  folly.
  "But," say they, " if there is  anything good discovered anywhere, we are ready
to receive it;  and reformers should bring their discoveries to us for our investiga-
tion, instead of setting themselves up in opposition to the 'regular' profession."
This really looks liberal; but what are the facts in the case?  The wicked war
they carried on against Thomsonism when it first started—the manner  in which
they bribed, affirmed and maligned, till Judges on the bench had to reprove them;
the extent to which they misrepresented, sneered  and abused, till newspapers re-
fused longer  to  listen  to  them; the bold  hand with which they charged murder
home upon the Thomsonians and got legislative  enactments denying equal  privi-
leges  to  their opponents, till the people of this whole nation rose up to rebuke
them, are familiar examples of the  character of their liberality.  And  now that
the power of the popular voice compels them to forsake their open resorts  to law
and violence, the bitterness of their hatred is manifested in a more private way on 
A  REVIEW OF  ALLOPATHY.
11
 every possible occasion.   Every practitioner, from the smallest  sample of a  tyro
 in the backwoods to the luminaries of the great city colleges, considers it his
 privilege, and even his duty, to use all the hard names and tell all the ribald sto-
 ries he can against the reformer.   And this is done without the Allopathist  pre-
 tending to understand the new system, its remedies or its practices.  It is enough
 for them to know that Physio-Medicalism will not accept the mere assertions of
 men as being superior to  the laws of nature;  that it has  an entirely new set of
 principles and discards the fallacies of Allopathy, even though backed by learned
 names and crowned by venerable heads.  It is enough for them  to know that  it is
 gaining the popular favor, and they at once set to work to devise ways and means
 to injure it.   Their most popular books state that lobelia is a poison, much used
 by "quacks," and that Thomson was tried for killing a  man  with it; but  how
 carefully do they conceal the fact that he was honorably acquitted.  To reiterate a
 charge like this, is a piece of dogged maliciousness that can scarcely be equaled.
   But this course is pursued toward their own  ablest men, as well as toward  the
 reformer.  The Academy of Science, at Paris, gets to itself the  fame of liberality
 by appointing a committee to investigate every improvement that appears; but it
 is not generally known that that body is organized and supported by government,
 which compels it to pursue this course.  But  their opposition to improvement is
 seen in the  fact that they almost  invariably report  against every claim that is
 brought before them.  After the same fashion, the discoverer of the circulation
 of the blood, the introducer of vaccination, the inventor of ligatures in surgical
 operations, the investigators of nervous action, each of these able  men, and all
 others who have had head and heart enough to step out of the trammels of error
 and proclaim new and important  truths, have always been  derided  as  impostors
 and quacks.  Proscription of truth is a rule of action with them; and to show that
 their offer to "take  us in" is much more ungenerous than would  be  open  and
 manly opposition, we  need but read the following oath, which was required of the
 graduates of an Allopathic medical college  in Georgia last spring, and which
 would be exacted from the graduates of all Allopathic medical colleges, only that
 too many of  the students have more spirit than to submit to it:
   " You hereby promise and declare, on the receipt of your diploma, that you will
 maintain the  honor, dignity and respectability of the legitimate profession in which
 you have been educated, and that you will neither countenance  nor affiliate with
 any system of irregular practice, nor engage  either in the manufacture, sale or
 recommendation of ' quack' nostrums or patent medicines, nor countenance the
 practice of the senseless  dogmas  of Hydropathy,  Homeopathy, or Thomjosonian-
 ism, under the penalty of having the degree conferred upon you revoked by your
 Alma Mater."
  This is simply making young men swear, before God and  man, that they will
not investigate the reforms of the day, nor try to find out a single new truth in
 medical science.
  But,  as  a  last resort, the Allopathists say they cannot get along without their
peculiar agents.  The fact that several thousand practitioners, now in our country,
do get along without  them, and also cure  many more patients  than the Allopa-
thists, and often cure those whom the " regulars" have given over to die, is a proof
which every  man  can see for himself, and entirely  demolishes this " can't-get-
along" argument.  The fact is, this is  only another  excuse, and is  simply a sly
mode of acknowledging that they do not know, and will not learn, any other ways 
12
A  REVIEW  OF  ALLOPATHY.
than to bleed, blister and give poisons.  Such a trifling argument might be laughed
at, were it not a question in which millions of human lives are concerned.  Be-
sides, it is indirectly accusing Jehovah of making man subject to disease and then
denying him all rational means of cure.  Indeed, Allopathy constantly cultivates
this idea, and is ever on the alert to attribute deaths by calomel, arsenic, the lan-
cet, opium, etc.,  to the hands of Providence!  A child can refute such sophisms;
for when the father showed his  boy the tree  that the wind had blown down, and
told him God had done it, the little fellow quickly remarked, when he came to a
tree that had been chopped down: " God did not do this."  " How do you know?"
asked the father.  "Because," replied the child, "He don't make chips."   God
made man so  that he should live on earth in peace and  quiet; and when He calls
him away, He does it silently, without the infliction of pain and at a good old age.
The  early deaths, rotting teeth, unstrung  nerves and broken-down constitutions,
which, are to be seen around us, are the chips by which a child  can tell  that the
poisons of Allopathy, not  the directions  of Jehovah, are  the causes  of such
devastation. 
  In speaking of Physio-Medicalism, we are often asked what this term means,
and in explanation would reply that it means Natural Medicine, or that system of
medicine which is founded in the laws of nature.   It implies that all the facts  re-
lating to the growth and action of the human body should be carefully observed
and recorded, and that from them the rules or laws which  govern the frame, in
disease as well as in health, may be understood.   It further implies that the action
of all agents on the body should be studied carefully, that in this way we may
learn the qualities  of all classes of articles  and the  manner in which each and
every one of them will affect the tissues and functions of the frame.  When these
things have  been proven and established by enough real, positive facts, they  are
to be considered as so many principles in science, so many laws in nature; and to
find out these laws in this way, without paying any attention to what men assert
or how they speculate, is the central spirit of Physio-Medicalism.
                        MEDICINE AN EXACT SCIENCE.
   It may seem a little strange, and yet it is no less true, that Physio-Medicalism
differs from  Allopathy when it says that medicine is an exact science.  The Allop-
athists tell us at the start that this subject is not to be reasoned upon as other sub-
jects are, and that it is one in which the ordinary rules of logic do not apply and
where fixed  and unchanging deductions can not be expected.  As  all  propositions
must be either truths or speculations, nothing can be more plain than that a sect
which denies that there are any  fixed laws in medicine, must purposely and know-
ingly believe in a  series of suppositions; and thus, as Dr. Abercrombie well  ex-
pressed it, the Allopathists ^nake medicine " the art of conjecturing."
   But we observe that men have the same form now they always had.  Their
arms, legs, head, eyes, chests, bloodvessels and nerves are the same—the same in
number, form, arrangement and uses.  They have the same number of muscles,
organs and  senses that have always belonged to the human frame.  The muscles
continue to  be the organs of motion; and their structure, color  and connections
have never varied. The stomach has the same form  and structure that belonged
to it thousands of  years ago, and is still the place where gastric juice is secreted.
Bile comes from the liver, as heretofore;  the tongue continues to  be the "unruly
member," and the brain is the  only organ that  has  ever been considered as  the
medium of thought.  Not an organ has been taken away, none have been altered,
none added; and those which we have, do the same duties in the same  way as
when Adam was formed in the garden of Eden. And, in  like  manner, we find
that all the plants  and animals known to us have the identical  structure, habits
and properties that belonged to them at the first; and the relations of all things
to the human frame remain  unaltered.  Salt has the same savor as  of old, the
juice of the sugar-cane retains its  ancient sweetness and the  deadly quality of
opium has been known for many centuries. 
14          A  DEFENSE  OF  PHYSIO-MEDICALISM.
   In all these facts, Physio-Medicalism sees the evidence of a fixed design and of
 unchanging principles.  It sees that man has been made subject to certain laws;
 that  all other  material things are also  subject to established laws, and that no
 changes of condition or circumstance can turn these laws out of their channel.
 In keeping with this thought, it believes that an influence which is calculated to
 injure the system, will not only do it once, but always; and that  every agent in
 nature will exert a power on the body which is  every time alike.  In this way, it
 starts upon the duty of finding out what those laws and actions are; knowing that
 a truth which has once been made known, is  always to be relied upon.  When
 those laws have been  discovered, they may be employed by us in the  cure of dis-
 ease;  and when they  are properly applied, they will secure the  desired results as
 certainly as effects follow  causes in Geometry, Gravity, Chemistry, or any of the
 other fixed sciences.  Water will  always cool an inflamed  part, oil will always
 soothe an irritated surface, and pepper will always stimulate a blunted nerve.  So,
 all other agents have  their inherent qualities, and when employed on the system
 will produce their several  effects with the exactness of figures; and we can relax,
 or stimulate,  or astringe with them, when relaxation, stimulation or astringency
 is required in the system, as surely and uniformly as the sun  appears in the east
 and disappears  in the  west.
                       THE BINDING POWER OF TRUTH.
   The principle of investigation which has just been mentioned, is one of liber-
 ality and fairness.  It gives to each and every author full credit for all the good
 that he has done, yet  tests every man's opinions by the positive facts of- nature.
 It does not receive assertions for facts, nor rely upon ancient traditions, nor sat-
 isfy itself with notions that look plausible on paper but which do not agree with
 the laws of the universe and cannot be applied to any practical purpose.  Many a
 great error is oiled and polished so  nicely that a hasty inspection is apt to pro-
 nounce it good metal, when it is only false coin; but by touching them all with
 the common tests  of  nature, their  real value will  soon be seen.  If any opinion
 proves lacking, let it be thrown aside at once; but all truths should be adhered  to
 through every trial and abided by under all circumstances.   What matters it that
 a set of false propositions  is well put forth and plausibly sustained?   They may
 last for a few years, but must melt  away before the advances of knowledge.   But
 truth  never can be overcome; and  one  of the foundation precepts of Physio-
 Medicalism is, to submit to the guidance of all the truths now known and to use
 every means to unravel those that still remain  hidden.
                            THE  LIFE PRINCIPLE.
   We notice that all large bodies have an attraction which draws them toward
 each other with a force that varies with the weight of each and  their distance
 apart.   This power brings  stones toward the earth when they are thrown upward,
draws down avalanches, and fixes man and all  other objects upon the surface  of
the globe; and it  also extends to the heavenly bodies, and keeps the sun, moon
and planets in  their places.  It is not a visible thing, and we know it only by ob-
serving its effects upon matter—by seeing that it acts according to exact rules and
is  not destroyed by space.   We call it the power of Gravity.
  We also notice  that when two simple and different substances are brought  to-
gether, their atoms form a union which makes a substance unlike either of the
others.  Oil and soda, thus brought  together, form  soap; iron and water make 
A  DEFENSE  OP  PHYSIO-MEDICALISM.          15
rust; oxygen of air and carbon of wood make fire.  These unions are governed
by fixed laws, which make it possible for a certain number of atoms of one sub-
stance to unite with a certain number of another, and the union has a fixed tenac-
ity;  so that if too many atoms of one material are used, the surplus quantity will
remain without uniting; and if a  third substance is introduced whose affinity is
stronger than that between the two already mixed, these two will separate and one
of them will unite with the  new material for which it has such a great affinity.
Thus, alcohol will dissolve  resin; but when water is  added to  the mixture, the
alcohol unites with it and  leaves the resin to fall to the bottom in a powder.
We can not  see the power that works these changes; but we can  observe that it
acts only between atoms when brought closely together, and that the attraction of
each article for every other article has a fixed degree of strength.   This force is
known by us as Chemical Affinity.
   These and other forces are seen operating, according to their various laws, upon
the inorganic portions of creation, and also exerting a certain amount of influence
upon man and other organized beings.   But in the human frame we observe many
things that are totally different from any acts  or  changes wrought by the merely
physical powers, and which  can not result from any other influence than a power
peculiar to the  animal creation.  In the stomach, the food is rolled around and
mixed with the gastric juice by the muscular action of this organ; and as it comes
to the lower  opening, the digested portions are allowed to pass out, but the par-
ticles that have  not been well prepared are  kept back that they  may be  worked
over again.   And after the food has passed into the lesser stomach, the bile of the
liver and the juice of the pancreas are poured into it;  but none of these fluids is
thrown there till the proper moment for using them has arrived, and persons who
have been deprived of food for a long time have had the bile accumulate in the
gall-bladder  till this  sac was  almost ready  to burst.  Some of the particles of
nourishment  are taken up into the small veins and carried at once  into the blood;
while other particles, which have not yet been well enough prepared, are  not  al-
lowed to enter the system in this way, but some are made to enter  the milk tubes
and others  are forced to pass through the liver, there to go through  other changes,
and still other particles are kept from passing any of these channels, but are cast
out as entirely useless elements.
   And as the blood passes around the system, the skin takes out from it some use-
less elements and casts them away, the kidneys others, the liver others, the lungs
others, and so of all  the secreting and excreting organs of the frame.  Each se-
lects from  the common fluid the  particles that it is fitted to work  upon, and will
not touch an  atom that another organ was made to use.   In the same manner, the
muscles, nerves, glands, bones, heart,  membranes, ligaments,  nails, hair and
brain, each one takes away from the  blood minute elements  of nourishment and
uses them as  it sees fit—molding and fashioning those  elements into the kind of
structure peculiar to  each organ, and giving them the same form,  color, arrange-
ment and function that belonged to each particular organ from the  first.  And  so
the heart beats, the  lungs expand and  contract, the hair-like bloodvessels work,
the muscles move, the nerves feel, the eyes, ears and tongue receive their several
impressions, and the minute cilia of the stomach, of which thirteen  thousand piled
end upon end would make but an inch in length, continue their wave-like motions,
and all with the utmost ease, order and exactness.  Through it all, we see  such 
16           A  DEFENSE  OP  PHYSIO-MEDICALISM.
evidences of regularity and a power to perform acts far beyond the reach of man's
most refined ingenuity, that every function becomes a sublime study and the invis-
ible force which so constantly, yet  silently, works such wonders, surpasses every
thing we witness in the physical world and rises to the position of a beautiful
intelligence.
  And this same force manifests its greater  usefulness in the resistance which it
constantly offers to disease.  Through the nerves it receives impressions of pain,
and thus warns the whole body of approaching danger; and it resists the action of
cold upon the skin by sending more blood to it to warm it; of dust in the eyes by
pouring out tears to wash it away;  of crude materials in the lungs by starting a
cough to eject them; of gravel in the bladder  by passing over more urine to dis-
solve it; of undigested food in the  bowels by trying  to wash them away with  the
appropriate excretions;  of snuff in the nose by sneezing to dislodge it,  and  so on
through every form and degree of injurious  influence.   It is  this inborn power
which not only molded the human being out of a little cell in the mother's womb,
but which seeks to preserve this being in a sound condition, resists all forms of
disease and yields its clay tenement up to death only when chemical, mechanical
or other forces obtain control over  its domain.  And this is the power which alone
can cure disease;  which removes fever by opening the skin, kidneys and  bowels,
to sweep away the foul materials  that provoked the excitement;  which soothes
pain by using the suffering organ to cast off the causes of the misery; which heals
burns,  wounds and other abrasions, by depositing layer  after layer of new tissue
till the gap has been filled up, and  which restores strength to the convalescent by
asking for and employing a larger amount of nutriment than it was willing to re-
ceive or use in health.
  This invisible power—this silent worker which develops, fashions, moves, sus-
tains and protects the  frame in the midst of all the influences and powers which
are seeking to tear it down—is the  Vital Force  or Life Principle believed  in by
Physio-Medicalism.  It is this which we see manifesting itself through this mass
of earthy materials that forms our bodies; which makes up the sum of our life,
and which (unlike the chemical power of Allopathy) rises to an immortal  exist-
ence when accident, disease or the  regular  course of the Creator's plans calls it
from its  habitation here.
                           NO POISONS TO BE USED.
  From the importance of the vital force as being not only the essence  of our ex-
istence, but the power which protects the body from disease, as far  as it can,  and
seeks to restore it  to  health when it has suffered derangement, nothing is more
simple than that the chief duty of  the physician lies in aiding the life principle to
accomplish these objects.  This proposition is the first and leading rule of action
in Physio-Medicalism, which system does not admit the use of  any agent, or the
pursuit of  any measure that is of a character which will do the least harm to  any
organ or function of the body.  It  excludes all poisons, all articles that are inhe-
rently  calculated to disorder even the tenderest structure:  it confines itself to the
employment of those things which  are so perfectly simple and innocuous that no
more ill feelings would follow an over-dose  of them than would follow  eating too
much  food; those which will never cause disease  under any circumstances, and
that can be given to the child as well as the man, to the healthy as well as the
sick, without the least fear of danger being  associated with their use; those which 
A  DEFENSE  OF  PHYSIO-MEDICALISM.          17
never interfere with the performance of any vital act, but which  operate by help-
ing to establish those functions that may have been suppressed;  which leave be-
hind them no ill effects upon either the bones, nerves, bloodvessels, stomach or
other organ; which can be seen truly to render aid to the vital force in restoring
the body to health, and which are ever associated with the fact of absolute safety.
It is not a question, with this system, whether a medicine  has been long used, or
is highly recommended; whether it is of strong quality, or could  not do more than
a moderate amount of mischief.  Age and the authority of men are  of no value
to an article which  nature has stamped with the brand of poison, and all drugs
must be cast aside at once which are  found to interfere with the welfare of the
body.   It is not a question  of favoritism, nor of prepossession, but of life and
death;  and  on this question Physio-Medicalism admits no prejudices, no passions
no sophistry, but exacts the fullest proof of the  positive  harmlessness of every
agent that is used for the purposes of a medicine.
   Surely, if any thing  can secure the hope  of rendering medical practice  that
soother of pain and saver of  life which  it was intended to be,  it is  to be found
under the propositions which have been mentioned.   These positions  can  not fail
to  convince every man of their  truthfulness, for  they agree with all the facts we
see around us, are sustained by all the laws of nature, and  are so  self-evident
as to bring  conviction to the minds of all intelligent and impartial persons.  Thev
combine simplicity, truthfulness and safety;  they interdict  all evil, and teach that
it is  better  to leave nature alone than to meddle with her  by using articles of
which nothing is known, or of which it is only known that  they are opposed to the
operations of life; they look  only to the truths of nature, discarding the specu-
lative fancies of men and relying upon the God-made principles of the human
 constitution for their guidance.
                      WHY PHYSIO-MEDICALISM  IS OPPOSED.
   This, briefly, is Physio-Medicalism; these are the doctrines which distinguish it
 from any and every other system, and which guide all its philosophy and all its
 practices.   With this view of it, men will at once ask:  " How does it happen that
 it has met so much opposition? why has not so  truthful a set of doctrines been re-
 ceived with favor instead  of detraction?"  We have already shown that warfare
 against all  new ideas was and is a leading rule with  Allopathists.  This rule holds
 good with them in the  case of reformers as much as with the brighter lights of
 their own school; and more so, from the fact that the success of the reformation
 would  put them to the  inconvenience  of studying medicine over again, and thus
 make them acknowledge their errors, or else seriously cripple their  business and
 their purses.   Money and pride, therefore, both  incite them to oppose  the new
 doctrine; and as no opposition promises to be so  successful as  that  of deceiving
 the people, we find the " regulars" constantly engaged in misrepresenting the real
 principles and practices of Physio-Medicalism.  They took  pains, from  the very
 first, to remain entirely ignorant  of the system themselves, and then to convey
 totally false impressions of  it to others.  No tale was too  horrible, no story too
 untruthful, so long as it could brew a prejudice  against reform; and  as the whole
 practice of the country was in their hands, and every little country village sup-
 ported from two to seven Allopathists, it  is not to be wondered at that Physio-
 Medicalism came to be violently and maliciously opposed  unto  the remotest cor-
 ners of the Union   It is ignorance, therefore, which has set the minds of men
         2 
 18          A  DEFENSE  OF  PHYSIO-MEDICALISM.

 against it; and we find that wherever people lay aside their prejudices, note the
 operations of the system and inquire candidly into its teachings, those  people at
 once become its friends and supporters.  It is this spread of knowledge upon the
 subject which has made legislatures take away the exclusive  protection they for-
 merly gave to Allopathy and drives the "regulars" themselves to that  last resort
 of failing popularity—a  crude  and  ignorant imitation of their  more successful
 opponents.
  The course which Allopathy has pursued, and the tricks and stratagems to which
 she has resorted, in her warfare against Physio-Medicalism, are  ample  evidences
 that she has been moved  by a spirit of dislike toward reform  and not by any dis-
 position to seek the benefit of the suffering  in preference  to  her own  piques or
 prejudices.  As these things are now  matters of history, and  offer the  best  illus-
 tration of the bitterness with which she has pursued progressive medicine from the
 commencement, we will present a few of them here.
                         ALLOPATHY RESORTS TO LAW.
  The first resort that Allopathists  made, was to the law.  Seeing the rapidity
 with which reform was spreading and how likely it was to take the place of their
 system, which they had  been telling the world was  founded  in  speculation and,
 therefore, not to be relied upon, they  used their immense wealth and influence to
 get State governments to pass laws making it a punishable offense for any man to
 deal out medicine unless licensed by their  own  school.   No man  who differed
 from them was to be  allowed the free exercise of his opinions; but was to be
 forced into silence, or compelled to renounce his  convictions  and give  in  his ad-
 herence to what he honestly believed to be error.   He was not to attempt to relieve
 suffering, soothe pain or ameliorate misery, unless he did it in the ways that they
 had  sanctioned.  They used the strong arm of the law to  prevent men from im-
 proving the art of curing disease, subjected to  fines and imprisonments any one
 who would attempt such improvements, deprived  him of his right to receive pay
 for any services he might render to the sick,  and even carried their legal  restric-
 tions so far as to prevent  every freeman from employing any other medical adviser
 than a disciple  of Allopathy.  They  secured the passage  of such laws in every
 State where a reformer showed himself—in New York, Ohio, Georgia, the Caro-
 linas, Vermont, Maryland, Pennsylvania, etc., etc.   In this  way they  sought to
 block the wheels of progress, limit the advances of science and crush the exercise
 of free thought and free action  on medical subjects—thus creating a monopoly of
 knowledge in their own behalf, and that in a  country which owes its glorious na-
 tionality to the dislike it has always borne to  monied, titled, political, religious and
 every other form of proscription.  The movement was  a  bold one, and as bitter
 as it was bold.
  But this state of things did not continue long, and in less than  ten years reform-
 ers were knocking at Assembly-room doors and asking for a removal of such un-
just  restrictions.  They claimed freedom of  opinion, as guarantied by the Consti-
 tution, and demanded the privilege  of free  action as their right.  And how were
 such demands met?  By every gross  libel and unmanly artifice  that Allopathists
 could bring  to  bear.  Year after year did reformers petition; and year after year
 did Allopathists pledge money and expend time in every  county, buy over news-
 papers in  every town, travel from house  to  house  circulating grave but untrue
 charges, bring their passions and influence to bear in every saloon of fashion, in 
A  DEFENSE  OF  PHYSIO-MEDICALISM.          19
 every association of scholars and in every hall of government—sometimes getting
 legislatures openly to  ridicule  the  practitioners, at others to throw the petitions
 under the table and on one occasion (in Ohio) to refer a petition to the legislative
 committee on Penitentiaries—and all to stay the progress of Physio-Medicalism
 by holding over it the  charge of criminality, and to  sustain  their own false and
 mischievous practices by the aid of governmental authority.  Those were days of
 passion, prejudice and  violence on the part of Allopathy;  days when fairness and
justice were trampled  under foot and  the welfare of humanity forgotten in the
 fierce strife for the maintenance of the monopoly of a sect.  A more discredita-
 ble, self-condemning record never  existed against any tyrant of ancient Europe,
 than the past fifty years  of medical history shows  against Allopathy—to whose
 course nothing but the unscrupulous violence of Papacy is  comparable.  But it
 all would not do; and after  several years of toil and struggle, the  odious laws
 were repealed in State after State, till now Physio-Medicalism stands every where
 on a legal level with her opponent.
   The  enactment of laws, however, was not enough for Allopathists; they  must
 have those laws carried into effect before they would be satisfied.  They began a
 crushing operation, and spared no toil  nor  money that they thought would  help
 them in their attempt. How well do  the older reformers remember the county
 meetings held by their opponents; the fearful maledictions there used against re-
 form, and the fresh zeal  against progress that each physician would show  after
 coming home from those councils with his "regular" brethren.   This course was
 pursued all over the land, and the threats at prosecution for taking pay here, for
 waiting upon the sick there and for giving out medicine (particularly lobelia) else-
 where, kept the  people in a constant ferment; and when to these were added the
 very many instances in which the reformer's  character was traduced, his wife and
 daughters slandered, his barns and houses fired and his horse shot dead from under
 him, it is not to  be wondered at that the medical excitement ran high and that
 communities were known as being divided into reformers and regulars.
   Finally, to smother the whole thing,  suits were actually commenced, among the
most prominent of which were those against Dr. Thomson, in Salem, Massachu-
setts, and Dr. Frost, in New York.  Dr. Thomson was charged with willful mur-
der; his accuser (Dr. French) heaped  on him every abusive epithet common  to
the English language;  he was put  in a cell  with a malefactor, with  straw for a
bed, and an unwashed blanket for covering;  no  fire for thirty days to warm him
through the cold winds of November, and filthy  vermin for his  bed-fellows.   On
his trial, the Allopathic physicians gave testimony that he had  given lobelia,
which, being a poison, had caused the death of one Ezra Lovett; but the article
sworn to as being lobelia was shown to be nothing more than marsh rosemary,
and Dr. Thomson was at once honorably acquitted, while the  Allopathists left the
court with  their heads hanging in  shame.  In the same manner,  Dr. Frost was
indicted for murder, and the proceedings of the Allopathists in court was of  such
a shameless character, and  showed such a  hardihood in  malevolence, that the
newspapers could  not  be  silenced  from crying shame upon it.  Dr. Frost was
found guilty of manslaughter in the fourth degree (a degree which  does  not exist
in law), was fined ten dollars and left the court with the feelings of the entire city
of New York in his favor.
  Now let every candid man  calmly ask himself what inference is to be drawn 
20          A  DEFENSE  OF  PHYSIO-MEDICALISM.

from such acts as those, and there is no one but must come to the conclusion  that
Allopathists felt themselves too feeble to cope honorably with reformers, and so
appealed to the law as the only power that could save them and their errors from
the sweeping  march of progress.   There can  be no other explanation for their
conduct, which exhibited the very essence of weakness, and was neither  manly
nor fair.  Free and open opposition always commands respect; but this method
of resorting to legislation to uphold the prescriptive spirit of a sect, and of using
perjury in the courts of justice to  overthrow the merits of a rival, can not be too
strongly denounced.  But Allopathy has never scrupled at the character  of the
means she used, so long as it promised to secure  her  ends—having always  shown
herself the oppressor when strong and constantly longing for the power  to op-
press, now that she has  become weak.  It is  only a few years since Dr. Forney
made a speech in Syracuse, New  York, in the course of which he said:  " We are
surrounded by a set of quacks.   The legislature—themselves  a set of quacks—
have given these quacks full swing, and left the 'regulars' to  defend themselves
as best they can." Thus do they continue to lament the loss of their old  mo-
nopoly, and to acknowledge that they feel unable to stand unless the law is willing
to shield them from opposition.
   How different has been the course of Physio-Medicalism!   It has come up in
spite  of the law,  and never has asked any other protection than the simple, God-
given privilege of free thinking and acting.  Relying upon the conviction of being
right, it has asked no other protection than to  stand or fall by its own merits.  It
has thrown itself  open to the people, and courted their investigation.  It has re-
peatedly proposed gentlemanly discussion with Allopathy,  being willing to be
swept out of  existence if the evils charged against it could be proven.  The peo-
ple have examined and adopted it; Allopathy has ever refused discussion, and has,
as Dr. Wood advised the American  Medical Association in  1856, " adhered un-
swervingly to the line which has been drawn between regular and irregular medi-
cine, and treated the practitioners of the latter with silent disrespect."  Let every
man decide, in his own mind, which spirit is most praiseworthy—which most de-
serving of his encouragement.
                     THE "ONE REMEDY" OF REFORMERS.
   About the funniest charge made by Allopathists against reformers, is, that the
latter "use the same remedy for every thing."  And what  do you suppose this
one remedy is? Why, steam, lobelia and cayenne pepper!  These three agencies
are what our  opponents very gravely tell the people is the  one remedy we  use to
cure "every thing!"   We commend them to their arithmetics.  And yet we can
not but laugh at this thing, for it  reminds us of the Irishman who went to a boat-
ing party and undertook to give an account  of it  next day.  " And how many
were wid ye?" asked a friend.  " Sure there was four of us.   There was the two
Flannegans was one; mesilf was  two; Taddy O'Thule was three—"   Here Paddy
was puzzled,  rubbed his head, tried it over again, paused, and suddenly broke out:
"Faith, now  it's mesilf that has  it.   There was Taddy O'Thule was one; mesilf
was two; the two Flannegans was three—   Och, be jabevu, I belave there was
but three of us, afther all!"
   The fact of the matter is, Physio-Mtdicalists have about four hundred agents in
their  materia medica, and Allopathists know it very well.  Instead, however, of
giving us credit for what belongs  to us, and thus obeying the Bible  injunction of 
A  DEFENSE  OF  PHYSIO-MEDICALISM.          21
returning " honor to whom honor" is due, they are busily employed in hunting up
what we say about our agents, and then publishing it to the world as  their own
discovery!  This they have done with lobelia, cayenne, cleavers, unicorn, cohosh,
lady slipper, bayberry, and some dozens of our other agents.  To abuse a rival is
bad enough; but to pilfer from him the very things for which you  abuse  him, to
rob him of the very improvements for which you condemn him, is an act of which
nothing but the blindness of passion can render men capable.
                      CHARGES AGAINST THE STEAM BATH.
  To seek the injury of Physio-Medicalism by telling very horrible stories  about
the use of the vapor bath, has been a favorite  mode  of procedure with its  oppo-
nents.  Their journals used continually to be telling  about  a death from its use
here, and a death from it there; and,  as if the simple word death were not a suffi-
cient charge, every device of ingenuity lent point and pathos to the tale.  At one
time, the process of securing a gentle perspiration by steam, and then following it
with a shower of cold water, was pictured as being an almost unendurable torture,
instead of the agreeable luxury which  it is well known to be. At another time, a
very detailed account was given of the ghastly, frightful appearance presented by
such and such a person who  had been kept in the bath-box for an incredible length
of time, and was finally taken forcibly out of it  by friends.   Again, we heard of
people who had suffocated in the  bath; and now and then  the newspapers have
gravely spoken  of a  person having been steamed till portions of his skin were
ready to slip off, and one till his toe nails footed to the surface  of  the water!
  To the reformer himself, or to any one who has the least knowledge  of the na-
ture and use of  the vapor bath, these charges appear so  perfectly ridiculous  as to
provoke mirth rather than anger.  But they are grave charges, and thousands of
well-meaning people believe them.  Now, we know enough  about the use of this
remedial process to be able to say that such stories are untrue.  Such effects from
its application have never been known, and those stories have been manufactured
entire out of the brains of Allopathists.  True, this is only our word  for it; but
the word of a person, nay of a thousand persons (who will add their  testimony to
ours), who are well acquainted with steam bathing, is certainly  worth much  more
than  that of one who never gave such a bath, nor saw one given, and  who had
much to instigate him to the circulation of such steles. But we are by no means
disposed to rest the defense here, for the stories contain in themselves  the means
of their own refutation.   Thus, it is noticeable that these reputed deaths always
take place at a distance, but never occur in the neighborhood where they are re-
ported.  Then, again, it is somewhat peculiar that no person has ever been  tried,
much less convicted, for causing even one of the many startling deaths attributed
to this cause;  from which no inference can be  more  plain than that, as affection
for the reformers could not have induced the Allopathists to hold such  murders
from the courts, a conviction of the utter want of truth in  all  such charges has
been the only thing that has kept the " steamer" from the clutches of  Allopathic
law, and perhaps of an Allopathic gallows.  That some very ignorant men have
used the vapor bath more  than was necessary, there can be no doubt; but all such
operations were as much against the rules  of  the reformers themselves  as they
were in opposition to every man's common-sense.   Allopathy should  be more
generous than to judge and condemn an entire and well-educated sect of the med-
ical profession by the acts  Oi' a  few illiterate  and  irresponsible  men, here and 
22
A  DEFENSE OF  PHYSIO-MEDICALISM.
 there; for if she pursue this method of detracting from her rival, what a fearful
 account would she herself have to render up for the  thousands of her ignorant
 followers who are practicing "regular" medicine all over the country!
   But there is such an abundance of testimony in favor of the  luxury, harmless-
 ness and remedial virtues of the vapor bath, that  for any one to attempt its  de-
 traction is to show an astonishing ignorance of the  medical and civil history of
 mankind.  It is a process which has been employed  for upward of two thousand
 years, and its efficiency in preserving health and curing disease  has been proven
 by the best physicians and most civilized and  healthy nations of Europe.  In
 Turkey, Russia and Persia, the vapor bath is the popular luxury; and no town is
 considered  complete till it has  put one  or two such establishments in operation.
 Every traveler who visits those countries, mentions these bathing houses as among
 their most  popular and best supported institutions, which the people use as an  in-
 dispensable luxury, and by the aid of which  they cure  " rheumatism, gout, fevers
 and even hydrophobia."  Tooke attributes the "longevity and robust health" of
 the Russians to their vapor baths; the Egyptians use  them to relieve apathy and
 procure "delightful sensations," and "for five hundred years Rome had no  other
 physicians than her baths."  Allopathic practitioners,  nearly a century and a half
 ago, used to employ it freely, and we learn from them that the heat can be raised
 even  to one hundred and forty-six degrees, and continued  for  some hours (under
 proper management)  without  doing injury; that it relieved scrofulous tumors,
 merculiar and other forms  of  rheumatism, gout, dyspepsia, pressure of blood to
 the head, inflammation, paralysis, diabetis, pneumonia  and similar serious and
 stubborn difficulties; and that, in fever, "it disposes to a calm  and sound sleep,
 and regulates the discharge from the skin; the increase of the symptoms is less-
 ened, if not prevented; the head is prevented  from delirium and the symptoms
 are moderated until the disease terminates."  But the  testimony in  favor of this
 measure does not stop even here, for in  1836 M. Bouisson, an eminent physician
 of Paris, presented to the Royal Academy of Medicine a memoir giving the par-
 ticulars of the cure of himself and sixteen other  indisputable cases of hydrophobia
 by means of vapor baths.
   Multitudes of such facts as these, not only furnished by travelers, but by learned
 and eminent Allopathic physicians, prove  the real nature and value of the vapor
 bath.  They show that it is harmless, that it is a luxury and that it fulfills indica-
 tions in disease that can not be  fulfilled by any other known agency, and  cures
 maladies that Allopathy concedes to be  incurable by any other known means.
 With such  testimony as this before the  world, the "regular" physician who  seeks
 to excite a  prejudice against this bath, must either be inexcusably ignorant of  the
 history and practices of his own sect, or else  admit that his  opposition  arises
 merely from a disposition to do spiteful injury to the reformers.
                           LOBELIA NOT A POISON.
   But in all the contests between Allopathists and reformers, our opponents have
 shown more bitterness against  lobelia than on any other single point.   From  the
 first, they pronounced it a  vile poison, allied to the family of the tobacco and,
 therefore, possessed of the same qualities as this plant, and capable of producing
 death in doses of a few grains.   Their journals  and the public papers used  to be
constantly occupied in giving accounts of  its fearful qualities, the reckless manner
in which ic  was employed by the reformers and the numerous  sudden deaths that 
A  DEFENSE  OF PHYSIO-MEDICALISM.          23
 it had caused.  From end to end of this land, every press rang out its peals against
 it, as if a very demon had burst upon our country and was spreading  devastation
 and death broadcast.  And when the courts of justice were appealed  to, and the
 reformers were arraigned before the bar to meet the punishment due to murderers,
 Hays, French, Cheeseman, Dunnell, A. G. Smith, and many other physicians of
 the " regular" school, testified, most positively, under oath, that  from twenty to
 sixty grains of lobelia would kill a healthy, robust person.  And  next, beginning
 with Dr. Barton's  Medical Botany, and  running through Thacher, Dunglison,
 Pereira, Griffith, Wood and Bache, we find all the standard Allopathic writers on
 Materia Medica "regularly" asserting the dangerous, poisonous, fatal  qualities of
 this article.   No occasion has been omitted, no stone left unturned, no  language
 spared, that could possibly give point to the unscrupulous warfare against  the in-
 nocent emetic of Dr. Thomson.
   To show how unfounded these charges are, we need call attention to but a few
 facts.   And first, that lobelia in no way resembles tobacco, may be felt by every
 one who will try the two  articles.   It is a matter of simple demonstration that
 their qualities  are  not alike.  Allopathists themselves feel this; for  while they
 will not smoke or chew lobelia, they use tobacco to a most defiling extent in both
 ways.  At one time, they use all the fine language that can be found, to prove the
 luxury and benefits of using "the weed;" but at another  time  they hurl their
 loudest anathemas against lobelia because it is like tobacco—tobacco now becom-
 ing a poison.   Is not such inconsistency the best evidence of error?
   Allowing, however, that lobelia is a poison, that is no reason why they should
 oppose it.   Indeed, it would be the best reason in the world why they should use
 it; for have we not seen that they act upon the belief that the  strongest poisons
 make the best remedies?   Take their own  theories for it, and  lobelia should be
 one of their most valuable articles.  The fact that they cry out  against it, proves
 one of two things—either that they  do not believe poisons are good remedies, or
 else do not believe lobelia to be a poison.
   But in all the outcry they have made against this article, it is remarkable that
 they always destroyed their own testimony by saying that they had never used it,
 and knew nothing about it practically.*  They would jump  at every unfounded
 rumor, catch at every rabid assertion and try all the means in their power to have
 the givers of lobelia condemned to the prison and the gallows.  Yet, while mak-
 ing all these unequaled exertions to have fellow mortals condemned to death, and
 while invoking the solemnity of an oath to give force to their assertions of the
 destructive character of this plant, they stated, upon being cross  examined, that
   * At the present time, we hear Allopathists speak of using the article, " in very
 small doses," in asthma, croup, and  some other cases; and on such a limited ex-
 perience as this—giving every dose with a trembling hand and generally combin-
 ing it with opium, calomel, henbane, or some other of their deadly poisons—they
 claim to understand its qualities, and would even teach reformers themselves how
 to handle it.   This is nothing less than owning up that the force of popular opinion
 has at length driven them to acknowledge the value of lobelia;  yet they are not
 fair and manly enough to credit the reformers, who have fought so long and sacri-
 ficed so much in its defense, with having been its  discoverers.  Allopathy would
 stand in better repute before the public if she never said  a word about using  it;
 for to seek the destruction of the early reformers because they gave it, and then
 to arrogate  to themselves the  credit" of introducing  it,  is adding insult  to the
grossest of injuries, and community should treat such conduct as it  deserves. 
24          A  DEFENSE  OF  PHYSIO-MEDICALISM.

they did not  know that which they had sworn to as being a fact, but only, "sup-
posed," "thought," "believed," "inferred," "conjectured," "reckoned," "cal-
culated" and " guessed" that it was a poison!!   Comment  upon such  reckless
conduct is unnecessary.  The malevolence that would sacrifice innocent lives and
unsullied characters to secure its ends, can be at once seen in all its nakedness.
  Now, the reformer claims for lobelia that it is  not only perfectly innocent, but
that it is possessed of qualities that are  of the greatest importance in the treat-
ment of disease.  It relaxes all the tissues of the body, opening the skin, kidneys,
liver and bowels, so that the excretions of these several organs may be cast out,
and the body  thus freed from the great provoking causes of disease.   It loosens
the bloodvessels, and thus allows the free passage of the vital fluid to every fiber
in the body,  relieving  the  obstructions  in colds, lung fever, typhus, dysentery,
dropsy, ague, etc., etc.  It soothes the nervous structures by relieving them from
the presence of unnatural and exciting materials that are so often retained in the
system; and by these several effects, it is  of the greatest power in curing every
form of fever, and every degree of irritation and inflammation in all parts of the
body.  That such influences as these  are  invaluable, all Allopathists will admit;
that their materia medica has no article, nor any combination of articles, that can
be relied on to produce such results,  they will freely acknowledge; and  that the
discovery of an agent possessing such powers would completely revolutionize the
results of medical practice,  they will not for a moment deny.  How praiseworthy
it would be for them, then, to lay aside their inflamed prejudices and calmly exam-
ine an article which reformers use so  largely and for which they claim such desir-
able properties.  But the prejudices of men change none of God's  creations; and
lobelia and its auxiliaries are and have been revolutionizing  medical practice, the
efforts of the " regulars" to the contrary, notwithstanding.  As we have seen that
the Allopathists who were loudest in denouncing it as a poison,  confessed that
they had never employed it, let us now see the estimate placed upon  it by those
who have used it.
  And here, first, we have the testimony of Dr. Waterhouse, of Cambridge, and
Dr. Tully, of New Haven.  These men were  Allopathic physicians of the most
"regular" training;  they were scholars of the first order; they were professors of
medicine respectively in Harvard University and Yale College, and they have al-
ways been looked upon as two of Allopathia's brightest stars.   Both  these men
used lobelia—tried it for themselves and examined its claims practically and thor-
oughly; and they both came to the conclusion that the article was perfectly harm-
less  and safe, not  at all poisonous (under  any circumstances nor in any form),
possessed of reliable and positive relaxing powers, and valuable for all  the pur-
poses Dr. Thomson then (1825) claimed for it. These men knew what they testi-
fied to be true; and their word, in view of this  fact, outweighs all the " thinkings"
and "guessings" that could be done in a lifetime  by all the Smiths, Joneses and
Browns that  the world has ever seen.   In the same manner, Poindexter, Terry,
Murphy, Wood, Henly, Griffin,  and more than two dozen other well-read Allopa-
thists, have used lobelia extensively, and have, during the past twenty-five years,
given in their full testimony as to its  perfect harmlessness.
  But besides this amount of testimony, we have the testimony of the reformers
themselves.   There are, in the United States,  about four thousand  physicians who
use  lobelia,  not counting  the many thousand individuals who give it in their 
             A  DEFENSE  OF  PHYSIO-MEDICALISM.          25

families- because they do not live in the neighborhood of a Physio-Medical practi-
tioner.  To these four thousand, add about one thousand who have died since the
medical reformation began.  It is a low estimate to say that each of these five thou-
sand physicians treats three hundred cases a year.   Allow thirty years as the pe-
riod during which Physio-Medicalism has been represented  by  this number of
practitioners, and we would have an aggregate of forty-five million cases which
have been  treated by Physio-Medicalists within that time.  All  these estimates
are low; but allowing them to stand thus, and taking the Allopathic assertion that
reformers "use lobelia for every thing," and there would be  this mass  of testi-
mony to draw upon in favor of the article.  But assume  that lobelia is not used
in more than half the cases treated, and there would then be twenty-two million
five hundred thousand (22,500,000)  distinct instances in which this  agent had
been used.  And during the course of all this mass of experience, reformers have
given  lobelia in powder, decoction, infusion, tincture, sirup, extract, oxymel and
pill; by the grain, scruple and teaspoonful;  to men, women and babes;  to the ro-
bust, nervous, irritable and  debilitated; at  morning, noon, night  and every hour
of the twenty-four; to the  point of nausea, sweating, vomiting, relaxation and
" alarm ;" at the rate of a drachm, an ounce and (in a great many instances) four
ounces of the seeds in twenty-four hours; by the mouth, the bowels and the skin—
we say that reformers have used lobelia constantly in all these forms and quanti-
ties, on all these classes of patients and  to all these degrees. And what is the
testimony given by the positive, individual, undeniable  experience of those five
thousand practitioners  in  more than  twenty-two  millions cases?  On all sides,
from every corner of the land, with one spontaneous outburst, comes up the record
that lobelia is not a poison.  Whether ejected or retained, whether used in grains
or ounces, whether given to the strong or the feeble, it is alike harmless and reli-
able; and the more of  it that is used,  the more clearly is its innocuousness seen
and the more of it does the reformer desire to employ.
   In view of such an overwhelming mass of evidence, where stands the  opinion
of Allopathy, which does not use lobelia at all, or which only has a disciple here
and there to deal it out in drops?  Evidently the  testimony of those who use  an
article, who have used it in every form and to every degree—even keeping pa-
tients under the full influence of it for two days at a time—the testimony of these
men is that which deserves attention at the  hands of a national jury.  Actuated,
as reformers have been, by the most self-sacrificing spirit of humanity, possessed
of vigorous observing powers and enjoying the above-mentioned opportunities for
experience, their unanimous voice outweighs all  that Allopathy can say against
lobelia in about the proportion that the globe would outweigh a grain of sand!
                           THE CRY OF QUACKERY.
   One of the handiest  phrases for a medical man to use against another who does
not happen to believe just as he does, is that " he is a  quack."   Allopathy has
used this against reformers till the song has grown gray, and they seem to think.
that its bare mention settles the whole question between themselves and their op-
ponents; but whoever pauses a few moments to reflect, will soon see that nothing
can be more completely absurd than a cry like this. The word Quack  is under-
stood to mean a pretender; one who professes to do that which he can not, and to
understand that which he  does not; one who lays claim to superior knowledge
upon medical subjects, when, in point of fact, he is quite ignorant of them. These 
 26           A  DEFENSE  OF  PHYSIO-MEDICALISM.

 are the ideas always associated with this term; and  now when we examine the
 Allopathic authorities, we find that they are the " boasters" and the " pretenders."
 They lay claim  to all the knowledge possessed on medicine, and we have seen
 that they would bind young men, by oaths, not to investigate any advances made
 in this science;  yet their own Dr. Whiting says: " The very principles upon which
 most of what are called the theories involving medical questions have been based,
 were never  established.  They are, and always were, false;" and Rush said,
 "Our want of success is owing to the following causes: first, our ignorance of the
 disease; second, our ignorance of a  suitable  remedy;" and Bichat  thundered  out
 that " It is a shapeless assemblage of inaccurate ideas, of observations often puer-
 ile, of deceptive remedies."  We can not quote extensively from their writers,
 but it would be easy to compile a large volume out of the expressions  of the  en-
 tire  ignorance and uncertainty of Allopathy, made by her own most eminent and
 experienced physicians.  When the teachers of regularism  honestly declare  the
 hopeless inaccuracy of their own system, and frankly acknowledge (as  did Dr.
 Henderson, of Glasgow) that "some eighty or ninety per cent, of the patients
 who employ medical practitioners, would be better off without them," it  is evi-
 dent that the boastful pretensions of its  practitioners are all humbug, and that
 they are themselves the most unscrupulous quacks in creation!
  But what are the facts about the reformers?  Simply that they make no preten-
 sions, but stand ready to have the people investigate their claims and see whether
 or not they are deceivers.  They throw every thing open, hide nothing under Latin
 symbols and abbreviations, fear no court of inquiry and make no attempts to bol-
 ster up a mass of errors by appeals to legislatures.  They have published  numer-
 ous works on  medical science, and  are  anxious to have every man watch their
 course and examine their principles,  that the harmony of their theories and prac-
 tices may be seen by all.   Twenty-three years ago they established a medical col-
 lege, though Allopathy there again tried to use the  law to force them  to  remain
 in ignorance;  and now they have four legally chartered collegiate institutions in
 active operation, and have sent out their thoroughly disciplined graduates all over
 the land.  In these colleges, they teach Anatomy, Physiology, Surgery, Obstetrics,
 Botany and Chemistry, in the most thorough manner, besides imparting the fullest
 instruction in Practice, Materia Medica  and  Hygiene.  They have also raised
 their standard of education to the highest attainable point, making merit the only
 passport to graduation, and insisting upon the most thorough qualification of every
 student who would offer to deal in life and death.   Is this "pretension," "boast-
ing," "empiricism," "quackery?"  If it is, then it is the kind of empiricism that
is loved by honest men and women of all countries and all ranks; and  Allopathy
will do well to drop her  self-condemned  "art of guessing,"  her  system  of "ab-
surdities,  contradictions and falsehoods," and imitate this  "quackery"  of the
reformers. 
(fapraiibc   Results   of   fracikt.
  When logic fails, when common sense is no longer listened to and prejudice is
allowed to coerce reason, a last resort is to be found in an appeal to figures.  If
Physio-Medicalism has any advantage over Allopathy, or if it is a mass of useless
sophisms, figures will place it in its true light.   By watching the practice  of the
two systems and carefully noting the number of cases treated  by each, and then
comparing the per centage of deaths under the two plans of treatment, we will
have a kind of testimony that can not be gainsayed.  The simple question  is:
Which system cures  the most cases?  If, "on a fair examination, Allopathy is
found to cure the greater proportion, away with Physio-Medicalism;  but if Physio-
Medicalism cures the  most, even if it be but two more out of every hundred
treated, then away with Allopathy.   One human life saved out of every hundred
who get sick, would, no doubt, make many thousands a year in the United  States
alone; and if the new system can save so many more than the old one, its claim
to every man's unhesitating support is at once established.
  In seeking to present figures, we much regret that no extensive tables  of Allo-
pathic practice are in  our possession.  Our neighbors are not over fond of  letting
mankind know the proportion of deaths that occur under their hands;  and  on this
account we can not extend our exposition  of their system to the length that we
would wish.   As far as we give figures, however, we wish it to be understood that
no use is made of any statements, on either side of this question, except such as
have been gathered from responsible sources, and can be fully relied on.
                              TYrHUS FEVER.
  The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal has frequently asserted that their sys-
tem loses about 4 of these cases out of every 5.  The New Orleans Medical Jour-
nal says that Southern Allopathists lose about 80 out  of every 1<»0.  The follow-
ing table puts the thing in a  fair light—the Allopathic statement having been
given in the Boston Journal, for February 21, 1856, and being the most favorable
we can find for that school.  It shows that the Allopathic loss was  nearly  20 out
of every  100, while the Physio-Medical loss was less than 2 out of every 100:
             A llopathy.
McNeal........treated 132---lost 20
Stewart........   "   109.... "  23
Requa.........   "    61.... "  25
Jones..........   "   100.... "  19
Bledso.........   "    40.... "  10
Thompson.....   "   152.... "  19

                     594
Mrs
    Phy sio- Medicalism.
Gaines......treated CO.
.lost
J.W.Walker....   "
W.F. McAlister..   "
G.S.Martin.....   "
W.H.Cook......   "
J. Burson........   "
 40...,
 5'i...,
 45....
 67....
 91...,

353
                             116
                           VELLOW FEVER.
In the epidemics of yellow fever which have raged from time to time in Savan- 
28        COMPARATIVE  RESULTS  OF PRACTICE.

nah, Norfolk, Charleston and other southern cities, the loss has been not less than
45 out of every 100 treated  by Allopathists.  We have watched the newspaper
reports from day to day in each epidemic, and this is the exact result.
   In Physio-Medical practice, we have  many private letters  stating general suc-
cess; but of the  actual figures given by Drs. Nardin, Stotesbury, Alexander and
King, their losses were in the proportion of 5 to every 100 treated.
                                 DYSENTERY.
   So far as we have been able to learn  from the  Allopathic treatment of dysen-
tery in New York,  Boston,  Baltimore and New  Orleans,  they lost 267 cases
out of 940.
   Among the reformers, we gather the  following results of practice: Dr. Early, of
Scio, New York,  treated 108, lost none;  G. S. Martin, of Maquoketa, Iowa,
treated 117, lost 3; ten physicians, reported to the Middle States Society, treated
568, lost 18.
  .Thus Allopathy lost 267 out of 940, which is nearly 30  deaths to every 100
cases treated; Physio-Medicalism lost 21 out of 793, which is less than 3 deaths
to every 100 treated.
                                  CHOLERA.
   Of all the reports of Allopathic treatment of cholera that  we can get for 1832,
their losses were invariably 66 out of every 100 cases treated.  In 1849, and
1854, in New York, the losses,  not only as given from day to day by the newspa-
pers, but in the aggregate report of practice, were 51 out of every 100 treated.
   Of the practice of reformers, we have gathered reliable  reports of 934 cases
treated, of which 62 were lost, or less than 7 out of every 100.
                               HYDROPHOBIA.
   After a very careful examination of  all the Allopathic books  and journals  in
our possession, or within our reach, we can not find that a single well-attested case
of hydrophobia has been cured.   Within the past two years, a number of the lead-
ing  Allopathic journals have stated that no case of this  malady has ever been
cured by them, and that they can not do any thing with it.
   We have already alluded to the cure of 16 fully developed cases, by M. Bouis-
son, with the vapor bath.  This practice was not properly under the hands of re-
formers, but the means used were the same that are employed by Physio-Medical-
ists.  Among the  reformers  themselves, we  have the record of 9 indisputable
cases that have been permanently cured.
   These statements may seem too great for belief; but we give them on our honor
from reliable  sources.  If space permitted, we could  add many others to them,
giving the  full details of reports, and carrying the comparison through lung fever,
measles, small-pox, scarlet fever, croup, pleurisy, erysipelas and many other acute
forms of disease, in which the differences  of the two systems  are even more aston-
ishing than in the maladies we  have mentioned.  But enough has been adduced
to let every candid man see the practical workings of the poison-giving plan com-
pared with the anti-poison plan. We appeal to every individual's better judgment
upon this question, asking him  to sit down calmly, while in  health, and consider
whether he can continue, with these facts and figures staring him in the face, de-
liberately to give his  support and  trust his life  to " regularism," or whether the
common-sense philosophy of  the new school  does  not  promise  him  the best
chances for a healthful life and a hale old age. 
  THE   GREATEST   IMPROVEMENT
       YET MADE IN PREPARING THE CONCENTRATED MEDICINES, IS BY

               L.   L>.  HILL,
South-East Corner of Race  and Fifth Streets,  Cincinnati, Ohio.
   I  call the attention of Physicians and Druggists to the fact
that I will sell at the lowest cash prices, all  articles  belonging
to the innumerable list of
           DRUGS  AND  MEDICINES,
     Now in use among  Eclectic and  Botanic  Practitioners.
   My stock is larger and better selected than ever before; war-
ranted fresh, pure  and of the  best quality.  I have all the pow-
dered articles,  prepared by experienced workmen, under  my
immediate  superintendence.    My  efforts to supply  fresh and
unadulterated  medicines, so  far, have proved successful; from
which fact I feel constrained to tender my most heartfelt thanks
to my numerous patrons for their continued support  and pat-
ronage, and assure them that no effort will be spared to All all
orders promptly, at prices which will be satisfactory to all who
have purchased or may purchase of me hereafter.
   From a continued series of experiments, I  have no hesitancy
in saying that by the improvements made in the mode of pre-
paring the following list of Concentrated Medicines, I can offer
these preparations to the public, containing all the medical vir-
tues possible to be obtained from the different native substances
and  of a finer quality than ever before manufactured.
                 LIST OF  PREPARATIONS:
  Aletrin, Soft...........$0 60 per oz.  Leptandrin, Powdered.. .$0 60 per oz.
  Apocynin, Lactinated....  50  "     Myricin,     "    ...   60
  Ascle'pidine,  "    ---  50  "     Macrotin,     "    ...   60
  Caulophylline, Powdered. 100  "     Oleum Capsicum........   60
  Cornine,         "  ..  75  "       »   Lobelia.........   60
  Corydaline,       "  .. 2 Oi)  "       "   Male Fern.......  1 e(]
  Cypripedine, Lactinated..  50  "       "   Stillingia........   75
  Dioscorine, Powdered... 150  "       "   Xanthoxylum.....   60
  Eupatorine,    "    ...  75  "     Phytolaccin, Powdered...   75
  Eupurpurin, Oleo-Resin.  60  "     Podophyllin,    "    ...   60
  Geranin, Powdered......  60  "     Prunine,      "    ...   75
  Gelseminin, Lactinated.. 100  "     Pterin, Soft.............   60
  Helonin, Soft...........  60  "     Sanguinarin, Powdered..   60
  Hydrastin, Crystal...... 150  "     Scutellaria     "    ..150
  Iridin, Soft.............  60  "     Senecionin,     "    ..150
  Juglandin, Powdered---  75  "     Xanthoxylin,   "    ..   75
  Lobeline,     "    ---   75  "
  I request each one  ordering goods from me to be particular
in giving their directions in full.  That no delay may be caused
by my ignorance of  the most  direct  route, I advise  all who
can to have goods shipped and money forwarded  by Express.
                TERMS—CASH INVARIABLY. 
WILLIAM  S.   MERRELL  &  CO.,
WHOLESALE DEALERS IN
    AMERICAN  AND  FOREIGN  MEDICINES,    .  *

                      AND  MANUFACTURERS OF

       PROXIMATE  MEDBCIi\AE   PRINCIPLES,

ALCOHOLIC   AND  FLUID   EXTRACTS,

               Essential Tincture*, Sirups,  &c.

 Drug Store—No. 110  West Third Street, next to the Burnet House.

     Drug Mills and Laboratory—Nus. 94 and 96 Pearl Street,

                     CINCINNATI,  OHIO.
    OUR  STOCK  OF  INDIGENOUS  MEDICINES  IS  LARGER  AND
     the assortment more perfect than  any in  the Union.  We  are prepared to
furnish physicians with their entire stocks, including medicines of all kinds, shop
furniture, instruments, books, etc., at the most  satisfactory prices.
  Our Drug Mills are not excelled in the proportion and variety of the machin-
ery by any other establishment, and here we prepare  all our  powders  fresh and
pure.   This and our Medical Laboratory are open at all times to the visits of
our customers, and all  our operations explained.  Of our celebrated Proximate
Medicinal Principles, we make a large number.  The following are in powdered
form, and put up in one ounce vials.  They arc mostly resinoid, a few" alkaloid,
others mixed:
ig •*•
Podophyllin,
Leptandrin,
Cimicifugio, or
Macro tin,
Alnuine,
Ampelopsine,
Apocynin,
Asclepidin,
Baptisin,
Caulophylline,
Colocynthin,
Cornine,
Corydalin,
Cypripedine,
Dioscorein,
Eryngine,
Euonymine,
Eupatoidin,
Eupatorine,
Eupurpurin,
Gelseminine,
Geranine.
Gillenine,
Helonin,
Hydrastine,
Irisin,
Jalapin,
Juglandin,
Lobeline,
Menispermin,
Myricin,
Panduratin,
Phytolaccin,
Populin,
Prunine,
Ptelein,
Rhusin,
Rumicin,
Sanguinarina,
Sanguinarin,
Scutellarine,
Scnecionine,
Stillingine,
Trillin,
Veratrin,
Verbenine,
Viburnme,
Xanthoxylin,
  Of those medicinal principles which are soft resinoids, oleo-resins, or extracted
oils, We omit an enumeration here.  Our alcoholic  extracts, hydro-alcoholic  and
common extracts, and fluid extracts, are all warranted to be of a quality not sur-
passed by those of any other manufacturer.  They are from almost  every article
of the vegetable materia medica, both native and foreign.
  We are also introducing a new  class of preparations that we term  Essential
Tinctures.  They contain, in a very concentrated and .convenient form, the en-
tire and unchanged medicinal virtues of the plants tbey represent, more perfectly
than any other pharmaceutical preparations can do.   We would call  the attention
of the profession to them.
  Those who wish fuller information are invited to send for our circular and price
current.  To Druggists-, who buy our  preparations  in  considerable  quantities, a
liberal discount will be made.