Y^.6
73
A  FEW  FACTS
(FOR THOSE WHO DARE TO THINK FOR THEMSELVES,)
ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE THEORY AND PRINCIPLES
OF THE
-THERMAL  SYSTEM
Of MED ICINE,
DESIGNED AS A REPLY TO THE QUESTION,
" WHAT IS CHROtfO-THERMALISM?"
" OMNIUM MORBORUM <UNUS ET IDEM MODUS EST.rt—Hippocrates.
" Felix qui potuit rerum coenoscefe causas."—P'irgil.
BY J. EMERSON KENT, M. D.,
    Clm>no*Theimal Physician,
to
         PAWTUCKET:
A. W. PEARCE, PRINTER, NO, 12 MILL STREET.
             1852.
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                      PREFACE.
   In compliance with the  solicitations of numerous friends, this little
work has  been prepared.  Those who have advised its publication,
were of opinion that a brief exposition of the  Theory  and Principles
of the Chrono-Thermal System of medicine, was demanded,  to meet
the very frequent inquiry " What is Chrono-Thermalism ?
   Many of those friends have for years tested the Chrono-Thermal
system personally,  and in their families—and from this cause, com-
pliance with  their solicitations  became a question of dutiful acknowl-
edgement.  In the discharge  of that duty,  " multum  in  parvo" has
necessarily been my motto; and I have endeavored, in brief,  to state
the leading facts upon which Dr. Dickson's  beautiful and harmonious
system stands.
76 High Street, Pawtucket, R. I. 
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INTRODUCTION.
  The  Chrono-Thermal system, although first published by SamucLDick^,
son. M. D., (of London) in the year 1836, has in the short period  of  fifteen,
years effected a change  in public  sentiment, and a modification of the " Reg-
ular"  practice, unprecedented in the history of medicine.
  The reader may naturally  inquire, who is Samuel Dickson?
  Samuel Dickson was born at Edinburgh, in the year 1802.  His tather was
an eminent  barrister,  and, our author was educated  for the bar; but dis-
liking  that profession, he commenced the study of medicine, and in 1825
received his diploma in the  University of his native  city, tbe  Athens  of
Great Britain.  Having  been awarded the gold medal for the best essay on
the " FOOD of PLANTS,"—he visited^ France, from whence, after a so-
journ of twelve months,  he returned to England.  Immediately after  his re-
turn, he received his Commission as a Surgeon in  the  Medical  Staff of the
Aimy, and served with distinction, both-at home and abroad, particularly in
India, where ample facilities were afforded him, for  the study of tropical dis-
eases, and-where he also became practically acquainted with Asiatic Cholera.
He returned to Europe  in the year 1831,  took  his degree of M.  D. at Glas-.
gow,  and resigning his Commission in the  Army, settled at Cheltenham,
where his great success and  popularity soon exposed him to the malicious
envy and ■ detraction of  the profession.
  In  the  year 1829, whilst  in India, he  published  his " Revelations on
Cholera,"-which were republished in the  London Lancet, in 1831.  In 1832,
his great work  on the " Prevalent Diseases of India,"  appeared, and as he  /
had  hitherto pulled in  the Allopathic traces, that work was lauded  by the
Medical press in terms  the most eulogistic  In 1836  he published his first'
sketch of the Chrono-Thermal system  of medicine,  under the title of "The
Fallacies of the art of Physic as taught by the  schools, with new and  impor-
tant principles of practice." ~ In 1838 he  republished his original doctrine of
the " Unity and-Periodicity of Disease^" and  since that time his  publications
have been equally numerous and important■; amongst which we  may name
'^The  Chrono-Thermalist, and Medical  Truth Teller," a  monthly Medi-
cal Journal whose circulation already exceeds that of any other Medical Jour-.
nal extant.
  In 1839, Dr. DiGkson left  Cheltenham for  London,  and  prior to his  de-
parture, his friends presented to him a massive and costly service of plate as
a testimony  of their esteem.
 'In 1840, he delivered his first course of Lectures,  in London, on the "Fal-
lacies  of  the Faculty, and the Chrono-Thermal System of Medicine;" and
so rapidly did the system commend  itself to  public  acceptance, that it is at
this timejalmost dominant; and a " College of Chrono-Thermal medicine"  has
already been incorporated by an  act of the  Imperial Parliament of Great
Britain.
  Some of Dr. Dickson's works hq.ve been republished in this country, and
all his larger and most important productions have been translated and pub-
lished in France, Germany, Sweden, Prussia, and Denmark. 
6
   The Chrono-Thermal system was publicly introduced  into  the U. S. by
 William Turner, M. D., of New York.   Who is William Turner ?
   Dr. Turner graduated in the  N. Y. State Medical  Society.  In the  year
 1840, he received from Governor Seward the office of Health Commissioner
 for the City and County of New York, and never were the duties and respon-
 sibilities of that important trust more faithfully or more ably discharged, than
 by that gentleman, whom I have the honor to number amongst my friends
 and constant correspondents.
   Dr. Turner was recommended to Gov. Seward, by a professional memorial,
 bearing the signatures of almost all the magnates of the Allopathic  schools
 of New York.   That memorial may be seen in the office of the author of these
 pages, as also a copy of the annexed:
                                       Albany, February, 12th, 1840.
  My  dear. sir.—Your favor  of the  8th, has been received.  I am  not
 aware that  there is any necessity for documentary proof of your ability and
 qualifications for the Office of Health Commissioner.  Your nomination has
already been submitted to  the Senate, and  I  have not the slightest doubt
of its confirmation.                               Very truly yours,
    Wm. Turner, M. D.                      William H. Seward.
  Says the  London Medical Enquirer, " at the  present moment almost ALL
the heads of the medical profession pradice Chrono-Thermalism:" and amongst
the eminent names it gives, we find the following :  Sir  Benjamin  Brodie,
Dr. Marshal Hall,  Dr.  Watson, Dr. Copeland, Dr. Todd, Dr. Ashburner:
the two Hollands, and Dr. John Forbes; and the late  Sir Astley Cooper
publicly approved the system; as also did the  late distinguished surgeon—
Liston.
  In the list of Army surgeons, the following  eminent men have written in
favor of this system, and are now practical Chrono-Thermalists.  Drs. Hume.
F. G. Tomlins, Gumming, Lacombe. and a host of others who are not authors:
to which may be added full one third of British practitioners.
  On the Continent of Europe, the following distinguished men are Chrono-
 Thermalists ; Andral, Gondret and Bichard, Paris:  Dictel and Louis, Vien-
na: Evenhoffand Betou, Sweden:  Erstein and  Friere, Denmark.
  On the American Continent we have Turner,  New York: Gwynne, To-
ronto: Jones, Louisville, Ky.: the  venerable J. B.  Marsh,  Rahway, N. J.:
Gale, Tonawanda,  N.  Y.:  Kent, Pawtucket, R. I.:  Condict, Washington :
T. E.  Massey, Mobile: J. T.  Walch,  Richmond, Va.: Hopkins,  Provi-
dence, R. I.: Goodale, Watertown, N. Y.: T.  D.  Mitchell, Lexington, Ky.:
Gorrie, Apalachicola: &c, &c, &c.
  The whole of the above, were educated in the Allopathic schools; many
of the gentlemen named,  are renowned for their classical, literary, and pro-
fessional attainments, and are certainly as competent to judge of the relative
merits of Allopathy and Chrono-Thermalism, as  the host of little practitioners,
who, without either classical, literary, or professional renown, and without any
knowledge of the system they denounce, are continually muttering that Chro-
no-Thermalism is a humbug, and its practitioners  quacks. 
  ''1
/
            WHAT  IS CHRONO-THERMALISM.'

      In our necessarily brief reply to this frequent inquiry, we ask the reader's
   candid attention, assured that as soon as the claims of this harmonious and
   philosophical system are understood, it will at once commend  itself to his
   judgemnet and acceptance.
      1st.  Chronos is a Greek word signifying time or  perio_d; and Therma
   another Greek word, meaning heat, or temperature: hence Chrono-Therma-
   lism is the doctrine of Periodicity and Thermal condition.            -fM-'^iUtt-h t)  fa
     2d.  Chrono-Thermalism teaches the Unity, Periodicity, and consequent cA'P/ff<^
   intermittency of all  disease j nor is this  so new a doctrine  as you might at
   first suppose, for more than twenty-three centuries ago, Hippocrates wrote—   4i.<jja+.
   '' omnium morborum unus et idem modus est; " the type of all disease is one     C^rnu
   and identicals Intermittent Fever, or Ague, is the type  ofjrildisease;  and  7 €&•/*»»«'
   every form of disease is only a modification of,the primitive type.          <*' /r*^ni
     3d.   There can be no disease without a general constitutional, disturbance. * J   p
   Local disease  is only a developement or result of a series of constitutional */ *"* ot  j}
   disturbances, determined by predisposition to the weakest part or parts of fj /'. i^^L
   the body.   -U' ■'   '■/>?-'                                            '■   "/feuft
     4th.  Predisposition to disease of one part more than  another,  is the result 1  jOj-  #
   of a less degree of cohesion of the atoms of the part, rendering it more liable j1       /
   to disorganization: this predisposition may be hereditary or accidental; what- j
   ever injuriously affects the whole body,  must in a greater degree  affect its \
   weaker parts.
     5th.  There can be no disease without a change of motion  of the  atoms of
   the organization ;  and there can be no change of atomic motion without change I
   of temperature.  These morbid changes or evidences of constitutional distur-
   bance are always periodic and intermittent.
     6th.   Ague, or  Intermittent Fever, is characterized by  THREE marked J   y
   changes of the condition of the body; and its  functions and  secretions  are I
   correspondingly altered.   These changes are Chill, Heat, Sioeat, and  are com- !
   monly called  the cold, hot, and sweating stages, and their successive occur-
   ence constitutes a paroxysm,  or  fit—they are always followed by aperiodic [
  intermission, or regular interval of comparitive health.                        v
    7th.  These  stages are  Chrono-Thermally  called, Depression, Acces-aV
  sion, Reaction, and the Health effort;  they are found in every  case of dis-
  order—they are the  invariable attributes of  every developement of disease.
*y Depression is the  result of an abnormal, attraction of the atoms of the organ- 
8
    ism,  and is characteristic of the negative,  or electrical state.   Accession.
    is abnormal atomic repulsion, and marks the positive, or magnetic state.  Du^.
    ring the period of Reaction, the life forces are struggling against the distur-
    bance to which they  have  been subjected;  and this struggle develops the
    Health effort, or period of intermittent equilibrium.
      8th.   The recurrence of a complete paroxysm is characterized  by great
    uniformity in time or periodicity: fit susceeding fit  at the  same hour of the
    day, continuing its successive stages  in  measured  periods, to be again fol-
    lowed by the periodic intermission.   Every  patient knows  this to be true, al-
    though the " Regulars " affect to deny  it.
      9th.   The intermittent period may continue one, two, three or more days
    before the recurrence of another similar paroxysm;  or the paroxysms may be
    semi-diurnal; in some  cases they may be repeated  four times  daily: when
    they  so occur, they are called continued fever;  but the appellation is a mis-
    nomer, for  to-the  eye of the Chrono-Thermalist,  the three marked characters
    of the primitive type are always discernable.
      10th. Every person has from birth some portion of his organism less firmly j
    ■constituted than the  other  parts; and  constitutional  disturbance always de-<
    velops those parts.  Several persons shall be exposed to a current of cold air,
    and what are the results thereof?   Onje, the next day has headache: anothen,
    pain  in the chest, cough, or spitting of blood: a third, severe pains  in the re-
    gion of the kidneys, with disturbance in  passing water:  a fourth has general •
    muscular pains ; and these effects of one common cause, are by the old school
i\   'practitioners designated as so many totally distinct diseases, and nosologically
    christened to names  which neither  they or their patients  understand    The'
    current'of cbld air was the cause of constitutional  disturbance in each case* •'
    and that disturbance was developed in the greatest degree, at the  parts pre-
    disposed to disease  by their inherent  weakness; in  the first  case  the  brain,
           —*■■.-.         "y  —-        .                      - - * !
    was  most impressible—in the seconduthe respiratory organs—in the third,;
    •the kidneys and their appendages—in the last, the nerves of sensation.
      •Ilth. As the causes of all disease are resolvable into change of motion and
    change of temperature—so the power of all remedies is in like manner resol-
    vable ;  they effect changes of atomic motion and change of temperature.
       12th.  Vital Chemistry—Vital Electricity—Vital Magnetism—and  Vital
  '  Mechanics are the sum total of all the life forces by  which all the internal
    movements of man are periodically produced.  Every force in nature will be
    found, upon analysis, to resolve itself into a cause of motion, motion forward,
    backward, outward,  or inward.  Chemistry, Electricity, Magnetism, Mechan-
    ics—can do no more than this—either by Attraction to bring the  atoms of
    matter nearer to  each other,—or by repulsion, to increase their distance.
       13th. Attraction and repulsion are the two grand forces by which, not the
    motions of the human organism alone, but the motions of the universe are
    controlled; and by these forces and no oOter  can animal life be influenced
 
9
  either for good or evil, whatever may be the nature  of the agent by  which
  they are called into action.
    14th. Remedial means may include every description of force: the  band-
  age, splint, and forceps are examples of the mechanical: the alkalies, acids,   f /
  and their combinations are illustrations  of the chemical: hydrocyanic acid>    */.
  opium, quinine &c, are instances of electricaLaction.  The latter do not act    « ,
  mechanically, nor is their action marked by chemical  change or visible de-    ^
  composition of the parts upon which their influence is exerted: it must then
  be admitted that such action is either electrical or magnetic.
    15th.  Practical philosophers  maintain that all these forces are one ;  and i
  Mr. Farraday has demonstrated that  they  are  all only modifications of one \
  great central  source of power, the Electrical.
    16th.  Electricity can be so applied as to produce attradion and repulsion \
  in all bodies without any alteration of their constituent nature; and  it  can
  also be so applied to almost every compound body as to effect a true chemical
  decomposition of its constituent elements.
    17th. By the agency of Electricity  iron can be rendered magnetic, or be
  deprived of that property; and the polarity of the needle of the compass may
  by the same agency be reversed or destroyed.
    18th. The direct application of this subtle  and universal power to the  liv- ;
 ingbody, has caused, cured, or aggravated almost every conceivable manifest- !
 ation of disease, whether it has come in the form of the thunder storm or been \
 artificially induced by the less energetic combinations of human invention. '
 As in the instance of the magnetic needle whose polarity  or motive power it
 can induce, reverse, or  destroy—so can it also increase, decrease, reverse or
 destroy each of the functional  motions of the various parts or  organs of the
 living body, to which it may, under particular circumstances be applied.  It '  ■'
 has caused and cured palsy, and strychnia has done the same ; like quinne
 and arsenic it has caused and cured the shaking ague ; with opium it has pro-
 duced sleep, stupor, death,—and it has  induced restlessness, delirium and
 maniacy ; it has cured cramps and asthma, and induced them, even as prussic   ' ' ■'
 acid and nitrate of silver have when administered under similar circumstances*
   19th. The foregoing  facts are demonstrative that the action of medicinal.
 substances is purely electrical: and it also explains  why any  given remedy
 may produce opposite results when administered to two patients who are sup-
 posed to be suffering under the same nosological disease ; and this explanation
 is unknown to the whole allopathic school*
  20th. The power of all medicinal agents is one and  the same, viz.,  their
power nf electrically moving the body in some of its parts or atoms—inwards
or outwards—according to the previous vito-electric state of the brain of the
different individuals to whom they may be administered, for  through the  me-
dium of the brain and nerves do all these agencies primarily act.
  21st.  The apparently unlike result of the action of various  substances  de-
             2 
10
fvt^
#v
         pend alone upon the dissimilarity of the functions of the organs they severally
         influence ; the temperature or part of a  living body thus motively influenced
         being in each case corespondingly altered :  on the dead, if they exercise any ) /
         influence at all, it can only be by preventing the  putrefactive process, or by*
         causing the opposite result—the chemical decomposition of its various parts :j
         hence an ancient author says,—                              ,
           " Medicina non agit in cadaver."
           22d. Medicinal substances exert an influence over one part of the organism /
         in preference to any other, by the same law  of Elective  affinity which deter- '
         mines the  combination of inorganic bodies.   Thus opium acts upon the nerves, ',
         of sensation, and strychnine upon the nerves of muscular motion.           V^
           23d. Opium sometimes produces restlessness instead of sleep; and  strychnia'
         will in some  cases produce paralysis, and in others, wake up to action the:
         paralysed  nerves.   The atoms of a given portion of the brain of any  two in-
         dividuals thus oppositely influenced by the same medicinal agent, is in an op-
         posite electrical state,—negative  in the one, and positive in the other; and
         would not you expect opposite results to be developed, when  one remedy is
         made to act electrically upon two bodies  so  diametrically opposite ?  You
         may demonstrate this fact  by  a simple experiment; take three  bowls—fill one
 . *J'    with cold, a second with hot, and  the third with moderately ivarm water: place
         one hand in the cold water, the other in the  hot—retain them therein for a few
         minutes-~then plunge both hands into the bowl of warm water.  Now  that
         water will feel cold to the  hand  which left  the hot water, and  warm to  the
         one which had been placed in the cold.   Thus does the  light of Chrono-Ther-
         malism dispel the darkness which has for ages  enveloped the action of medi.'
         c'inal agents upon the living body, whilst its teachings strip the practice of^
         medicine of the mysterious jugglery in which pedantic  ignorance has hereto- >
      ^  fbre shrouded it.
     \    24th.  A remedy  perfectly appropriate in one stage of the  series of  the -
       "> phases of  any disease, is absolutely injurious  in each of the  other recuring
pU^   l stages :  a remedy may be working with the system one hour; and if repeat- jj
       |  ed four hours afterwards may be working against the lawsjof periodicity, and,
         thereby aggravating the disease.  From this cause disease is perpetuated from
         week to week, and the patient is  made a sicker man by the 'remedies given
         him.  Is it supprising that this should be the case, when  neither the nature j
         of the disease or the action of the remedy is understood ?
           25th. Ask an Allopathist why opium induces  sleep ? and his answer  will
         be  " from its narcotic power."   What can be more satisfactory! how greatly
         it elucidates  your enquiry to be told in Greek that it produces sleep because it
    \    produces sleep! But when instead of sleep, it induces restlessness or delirium
   A \ 0 where is  its  narcotic power ?   Why does Rhubard purge ? again you get the
  (ij )    oracular response " from its cathartic properties," but when it acts as an as-
         tringent, and produces costiveness, where  is its  cathartic power?  Why does
■din 
11
Antimony vomit ? the oracle again in Greek replies, "from its emetic poww ;"
you are told that it acts as an  emetic, because  it vomits you.   But when it
induces sleep, how  then does it act? why is it now a narcotic?  Thus do the
learned regulars juggle : instead of a philosophica. answ;r,  they give you an
echo of your own question, taking care however to. mystafyyou by rendering
it in Greek.
  26tb. Chrono-Thermalism rejects no earthly agent  but  the bleeding lancet,
the leech, and the scarificator: it has already compelled the Allopathic and Reg-
ular Academy of Medicine of New York to declare that " bleeding w never a
remedy /"   Are  not many of our Allopaths in this vicinity yet Sangrado's ?
- \  A. ■/!■■
   27th. Depletion and starvation are alike shown by the teachings of Chrono-  \ ,.\ ',#.
 Thermalism to be the chief sources of the continuance and perpetuation  of /^.'V
 disease, profitable only  to. the  physician who thereby  multiplies  visits  and ■   V
 lengthens his bill.    "  /A       / , j
   28th. Chrono-ThermalisiA, in the language of the N. Y. Trihune, ia "good "    I
 for the patient, bad for thejpbysician"  It employs little medicine, saves an
 immense amount of suffering—greatly shortens, the duration of sickness, and
 effects an unparalelled reduction in the number of deaths.
   29th. In proof of its safety and universality of application, Chrono-Therma-
 lists are ever ready to compare its results, its numerical cures with the curative
 results of all other systems : disease for disease, case for case, period of conr
 tinuance with  periadj of continuance, expense for expense.
   30th, The Chrono-Thermal system appeals from authority to examination;
_rejecting antiquated dogmas, it demands STATISTICS, and wherever it  is
 thus brought to the test before the bar of common sense we know that judge-
 ment will be rendered in its favor by acclamation*  Even, in that formidable
 disease APPOPLEXY, Dr. Copeman, an allopathic physician opposed to  our    .
 system, admits, that in the regular  practice  where bleeding was  universally
 adopted, two out of  every three patients died, whilst under  Chrono-Thermal
 treatment ivithout bleeding TWO out of every THREE recovered.  One  fact
 like tliis extorted from an  opponent,  is of sufficient force  to outweigh a thous-
 and slurs, although they may be uttered by Allopaths holding a clerical dis-
 pensation, or an Apostolic bull.
   No  system of medicine can be of universal application which does  not re-[
 eognize the Uaity, Integrity, and Periodicity of action of the living organism1'
 —or which fails to reconcile the intermittency and periodicity of its functions '
 with the intermittency, periodicity, and thermal changes which mark the revo-
 lutions of universal nature: but in both these great truths, the "regular schools''
 are wholly defective ;  whilst  Chrono-Thermalism  is in unison with the har-
 aionies of the universe and its laws : it acknowledges every power and prin-
 ciple in nature  as available for good or evil upon the living body, and for the
 cure of disease it avails itself of all natural means. 
12
The teachers of any science cannot now as they once could-
                              "--------------------creep
                        Profoundly trifling—profitless^ deep—          /
      ■v ^              iiTreading the steps their sires before them trod,
                       I The past their heaven, Antiquity their God.*' <
             In this country, as in Europe, scarcely a medical work or journal is now is-
           sued from the press, that does not—at least indirectly—furnish evidence of
           the truth of the Chrono-thermal system ;  one writer plagiarising its teachings
           upon one subject,  another upon  some other ; but we defy these regular  pla-
           giarists to produce a single  instance, in the writings  of their school, of any al-
           lusion to  the Unity, Periodicity, and intermittency of all_disea.se, until ajleri
           the publication of Dickson's discovery thereof.  Let this fact be remembered—
           for it is only in keeping with the regular schools,—they first denounce every
           thing  new as quackery: soon they appropriate the quackery they denounced,
           and  by a piece of plagiaristic juggling they make  it regular orthodoxy.
'J..,. -;.•      Harvey, who discovered the  circulation of the blood in the 17th century,'
rn.i-/     was  in his day denounced as a quack, and  contemptuously called  by the reg  \
for.:      ulars,  "the circulator."  He was moreover persecuted by souless colleges to
           the day of his death.
  rff,       Ambrose Pare,  in the reign of Francis the First,  introduced the  ligature
^.{A'trZ  he was the  first  to tie the arteries.  For tHis great discovery  he was de-
       ->,  nounced as a quack, and expelledjrqm the regular faculty, whilst  sage  pro-
           fessors ridiculed the  idea  of risking  life upon a  thread^ when boiling pitch
           applied to the quivering stumps had stood the test of centuries. J(fv. +>j:  .-"'.«
             Paracelsus introduced the use  of antimony into the practice of medicine. |
           for this, he was stigmatized as a quack, and the  French parliament, at the
      '     suggestion of the  faculty, passed an act making  its  administration penal.
             The Jesuits introduced the use of Peruvian bark,  an invaluable remedy,
           into  England: but being used by the Jesuits, it  was at once denounced by
           the protestant " regular faculty."
             In 1695, Dr. Groenvelt  discovered  the curative  power of Cantharides in \
           Dropsy,   No sooner had his cures made him popular, than he was committedJ
           to Newgate by warrant of the President of the Royal College of Physicians,
           as a quack.
             Lady Mary Montague introduced innoculation into England,  having seen
           in Turkey its success in mitigating that terrible disease^Small^ Pox.  The
           faculty, to a man, rose in  arms against it, and  neither the philanthropy or
           the sex of Lady Montague could shield her from  the most wanton insult  and
           opprobium.  (See YVharncliffe's Memoirs.)
             The immortal Jenner  introduced the  priceless boon of vaccination : for
           this  he was denounced and ridiculed as a quack,  and prohibited from practis- j
           ing his profession in the British Metropolis. And when Boylston introduced J
           Jenner's discovery into the United States, and boldly tested its  efficacy  and! 
13
safety upon his own son, he was laughed to scorn by the sapient Boston regu- f     ;
lars, and denounced as a " crazy quack."                                    /'
  Is it said that these were the occurrences of the dark djiyjjrf Allopathy ?__« * *
We admit it!   But Allopathy yet dwells in its pristine darkness, /or in Lon-
don, it has in  like manner  denounced^nd_expellei_-Eickson, and in New-
York, Dr. Turner has met the same  fate.   From these illustrations you will
have learned that colleges and  cliques are yet much  what mankind was in
the days of Solomon, who, after searching the world  " returned and saw un-
der the sun, that there was  neither bread to the wise,  nor riches to men of
understanding, nor favor to men of skill."  And you will also have come to   /
the conclusion that  no  truth or  system  should be  condemned  or rejected,
simply because the regular profession raise the hue  and cry of cmackery c
against it.
  I need not now tell you  that all these  important  discoveries, although\syw~
fiercely denounced as quackery at the period of their introduction have long  /•; '' iV' ./',.,
ago become regular  orthodoxy: nay more, every thing true in  the regular \        i
practice has been stolen from men who in  their day  were stigmatised  as
quacks: all the improvements which have ever marked  its  history, have been
forced upon it  either by public sentiment, or the inherent power of the great
truths  which  free minds aud unshackled  men have  from time to time pro-
claimed. Nor will many years pass away ere the doctrines and practice of    *  ''
Chrono-Thermalism will have  become the  dominant  system of medicine 1  o ;'
throughout the civUized world—and the reg-uZar_faculty will be  compelled^] *
either to adopt that  system, as they have  already adopted the  circulation of ,
the blood, the use of the Ugature, the employment of Bark, innoculation, and   .
vaccination—each of which they at first stigmatised as the most arrant quack- | ■.
ery, or They, being weighed in the  scales  of an enlightened and  advanced
public sentiment, will find written upon the walls of their colleges, the sig-
nificant words—" Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsim."
            WHAT ALLOPATHY  SAYS OF ITSELF.
   We cannot better close these brief remarks, than by permitting Allopathy
to prove by its own teachers, professors, and praditioners, that it is at once a
fallacious, unsatijfadory, and destructive system.
   Says Frank—" thousands are annually slaughtered in the  quiet sick room.
Governments should at once either banish medical men and proscribe their
blundering art,  or they should adopt some better means to protect the lives
of the  people than at present prevail, when they look far less after the prac-
tice of this dangerous profession,  and the murders committed in it, than after
the lowest trades." 
14
       The eminent  Lugol, of Paris, in a lecture delivered before a class of stu-
    dents in 1841, and since published, says, " our want of success in the ordina-
    ry means of diagnosticating (understanding disease] proves that those means
    are inadequate;  that we follow an erroneous course in our investigations, and
    that we must resort to some new modes if we desire to be more successful."
       Says Dr. Evans,  " the medical practice of our day is at best a most uncer-
    tain and unsatisfactory system: it has neither  philosophy nor common sense
    to commend it to confidence."
       Says the Dublin Medical Journal, of 1842, " Assuredly the uncertain and
    most unsatisfactory art  that we call medical science, is no science at all, but
    a jumble of inconsistent opinions, of conclusions hastily and often incorrectly
    drawn, of facts misunderstood or perverted, of comparisons without analogy,
    of hypothesis without reason, and  of theories  not only useless, but danger-
    ous !"
       Says the distinguished Rush, of Philadelphia,  " we (speaking for the Reg.
    ular practice) have  done little  more, than to multiply diseases, and increase
    their fatality."
       Says Professor Dixon, of New York, one of the magnates of the Allopaths,
    and the Editor of the Scalpel, "the whole system of practice requires careful
 /  remodelling.   We_yet know but little of the true nature of disease."  And he
    might have added, "still less of the most appropriate  mode of treatment."
       Thus writes Dr. James  Johnson, of the Medico-Chiriorgical  Review, pub-
    lished in London:
       " I declare, my conscientious opinion, founded on long experience and re-
    flection, that if there was  not a single physician, surgeon, apothecary, man-
   i midwife, chemist, druggist, nor drug on the face of the earth, there would be
 ,  i less sickness, and less mortality than now prevail."
      Says Dr. Bostock, " our actual information or knowledge of diseases, does
    not increase  in  proportion to our experimental practice: every  dose of medi-
    cine given by Allopathy, is a blind experiment made upon the  vitality of the
    patient."
      Listen to the late Professor Gregory—" Gentlemen, ninety-nine out of ev-
    ery hundred medical facts, are medical lies, and medical doctrines are for the
    most part, stark,  staring nonsense."
      The great Magendie says, " let us no longer wonder  at the  lamentable
    want of success  which marks our practice, when there is  scarcely a sound
    physiological principle  amongst us."
      Hear Dr. Francis  Coggswell, of  Boston, June 6th, 1843:
      " I wish not to detract from the exalted profession to which I  may have the
    honor to belong,  and which includes many of my warmest  and most  valued
/   friends,—yet I cannot answer it to my conscience to  withhold  the  acknowl-
    edgement of my  firm belief, that the Medical  Profession (with its prevailing
    mode of practice) is productive of vastly more evil tluzn good: and  were il absolih
    tely abolished, mankind would be infinitely the gainer. 
15
0
   How humiliating soever the confession, I must own that the most of my '
 professional life has been worse than thrown away.   I am well aware that my
 professional brethren will call me presumptive,  for daring to question the in-
 fallibility  of  the Allopathic, or common  practice,  sanctioned  by the  opin-
 ions  of seventeen centuries; but I cannot, must not, and will not, shrink
 from  known  duty, come what may.   I claim  the  privilege of thinking I
 Bpeaking, and acting  for myself and shall never allow any man  or  body of]
 men to be my conscience-holder  in medical, religious, or political matters p''
 Since graduating, my experience has  been such as to enable  me to form a J
 just estimate of the common mode of treatment, and abundantly to  satisfy me
 that it  is  utterly unsound in root, trunk and branch.  It is  emphatically a •
 guessing system, and the chance  of a patient's being radically cured by it, is
 about as great  as the chance of drawing a prize  from among an hundred
 blanks.  It is to be regretted  that society_is so enslaved to fashion and cus-
 tom, that nine in ten  would sooner die fashionably under the hand of a  fash- •  - .
 ionable practitioner, than consult an unpopular one,  even  though he knew he
 would restore them to health.  But then it is better  to die respectably, and in
 good taste, than to live and be reproached by one's friends.                  ,
   Thus testifies Dr. Jamieson, of Edinburgh,—" the present practice of med-
 cine is a reproach to the name of  science, while its  professors give evidence
 of an almost total want of the true knowledge  of the nature or proper treat-  \
 ment of disease.  In  most cases,  mere symptoms  receive  the attention of the
 physician, and from this cause his remedies are  seldom  of advantage to the
 patient.  I may go further, and say, that nine times out  of ten our miscalled
 remedies are absolutely injurious  to our patients  suffering under diseases of
 whose real character and cause we are most culpably ignorant"
   Thus writes Dr. Ramage, (a Fellow of  the Royal  College of Physicians of
 London*)—" It cannot be denied  that the present  system of medicine is a t
 burning reproach to its professors, if indeed a series of vague and uncertain '
 incongruities deserve  to be called by that  name. How rarely do our medicines   ,
 do good! how often do they make our  patients really worse!  I fearlessly as- '"
 sert that in most cases the sufferer would be safer without a physician than
 with one.  I have seen enough of the malpractice  of my professional brethren
 to warrant the strong language I employ, and I have but  too often  witnessed
 the failure  of my own experiments in the regular practice; for experiments   ,  , ,
 they must truly be called, where medicines are  given in cases where neither   / )L
 the true nature of the disease or the mode of action of the remedy is understood.  '.>j-i (
   Says Wakley in the London Lancet of 1842—" How little do we know, (of
disease), compared with what we have yet to learn. Every  day developes new
views, teaching us that many of what we before thought immutable truths de-
served only to be classed with baseless theories; yet, dazzled with the splen-
dor of great names, we adhere to them.  On these theories,  whidrJSjririlftUpd
  * A FMnw of the Royal College has  attained the highest medf at honors known to the
British Schools.
^*J 
16
the place of truth, a system of roidine, or  empirical,  practice has grown up,
vacillating, uncertain^ and often pilotless in the treatment of disease."
  We might multiply such testimony as the foregoing to any extent, by quot-
ing Dewees, Cox, Edwards, Williams, and a host of others,—but we have al-
ready  produced sufficient witnesses to sustain  the  direct evidence of Dr.
Coggswell, who declares that the Allopathic practice  " is utterly unsound in
root, trunk and branch."
  Such is the testimony of the most eminent teachers and practitioners of the
Allopathic system;  where then is the safely of that system as generally practis-
ed by those whose knowledge is yet more limited; and  who, like the  mill
horse, treading one ceaseless circle, are circumscribed by the contracted cir-
cumference of the schools ?  " We speak as unto wise men, judge ye."
  The writer has in progress, and hopes  soon to have ready for the pre»,
" The  American Chrono-Thermalist," containing  1st. A complete exposi-
tion of the theory  and practice of Chrono-Thermalism.   2d. The remedies
employed therein—their combinations, doses, and appropriate periods of tjM
minUration.   3d.  Physiology and Hygeine.  The American Chrono-Therm'i',
alist will be emphatically " a book for the people."
  Dr. Kent will  be pleased to refer those interested,  to  some three score
cases in his immediate vicinity, Chrono-Thermally cured, after being pro-
nounced  hopeless under other practice.
  K?AU diseases of the eye and its appendages receive especial attention;.,,
References to numerous cases.
  The diseases incident to women, particularly Prolapsus Uteri, (or falling of
the womb), are peculiarly susceptible  of cure under Chrono-Thermal treat-
ment.  Ladies may obtain reference to upwards of fifty cases, (many of them
in their worst forms), radically cured, in most  instances in a less number
of days than the patient had suffered months or years.
   i
1