AN ADDRESS 
HEAD BEFORE THE 
ESCUUPIiN SDCIEH Of THE WIBiSH TILLEY 
HELD 
AT PARIS, ILLINOIS, 
ON THE 29th OF OCTOBER, 1857. 
BY 
E. READ, M. ZD., 
OF TERRE HAUTE, INDIANA. 
PRINTED BY BARNET & CLARKE, BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS, 
■■Chromotype" Office, 189 Lake Street, Chicago. 
1858. AN ADDRESS 
READ BEFORE THE 
ESCULAPIAN SOCIETY OF THE WABASH VALLEY, 
HELD AT PARIS, ILLINOIS, ON THE 29th OF OCTOBER, 1857 
BY E. READ, M. D., 
OF TERRE HAUTE, INDIANA. 
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Esculapian Society : 
I have witnessed with the profoundest pleasure the proceed- 
ings of your Society, from its formation up to the present 
time, and although I have not had the good fortune to meet 
with you at any time before this, yet I have been apprised of 
the action of each one of your meetings, which, I can assure 
you, has received my heartiest approbation. I am gratified to 
have the privilege of meeting with you on this occasion, and I 
am still more gratified, to witness so much earnestness on the 
part of intelligent medical gentlemen in the pursuit of knowl- 
edge, and in the desire of elevating, if possible, the most 
dignified, the most useful, and the most humane of all profes- 
sions. 
I regret, however, my inability to aid you in your laudable 
undertaking, as much as I could wish, or to bring you an 
offering, which would make you wiser or better physicians. 
So far as I can, however, in the short time I have appropri- 
1 ADDRESS. 
2 
ated to this purpose, I will offer for your consideration some of 
the changes I have witnessed in the treatment of diseases since 
I commenced the practice of medicine. I may also advance 
some theories, which may not be consonant with your own 
views, but, if by so doing, I may direct your attention to 
doctrines, which, in my opinion, should long since have been 
expunged, notwithstanding you may disagree with me, yet I 
shall flatter myself that you will unite with me in investigating 
the subjects I shall present, and in earnestly seeking for what 
may be true and what false. And I may here be indulged in 
the expression of opinion, that there is nothing so hurtful to 
advancement in science and knowledge as prejudice, which 
consists, in the sense I here use it, of opinions so long taught, 
that they are regarded too sacred to be changed. It is a part 
of our nature to venerate the things which have been taught 
us, as venerated by our fathers before us. It is one of the 
great struggles of life, to abandon those things which we have 
loved and cherished. 
It is the blotting out of impressions, which have been the 
dream-like ideals of all that is beautiful and good. It is 
striking out the sunlight of our memories, and giving to us the 
whirlwind and the storm. It is inviting us from that which we 
have been taught is true and reliable, to that which is unknown 
and unexplored. 
Is it, then, not wonderful that any should have the temerity 
to abandon the known for the unknown ?-that any should be 
found willing to sacrifice the luxurious ease already prepared 
for enjoyment, for the toils and anxieties incident to the in- 
vestigation of subjects not well settled ? Hence, we find, that 
doctrines once established and once received, are difficult to 
change. Few are found willing to attack them - few bold 
enough to lay the axe at the root. In the primitive ages, and 
in the primitive state of our art, it was even more difficult than 
now, because all knowledge was founded on observation, and 
any deviation from that was a criminal offence. 
The sick were in early ages exposed in public places, so 
that any who passed by, and who had been similarly attacked 
and cured, might give their advice for the benefit of the suf- 3 
ADDRESS. 
ferers. At a somewhat later period, another method was 
adopted, which was an improvement, and which was better 
calculated to accelerate the progress of the art, and at the 
same time more humane, because the sick were not exposed to 
the public gaze. 
It was this: all who were cured of disease were required 
to go and make an inscription in the temples of the symptoms 
of their disease and the curative agents which had been bene- 
ficial to them. These records were kept with the same care as 
the archives of the nation. They were religiously preserved 
for the benefit of the diseased, and for a long time every one 
had access to them, and had the privilege of choosing for his 
own sickness or that of his neighbor's the mendicaments of 
which experience had taught and confirmed the value. This 
was, perhaps, the very best and safest method which could at 
that time have been adopted. It was the knowledge exclusively 
of observation which has ever been recognized as of so much 
value. From this rich depository of facts, written with sim- 
plicity and truth, correct and reliable principles were deduced 
for the practice of medicine. t T 
But presently, as these were all written in that temple, 
the many were excluded and the priests had the entire 
control and became by law the privileged class, having the 
exclusive right to practise medicine. Out of this great roll 
of facts they formed a medical code, a kind of digest, which 
was called the sacred book, and from its directions they were 
never permitted to vary. 
How many at this day, let me ask, have their sacred books 
of practice, from whose precepts, right or wrong, they never 
vary? If, in following the rules there laid down, they could 
not save their patients, they were not held responsible, but on 
the contrary, they were punished with death if, after departing 
from them, the result did not justify their course. 
It is not presumed that many would dare transcend a law 
so rigid and exacting, hence all progress was arrested, and the 
sacred pages alone were regarded incapable of having faults 
upon their face. The correctness of their principles having 
been first established they became the law. It was regarded 4 
ADDRESS. 
that practice confirmed by long experience and supported by 
the authority of the greatest masters of the art, was preferable 
to the limited experience of each particular physician. 
It is a singular coincidence, and shows either a common 
origin of the races or the justness and universality of the law, 
that at a period nearly four thousand years distant, and in our 
own continent, and among its wild savages, we find a very 
similar usage to prevail. 
I shall scarcely deem an. apology necessary for using the 
language of Surgeon Moses of the U. S. army, in describing 
the usages of the Chinook Indians, who reside in Washington 
Territory, in regard to the treatment of the sick by their 
medicine men. 
In ordinary cases of sickness, the aid of the medicine man or 
doctor is called in. This individual is held in high estimation, 
and demands large fees for his advice and services; these are 
given at a vast personal risk, and somewhat upon the terms of 
their advertising professional brethren in large cities. 
Upon visiting the patient and receiving his fee, the doctor 
goes actively to work to drive out the evil spirit from the 
suffering body, where it has assumed the form of a wolf, a 
beaver, or large stone. 
Should the unhappy victim of Esculapian art fortunately get 
well, the doctor remains in the enjoyment of his professional 
gains. Should death, however, have knocked at the door of the 
'lodge during these mockeries, as he invariably does in some 
cases, the doctor not only has expended his time and labor for 
nothing, but now has forfeited his life, by failing to restore his 
patient to health. If he can compromise the matter with the 
relations and friends of the deceased, by paying his value, 
estimated in horses, blankets, canoes, he redeems his own 
life, but failing to satisfy the demands of the afflicted, who are 
very exacting, he may not expect to live to see the sun rise many 
times. 
In this case, no less than in that of the priests of Egypt, 
who were governed by the sacred book, there was but little 
temptation to depart from known usages and precepts. I am 
just here reminded of the propriety of correcting a very popular ADDRESS. 
5 
error in regard to Indian knowledge of the medicinal virtues of 
the plants of the country and of their wonderful skill in curing 
diseases. 
I have examined with much care, the reports of our army 
surgeons, who have been stationed in the Indian country at the 
north, east, south, and west. Their universal testimony is, that 
they have no knowledge of diseases and have none of the medi- 
cinal virtue of remedial agents. They declare them incapable 
of curing a snake bite, or any of the simplest diseases which 
common experience, with common foresight, would seem to teach. 
Their females suffer greatly from uterine diseases, and have as 
much parturient suffering, as falls to the lot of those in the en- 
joyment of the luxuries of civilization. We so frequently hear 
of "Indian doctors," who can cure all diseases, because they 
have derived from the Indian, directly or indirectly, this treasur- 
ed wisdom, that it is well to keep ourselves advised of the truth, 
that we may counteract and crush out this kind of humbuggery. 
A few years ago I acquired a good deal of reputation with a 
band of Ottoe Indians by an antimonial prescription, which 
was so happily suited to their cases, that they insisted on 
having of the medicine to last their journey, in case 
they needed it. They had a medicine man with them, but he 
made no pretensions to skill, and was amazed at the prompt 
and efficient action of the medicine I administered. 
When I commenced the practice of medicine, there was no 
remedy in such universal repute as bleeding. It was regarded 
absolutely necessary to premise any treatment by letting blood. 
No other remedy could be used as a substitute. No matter 
what the disease, the amount of the circulating fluid must be 
diminished. If any by chance escaped, it was then regarded 
doubtful whether recovery were possible. An almost universal 
mania had seized upon the minds of physicians, and teachers 
and writers recommended it as a panacea. To be an expert 
phlebotomist was almost as valuable as to be the prince of 
surgeons, and one who had a reputation of this kind could see 
the blood flow from morning until evening without leaving his 
office, from the army of droppers in, to be bled, because they 
were not exactly well, or had some real or imaginary disease. 6 
ADDRESS. 
The women had to be bled when they were pregnant, and when 
they were not, with a view of becoming so. The girls had to 
be bled for amenorrhoea, and when spring came there was a 
universal bleeding and drinking of sassafras tea. I became so 
accustomed to the appearance of the blood at that time, that 
from it alone I could form a pretty good idea of the disease 
without any other aid. I was for a short time connected pro- 
fessionally in Cincinnati with a very excellent physician, a 
graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, and I saw him 
bleed a man for dropsy for twenty consecutive days. There 
was scarcely any coloring matter left in the blood, and he was 
terribly pale and death-like. As long as he dared, he bled 
him. He recovered, however, from the dropsy, and the phy- 
sician was pronounced the best dropsy curer in the city. The 
bleeding was resorted to in that case under the impression that 
it increased the absorbent system and stimulated it to greater 
activity, and in that way carried out of the system the excess 
of water. 
This method of treating dropsy was that recommended and 
used by Hippocrates, who was a great bleeder. He cured 
enlargement of the spleen and dropsies by venesection. He 
bled boldly and freely, even to fainting, and would sometimes 
open veins in both arms at once. He informs us that he bled 
occasionally in the hands, ankles, hams, forehead, tongue, nose, 
behind the ears, the breasts, and under the arms. Speaking 
of the nose brings to my mind some one that wished me to 
bleed him in the point of the nose many years ago. I suppose 
some believe-. Hippocrates recommended it. I found it an easy 
matter to obtain blood, and repeated it in his case several 
times. Dr. Rush was a great admirer of Hippocrates, and I 
presume the bleeding in dropsy came into vogue through him. 
He speaks of it as the first remedy to be used in this disease. 
Dr. Monroe quotes a case of dropsy from Epenius, in which 
bleeding succeeded, but not till after it had been used twenty 
times. "I could add," says Rush, "the histories of many 
cases of anasarca and ascites performed by means of blood- 
letting, not only by myself, but by a number of respectable 
physicians in the United States. Indeed, I conceive this ADDRESS. 
7 
remedy to be as much indicated by a tense and full pulse, in 
these forms of dropsy as it is in a pleurisy or in any other 
common inflammatory disease." 
The aged and infirm, the strong and robust of middle life, 
and the tender little infant, were all alike amenable to the law 
which declared bleeding to be omnipotent. I have impressed 
indelibly on my mind one of the first cases I ever had .the 
charge of. I was called just after daylight one fall morning 
to ride three miles in the country to see an infirm and delicate 
old lady of 65 years, who was said to be in a singular condition. 
When I arrived, I saw my patient sitting in a rocking chair, 
dressed with great care and neatness, but having a wild and 
frightened look. She was constantly picking at her dress, as 
though removing something disagreeable to her. She had the 
exact appearance of one with delirium tremens. She gazed 
intently upon me, but made no response to my interrogations. 
I examined her carefully, for she made no resistance, although 
she seemed alarmed. As you might expect, I found her tongue 
with a white coat upon it-a very small, feeble and frequent 
pulse. I was a good deal puzzled. I hesitated in my own 
mind whether it was inflammation or a nervous disease. It had 
come on suddenly. She had gone to bed the evening previous 
in her usual health. At length, I resolved it to be some kind 
of phrenic and insidious inflammation, that required the lancet. 
I bled her, applied a blister to the back of her neck, gave her 
ten or fifteen grains of calomel with a little rhubarb, and in 
twenty-four hours she was dead. Under any treatment she 
may have died, but I am persuaded I was myself greatly bene- 
fited by the case. It led me to reflect more, and to question 
the truth of all which is written and taught. 
If a little child at that time was seized with any disease, 
which created excitement in the circulating system, the phy- 
sician turned its head to one side and opened the jugular vein 
with the greatest possible adroitness. The venous system was 
carefully studied with a view to the nicest selection of veins in 
different parts of the system-the neck, the arms and the feet. 
The old ladies had a wonderful penchant for foot bleeding. 
I used frequently to bleed the medical gentleman referred to 8 
ADDRESS. 
in the case of dropsy. His preference was the temporal artery, 
and I could with skilful nicety cut down upon it and then make 
my puncture. From constant use, most physicians were skilful 
phlebotomists or venesecters. 
This ancient and almost universal method of treating diseases 
probably had its origin in the humeral pathology, and this was 
regarded a very direct method of ridding the system of some of 
its peccant and morbid humors. It received, however, for a 
time a check, when the doctrines of Cullen began to be received 
in the profession. 
He taught in opposition to the ancient theories, that the first 
changes induced* in the animal system by the operation of the 
exciting cause of fever is a diminution of the energy of the 
brain ; that all the powers of the body and all the faculties of 
the mind, that the functions of sensation and motion, the pro- 
cess of respiration, circulation and secretion, all fail, or are 
diminished in the general debility ; that after a certain time a 
morbid increase of some of these functions, especially of the 
circulation, takes place, with an augmentation of the heat; that 
these three states, that of debility, of cold and of heat, bear to 
each other the relation of cause and effect; that the first state 
is the result of the sedative or debilitating influence of con- 
tagion, marsh miasma, cold, or any other exciting cause, and 
the subsequent states the result of the first; that the debility 
produces all the phenomena of the cold stage, and especially a 
spasmodic constriction of the extreme arterial vessels; that this 
spasm or atony of the extreme vessels exists not only in the 
first attack of the cold stage, but remains during the whole 
subsequent course of the fever; that the spasm of the extreme 
vessels throws a load of blood on the central parts of the circu- 
lating system, which proves a source of irritation to the heart 
and arteries, and excites them to a greater action; that this 
increased action, the source of the heat and the other phe- 
nomena which constitute the second or hot stage, continues till 
the spasm is relaxed or overcome; and that this excitement of 
spasm for the purpose of producing the subsequent reaction is 
a part of the operation of the vis medicatrix nature?, the 
innate preserving power of the constitution. ADDRESS. 
9 
In his own language, this distinguished theorist says our 
doctrine of fever is explicitly this: The remote causes are 
certain sedative powers applied to the nervous system, which, 
diminishing the energy of the brain, thereby produces a debility 
in the whole of the functions, and particularly in the action of 
the extreme vessels. Such, however, is at the same time the 
nature of the animal economy, that this debility proves, an 
indirect stimulus to the sanguiferous system; whence, by the 
intervention of the cold stage and spasm connected with it, the 
action of the heart and large arteries is increased, and continues 
so till it has had the effect of restoring the energy of the brain, 
of extending this energy to the extreme vessels, of restoring 
therefore their action, and thereby especially removing the 
spasm affecting them; upon the removing of which, the excita- 
tion of sweat and other marks of the relaxation of theexcre- 
tories take place. 
Brown, the pupil of Cullen, taught a like doctrine; except 
that he regarded fevers even more the result of a debilitating 
agent; that it was the greatest debility compatible with life 
and not long compatible with it. During the reign of the 
doctrines of these extraordinary men, blood-letting was not in 
accordance with their notions, and stimulants and roborants 
were the remedial agents employed. These were generally 
esteemed doctrines of heterodoxy, although in reality they 
were greatly in advance of the age in which they lived. As 
their novelty wore away, they were cast aside for the more 
ancient notions, which now had engrafted upon them inflamma- 
tory doctrines that called more loudly than ever for the lancet. 
At the head of this class of medical philosophers in our own 
country was the celebrated Dr. Rush, who acquired a world- 
wide reputation for the doctrine which he advanced and prac- 
tised upon, to bleed in the yellow fever, and to administer his 
dose of ten grs. calomel and ten of jalap, which acquired the 
sobriquet of Rush's ten and ten. 
A more enlightened era having dawned upon medical science, 
this disease is now treated upon more rational principles. 
The influence which Rush had acquired in America by his 
writings and public teachings had much to do, I have no doubt, 10 
ADDRESS. 
in confirming in the minds of medical men not only the utility 
but the absolute necessity of blood-letting in most diseases. 
Even at this day, our schools teach the propriety of bleeding 
in pneumonia, and its general antiphlogistic treatment. For 
many years I followed this treatment, which, however, almost 
always failed in accomplishing what I expected, and conse- 
quently did not meet my approbation. I followed it no longer 
than I found a more rational and successful method of treating 
the disease. 
I was forced to relinquish my preference for cherished 
notions when I found that bleeding and antimony did not cure 
the disease. I was forced to abandon a treatment that so 
rapidly diminished the powers of life, when I saw its pale and 
haggard victims with their shattered constitutions, and when I 
saw those advanced in life so especially obnoxious to it, in 
whose constitutions the possibility of inflammation could scarcely 
exist. Does not reason and common sense abjure all antiphlo- 
gistic.notions in a class of patients like those I have here cited ? 
And I would appeal to the intelligent medical gentlemen who 
are my auditors, if our pneumonic or winter-fever patients are 
not of those whose constitutions are broken with previous 
disease, mostly ague, and those advanced in life. Is not the 
winter and spring peculiarly the season of death to the old and 
infirm, and the disease of which they die pneumonia? Would 
you not rather tranquilize the system and equalize the circula- 
tion, and maintain the diminished and wasting powers of life 
with opiates, stimulants and tonics ? I might enter at length 
upon the pathology of this disease had I leisure. In this 
region its study is pre-eminently important, as it is the pre- 
vailing disease in the winter and spring months. 
Last year, I had a little son absent from home at school. 
I received in the month of February a letter from his teacher, 
saying that he was seized with a violent disease and was very 
ill. I immediately took the cars, and the next morning was 
with him. As I entered the gate I met the attending physician, 
just leaving from his morning visit, who very politely went back 
with me to give me the history of the case and his treatment. 
Four days before that, at night, he was exposed at a public ADDRESS. 
11 
exhibition, in a heated and crowded room, to a draft of cold 
air. Before morning, he was seized with violent and suffocating 
coughing, with pain in the side, and the doctor was sent for 
before daylight. On his first visit, he informed me that he 
bled him, and applied a blister to his side, and immediately 
administered a do§e of calomel. As soon as that had operated, 
he put him on antimony, which very soon acted on his bowels, 
and for two days and nights he had involuntary discharges 
every few minutes. To check these, he gave small doses of 
calomel, and when I met him on my arrival, he had just given 
his morning dose of calomel, and had left antimony to use 
through the day. His skin was hot and dry, and his pulse 
very much excited. The doctor said that he regarded it very 
strange, that his skin did not become moist under so free a use 
■of the antimony, but he intended to give it in increased doses 
that day to induce perspiration. After the doctor left, I sent 
to a druggist and procured a little Dover's powder and quinine. 
I immediately gave him a few grains of the Dov. powder, and 
in twenty minutes he was bathed in a profuse perspiration, 
which continued under the repetition of the powder once in six 
hours. In the meantime I gave hirn quinine freely, and in a 
few days he had recovered, except his strength, which required 
a good while to regain. When the doctor made his evening 
visit (for I requested a continuance of his calls, although I did 
not expect to use his medicine or his knowledge), he was 
amazed to see the favorable change which had taken place, al] 
of which he ascribed to the virtues of his antimony. I did not 
undeceive him, because I thought he was too old to learn, and 
would think that I was disposed to find fault with his practice. 
He was a feeble little boy, not fourteen years of age, and had 
been subject to just such attacks all of his life, and was always 
cured by a teaspoonful of paregoric and a little sweet oil. The 
doctor regarded it pneumonia, when in fact it was spasmodic 
croup, and he had accordingly resorted to the most heroic anti- 
phlogistic treatment to cut short the terrible inflammation which 
he thought would speedily consume him. 
Now, in this case, any one can see that the child's life was 
really endangered by the medicines, and that in all human 12 
ADDRESS. 
probability be would have died from antimony if the treatment 
had not been stopped. Whenever, in any disease, involuntary 
discharges from the bowels are induced from the use of anti- 
mony, every additional dose positively endangers life. There 
is no remedy more potent for good or for evil than this, and its 
use requires the greatest care and caution. .1 have long since 
abandoned it in the treatment of pneumonia, and have sub- 
stituted remedies which I regard more in accordance with its 
pathological condition, and which in my hands have been 
greatly more successful than when I relied upon the antiphlo- 
gistic treatment. 
In the treatment of fevers, when I first became connected 
with the profession, emetics, purgatives, alteratives, diuretics, 
and diaphoretics, were all liberally used. Emetics, after bleed- 
ing, were resorted to; then whatever morbid matter was left in 
the system, was to be purged out, according to Hamilton's 
theory, whose work on the use of purgatives was greatly 
admired. If, by chance, anything was left after that, the skin 
and kidneys were required to finish the work. The theory of 
critical days had not yet been laid aside, and the 7th, 14th, and 
21st, were anticipated with fear and trembling. It was not 
thought that a fever could be cut short from a definite course. 
Patients were almost starved, and cold water, except in a limit- 
ed quantity, was carefully withheld. Medicine was given almost 
hourly, which, with the disease, exhausted the powers of life 
very rapidly, and a much larger proportion died then than now. 
They seemed to entertain very curious notions in regard to the 
secretions, and it was rarely, if ever the case, that the doctor 
could be satisfied on this point. There was too much or 
too little bile in the system, and the liver was blamed for 
everything. The tongue had to be perfectly clean, before 
tonics could be resorted to; the consequence was that the 
patient either died or recovered before the term had arrived, 
when prudence and propriety indicated their use. It is 
gratifying to reflect, that with the rapid progress, which 
has in the last few years pervaded all pursuits of life, the 
science of medicine has kept pace, shedding its blessings 
upon the whole human race, and sparing from pain and ADDRESS. 
13 
death those, who most of all others, look to us for aid and 
sympathy. 
Epidemics, which formerly terrified the nations by their de- 
solating and unchecked progress, have been almost shorn of 
their terrors. Vaccination has stayed the prevalence of small 
pox, and cholera is less fatal than formerly. Human suffering 
is shortened and human life lengthened. 
The hospital reports of Paris show that while in 1805, one in 
seven of those admitted died, now but one in twelve; thus show- 
ing that our science has increased in its ability, in the same 
buildings, in a little over fifty years, to save life seventy-one 
per cent. In other words, when, formerly fourteen men died in 
each hundred admitted, now only eight die, a saving of six per- 
sons in a hundred. Not only is the mortality in this wise 
lessened, but the duration of disease is diminished. Formerly, 
the residence in the same hospitals referred to wTas thirty-nine 
days, now twenty-four-a difference of fifteen days since 1805. 
In the treatment of special diseases, the improvement has 
even been greater. In the same time, one in fifty-six cases of 
syphilis died, now one in two hundred and ninety-four. Ac- 
cording to Dupin, in France, the duration of life has been in- 
creasing, equal to fifty-two days for each year, from 1776 to 
1842, or nine and a half years for the whole period. The in- 
crease per annum was no time less than nineteen days,. 
In London, at the present time, one in forty dies, formerly 
one in twenty died. 
In obstetrical practice, an hundred and fifty years ago, one 
in forty died, now less than one in two hundred and fifty. The 
statistics of the hospitals of our own large cities show results 
similar to those in Paris. In the last seventy-five years, life has 
been prolonged more than twenty-five per cent, and the duration 
of treatment lessened more than one-third. 
Facts are not to be disputed, and I have referred to these 
with peculiar pleasure as the highest evidence of the wonderful 
advancement in the science of medicine. Surgery, too, is dis- 
robed of most of its terrors and pains-a blissful sleep over- 
takes the subject, from which the keenest blade does not arouse 
him. Our own country has contributed largely to these ad- 14 
ADDRESS. 
vancements. Chloroform was an American discovery. But 
recently a gentleman of Georgia has discovered a new class of 
nerves, which he calls the excito-secretory. England and 
France claimed the discovery, but an investigation gave the 
palm to our own. Marshall Hall, just before his death, de- 
clared it an American discovery. In pathological investigations, 
I think American physicians.are in advance of all others. And 
in topography, the work of a western physician, Dr. Drake, 
■has no parallel. It is the most learned work that has ever 
been written on that subject, and I doubt whether any other 
age can produce a similar one. 
Dr. Armstrong, who has written the most learned work upon 
typhus fever in the English language, and who advocated 
opinions greatly in advance of the age in which he lived, had 
much to do, I have no doubt, in introducing a more rational 
treatment of fever. It was long aftei' his death before his 
views obtained a favorable reception, but his strong reasoning 
gradually took hold of the minds of men and led them to think 
and reflect. 
Marshall Hall's work upon the loss of blood was another 
lever that was brought to upturn many of the old notions, and 
when we add to that the universal scourge from 1830 to 1833 
of all Europe and America by cholera, a disease which clearly 
indicated a .stimulant and tonic treatment to maintain the 
powers of life which in a few hours were wasted away, we have 
a combination of causes which wrought a change in the senti- 
ment and practice of medicine. 
Another cause I will add, which I have no doubt has had a 
considerable influence in increasing our confidence in vis medi- 
catrix naturae, which is the doctrine introduced by Hahnemann, 
and known as that of homoeopathy. 
We either had to concede that the doctrine of infinitissimal 
doses had some curative effects, or that nature, left to its own 
recuperative powers, could restore to health. The latter was 
most in accordance with our pride of opinion, and was generally 
adopted; and in adopting it, we were compelled to relax our 
hold upon the heroic doses which had so generally been adopted 
by the profession. Out of a doctrine, then, which we viewed ADDRESS. 
15 
with contempt for its ultraism, we are constrained to admit 
much good has arisen. In addition to and from these causes 
men have been led to think and reflect - atmospheric and 
terrestrial causes of disease have been carefully investigated, 
and the curative influence of remedies in new combinations 
patiently studied - theory has yielded to the known truths of 
observation, and our hospitals are the great storehouses of facts 
from which floods of light are pouring out to bless and preserve 
mankind-science is rapidly drawing aside the veil which has 
obscured our mental vision, and the light of truth and knowl- 
edge is opening a new era. 
It may not be improper to mention yet another-the extra- 
ordinary excitement of the nervous system in this the most 
extraordinary of all ages, when the millions of our busy popu- 
lation are swaying to and fro under the mightiest impulses that 
ever controled the human mind or ruled its actions-when men 
rush to the sea, and upon its surface in multitudes for the rich 
returns and gains of a prosperous commerce-when the great 
prairies of our newly-opened territories are dotted with human 
beings seeking new homes-when machinery has attained the 
highest perfection, and when the human mind is wrought to its 
highest tension in every pursuit that enriches, enlightens or 
advances society. Is it wonderful that in such an excited state, 
the opiate and tonic treatment of disease is forced upon the 
minds of medical men? 
" Already commences a new order of famous ages.'1 
" Magnus ab integro soeculorum nascitur ordo." 
It was formerly rarely the case that any disease was treated 
many days without a salivation. This practice very generally 
obtained and was resorted to in acute as well as chronic diseases. 
It arose from an opinion advanced I think by John Hunter, 
that no two diseases could exist at the same time in the same 
system, and that when it was brought under the influence of 
mercury the disease would be displaced; hence it became the 
object of the physician, in every disease considered of a grave 
character, to ptyalise as speedily as possible. Tumid faces 
and the mercurial odor was to be found in almost every sick 16 
ADDRESS. 
room. I have seen some frightful ravages of the soft and 
osseous tissues from the effects of mercury. Although patients 
rarely died from mercurialization, yet, when it was severe, the 
system was very much shattered, and a perfect state of health 
was rarely expected afterward. I have seen two or three 
children die from it, the whole lip and a portion of the cheek 
having been carried away. A few years ago I removed a 
portion of the inferior maxilla, which was necrosed, together 
with the teeth, from a little boy, six yeaa-s of age, which was in- 
duced by ptyalism. 
The remedy was very frequently of a more serious character 
than the disease ; such being the case, it became a matter of 
no small importance to study those remedies which would 
soonest arrest it, or would most surely check the pain. A great 
variety of topical applications were in use, and internal 
remedies were constantly resorted to. 
It was regarded a matter of so much importance, that I 
wrote my graduating thesis, De. usu emeticam in ptyalismo 
Cohibiendo,($n the use of emetics in arresting salivation. The 
indiscriminate use of mercury lessened to a certain extent 
public confidence in physicians, and ignorant quacks availing 
themselves of the prejudice, raised a wonderful hue and cry 
against all regular practitioners. Every published quack 
remedy was positively declared to be entirely free from all 
mercurial preparations. 
It was to combat mercurial preparations that Thomsonianism, 
in part, had its origin. Prejudice carried a certain portion of 
community so far, that they were willing to adopt any appar- 
ently rational expedient, rather than submit to the chances of 
being salivated. 
This Dr. Thomson had for a partner, a very shrewd quaker, 
named Horton Howard, who resided in Columbus, Ohio, and 
who had charge of the sale of all the family rights to practice 
medicine in the West. He became wealthy from it, and was a 
man of much influence. Before the cholera made its appear- 
ance in 1832, he promised the community in which he resided, 
that his lobelia and capsicum, with his hot baths, were omnipo- 
tent in this disease. It so happened, that the cholera, after it ADDRESS. 
17 
crossed the lakes from Canada in 1832, made its appearance in 
Columbus among the first towns. True to his promises, he 
diligently applied the instruments of his art, but in spite of 
lobelia, capsicum, and steam, his patients, as those of other men, 
died. A son-in-law, one of the most popular of American poets, 
died of it, under his treatment-the poet's wife and their 
children. A son and another daughter of the quaker, his own 
wife, and finally himself-all died martyrs to steam practice. 
Being a family of so much note and at the head of Western 
steam, it created a good deal of trembling among his brethren, 
for he had issued his confidence bulletins to his followers every- 
where, and they regarded him infallible. This was during the 
palmy days of steam, and when they supported a college at 
Washington, with teachers in every department. 
It was a paralyzing blow to the system in Ohio, and led men 
to doubt the truth of their vaunting promises. Notwithstand- 
ing, it flourished for many years after that. It had a sickly 
growthits great head was gone; and, I presume, at this time 
in intelligent communities, few will anywhere be found advo- 
cating a doctrine of so few merits. 
There is scarcely anything connected with the practice of 
medicine, which has undergone a greater and more favorable 
change within the last few years, than the dietetic rules pre- 
scribed for the sick. It was formerly the case, that those who 
were so unfortunate as to be sick, were doomed, not only to 
bleeding and puking and purging, but almost to absolute starv- 
ation. They had not only to contend against the disease, but 
against the remedies to which they were subjected for its cure. 
The strength of the patient was diminished as rapidly as possi- 
ble, and I have no doubt, many died from actual exhaustion, 
caused by depressing remedial agents, and the lack of food 
enough to support life. I have, for many years, been in the 
habit, not only of permitting some food to be taken, but pre- 
scribing it as one of the means to aid a restoration of health. 
I know of no disease which will not be benefited by the use of 
some food every day, and here let me enter my solemn protest 
against all the slops, tasteless, nauseous, uninviting, and unsup- 
porting, which are usually ordered for the sick. A healthy 18 
ADDRESS. 
stomach would revolt at their introduction, and I am sure a sick 
one could only tolerate them as medicine and not as food. 
Whatever is ordered for the sick should be nutritious and 
palatable, then the less quantity will be required. I have seen 
tapioca and sago and rice forced upon little children until the 
very sight of these would cause them to vomit, and I do not 
hesitate to declare, that I would regard it fortunate for the sick, 
if these articles of diet were forever blotted out. Let the various 
preparations of animal diet take their place, and we have that 
which is more palatable and more nourishing. 
The tastes of the sick are sometimes, not only very capricious, 
but very peculiar, setting at defiance all dietetic reasoning. I 
once had a patient, a delicate young man, who had been suffer- 
ing for a good while from indigestion. In fact, he could eat 
nothing which -would not in a short time be rejected. He lost 
flesh and was very low spirited. I blistered his stomach and 
regulated his bowels and kept him down to the starving point, 
according to the nicest and most approved method of Wilsons 
I visited him daily until I became discouraged with my want of 
success. All that I did seemed of no avail. On one occasion, 
after he had been kept to my entire satisfaction, upon toast 
and tea and cracker, and a moiety of soft boiled egg and a little 
wine whey and chicken soup, so delicate from a mere dipping 
in of the fowl, he asked me if I would permit him to have a 
little cabbage soup. " Cabbage soup," I responded; " no sir.1 
I wTas all the time puzzled in my own mind to know what sort 
of a mixture this could be, but I resolved that anything com- 
posed of cabbage would not do, hence my refusal. Next day, 
he ventured to remark again that he could relish a little cabbage 
soup. I denied him again. The third day, he repeated his 
cabbage soup request, to which I reluctantly assented, as I did 
not wish to be a particeps criminis in recommending what all 
human reason, under like circumstances, would declare to be 
hurtful. Well, at my next visit, he informed me that he had 
had a good time with his cabbage soup, that it had laid well 
upon his stomach, and that he felt greatly better. What could 
I do but to permit its continuance. He did continue it, and 
recovered rapidly from the day he commenced its use. I never ADDRESS, 
19 
inquired what his cabbage soup was made of, and to this day, 
I am ignorant of its composition. This will admonish us of the 
fact, that the appetite is oftentimes the very best index of what 
the stomach will bear, and what the system requires. It seems 
to stand as a sentinel, to invite that which is beneficial, and to 
reject that which is hurtful. To a certain extent, under all cir- 
cumstances, I think it is our duty to gratify the taste. Since 
I have given more attention to this subject, I think I have had 
better success in the treatment of diseases. The case above 
cited, is but one in a thousand, and I have no doubt each one of 
you has had analogous cases. 
I know of nothing on this subject, more valuable than that 
from the pen of one of the most distinguished and most success- 
ful practitioners of medicine, Dr. Graves, and I shall not deem 
at misspent time to read his views. 
"In a disease like fever, which lasts frequently for fourteen, 
twenty-one, or more days, the consideration of diet and nutri- 
ment, is a matter of importance, and I am persuaded that this 
is a point on which much error has prevailed. I am convinced 
that the starving system, has, in many instances, been carried 
to a dangerous excess, and that many persons have fallen victims 
to prolonged abstinence in fever. This was one of the errors 
which sprung from the doctrines of those who maintained that 
fever depended on general or topical inflammation. They sup- 
posed that fever arose from inflammation, and immediately con- 
cluded that, to treat it successfully, it was necessary to reduce 
the system by depletion and low diet, and to keep it at this 
point during the whole course of the disease. Hence the strict 
regimen-diete absolue-of the disciples of the physiological 
school, and of those who looked on inflammation as the essence 
of fever." 
The more the symptoms appeared indicative of inflammatory 
action, the more rigorous was the abstinence enforced. If a 
patient's face was flushed, or his eyes suffused, no matter what 
the stage of the fever was, they said, " here is inflammation of 
the brain, and nourishment will exasperate it." If he had red 
or dry tongue and abdominal tenderness, they immediately in- 
ferred the existence of gastro-enteritis, and all kinds of food, 20 
ADDRESS. 
even the lightest, was strictly forbidden. That this proceeds 
from false notions of the nature of fever is beyond doubt, and I 
pointed out this fact many years ago, long before the appearance 
of Piorry's work. Let us in the first place examine the results 
of protracted abstinence in the healthy state of the system. 
Take a healthy person and deprive him of food, and what is 
the consequence? First, hunger, which, after some time, goes 
away, and then returns again. After two or three days the 
sensation assumes a morbid character, and instead of being a 
simple feeling of want and a desire for food, it becomes a dis- 
ordered craving, attended with a dragging pain in the stomach, 
burning thirst, and sometime afterward epigastric tenderness, 
fever and delirium. Here we have the supervention of gastric 
disease and inflammation of the brain as the results of pro- 
tracted starvation. 
Now, these are in themselves very singular facts, and well 
deserving of being held in memory. Read the accounts of those 
who perished from starvation after the wrecks of the Medusa 
and the Alceste, and you will be struck with the horrible con- 
sequences of protracted hunger. I can refer you to more 
recent dates : those who were in the IsthmuS* of Darien with 
Lieut. Strain, and those who were saved for many days from 
the ill-fated Central America to die of starvation. You will 
find that most of the unhappy sufferers were raging maniacs, 
and exhibited symptoms of violent cerebral irritation. 
Now, in a patient laboring under the efleets of fever and 
a protracted abstinence, whose sensibilities are blunted, and 
whose functions are deranged, it is not at all improbable that 
such a person-perhaps also suffering from delirium or stupor- 
will not call for food, though requiring it, and that, if you do 
not press it upon him, and give it as a medicine, symptoms like 
those which arise from starvation in the healthy subject may 
supervene, and you may have gastro-enteric inflammation or 
cerebral disease, as the consequence of protracted abstinence. 
You may think that it is unnecessary to give food, as the 
patient appears to have no appetite, and does not care for it. 
You might as well think of allowing the urine to accumulate in 
the bladder, because the patient feels no desire to pass it. You ADDRESS. 
21 
are called on to interfere when the sensibility is impaired, and 
the natural appetite is dormant, and you are not to permit your 
patient to encounter the horrible consequences of inanition, be- 
cause he does not ask for nutriment. I never do so. After 
the third or fourth day of fever, I always prescribe mild 
nourishment, and this is steadily and perseveringly continued 
through the whole course of the disease. 
He further adds, in a lecture to a medical class: I have en- 
deavored to impress upon you the fact that there can be no 
doubt that persons have been occasionally starved to death in 
fever, and laid before you some remarkable facts connected 
with the influence of protracted abstinence on the general sys- 
tem, as well as on the brain and digestive tube. I also endea- 
vored to show that long-continued denial or want of food gene- 
rates symptoms bearing a very close resemblance to those which 
are observed in the worst forms of typhus : pain in the 
stomach, epigastric tenderness, thirst, vomiting, determination 
of blood to. the brain, suffusion of the eyes, headache, sleep- 
lessness, and, finally, furious delirium, are the symptoms of 
protracted abstinence; and to these we may add, tendency to 
putrefaction of -the animal tissues, chiefly shown by the spon- 
taneous occurrence of gangrene of the lungs. It has been 
shown by Guislain, physician to the hospital for the insane at 
Gaud, that, in many instances, gangrene of the lungs has oc- 
curred in insane patients who have obstinately refused to take 
food. Out of twelve patients who died of inanition, nine had 
gangrene of the lungs. You perceive, then, that starvation 
may give rise to symptoms of gastric disease, to symptoms of 
cerebral derangement, and to mortification of the pulmonary 
tissue. It is not, therefore, wrong to suppose that gastric, cere- 
bral, and even pulmonary symptoms may supervene, analogous 
to those which result from actual starvation. 
An attentive observation of the foregoing arguments has led 
me, in the treatment of Ipng fevers, to adopt the advice of a 
country physician of great shrewdness, who advised me never 
to let my patients die of starvation. If I have more success 
than others in the treatment of fever, I think it is owing, in a 
great degree, to the adoption of this advice. 22 
ADDRESS. 
Much has been written on medicine, and much taught in our 
schools, which is not only valueless, but is positively injurious, 
for the reason that the young rely upon them as guides, and 
consequently are misled. I have never yet seen a young gra- 
duate from an Eastern school who at first had any true concep- 
tion of Western diseases, or the best method of treating them. 
Bier, the oculist, I think, it was who said he had put out a hat 
full of eyes in learning the best method of operating for cata- 
ract. If we had the confessions of the young physicians who 
follow the books and the teachers exclusively-and at first they 
are compelled to do it-I am persuaded we should have many, 
very many extinguished lives instead of eyes. It is our duty, 
as physicians, no matter where our lot upon earth may be cast, 
to aid, in every possible way we can, to advance a science the 
most noble of all others. Of all, medicine is pre-eminently 
and justly the first. As much as human life excels in value 
money and property, by so much does it excel the law which 
has simply for its object the adjustment of human rights. 
While I would not underrate any other, I would demand for 
our own justice. I am proud, too, that every age has thrown 
into our ranks intellects of the highest and most brilliant order. 
I am also proud that the portals to science are open to all. In- 
dustry and perseverance, and a laudable ambition, will secure 
the highest honors of ours or any other profession. To the 
junior members who are my auditors I would offer the. highest 
encouragement. Let all your leisure time be given to reading, 
and writing, and studying. Keep a record o every case you 
attend; employ your evenings in writing them out. You will find 
it pleasant and profitable, and the time will soon steal upon you 
when your opinions will be sought after as pearls of great price. 
Above all things, gentlemen, let me exhort you to do your 
own thinking. Consult the opinions of eminent writers, but 
let it be rather to assist and direct than to control. After 
fortifying yourselves with all necessary facts, suffer no one 
then to think for you, but maintain your manhood in wielding 
the thought which Deity has given to you, in common with 
others. I am an admirer of genius and talent-I will pay it 
homage wherever found. At the same time, I would declare ADDRESS. 
23 
that you and I, and every patient investigator, of truth, is just 
as capable of thinking-just as capable of arriving at correct 
conclusions as those who are wielding public opinion in the 
great cities of the world. 
A few years ago a poor boy of Indiana was apprenticed to 
a trade. He had no means-no education. He tried at his 
trade for a support, and having a high and holy purpose before 
him, stayed not his efforts until, unaided and unfriended, he 
had a diploma from a medical school. Still he toiled on. He 
was a devoted student, and became a contributor to the jour- 
nals, and one of the most extensive translators from German 
and French periodicals of the day. These brought him into 
notice, for they compared favorably with the best contributions 
of the times. He established, by his own efforts, a medical 
journal. He became a professor of a college. He is now one 
of the Vice-Presidents of the U. S. Medical Association, is an 
accomplished scholar, and is at this time a professor in the 
medical college of Chicago, and one of the editors, within a 
few days, of the medical journal of your State. He richly 
merits every honor which has been conferred upon him, and, if 
he lives, he will enjoy a still prouder and a still more enviable 
reputation. Coming from my own State, I mention him with 
pride. Having been promoted to honors in yours, it is proper, 
on this occasion, and in the State of which he is now a citizen, 
to give you the name of Prof. Wm. H. Byfqrd, as the gentle- 
man referred to. If, at any time, any one'present, or any of 
your friends, should visit Chicago, I beg you will make his 
acquaintance. I cite this instance, because he is one of us, a 
living monument of what industry and perseverance will 
accomplish. 
And now, gentlemen, in conclusion, let me encourage you in 
the continuance of good works; and it affords me a particular 
pleasure to say that, as a profession, I knowT of none whose 
members discharge more faithfully their duties-whose aims 
and purposes are more laudable, and who live and labor with 
so much self-sacrifice as those of our own. To do good-to 
soothe the anxious heart-to allay pain and stay disease, is the 
physician's duty. Everywhere he is on the same holy mis- 24 
ADDRESS. 
sion. He is on the battle-field and in the pest-house. He is 
the fearless, sleepless sentinel at every threshold, to uplift the 
shadowing pall of death from its trembling, prostrate inmates. 
Where the pestilence reigneth most, there he is. Where all 
hearts are palsied with fear, as the desolating plague sweeps 
ovei the doomed to death, there is he to inspire hope to the 
anxious, to soothe the sorrowing, and to console the dying. 
All may not be great, but all may be good, and capable of 
doing good. To the humblest of the profession there is a 
ripened harvest-a field of sympathy, and sorrow, and disease, 
which invite the soothing voice, the kind and gentle look, and 
the hopeful agent of which he is the minister. There are sor- 
rowing hearts which welcome his coming with grateful, con- 
fiding hope, and tearful eyes of gladness for all his words of 
consolation.