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MEDICAL    SCIENCE.
BY DR. J. CLAWSON  KELLEY.
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        N E \V - Y O R K;
J* A. FRAETAS & J. W. KELLEY PRI.NTERS.
            1842,
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*°Belrr:m^
eight hundred and forty-one, Dr. J. Clawson Kelley. of he saidDistr.ct  ha h deposi-
ted at this Office the Title of a Book, the title of which  is in the words following, to
wft. Key o EicaT Science, by Dr. J: Clawson Kelley the r.ghi whereof he claim
as Author and proprietor.  In conformity with an act of Congress, entitled  An Act
to amend the several Acts respec.mg c.opy,,^,, ^^ CHAg. D. BETTb^



                             w 
INTRODUCTORY PROEM.
   In introducing to the  public any  new  seience or principle,
it has, as a necessary consequence, found both its enemies and
opponents, as well as its admirers.  Self-interest is known to
be a  feeling ever at war with truth that would oppose it, and
to stop short at no means however low and  degrading, the en-
ginery of which is found to promote its particular end.   Thus
it  will be  found, that this innate  feeling of self—this all-gras-
ping  pulse, and  self-aggrandizing motive, is one of the  great
evils with which the truth of every new science has to con-
tend.   Those, on the other hand, whose interest it is to believe
do so without attempting investigation ;  and while  they very
carefully avoid any opposition at all, are found too indolent to
advocate its truth, that thousands who  have an immediate in-
terest attached to it,  may be benefitted to the full extent of its
powers.
 Every day some new truth is developing itself, and illumining
the page of science.  The experience of .the ancients in Medi-
cine,  Arts, Political  Economy, and their train of dependents
and effective agents, is come, in the present age of enlight-
ened Liberty, to be severely pondered and commented upon  ;
and though many  of the hypotheses,  which in the  ancient
fables were inculcated  as the pure light of truth,  have de-
veloped a  principle entirely contrary — still there  are many
points, both of Medical Jurisprudence and of the lighter  arts, 
IV
which are admirable in themselves, and beneficial in their ope-
rations ;  whilst others, again,  present the strange anomaly of
truth and falsehood.
   We are labouring under a much stronger chain of supersti-
tion now, than the ancients did a thousand years ago.   Slavery
at that period was compulsory  ; while that of the present day is
voluntary,—that of the ancients being wrought from the strong
chain of tyranny and riveted upon them, which they bore
proudly after many vain  attempts to throw it off: while the
slavery of the  present age  is  of a less laudable character—
more silk-like  in its texture  is the  chain which binds it, and
may be resolved into unrestive subserviency  to  the powerful.
The many false theories which the present state of the world
is characterized by, are more ruinous than the fables of the an-
cients, while they do not answer the same useful purpose.  The
great body of the reflective and intelligent, emancipate them-
selves from participation in the production of good which the
complete  trampling under  foot of  all  hypothetical sciences
would tend to produce; yet they (calling themselves the lights
of science,) feel themselves  bound by the dignity of their po-
sition, to aid in thwarting the attempts of others in the work of
reformation.  Challenging truth is not refuting it; and when
the centinel  in his watch-tower has said  " stand " to a deter-
mined intruder, although he has done a useful and necessary
act, still  wc  may safely  conclude that the easiest part of his
duty only has been fulfilled.  It is this word stand used in re-
ference to Medical Reformation, which the legal or sect-proper
of Physicians persuade themselves is its overthrow, while the
flower is still spreading its roots, and sending forth its invigo-
rated germs.  Abstract speculation  may do  well enough for
the scholar in his closet;  but the  many want practical  tokens
of the benefits of science  apart from  abstraction.  Thus   it
should be, and doubtless is,  that, in  a  philosophical  point  of 
V
view, he who  produces an ounce of good, has achieved more
than he who produces a pound ot abstraction.
  Reformers, advocates, and the direct partisans of any new
principle in the way of Medical Science, have ever had a thor-
ny path before them—while  but down alone is fit for the tread
of the abstractionist, or he whose theories the people  believe
because they cannot comprehend.  None should embark on
the sea of reform, without first counting the cost, in preparing
for gales, quicksands, and buried precipices.  The ordeal  of
defamation, ridicule, and approbrium ;

     '* The oppressor's wrongs—the proud man's contumely—
     Tho insolence of office and  the spurns,
     That patient merit of the unworthy takes,"—

alike  must be surmounted; ay, and  the vain aristocrat must
also be  shown his position—the bottom-most round of that
ladder  to fame his  insolent pretensions have  taught him  to
overstep ; he must be shown that Plebeian  reason is stronger
than Patrician power—and  that  the first and most important
step to human greatness is the establishment of a vade mecum,
whose operation is to promote the happiness of mankind.  He
who has vanity enough to proclaim  himself a  wise man, will
rarely be found wanting in pretension, while his whole artil-
lery will be  brought to bear against the popularity of another
his own narrowness of soul can never win for him.   The con-
flicts which the various reformers in  this and  ages far past,
have  had to  sustain,  are not without their  appalling fea-
tures ; and are well calculated to deter others from venturing
before the public eye.  This  is abundantly illustrated in the
case of Columbus, who found many too ready to detract from
the merit his discovery of the largest quarter of the Globe full
surely  entitled him to ; in  Luther the first great breaker of the
shackles in which priestcraft and Popery had bound the chris-
         1* 
VI
tian world;—in Gallileo, who first discovered the motion of the
earth—in Harvey, Galen, and a thousand others !
   Happy, however, is it for us, that, in all these combinations
of hostility, amid  the blank visages of those whose very suste--
nance depends upon a state of blind ignorance in the many, and
the studied apathy in  those  whose  intelligence  and erudition
eminently calculate them to oppose  and  vanquish, the dark-
ness is now somewhat dispelled, and that the  sun  of thought,
the true independency of soul, is up and well  on in the ascen-
dant.
   In continuing these few  remarks .which we  design to  pre-
cede our "Key to Medical Science" we find it necessary  to take
notice of but three principles in the character of man, as com-
bining more powerfully to  keep back the march of  science
than any other—and these are :—

        1. FEAR.--2. VENERATION.--3. SUPERSTITION.
   1st.   Fear is a faculty  peculiar to  all animated  beings.
There are two kinds, viz: fear in the  conception, and  fear in
the perception.  The latter is influenced by visible objects, while
the former is approached by objects in  the comprehension, and
which  are not  outwardly visible.   With the former of these
sensations we have most to do.  Fear makes many proselytes •
for, in proportion as this sense is worked upon the other functions
become inert, and reason herselfis said to leave her  throne.
Fear is never exercised where self is  not  concerned ; though
great solicitude may be felt for foreign objects, it never amounts
to fear.  It is  this fear  in the comprehension of a power we
cannot overthrow, that gives to lawless force the greater part
of its support:—Great minds, exerted either for good or evil
tendencies, drag in their train  the sanction,  and therefore the
support of lesser  minds, which are capable of  being  swerved
from the track of  their  simple fcndency.   Thus many of the 
vii
doctrines of the legal medical school are supported through
this fear of which we are treating—this submissive principle of
irrational dependence,   And here it  will be found self-interest
is not the least in importance.   While the minds of men  are
becoming more enlightened, and the Medical Economy extend-
ing itself throughout the modern world, it is somewhat anoma-
lous, that so many  individuals of mental  strength,  and wide
reaching erudition—while they  so effectually follow the com-
plexities of this modem  wonder of Sciences—are so far drawn
into the shackles of Fear, that they impulsively espouse the
most glaring errors, rather than take the field against them and
their  baneful  tendency.  Minds not entirely free, and there-
fore wavering like the magnet just as  the distance between
it and the stone is circumscribed  or  lengthened,  it is not a
source of peculiar wonder that, over-awed by superior intelli-
gence, they take the colour of each stronger object with which
they are brought in contact and become passive instruments.
The Medical Science of the present age is a great science ; it
has powers and  attributes without tongue.  It has spread  itself
throughout the  land like an undying vine, and  its roots  have
taken hold in every part of the earth.   The sanction and  sup-
port of millions  have been given in its favor.   Great men of
every  clime  and nation have  been drawn by some subtle
principle into its support, and it is now teeming in  the land of
the heathen, where it is to receive still stronger, because a much
more blind support.  The question to be settled is, what has
Fear had to do with this ?  Much—it has been the elbow of the
arm that first sat it in  motion, and the coerced principle of its
action.  The minds of a thousand may be made subservient to
the dictates of one, only in the ratio that genuine liberty, and the
power of self-judging of the things that are, are found wanting
in their character ; while others are easily swept away by the
tide of eloquence and thus qualified to give support to the worst 
Vlll
of principles.  Thus fear  in  the conception or comprehension,
(with the two other principles  or sensations which we  will
shortly come to speak of)  has  been an important  secondary
means in establishing most of the odious structures—whether
of Governmental policy or Medical jurisprudence—which the
world has known.   During the  age  when the old English feu-
dal laws were in successful operation, the tenantry of the Barons
formed their chief support.  Many,  through a love  of intestine
brawls, but more, and by  far the vast majority,  were coerced
into the measures of the powerful,  and therefore  rendered a
support by no means voluntary—but through the principle of
fear, striking at the very foundation of that feeling of self-inter-
est which we have shown to be  inseparable from  man.  But
it was not from a conception of danger which acted upon them,
but from a visible power which threatened  no less than the
demolition of their hearths and firesides.  Fear in the other
sense, or that of conception, is not quite  so laudable, and there-
fore more cowardly, and the least to be depended upon ;  and
it is such characters as indulge it, that we have to thank for the
permanent basis of many of the odious customs and  institu-
tions of the  present  day.   Men having not the boldness to
combat an evil, supinely bow their heads till they are crushed be-
tween the upper and nether stone which they themselves were
conspicuous  in raising up.  The present intolerable and arbi-
trary practice of the healing art, is therefore indebted to the
supineness of the many for its position, and not to the cool re-
flection of contemplative minds.
  We remarked above,  that  the present system of Medical
Science, as practiced by the mineral advocates, was a great
Science.  We do  not  wish to  be misunderstood in this.  A
thing may be great, yet  be very  far from  being good—a
man may be a great philanthropist—a great statesman, or he
may be a great thief.  What we mean is, that medicine, though 
ix
it be a great science, is nevertheless daily entailing upon the
world an eminent degree of evil, because of its mal-adminis-
tration.
   We come now to speak of Veneration.
   2nd.   Veneration, naturally implies a great liking for the high
and powerful.  In treating of this subject, we do not wish to
be  mistaken, as  alluding to that laudable  sensation we  feel
in our breasts of the incomparable superiority of the Almighty
above all earthly objects:—but to that indescribable something
which too often leads men to admire and venerate their own
species.  And here we  have an ample field for  speculation.
A blind veneration for those above us, either in mental or phy-
sical capacity is a characteristic feature in man.  He is known
to admire his own species, and to delight in the  comprehen-
sion of it.   Man, by his very constitution  is  susceptible of
impression and conviction from something superior, which he
finds  or is  led  to suppose that he finds, prominently identified
with the character of those with whom  he comes  in  contact.
Whether this superiority be of a mental character, or merely
an attribute possessed alike by the lower animals, it is the same,
so long as a profound feeling of veneration or of awe  follows
in the mingling of mutual dependence.
   A student of the  old school of Medicine pre-supposes a ve-
neration for its character, and an entire determination to fol-
low the maxims  therein laid down.   It is not his  business to
detect error, or anything which he may  discover subversive of
the laws of nature. " And if it should occur, during the prose-
cution of his initiatory studies, that he is lucky enough to de-     ]
tect error in the  premises—Veneration  immediately pops  up     j
and teaches him  that it is absurd ; that what has once passed
the ordeal, and received the sanction of the learned and  intel-
ligent, is too far removed  out of the  pale of probability  to be     j
called in question by the proficient and experienced, much less 
                             X

by the student who has yet to learn the first  rudiments of his
profession.   Let any prominent man or set of men but set the
completest nonsense on foot, with all the attendant parapher-
nalia and machinery, and it will not be long before a thousand
of the unthinking will follow in the hue and cry, and complete
the solemn foppery—always supposing that its first projectors
are men of some notoriety.  We are too apt to conclude upon
a subject according as its source is eminent or obscure, and to
follow the theories of men not for the sake of any truth they
may  discover,  but for the purpose of gratifying that morbid
spirit of veneration the human heart is known to possess for high
character.  Thus, a Channing  can produce  nothing ill — a
Tillotson nothing  unworthy of  his  fame; neither can the ob-
scured  individual   produce  anything worthy of competition
with the splendid lights that already blaze in  the world of let-
ters.  Here is  veneration to a high degree !  but is there also
intelligence ?—is there mind ?
   Dr. Blair, in his treatise on " Rhetoric and  Belles Lettres,"
in speaking of ambiguity,  says, " were any  object,  suppose
some animal, to be presented to me, of whose structure I wan-
ted to form a distinct notion,  I would desire  all its trappings
to be taken off; I would require  it to be brought before me by
itself and to stand alone, that there might be nothing to distract
my attention."  This is a proper and apt way of distinguishing
between truth and  falsehood ; but the  majority make up their
minds with the bare contemplation of the trappings,  without
deigning to notice  the subject beneath.  .Thus the great and
influential minds draw around them the support of the little and
the unthinking.    Reason, and the free exercise of mind, are
thrown aside, or trodden under foot as unavailable lumber, and
the very essence of liberty is scattered over the ground !
  The next in importance, and the only principle we deem ne-
cessary to adduce  in support of our remarks, is superstition, 
xt
after which we shall class the three together, and thereby dis-
cover their effects upon general science.
   3d.  Superstition is a reverence of beings that are not proper
objects of reverence ; or it may be  defined, implicit reliance in
divine interposition.   The  last of these  definitions may with
greater justice be  applied  to  the  kind of  superstition with
which the ancient  cities of Greece and Rome  were fettered;
and this too in their most glorious days, when the arts  and sci-
ences, particularly Medicine, were in the greatest  perfection
among them.   The influence of superstition upon the mind of
man is two fold.  Firstly, its effect  as  regards his  connexion
with his species ;  and secondly,  its bearing upon  his moral
character.
  With regard to the first: man, in the simplicity of his primeval
state,  naturally  relied on the  interference  of some power  he
could not veil define, in the exigencies of life.  A too credu-
lous belief in the stories of  learned  men, who readily passed
themselves for the  immediate  vicegerents of a  higher deity,
laid the first foundation for the  great moral and religious fetters
that were forging for him.   His conscience readily became in-
noculated with the  virus, and he soon grew in consequence of
his conversion  to superstition, an oppressor.   In  this way,  its
effects were first felt by the  whole human race, long  before the
universal spread of the divine light.  Bands  of hirelings  were
scattered to the four corners of the globe, to coerce, and by
physical  force to restrain the upsoaring of reason.  In this way
man became the slave of others,  and to have no  mind—no
reason— but such as conformed to the prescribed limits of the
more  powerful.    Superstition, therefore, waxed  as  reason
waned, and the whole habitable earth became its field  of ope-
ration.
  With respect to its moral  influence.   In the early stages  of
existence, superstition did not  extend itself to all the pursuits 
xu
 of life, though  all were forced  into  it in one point,  viz: re-
 ligious devotion.  It taught, or rather forced men to confess, the
 moral supremacy of a few of his own species.   It taught him
 to look upon the fanes and mysteries of a set of juggling priests
 with  awe—to  confess the part such mysteries had in subju-
 gating the naturally prying character of mind,  and to ascribe
 the solemn fooleries of priestcraft to  the operation of deities.
 As the ancients have handed down to us many of their sublime
 conceptions in the arts and  sciences, so, also, have they reser-
 ved for us much  of their  splendid slavery.   But the supersti-
 tion which has descended to  us is quite different from that of
 the ancients.   In the various manipulations under which it has
 gone, its character has become entirely changed, like  an arti-
 cle of manufacture, when it has once left the forge of the origi-
 nal artizan, and is attempted to be  made more  perfect—its
 whole aspect being reversed, and few of its first  lineaments
 remaining by which it may be known. The superstition of the
 present day is  peculiar.   It does not attach itself particularly
 to religion, but to  our institutions and sciences.   Medicine has
 its superstitious followers in an eminent degree ; and the evil
 effects of this blind confidence, is  every  day discovering it-
 self—millions of the unfortunate testify to the truth of this; but
 however  strange it may  appear, millions of others are still
 willing to drag in its toils, and  to  give  to  Legal  Murder, a
 pardonable defence.  In a word, Fear of the powerful—Vene-
 ration of the great—and Superstition, as blind to  the very light
 of reason, have contrived to conjure up a more oppressive evil
 than the sword of the tyrant or the chains  of the  oppressor!
   In our present treatise, we call upon the reader  to exercise
 that power which the God  of nature has  vouchsafed to  give
 to every  individual—reason, the free  exercise  of which is
 well calculated to direct his mind in the high pathway  of truth
—at least it is best calculated  to discover the  quicksands of 
                            xiii

error.   For what purpose  was this power granted, but that it
should be exercised ;  yet do  we find those so intent on some
favorite pursuit, as almost to abandon  it as useless ;  content
without even the trouble of reflection, to adopt the opinions of
another, to "pin their faith upon another man's sleeve ;"  and to
adopt that opinion  which appears the most popular, or that
which may  have originated with some popular  individual.—
Thus has it  been, that opinions and theories  have  become
fashionable, and thus have they changed  according to the pre-
vailing fashion of the times without  the least regard to the
truth or error capable of being inculcated.   Until free inquiry,
free and unbiased investigation shall be the prevailing sentiment
of the day ; until, divested of all superstition, the human mind
is left free to combat error, truth can never become predomi-
nant.   Perhaps there never was a more correct remark made
than the  following, by a distinguished author.  " He that will
not reason, is a knave—He that dares not reason, is a slave—
and he  that cannot reason, is a fool."
   In the above remarks, it will be  perceived, that we are not
only willing, but invite a thorough  investigation of the princi-
ples which we advocate.  Our doctrines are generally of an
original character, the result  of long and arduous  enquiry,
which has resulted in a conviction of their truth. 
 
KEY TO  MEDICAL  SCIENCE,
   Electricity is a subject which has long engaged the minds of
 philosophers, many  of whom have differed very materially ia
 their conclusions respecting it;  yet sufficient has been ascer-
 tained in .regard to it to enable those who are so disposed, to
 build their structures on practical science, untrammelled by the
 dogmatical theories and problems of a speculative age.   The
 doctrines involving positive and negative electricity, or vitreous
 and resinous, seem the most prevalent;  but that they are most
 consistent, and most in accordance with plain reason and illus-
 trated  facts,  wants confirmation.   Our conclusions upon this
 subject, doubtless, by some will be considered erroneous, and
 by others mere assumption ; yet the reader must bear in mind
 that in the absence of the most positive evidence, conclusions
 can only be drawn from the consistency and reasonable char-
 acter of the subject.   To foster into  existence principles or
 theories which have  no more permanent basis than mere ima-
 gination, is the highest order of superstition, and may be pro-
 ductive of the worst of evils both as regards true science and
 the welfare of community.
   Electricity is a principle the most subtile, evading the most
 indefatigable and unwearied research.  Electricity we consid-
er the first, the all-powerful principle emanating from the Cre- 
/
  16              KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.

  ator,—the power by which all things  were made,—the grand
  -fiat of Nature,—the source of vitality itself!   From electricity
  come heat, light, affinity, attraction, galvanism, magnetism, &c.
  And it is by this power that all motion is produced ; by which
  all matter is formed ; by which composition and decomposition
  continually take place ; and by which, eventually,  the dissolu-
  tion of all things will be completed.
    Considering this to be the true ground of philosophy, we ven-
  ture upon this important  subject, not with the expectation of
  being able to overthrow long established prejudices, but to illus-
  trate simple  truth;  to place  the subject of Electricity before
  the public mind in that true light which an honest  conviction
  of its importance demands.
    The properties which certain bodies acquire by friction  are
  peculiar: for instance, by rubbing a piece of sealing wax, or a
  glass tube with a woollen cloth, then bringing into its neighbor-
  hood small fragments of paper, or down of feathers, these mi-
  nute bodies will be  attracted by it, and adhere for some time to
  its surface, and then be repelled.   This property was observ-
  ed by the ancients to exist in  several substances, particularly
  in amber, from which the  Greeks  derived its  name —" elec-
  tricity"
    Stephen Gray, of the Royal Society of London, in 1720, it
  appears, commenced the first electrical experiments, by which
  he found certain  substances capable of being excited by fric-
  tion, which he called electrics ; those which were not, he called
  non-electrics.    Those bodies which became  electric by being
  placed in the neighborhood of an excited body he called con-
  ductors ;  those which were not, he called non-conductors.  The
  electrics he found were all non-conductors ;  and the non-electrics
  were all conductors. We here  perceive the very first instance of
  the supposition of two distinct and opposite principles, negative
  and positive electricity.  But  the theory of two distinct " «/ec- 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE,
17
trie fluids" was introduced more especially by Dufay andSym-
ner, in 1734, which Dufay distinguished by the terms vitreous
and resinous electricity, but which is founded entirely upon as-
sumption.   In order to  account for electric phenomena, they
assume the two fluids to be possessed of the  same power and
properties, and capable  of neutralizing each other ; and elec-
trical excitement the consequence of one or the other being in
excess ; and that their combination may be destroyed by fric-
tion.
  These opinions prevailed until our  distinguished fellow citi-
zen, Dr. Benjamin Franklin, the American philosopher, introdu-
ced a different  theory :  that electricity itself was but a simple
element.   Yet writers consider his conclusions but assumption;
although  his investigations upon the subject were far more la-
borious and extensive than those of any other philosopher.—
Who other than him ever dared by a single wire to attract from
the clouds of Heaven the electric fluid, and charge with it a
glass jar, by which means he ascertained that it was the same
in character as that generated by an electric  machine.   The
experiment in itself was  boldly conceived, and the attempt ha-
zardous.
  The doctrines of Franklin attracted  the universal attention
of philosophers ; and the science was cultivated with assiduity
until Volta was led to invent the " Voltaic Pile" in consequence
of discovering that conductors, when  brought into contact, ac-
quire different electric states.   Then  were again revived the
old opinions of Dufay, or " positive and negative electricity."
The opinions of Franklin were supported and reverenced by
some of the most scientific men, among whom were Cavendish
and Epinas ; but it is a fact somewhat remarkable that foreign
influence  is invariably exerted to its utmost extent to detract
and bring  into contempt any new acquisition or science which
may originate  in the  intellectual mind of a citizen of the New
      2* 
18
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
World.  That the theory, doctrines and views respecting elec-
tricity introduced by Franklin are generally correct,  we have
little "doubt.  When we take a general view of the whole ground
aided by reflection, reason and common sense, we irresistibly
arrive at such conclusions; and  where, in some  instances, a
mere  inefficient  experiment may  seem  to favour  a  contrary
opinion, it only illustrates our incapacity to arrive  at  the vari-
ous peculiarities attendant on this most subtile and  invisible
agent of the Deity.  We  would  only ask, can it  be possible
that there are  two contending elementary principles in Nature,
precisely  of the same character ;  producing the same effect;
of the same power ; emanating from the same source, and ca-
pable of neutralizing each other ?  If so, must not their agen-
cy be rendered of no importance in nature, and utterly useless,
especially when we consider  (as we shall directly illustrate,
and as we have before said) that to this power, and  to this pow-
er alone, belong the great principle and cause of the formation
of all matter by attraction ?
  The term "  minus and plus" adopted by Franklin appears to
exhibit the true principle, and corroborates the fact, that a body
charged with  electricity is attracted by a  body less  charged
with the electric  fluid :  in other words, that electricity liie all
other fluids seeks its equilibrium.   If I charge with the electric
fluid the ball of an electric machine and place my  hand near,
it passes from the ball to  my hand.   Does not this  illustrate
still the same fact, that a body charged with the electric fluid
seeks its equilibrium by passing to a body which is less charged?
It may be well however to remark that what Dufay called his
vitreous electricity, Franklin termed positive or plus; and the
resinous electricity of Dufay he called negative or minus.
  Electricity is a principle which pervades all nature, all space ;
there is no place where it is not: it is that bright circumambient
flame surrounding the sun which renders that planet one eternal 
                                 t
                KEY TO  MEDICAL SCIENCE.              19

day—it is that lucent flame which we call the aurora borealis.
It is that power by which all motion is produced, both in animate
and inanimate substances—it is the source of caloric—it is that
power by which the  whole planetary system revolve in their
respective orbits—in a word it is the power of the Almighty.
  Affinity and attraction are principles which the  philosophi-
cal world has long laboured to define, but the result of  its  re-
search is  (as is frankly admitted) that it is a subject not com-
prehended or  understood.   Sir  Isaac  Newton  considered
planetary attraction  the same  as gravitation.  Philosophers
have contended for various species of attraction : as electric
attraction, chemical attraction, attraction of  gravitation,  or
terrestrial attraction, cohesive attraction  &c.  Dr. Hooper, in
his Medical Dictionary, says.   " The nature of this reciprocal
attraction, or at least the cause which produces it, is altogether
unknown to  us.  Whether  it be inherent in all matter,  or
whetherit be the consequence of some other agent,are questions
beyond the  reach of human  understanding ;  but its existence
is  nevertheless  certain."  Thus do  authors  admit that  they
know of its existence ; but how or why it exists they acknow-
ledge their utter ignorance of—" whether it be inherent in  all
matter, or whether it be the consequence of some other agent"
they say are questions " beyond the reach of human understan-
ding."  How strange  it is  that  scientific  men  should be so
confident, that  they  have so fully investigated the Laws of
Nature to the  utmost  limits as to determine that no enquiry,
however  laborious, could be extended beyond their researches !
and with a single thrust attempt to close the  door  to all future
investigation by declaring it to be " beyond the reach of human
understanding."  Yet such is but too frequently the pride, the
the folly, the vanity  of human nature !   Thus  have  philoso-
phers apparently ever been enveloped in the  dark  mist of ima-
gination,  without any  further guide  in their  desultations than 
20
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
fictitious reasoning based upon abstruse  and imperfect experi-
ments.   That affinity and attraction are both the result of elec-
tricity, must  be perfectly evident to  every mind that has re-
flected in the smallest  degree upon observation.   That there
should be various causes of attraction inherent in themselves,
apart from electricity, is absurd ; and especially the more so,
when all writers agree that attraction universally pervades all
nature.  That electricity pervades all matter, and that matter
is the only vehicle for the conveyance of electricity, is most
evident.   That the positive is attracted to the negative, all ad-
mit ;  we admit the same if it be meant its deficiency or super-
abundance, but not two specific electrical fluids.  The sulphu-
rous or phosphoric smell, sub-acid taste, &c, which have been
thought a property of electricity, arise, not from electricity, but
from its action upon certain aerial fluids, as will be shown here-
after.   Electricity is an independent aerial fluid ; a simple sub-
stance uncombined with any other,  but charging and acting
upon all aerial fluids, and all matter more or less according to
its  susceptibility  of  its influence ;  and when thus uniting or
charging such elementary fluid, or ponderable matter becoming
charged with it, it immediately is  attracted to that body which
possesses electricity in  a less degree.  The facility with which
a body charged with electricity unites  with a body less charged
with it, is in proportion to the quantity of  the electric fluid with
which  the  positively electrified  body is charged ; in conse-
quence of which it sometimes acts slowly, and almost or quite
imperceptibly ; and at other times the  most violent.  Then is it
that electricity produces  motion by  affinity  and attraction.
We here perceive the grand princples by which planets revolve
in their orbits  around the sun, which is  termed the grand
centre of motion and the grand focus of this electrical power,
placed by the Creator in the firmament for this great purpose  ;
and hence, we  perceive the  cause and reason of every other 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
21
motion and power, from the rushing of the  tornado which
desolates the forest or sweeps over the deep, down even to the
nerve, muscle &c. by which we perform a single act; or by
which the most insignificant insect crawls.  It is owing to the
rapidity with which this motion is performed that heat is gene-
rated by friction upon the  elementary principles  of matte^
or  matter itself resulting in combustion and light.
   Terrestrial attraction, or 'attraction of gravitation, upon re-
flection, cannot but be comprehended.  The earth all philoso-
phers admit to be negatively electrified : according to our theo-
ry it possesses a less degree of electricity  than is contained in
lhe atmosphere which surrounds it;  consequently, upon  their
 own principles, the attraction by electricity must necessarily
 be towards the earth.
   Another cause in explanation of terrestrial attraction would
 be the impetus produced in a body possessed of ponderosity Io-
 wa rds the earth by the  earth's rapid motion upon its axes, re-
 volving at the rate of over 1000 miles per hour, and in  its orbit
 over 24.000 miles per hour.  Such tremendous velocity must
 necessarily create an atmosphere of considerable extent; phi-
 losophers compute it at about 45 miles : and hence, all ponder-
 able bodies as well as imponderable substances must necessarily
 gravitate  to the  centre ;  it could  not be  otherwise.   This
 velocity of the earth must likewise, be continually  inducing
 into the  limits of its atmosphere in consequence of the swiftness
 with which it revolves, the various gases or the elementary prin-
 ciples of matter from space, and be hurried by the atmosphere
 to its vortex, or to the earth ; and the nearer it approached the
 greater  would  be the facility with which it would continue to
 approach, inconsequence of the weight and pressure by the ac-
 cession and  constant accumulation from space.
    Electricity travels with a facility of which we have but little
 conception: some idea is furnished our minds by discerning in 
22
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
what an instant of time a  flash of lightning is conveyed from
one quarter of the heavens to another : and likewise by means
of conductors.   A person receiving a shock  from  a machine
holding a wire or  conductor in his  hand, which wire may be
ten or twenty miles long, and different individuals placed at va-
rious sections along the wire clear  to the extremity, so rapid
will  be the velocity with which  it travels that the  individual
placed at  the farthest extremity, as well as those in the inter-
vening space, will feel the shock nearly in the same instant of
time, so much so, that no distinction  can be remarked.
   To show that electricity is not in itself fire, but that by its
rapid action it is capable of producing combustion,  the simple
experiment of charging  an incombustible body  or substance
with this fluid most fully  illustrates.  Let the human body be
placed upon  an  insolated  stool and charged  with the electric
fluid, and when under such influence sparks of fire may be emit-
ted from all parts of his body, and if  he then place his finger in
alcohol it will be set  on  fire,  or in powder  it will explode.
These facts furnish the most satisfactory evidence that the fire
was  not in the electrical fluid itself, and that it was its coming in
contact with a combustible  body which produced combustion,
which would be  more or less violent just in proportion to the
facility with which the fluid was attracted;  and consequent
decomposition was effected : if it were fire, or electric fire as
it is called, the body charged with the fluid would be consumed;
as evidence is not  wanting of the very extensive heat capable
of being produced by the  action of electricity on atmospheric
fluids; so great has it been, as even to melt the hardest metals
instantaneously.
  If light,  heat  or electricity  were matter, would it not be
possessed of weight; instead of which, they  have been found
to be altogether destitute of it, and cannot be discovered by the
most delicate balance.   Atmospheric air can  be  weighed; 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
23
consequently we have the evidence at once of the existence of
material substance, or the elements of mattter.  Its weight has
been  determined with  considerable  precision  by Dr.  Prout
which shows that 100 cubic inches of dry atmospheric air at
60° F. weigh 31.0117 grains.
   How far electricity may be concerned in creating or bring-
ing into existence the various elementary principles of matter,
as oxygen, hydrogen, phosphorus, carbonic acid, &c, or whe-
ther they  of themselves are simple or compound  substances,
future illustrations may yet develope.
   Light the result of the action of electricity, is hot the facility
with  which it travels inconceivable ?  Astronomical observa-
tions have shown it to be at the rate of  195.000  miles  in one
second, and it requires but about eight minutes to pass from the
sun to our earth, a distance of 95 millions of  miles.
   Our next object will  be to examine the gases contained in
the atmosphere ; and generally, as far as have been discovered,
give their properties and uses.  We contend, and think that we
shall be able to prove,  that the gases of the atmosphere are
the elementary principles of matter ; and from those gases all
matter is formed by the power and with  the aid of electricity.
Philosophers  have  considered  all gases of the atmosphere as
matter; from them in this particular, we beg leave to  differ,
and shall consider that as matter which assumes some tangible
shape or form : that which is gaseous, we shall consider as ele-
mentary, and not matter until it assumes an organized state by
combination  with other gases.
   The atmosphere in which we live is comprised of two distinct
aerial and elastic fluids,  which surround  the earth  to an un-
known  height, enclosing it on all sides ; the effect of which we
are sensible,  but they are imperceptible to our vision.  It was
considered as one of the four elements of Aristotel.  The an-
cient philosophers considered it the  constituent principles of 
24
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
other bodies ; but it remained a matter of conjecture until ex-
plained by Hale and subsequent philosophers.   It was not un-
til the time of Bacon, who first taught the system of investiga-
ting  natural phenomena, that  the  subject was examined with
precision.  Galileo first examined its weight, which was after-
wards fully investigated by Torricelli, Paschal and others.  Ita
density, elasticity, dilatability ; its  relation to light, sound and
electricity; the effect produced upon it by moisture, &c.,have
subsequently been pointed out by  various other philosophers.
It was Boyle and his contemporaries who first put it beyond
doubt that the atmosphere contained two distinct substances ;
an elastic fluid, and  water in a state of vapour.   It was like-
wise supposed  to contain a variety of other substances which
were continually mixing with it from the earth, frequently al-
tering its properties and rendering it noxious and fatal.  Car-
bonic acid gas, discovered by Dr.  Black, always comprises a
part of it.
   For many ages all gases were considered as air,  from what-
ever substances they were extracted ; and supposed the same
as the air of the atmosphere. Van Helmont, however, suspected
that gases possessed  different properties, and Boyle ascertain-
ed that all of them were not capable of supporting combustion.
It was not until  the discoveries made by Cavendish and Priest-
ly, which demonstrated their different and peculiar properties,
that philosophers were made sensible of their various species ;
after which, the word air was applied by  Priestly and the Bri-
tish and Sweedish philosophers, to  all permanently elastic flu-
ids, while the  gases  comprising the atmosphere were termed
common, or atmospheric air ; but Macquer, however, thought
proper to apply the term gas to all elastic  fluids, and to con-
fine the term air to the atmosphere alone,  which has since been
generally adopted.   That a great  variety  of gases of which
we have at present but little conception, exists in atmospheric 
                KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.              25

air, there can be no doubt,which will be more fully understood
in the course of this work.
   Atmospheric air for a long time was considered a simple sub-
stance ; and it  was not until about the year 1774, when Dr.
Priestly discovered oxygen gas, that it was found to be a com-
pound of two distinct gases.  It is to the labours of those phi-
losophers, in whose hands chemistry advanced with such rapi-
dity, during the last forty years  of  the 18th century, that We
are indebted for the discovery of its constituents.   While Dr.
Priestly  was engaged in his experiments upon  oxygen,  an
analysis  of common air was made  by  Scheele, who from his
experiments concluded that it was a compound of two differ-
ent elastic fluids : namely, foul air, which constitutes more than
two-thirds of the whole ; and another air, which is alone capa-
ble of supporting flame and  animal life.  The foul air is that
which is now called nitrogen,  or azotic gas ; and the other that
which is at present termed oxygen gas.  According to Scheele,
atmospheric air is a  compound  of  two parts azotic, and one
part of oxygen gas.  While Scheele was  occupied with his
experiments on  air, Lavoisier was  assiduously employed on
the same subject, and was led by a  different road  to precisely
the same conclusion.   From a variety of experiments, he de-
termined the  properties to be  73 parts of azotic gas, and  27
of oxygen.   After the composition of atmospheric air became
known,  it was not doubted that the  proportions of its oxygen
varied at different times and places;  and  that upon this varia-
tion depended the purity or noxous qualities  of air; yet all the
different experiments that have been made,  agree  precisely in
their results, and indicate that the proportions of the ingredients
of air are always the same : philosophers have found no varia-
tion in Egypt, France, Edinburgh, London or America, at any
season of the year, or at anv height.  Gay-Lussac examined air
           3 
26               KEY TO MEDICAL  SCIENCE.

brought from the  height of 21.000 feet above Paris, and found
it precisely the same.
  From the preceding remarks, we perceive the constituents of
atmospheric air, which science may yet still further  develope
and illustrate, that  both  nitrogen and  oxygen  gases are not
simple but compound substances.  That we have attained per-
fection in  our philosophical investigations cannot be admitted
by those who are conversant with the subject.   Other gases or
aerial fluids  exist  in the atmosphere, and no doubt are very nu-
merous.   Thirty-four of the gases have been  examined, of
which all but five are known to be  compounds  ; they are not
necessarily constituents of the atmosphere, yet they are con-
stantly charging and mixing with it in various proportions, the
superabundance or deficiency of which may become deleterious
to both vegetable  and animal life—especially those gases ge-
nerated from low or marshy countries.
  That water is contained in the atmosphere has always beea
known.   Rain, dew, clouds and fogs, which deposite  moisture
on all bodies exposed to them have demonstrated its existence
in every age.  Even when the atmosphere is perfectly trans-
parent, water may be extracted from it by various substances;
in general,  all deliquescent salts possess  the property of ex-
tracting it.  Water is a  compound of oxygen  and hydrogen I
gas.   Mr. Cavendish is considered as the real discoverer of the
composition  of water.  Hydrogen gas, like air, is invisible and
elastic.  It is the  lightest  gaseous body known,  therefore  best
adapted to inflating balloons ; all burning substances are imme-
diately extinguished when  plunged into  it ; animals, when
obliged to  breathe it, soon die.   Forty-two measures of pure
hydrogen, and twenty-one of oxygen, fired by an electric spark
form water : thus it is, that rain falls with more rapidity or in
greater abundance,  immediately after a flash of lightning.—
Hydrogen gas was  formerly called  inflammable air, and may 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
27
 be procured in abundance by causing a stream  of water to
 pass through a red hot iron tube, or by decomposing water by
 means of sulphuric acid and iron filings.
    The fact that carbonic acid gas exists in the atmosphere,was
 first discovered by Dr. Black.  It had long been known that
 alkalies exposed to the atmosphere were  gradually  converted
 into a carbonate.   It not only unites with alkalies, but with
 some of the earths, and  several  of the  metalic oxides; thus
 rust is always saturated with carbonic acid.  It exists in the
 atmosphere, not only near the surface of the earth,  but  at the
 greatest  height which the industry  of man has been able to
* reach.  Saussure found it at the  top of  Mount Blanc, 15668
 feet above the level of the sea, the highest part of the Europe-
 an continent, which is covered with eternal  snow.  Humbold
 found it in air brought from a height of 4280 feet above Paris.
 The quantity of carbonic  acid gas contained in the atmosphere
 has not yet been  fully ascertained ; but we may conclude from
 the experiments of Mr. Dalton, that it does not much exceed
 the one thousandth part;  but it is  however liable to great vari-
 ation from  different circumstances,  and  is constantly mixing
 with the  atmosphere ;  it being produced  from the respiration
 of animals, by combustion, fermentation, decomposition of both
 animal and vegetable substances, and several other processes :
 indeed, the quantity produced from various sources is so great,
 that it would appear somewhat  astonishing that its increase
 should not prove fatal; as air, containing but a small propor-
 tion of it extinguishes light, and is noxious to animals and man ;
 were it not that this gas is absorbed in abundance, and as rapid-
 ly as it is formed, by vegetation, its effects would  be most  dis-
 astrous to human life.  Carbonic acid is a compound of carbon
 and oxygen, and may be produced by burning charcoal  in the
 air, but as shown, exists in abundance in the atmosphere.
    Oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbonic acid gas, general- 
28
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
ly speaking,  form the  principal constituents of all  vegetable
matter, by their uniting in various proportions with each other,
of which there are upwards of 30.000 different species now
known.  Carbon exists in the atmosphere combined  with  oxy.
gen, which, by their union, form carbonic acid gas.   All plants
possess the power  of  absorbing  this gas, and  applying it to
their support and nourishment by decomposing it and retaining
the carbon and expelling the oxygen: hence it is  that plants
are said to absorb carbon and throw off oxygen.   Phosphorus
likewise exists in the atmosphere, which by the action of elec-
tricity, is constantly undergoing combustion, thus forming  with
oxygen phosphoric acid, which is that principle which has led
philosophers  to  suppose electricity possessed of a sub-acid
taste ;  it is absorbed by plants and animals ; in animals, it unites
with lime and forms the  bones, and is also a general constitu-
ent of  all the animal fluids.   To form any particular plant, or
a constituent of it, those gases always unite in relative propor-
tions according to the  affinity which they possess: they could
not unite in any other  way  !  And could  they, the product
would  be far other than the particular plant or article contem-
plated.  The laws  of  Nature, are always uniform and unal-
terable.  Carbon,  hydrogen and oxygen form  alcohol, aether,
spirits  of turpentine, naptha, oil of capava, juniper oil, black
pepper oil, sugar, starch, resin, gum, &c.   Gluten in its com.
position, evinces the presence of the whole four.  In fact,  evs-
ry plant and  tree which we behold, are constituted of these
elements, and are  formed directly  from them ; but  their  pro-
portions necessarily vary in every specific vegetable produc-
tion.
  When these elements form  substances, we  consider such
substances as matter; which matter possessing still the same
principle  of  attraction, being  still governed  by  electricity,
unites with other formations of matter, and progresses onward, 
                 KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.              29

 still forming new and different combinations of matter ; and in
 many instances, disengaging some one of its original constitu-
 ents, and forming entire new compounds :  thus it is that sul-
 phuric acid will decompose  muriate of soda, or common salt,
 and unite with its base the soda, and form sulphate of soda, or
 Glauber salts, and at the same time set  free the muriatic acid
 with which the soda was combined.  The various  acids will
 unite in relative proportions with the alkalies, forming salts of
 various descriptions, frequently double and tripple compounds :
 sometimes uniting in one proportion, and sometimes in two.—
 Metals by  oxadizement, unite  with  acids, and  form  metalic
 salts : the earths possess similar powers.   But it may be ask-
 ed—do not vegetables contain salts of various  kinds, earths,
 metals, &c. ?  Suppose  they  do!  Are not the elementary
 principles of earth?,  alkalies, metals, &c, constituents  of the
 atmosphere ?  How are potash and lime (which are discover-
 ed in all plants by incineration) formed but by the power which
 the plant possesses to absorb from the atmosphere the particu-
 lar constituents requisite for its formation ?  Metals are pro-
 duced by combustion, or by  the action of heat on certain com-
 pounds, and may be  considered as the last grade of  matter.—
 They contain no oxygen.   Had  we no  other illustrations on
 this subject than the expeiimentsmade by Sir Humphrey Davy
 on potash, soda, lime and magnesia, it  would be sufficiently
 conclusive.   He submitted those articles to the strongest ac-
 tion of heat that  he  was capable of applying by the power of
 a galvanic battery ; by depriving those substances of a large
 portion of  the oxygen they contained, they then exhibited all
 the character of metals, as potassium, sodium, calcium, and
 magnesium:  and hence it  is,  that those articles so  readily
 unite with acids, whilst metals themselves require to be oxadi-
zed.  We  have  said that metals were  produced by  combus-
tion : not only are they produced by combustion, but the earths
         3* 
30
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
likewise : even the solid layers of rock which we find in al-
most every section of the world, show their formation to have
been by fire, the result of volcanic action—indeed, our whole
planet exhibits the appearance of having been frequently sub-
jected to volcanic eruptions.  When those subterraneous fires,
that are continually  rolling through the bowels of the  earth,
acquire from those materials in the earth (possessed of sufficient
combustible power) strength capable  of producing  general
explosion, the lava is thrown out therefrom, and on  cooling,
forms those  rocky eminences we so generally witness.   The
present Volcanoes, as Vesuvius, Etna, &c, are no other than
chimnies, for those subterraneous  fires.   By this same princi-
ple do we  contend  that metals are formed ; and  hence, we
find metals  generally combined with other substances  in the
earth, from  which they require purification before they can be
rendered of utility.  And hence is likewise shown the inability
in us  fully to illustrate the chemical analysis of metals, in con-
sequence of the extreme heat which we must necessarily re-
quire to accomplish such analysis.  The powers of Nature are
far beyond  that of art—art is at best but a faint imitation of
nature.  To deny to nature the power to  accomplish that
which the imbecility  of art had failed to achieve, would be to
place them upon  an equality !   It would be nothing short of
presumption, folly and ignorance.   Nature has power not only
thus to form metals, earths, &c, but has likewise the power to
form  them directly from  the  elementary principles existing in
the atmosphere, by the unlimited power of electricity, which
is capable of so acting upon the combustible materials of the
atmosphere, as to create a  degree of heat beyond the concep-
tion of man.  What are meteoric stones but the result of this
action ?   Certainly  the fabulous idea that they  were thrown
from  the moon, or some other planet, has long since exploded.
Those luminous bodies called  meteors, have in  all ages been 
KEY  TO MEDICAL  SCIENCE.
31
observed in  the atmosphere, many  of which have been de-
scribed by eye-witnesses.  The most remarkable one on rec-
ord is that which appeared in 1783 ; it was very luminous,
and its diameter, it was supposed, could not be less than  1000
yards.   It traversed England and a great portion of the Eu-
ropean continent with very great velocity,  at  the height of
nearly 60 miles from the surface of the earth.   These mete-
ors move in a direction nearly horizontal, and seem to ap-
proach nearer the earth before explosion takes place, which is
generally attended with a loud report, when a shower of stones
fall.   Numerous respectable authors have furnished the  most
conclusive  testimony  of their falling in various parts of the
world.   Not only have meteoric stones fallen, but iron, mer-
cury, sand, sulphur, &c, in all parts of the  world, as the fol-
lowing statement will illustrate, in which I not only  give the
names of the persons reporting them, but  the time and place.
Livy reports that a shower of stones fell at  Rome during the
time  of  Tullus Hostilius.  Another shower of stones fell at
Rome during the time of Consuls C. Martins, and M.  Torqua-
tus, reported by J. Obsequens.    A shower of iron fell in Lu-
cania the year before the defeat of Crassus, reported by Pliny.
A shower of mercury fell in Italy, reported  by Dion.   Three
large stones fell in France, 452 years B. C. reported by Ch. of
Count Marcellin.  A large stone of 260 lbs. fell at Ensishiem,
Upper Rhine, Nov.  7th,  1492, reported  by Butenschoen—
About 1200  stones—one of 120, and another of  60  lbs.—fell
near Padua,  in Italy, in 1510, reported by Carden Varcit.  A
shower of sand, for fifteen hours, fell in the Atlantic, April 6th,
1719, reported by Pere La Feuillee.   Sulphurous rain fell in
the Duchy of Mansfield, in 1658, reported  by Spaugenberg.
A shower of sulphur fell at Brunswick, October, 1721, report-
ed by Siegesber.  A stone, weighing 56lbs. fell at Wold Cottage,
Yorkshire, December 15th,  1795, reported by Capt.  Topham. 
32
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
 A mass of iron, containing 70 cubic feet, fell in America, April
 5th, 1600, published in the Philosophical Magazine.   Another
 mass of iron fell, 14 quintals at Abakauk, Siberia, reported by
 Pallas, Chladni, and  others.   Two  large stones, one of 200,
 and another of 300 lbs., fell near Verona in 1762, reported by
 Acad.de Bourd.   Numerous instances similar to the above,
 might be given ;  but those which are here set forth are deem-
 ed sufficient to establish the point in question.   Those stoney
 bodies, when  they  fall, are always hot,  and differ from a few
 ounces to several tons, of a roundish form, and covered with a
 black crust  composed chiefly of oxide of iron and nickle ; and
 in many cases smell strongly of  sulphur.
   In the foregoing illustrations we think we have  conclusively
 shown, that the elementary principles of all matter exist in the
 atmosphere  ; and that matter or  ponderable  substances are
 formed from them by the power of electricity.   Some propor-
 tions of the constituents of matter, and matter  itself,  from
 their very  nature  being  capable of  becoming much  higher
 charged with the electrical fluid than others, become attracted
 towards those substances or gases which are in a less degree
 charged with  it,  and  with  which the former may be  placed
 more directly  in contact.   The objection may here  be raised,
 that there are many ponderable substances which in themselves
 are simple,  as metals, earths &c.  Our opponents would say
 that it may be possible that a great portion of vegetation  may
 in a considerable degree owe its accumulations  to the absorp-
 tion  of certain gases  from the atmosphere, but cannot apply
_to  those metals and earths considered simple substances :   To
 such we reply that it requires a far different process in nature
 to produce and bring into existence metals, earths &c. from the
 elementary  constituents  of the  atmosphere, than  the simple
 and mild process by which vegetation is produced. Are not all
 metals capable of oxadizement and decomposition ? 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
33
  Vegetation is the first order, or first grade of matter, formed
directly from the elements  pervading the  atmosphere.   We
perceive that the earth produces various species of vegetation :
but how, and why it does so, many eminent men have deemed
it among the things impossible  to comprehend.  Could such
results take place independent of the Laws of Nature ?   What
other laws could  be brought into action ?  None !   Yet have
many who have been accounted as  distinguished  writers on
these subjects, been led far  from the truth, into the most super-
stitious and imaginary ideas: not being sufficiently informed
on the true principles and laws of Nature, they have supposed
it of so mysterious and  indefinable a  character, as  to be com-
pelled to  imagine and create an indefinable and incomprehen-
sible principle, to assist them to illustrate natural phenomena.
Instead of honestly admitting their incapacity for investigating
the laws of Nature, their pride and arrogance  have led them to
assume a perfect knowledge of all nature's laws ; and  by the
invention of a superstitious principle  called vital principle, or
vis  medicatrix naturce ;  they attempt to blind the  world, and
lead their  followers into  the same error; and thus,  attempt to
hide their own unpardonable ignorance.   The  world has
groaned under this error for centuries, and its effect has been
to retard, to obstruct the  march, yea almost paralyze true
science—it has served to prevent those investigations  and re-
searches in science, that otherwise, ere this time, would have
developed the principles of life and the  organization of all mat-
ter  : but by referring it  to  a power—a superstitious imagina-
tion—a principle, incognizable and incomprehensible;  which
its authors have alleged, was neither material nor immaterial,
served to  confirm the  opinion, that no research   however ar-
duous, could extend beyond  their contracted and illiberal views.
  If vegetable substances do not derive their support, proper-
ties, &c,  from the atmosphere, may we be permitted to ask 
34              KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
then, from whence  they come ?  Will  it be  contended that
they derive it from  the ground, from the soil ?   Was not the
soil formed from the  decomposition of vegetable matter ?   Will
plants ordinarily come to perfection without vegetable mold ?
The soil forms a bed for their roots, by which they are pro-
tected from heat and cold, and are thus preserved from injury.
The capability of the  ground for retaining  moisture, enables
the small  fibres of the plants  to  absorb moisture from  the
earth ; and as  vegetable  soil contains a large proportion of
carbon, which is in a great measure the food of all plants, por-
tions of carbon uniting with oxygen may be taken up : further
than this (although this is essential)  plants derive very little ad-
vantage from the soil.   Plant the acorn, the product of the oak,
and in a few months we behold it a small twig ; years pass on,
and we behold  it a great and mighty tree, comprising several
cords of wood.  From whence did this tree acquire all the con-
stituents of which it is composed ?  Did it derive them from  the
earth ?   If we subject it to decomposition by fire, we find a very
great proportion carried  into the atmosphere ; and even the
residium comprises scarcely any, if  any, of the constituents of
the ground in which it grew : the residue  comprises potash.—
Hence, it becomes evident that  potash is formed by combus-
tion of  certain woods.  But from whence did the tree acquire
the substances of which it was possessed ?  Simply, the origi-
nal germ, the acorn, from the warmth and moisture of the earth
acquired the power to expand and put forth its  powers of ger-
mination ;  and subsequently, to  absorb from the atmosphere
the particular gases  necessary for its growth  and support, and
eventually to render it  what it was.  To assert that the earth
furnished it the necessary support would be folly ! If it were so,
why are not all plants of the same character?   How do plants
growing in the same soil possess different qualities and proper-
ties ?   The circumstance cannot be accounted  for upon such 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
35
principles.   Take, for instance, a grain of wheat :  plant it, and
directly along side of it, and within four inches place the seed
of one of the most poisonous plants, henbane, for instance : they
are both raised from a small seed ;  they grow  in the same
ground, and are subjected to the same moisture, the same tem-
perature, and to the same atmosphere : they both arrive at ma-
turity, and  their increase  is probably an hundred fold ; they
are in every respect  subjected to the same circumstance ; yet
we find the properties of each plant as widely different as we
can imagine ;  one is  capable  and  necessary  for the support
and maintenance of  human life,  whilst the other  will destroy
it.  Why is it so ?  From whence did each of those plants, so
widely  different in character, acquire the constituents of which
they  were  possessed ?   Certainly  not from  the  ground.  If
that were the case, their character  would have been the same.
From whence, then ?  The original germ, each individual seed
possessed the power of attracting from the  atmosphere the
particular gases which exist in it, in the requisite proportion to
form  the particular plant which,  by their union and combina-
tion,  are capable of rendering each what it  is.   All matter,
and all formations of matter, are governed by the  laws of Na-
ture and no other, which laws are perfectly comprehensive.
   Vegetable matter  appears ordinarily to be the  first process
of nature to form matter from the elementary principles of the
atmosphere ; which  elementary  principle pervades all space :
hence the accumulations  constantly forming upon the earth's
surface, in the shape  of what is termed vegetable mold, result-
ing from the decomposition of vegetable matter, which is con-
stantly  taking place upon  the earth's  surface;  and which
likewise forms an indispensible auxiliary for  the  growth and
support of vegetation.   Then  is it  evident  that  the earth is
increasing  in magnitude  and ponderosity.   Much evidence
may be produced  in  support of this  position.  He who has 
36
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
 ever visited our large western prairies cannot but have witness-
 ed their depths of vegetable mold, extending frequently 6, 8 and
 10 feet below the earth's surface.  Witness our marshes and
 flatlands from which pete is extracted. Let but a small propor-
 tion of land be deprived of its vegetable mold, and there appear
 nothing but sand and gravel;  yet in a  few years we perceive
 more or  less vegetation upon  it, and  considerable vegetable
 mold.   Vegetation  may be considered as the first order  or
 grade, of what is termed living matter ;  and vegetable mold
 the first order or grade of  what is termed dead matter*  yet
 there is no form of matter which is inert.
   The study of Geology has furnished  us with much important
 data in respect to the nature of the formation of earths, metals,
 &c.  We have before stated that  those substances are produ-
 ced by combustion.  Geology furnishes many facts  from
 which we may draw the most satisfactory conclusions that the
 whole earth, the planet on  which we  dwell, has often  been
 subjected to volcanic eruptions.
   When we reflect upon the uneven surface  of  the earth, its
 deep chasms and valleys, its towering mountains and cliffs ; ex-
 tending to such immense  heights, when we discern from their
 summits the clouds and contending elements beneath our feet,
 we cannot but consider them the result of some awful convul-
 sion of nature, by which immense masses have thus been piled
 together.  The "circumstance of marine shells in  large quanti-
 ties having been  discovered hundreds of  miles from the sea
 at great depths in the earth, as well as logs of timber &c. which
 are sometimes  deeply imbeded in mines of clay  or  marl, all
 go conclusively to prove the earth to have undergone very ex-
 tensive  transformations at various periods  of time ; and there
is likewise much evidence that could be adduced,which would
go to show that the earth has formerly been extensively peopled
and that by  some such  universal convulsion of nature, nearly 
                   KEY TO  MEDICAL SCIENCE.              37

  all the inhabitants of the earth had been destroyed.  Numer-
  ous  masses of rocks, rocky mountains, stones, &c, plainly
  shew their formation to have been by heat,  which in some in-
  stances must have been immense, as in the  production of gra-
  nite.   Others,  again, appear to  have been produced by the
  cooling of liquid lava, throughout which numerous  small peb-
  bles and sand are abundantly diffused.  Suchformationsappear
  to be a heterogeneous mass, many of them comprising a variety
  of compounds of metals, earths, &c. sometimes in layers, veins
  or spots, according to the intensity of the existing heat.  Even
  our large beds  of anthracite  coal, as well as bituminous coal,
  are the formations  of this smothered flame in the  confines of
  the earth.   In this way are the various metals, earths and fix-
  ed alkalies produced : metals being the last  or ultimate grade
  of matter.  Yet as before admitted,  the elementary constitu-
  ents of metals,  and all matter, exist in  the atmosphere, and
i  are produced therefrom by combustion upon the same princi-
  ple.  Plants imbibe from the atmosphere these elementary prin-
'■  ciples,  but they  are not developed or formed until subjected to
■  combustion, as witnessed in the production of potash, lime, &c.
■  It is not to be considered strange  that subterraneous  fires,
!  capable of  producing volcanic eruptions,  should  exist.  It
  would  be the natural consequence of certain bodies coming in
  contact in the bowels of the earth—they always do exist to a
  greater or less extent.
    In the foregoing remarks,  we  think'we have proved by ex-
  isting facts and justifiable reasoning, that the constituents of all
i  matter exist in space, and that they are constantly passing into
  the sphere of this planet; which by electrical action, are form-
  ed into matter;  under which they undergo  a variety of chan-
  ges and forms.  That all matter may  be decomposed and re-
  turned  to  its original elements, is fully possible; there can be
  no doubt  of it.   This earth may " pass away  with a  great 
38
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
noise."   But this effect must be accomplished by heat.   The
degree of heat necessary to produce this result, it is impossi-
ble to tell.    The fact, that astronomers have discovered that
some planets  which once did exist, have since  disappeared,
evinces not only the possibility but probability of  this result.
   The existence of matter depends likewise on  temperature,
which, when too high or too low, vegetable and  living matter
are  incapable of formation.   When  too  high, all  matter be-
comes decomposed, and resolved into its original elementary
principles.   Neither vegetation nor animal life can exist where
there is intense cold,  or the  extreme absence of caloric.  A
certain degree of temperature between  the two extremes, is
absolutely necessary for the existence of every description of
living matter ; yet, the lowest degree of temperature will  not
destroy what is termed dead matter.  At a certain temperaturef
water is solid, at a higher it is fluid, at a still higher it is evolved
in steam, and at a still higher, it becomes decomposed and  re-
turned to its original elementary principles, oxygen and hydro-
gen.  So is it with every other substance :  all matter,asalumina,
lime, iron, silver, gold, platina, &c, and  every description of
matter comprising the constituents of our  planet.   By heat our
whole planet, and every  constituent of it, may be  decomposed
and returned to their original elements; and, uniting and assi-
milating with  like  elementary  principles in space, be  dif-
fused through all space,  or again enter into new combinations
to form  other planets.   We consider that we have likewise il-
lustrated the principles or causes of geological layers or strata
of the earth, as shown by Geologists, in our illustrations of the
accumulations or accessions which the earth is constantly  re-
ceiving by the deposits from the  atmosphere.  That the earth
is becoming more dense in the centre is  equally evident, and
may, as its poles become perpendicular to the line  of the equa-
tor, occasion in a greater or less degree, the most extensive 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
39
volcanic commotions, characterized by  all the catastrophes
which an event of this nature would be likely to produce.
  Having given our views of the origin and formation of mat-
ter by  electricity from the gases,  or  elementary principles
which pervade the atmosphere, and all space—our next object
will be to show the changes to which matter is constantly sub-
jected, particularly animal and vegetable matter.  That ani-
mal matter is the product of vegetable matter,  every  reflect-
ing mind must be aware.  Were the earth for a  certain period
of time rendered incapable of yielding her vegetable products,
the existence of animated beings would  necessarily cease ;—
they  could not be supported—by famine would they  perish.
Animal matter is  but the concentration  of vegetable matter,
and formed from the  albuminous principles residing in  vegeta-
ble matter.  Both animal and vegetable matter are character-
ized by the same  elementary and chemical constituents—they
both require similar  degrees of temperature for their exist-
ence, moisture, air, light, heat, and the influence of electricity
generally, or destruction attends them.  Both  are subject to
decomposition, and the products of each are of a similar char-
acter.  The direct changes that take place in vegetable mat-
ter in order to produce  vegetable mold, are but three, and are
of the character which we  define as  fermentation termed vi-
nous, acetic and putrefactive.  Some authors have undertaken
t) define  another, "  the saccharine," and attempt to illustrate
it by  the formation of starch into sugar, the malting of barley,
and the ripening of fruits, or that principle by which sugar is
developed.  Sugar is a compound of hydrogen, carbon and
oxygen.   Starch contains the same constituents, but  its pro-
portions of oxygen and hydrogen are less than in sugar; con-
sequently, when starch  absorbs a greater proportion of those
two gases, it  is converted into sugar :  it is upon this princi-
ple that sugar is always formed.  It could be formed upon no 
40
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
 other even when found in its native state as in the sugar cane.
 It is the absorption  of oxygen and hydrogen in  the  shape of
 water by seeds which cause germination.   Seeds cannot ger-
 minate when deprived of oxygen.    Neither can the  process
 of fermentation take place unless there be  sufficient mucilage
 and  saccharine matter  present.  One fermentation succeeds
 the other in rapid succession  unless some  means are adopted
 to arrest it. First,—the vinous ; second, the acetic ; third, the
 putrefactive.   Take, for  instance,  the juice of the apple, the
 grape, the sugar cane, or any other article containing  saccha-
 rine matter ; suffer it to remain in  a  proper temperature, and
 the air to have access to it, the vinous fermentation directly
 commences,  characterized by a  constant  motion of the fluid
 in every direction  with considerable disengagement  of  car-
 bonic  acid gas, air bubbles  being diffused  over its whole sur-
 face.  When the vinous fermentation  is complete, if it  be then
 committed to the still, the product thrown over would be alco-
 hol.   Were it suffered to remain and not subjected to  the ac-
 tion of the still, it would immediately enter upon a second fer-
 mentation, which would be the acetic, in which acetic acid
 (vinegar) would be formed  at the expense of the alcohol.-—
 The acetic fermentation  would be followed by a  third called
 the  putrefactive, which  would  be a  decomposition  of  the
 whole, rendering it like muddy water, as  is frequently observ-
 ed by  individuals when vinegar stands exposed to the  air for
 some time " that vinegar is dead."
  Thus do we perceive that  vegetable matter derives its pow-
er of existence—its elementary principles from the  atmosphere
which surrounds us, and is constantly  undergoing  the various
changes above alluded to :  among which, is to be regarded in a
most important  light its formation and  support  of animal mat-
ter :  it becomes a vegetable mold capable  of furnishing that
support and sustenance to  future vegetable  productions as far
as may be required in the economy of  nature. 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
41
  Thus has the great author of nature so organized laws which
constantly act in concert : which laws are irrevocable and un-
changeable :  and to us are given intellect and capacity to un-
derstand and comprehend them.   If it were not designed that
we  should investigate and  comprehend, for what  purpose  do
we  possess intellectual faculties ?    Superstition may contend
that we possess no such right, and Ignorance may suppose such
knowledge unattainable.  But we, from the strongest convic-
tion of right  allege that we have a right—a perfect  right to
push our enquiries to the utmost limits of the Laws of Nature.
Without this investigation how are  we to be possessed of the
phenomena of nature ?  It is the neglect of this  study which
has filled the world  with  thousands of speculative ideas  on
which theory after theory has been  constructed, each in quick
succession following  the  other, until at the present time there
exists not a single theory,  (although its author may have been
one of the most distinguished of his day) that receives the sanc-
tion of a solitary individual in all its parts.  Had the minds of
men been directed to the discovery of facts, drawing their con-
clusions from them alone,  there could not have existed at this
day the visionary ideas by which the great mass of profession-
al men are governed.  It is a fact much to be deplored that
even those who are esteemed as scientific men have scarcely
an  idea of their own,  or attempt  to advance one but that
which they have acquired  by reading some book.  It  was  the
opinion of this or that author, and receive it as orthodox with-
out a single reflection ;  adopt it, and in many cases have  not
the power, even if they had the  will, to decide upon its  correct-
ness or incorrectness.   Such men exercise no opinion  of their
own ; it is the opinion of others ; and what is still more  remark-
able, they are so united to their prejudices that they cannot sup-
pose it possible that any information whatever can be  derived
        4* 
42
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE*.
except through the acknowledged advocates of their dogmati-
cal oligarchy.
'*.■ The time, however, has arrived, when those dark mists—the
spell which has so long bound true science to the car of super-
stition, should be dissolved—the chain broken—the mist dis-
persed, and the standard of science erected upon that true and
imperishable foundation —FACTS  AND EXPERIENCE!
It is time that the  reign of Experiment in Medical Science
should cease:  it has ruled  the world with  an iron grasp.—
Thousands have been the victims sacrificed at its shrine.  Let
Revolution—Revolution  be the cry through mountain  and
glen, valley and plain, until this hydra of medical  aristocracy
be shorn of. its fangs—until the tears shed by suffering humani-
ty shall cease to flow, and the sunshine of hope cast abroad its
bright beams of joy upon a no  longer oppressed  and suffering
human nature.   Let those  parents who have lost a  beloved
child by  that violent and ignorant practice which characterizes
the medical profession, raise the cry of Revolution  !   Let her
whose home is left lonesome and desolate, without friend or
protection for  her orphan children,—who feel the  untimely
death of a father and friend—all, all raise the cry  of Revolu-
tion !   Let them refuse at once admission to  their  threshhold,
the administrator of poison, or his violent depletive agents.  Let
all unite in this great work, and the ruddy countenance, vigor
of mind and body, will soon  afford  the most ample evidence
that the work is done !
   Our great object  at present is, if possible, so far to interest
the public mind, as to induce enquiry and investigation regard-
ing the very important subject of the nature of disease, and the
nature of remedial agents.   That it requires  such investiga-
tion, every day's experience fully proves.  To say  that no im-
provement is required in medical science, is to say that it has
acquired the highest elevation which it is capable of attaining 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
48
—that no further  knowledge  can obviate the  difficulties  at
present existing, which render the treatment of disease of eve-
ry description so ineffectual.  If medical  science be perfect,
why  are there so  many  different theories ?   Why has it ever
been  that one theory in a short  time has  been  supplanted by
another, and in many respects entirely of  an opposite charac-
ter?   It may be alleged  that, as the  science progressed, the
discovery of new facts led to the  adoption of principles of a
different character.  Suppose this to be the case, does the evi-
dence resulting from their practical effects show the subsequent
practice to be of a more efficient character in the cure of dis-
ease ?  There can be but little value attached to any new dis-
covery unless its utility is in a greater proportion beneficial to
community at large.  Are not diseases as fatal  in their termi-
nations at this day as  at any previous period of the existence
of our species ?   In fact, diseases are not so successfully treat-
ed by the moderns, as they were by those physicians who ex-
isted  500 years ago, who made  no  pretensions  to  the sci-
ence  of which  we now so frequently boast.   The imposition
with  which the  world is filled,  shews conclusively the low ebb
at which the  science of medicine stands at the present day.—
Could imposition and quackery be practiced upon community
if the science were established upon those principles of truth
and knowledge  of which  it is  eminently susceptible ?   The
whole science has ever been and is yet but a mere principle of
experiment—all the boasted knowledge that has ever been ap-
plied  to it has been the result of experiment or  accident, and
as such, and only as such, has it received the sanction  of the
medical world.   Peruvian bark was discovered by an Indian ;
mercury  by one of the  most notorious quacks  that ever dis-
graced the records of the history of medicine ;  antimony by a
monk, &c.  Very  few of the discoveries made of the vari-
ous   articles  used  as medicine, have been  made  by phyai- 
44
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
cians ;  they have  generally owed their origin to some unex-
pected circumstance or  occurrence.   The whole of medical
science is but a collection of those accidental discoveries—a
record of performances under certain circumstances, or in the
hands of  some individual who attributed to them the most ex-
traordinary powers and properties, frequently extolling their
virtues even to magic.   The only inducement which has ex.
isted to use a  medicinal agent has been because some one has
used it and found  it capable  of producing certain effects—it
has been  heard of,  read of, &c.   Thus have the various class-
es of medicine  as cathartics, emetics, sudorifics, expectorants,
&c, had their  origin  : but how or why they act as such, has
scarcely if ever been the subject of enquiry, much less of in-
vestigation.   Medical men have rested  quite satisfied never to
pursue their enquiries farther than the  mere  operation of an
article, deeming that knowledge amply  sufficient  for the prac
tice of  the healing art in  all the various and intricate changes
and actions of disease.  Is this  medical science ?   Is this the
science of which we boast ?  It  is the want of this knowledge
which has led to all the various  medical theories.   It is the ig-
norance  of the specific  properties  or  qualities  of medicinal
agents which  has led  to  the most unsuccessful and injurious
treatment.  It has opened the door for quackery and imposi-
tion in  every  form.  In fact what is called the scientific practice
is initself no better—it is empiricism.  For a while  one article
would  appear capable of accomplishing wonders, when, find-
ding a  case or two in which it was unsuccessful, it was aban-
doned for some other  which in a short time was  doomed to a
similar result.    Why it was so,  or why it  acted thus, or why
the necessity of such a change they remain in utter ignorance
of; and hence, some of our most valuable remedies may be
brought into disrepute.  It is the same principle which hajs led
them in not a  few instances, to make trial of almost eveuy-'ar- 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
45
tide in the materia medica.   The whole practice of every or-
der is try this,  then that, then something else, until their re-
sources are exhausted; the patient constantly growing worse,
they then abandon the case as past cure.  The friends and re-
lations hear the unwelcome  intelligence, that no further hope
remains, and the patient is left to his  fate,  with no prospect of
recovery : when  peradventure,  some old lady, with nothing
but a little catnip tea restores the patient to health  ! or being
left alone, and not subjected to the action of injurious medicines,
recovers his health  again without scientific aid !   Does this
prove  anything  or nothing ? Does  it not show the  want of
that knowledge necessary to treat disease ?   Under such cir-
cumstances, it cannot be matter of wonder that the quack, the
impostor so frequently succeeds ; and how often does he suc-
ceed where the utmost efforts of the  regular practitioner have
proved unavailing.  In what consists the difference between
the regular physician and the  most  notorious quack ?  The
quack knows his pills will act as a cathartic—that his powders
will act as an emetic.  If this is all that the  regular physician
knows respecting jalap, ipecacuanha, &c, where, I  ask, is the
difference between them? They both practice upon supposition,
and are alike liable to error.  But why medicines act as they do ;
the cause by which their effects are produced upon the human
system, they both remain in perfect  ignorance.   Medical men
but spend their time and efforts in vain to subdue quackery so
long as this state of things exists.  With themselves, and them
alone, the evil lies.  No laws can restrain individual&irom em-
ploying whom they please, or from using what medicine they
please ; nor should they ; it  would  be an infringement upon
the people's  rights.  Laws  for the  protection of any set of
men, in  the exclusive enjoyment of certain rights  which in
truth* are the rights granted to all by  our free constitution, are
unj^ to the many, and favouriteism to the few, which by no 
46
KEY TO MECICAL  SCIENCE.
power of reason can be justified.  But if medicine be render-
ed a science as it truly is and ought to be, mountebanks in the
profession must  necessarily cease ; the distinction  would at
once become so great between the scientific physician and the
quack, that the most indifferent observer could not but instant-
ly discover it—the success in the  treatment of disease would
then acquire a degree of certainty  which under present cir-
cumstances, it is impossible ever to attain.
  We may talk forever on anatomy, a knowledge of the struc-
ture of the human  body in all its intricate formation ; yet that
of itself is  altogether incapable of furnishing the requisite in-
formation ; it amounts in reality to nothing in the cure of dis-
ease. Its inefficacy was never more fully illustrated than in a
recent remark made by a distinguished anatomist, and which
has lately  met the public eye.  He being  asked one morning
by a gentleman,   " How is it, Doctor, that you who know eve-
ry bone, muscle, ligament, cartilage, nerve, &c , of the human
body, cannot cure every disease  ?"   To  which the Doctor
replied : " the watchmen  of this great city  know every street,
lane and avenue, but they cannot  tell  what is going on inside
the houses."  To say that a knowledge of anatomy is calcula-
ted to subdue quackery, is nonsense ; and only argues in such
person the want even of common intellect.  To treat disease
upon proper principle!?, requires a knowledge of " what is go-
ing on inside the houses ;" the nature, character, properties and
qualities of the fluids circulating in the  blood  vessels,  and all
other conduits of the human body ;  their chemical constituents,
the changes under any circumstances they can be subjected to ;
and how and why the effect is produced ; and what agents are
engaged in such process.   To practice medicine   correctly
and scientifically, an  accurate knowledge of the chemical con-
stituents, both of the  fluids and solids of the human body is ab-
solutely necessary ; and likewise,  a perfect acquaintance with 
                KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.              47

the chemical constituents of all agents employed as medicine,
and the chemical and direct action they are capable of produ-
cing upon animal  matter,  when applied in the form of medi-
cine ?
   The  Science of Medicine has ever been shrouded in obscu-
rity—clothed in such  a mysterious garb  that few uninitiated
into its  peculiar characteristics, have  ever  been  capable  of
comprehending its intricate character.  To give them in de-
tail, would  far exceed  the limits of the little volume we here
design  to present  to the public.  We shall therefore give but
an abridged historical view of its  progress since first introdu-
ced as  a science, in which we shall refer somewhat in detail to
the notions, opinions and theories which have at different times
 since its first establishment acquired  adherents and supporters,
 particularly those of that character evidently objectionable.—
 Diseases of various descriptions apparently have existed from
 the earliest period of time of which we have any correct in-
formation.   We find them spoken of in the writings of Moses,
Lev. 26, 16.—Deu. 28, 22, wherein he speaks of Consumptions,
burning ague, fever, inflammation  and extreme burning.  Dis-
 eases of a  similar character to those which now exist, appear
 from all the information we can collect,  to have ever existed
 since the origin of our species. It could not be supposed other-
 wise, since the same causes by which they are generated must
 have  existed at all periods of time  since the formation of this
 planet from chaos.  The primary causes of disease constantly
 surround us  every moment of our lives, and  are those from
 which it is impossible for us to escape ;  and may eventually
 be traced  to the  noxious properties charging atmospheric air
 and aliment.  The air which surrounds  us may become sur-
 charged with carbonic acid gas, which is a product constantly
 produced from the decomposition of both vegetable and animal
 matter ; which is always,  and in  all parts of the world taking 
48
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
place ; more particularly in warm climates and at warm sea-
sons of the year, than in cold.   Carburetted hydrogen gas ex-
ists in abundance in the neighbourhood of marshy pools, low-
lands and swamps, or where is  found considerable standing or
stagnant water.   These gases give rise to various characters
of fevers, as bilious, remittent fever, ague and fever, &c,  as
they  necessarily more or less are absorbed into the lungs, and
consequently carried into the circulation,  by which means dis-
ease is generated, as will be hereafter shown.   As all animals
are subjected to disease, and may be diseased more or less,
and we be insensible of it, we, therefore, by partaking of their
flesh may have a proportion of that virus which they were pos-
sessed of, imparted to us.  Did we  abstain from animal food
entirely, and live  on vegetables alone, wre should be liable to
the same mishap.  Vegetables may become charged with sub-
stances deleterious to health, by  growing upon ground subject-
ed to the decomposition of vegetable  or animal matter, which
by  imparting to the  vegetable  its noxious properties would
prove the most deleterious.  Vegetables are also liable to im-
bibe pernicious  properties from  the atmosphere, and become
of a character the most poisonous, which, generally  speaking,
in many cases, would be impossible for us to detect, and hardly
even  to suspect,  until their  pernicious  effects were  irrepa-
rable.  It is well known that some  kinds of grain, particu-
larly  rye, is liable to  this evil by becoming what  farmers call
blasted :  the change  which it has then undergone renders  it
fatal to those who partake of it,  even  when formed into bread.
Instances of the extensive  ravages of disease  from this source
are frequent in various sections of the United States.   It is
frequently  made use  of by medical  practitioners under the
name of ergot.  Even the water we drink may be charged
with substances  deleterious to  health by its passing through
the various strata of earth, by which  it may become charged 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
49
with  some soluble  substance of a poisonous character, which
may  lay the foundation of disease.   To escape disease is im-
possible, as we are surrounded by those causes which gene-
rate it every moment of our lives.   If the heat of a meridian
sun strike intensely on the tender organ of the brain, producing
disease, can we  restrain its power 1   Or the cold  blast of
winter act harshly on the  breast of the hectic, can we arrest
its force ?
   The Ancients do not appear to have had any mode whatev-
er of treating diseases  by the administration of medicines ;—-
their attention appears to have been directed against the sprea-
ding of contagion by enjoining cleanliness, and  certain regula-
tions together with various ceremonies.   The practice seems
to have been exclusively confined to priests, magicians and as-
trologers,  and to have been of the most superstitious charac-
ter, attended on the part of the people with great credulity.
   It is somewhat perplexing to the inquirer^ in his researches
for the origin of one of the  grandest  sciences that ever en-
lightened and  humanized mankind, to find that it is hidden
beneath  the veil of mystery and obscurity.  In tracing  this
science to its first germ—now spread into a thousand branch-
es—we have to encounter the lapse of ages, the superstition of
the ancients, and the allegories and fables with which they
have invested it.  But, while the gleam is somewhat faint and
dubious, arising from the mystification of its source, we are still
left to the conclusion that the science of medicine was co-eval
with  the existence of mankind.
   Long  before the universal  medium of intelligence  was in-
.vented, or letters established through the world,—which have
ever since controlled and civilized the rudest minds, checking
the " mad infatuation" of the great, and refining and improving
the heart—there must have been some means by which the af-
flictions of the body  were alleviated.  Though history gives
            5 
50
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
us no reliable data on this  subject,  yet it is  a necessary  infer-
ence, deducible from the nature of our organization.   It is im-
possible for human nature  to escape disease, since we are so
constituted as to be susceptible of the influence of circumstan-
ces ;  yet it is obvious that the primary stages of human  exist-
ence, were somewhat exempt from its enervating attacks.
   The ancients were unknown to the thousand diseases which
now assail us on every hand ; and especially those which have
been  instituted  among  us by  luxury and  voluptuousness.—
Rude—unrefined by  our thousand labouring arts,  and parta-
king of the coarsest  food, they were comparatively free from
disease.   The  chase, with which they  were  delighted, was
their chief pastime, and  yielded muoh of their fair ; and,  when
the innovations  and  aggressions  of their neighbours strung
their nerves in  the defence of their hearths, they were fierce
and intractable.   But, as a knowledge of their means of curing
the wounds to which  their ferocity exposed them in their strifes
with their feudal opponents, must be left to conjecture, still we
are led to the belief that they  had their balms — their astrin-
gents, their sudorifics,in fine,a Materia Medica in all save name.
Their wants were few, consequently their ailments were few,
until they degenerated,  and gradually became luxurious :  for
such is the power of luxury over  the animal economy, that it
not only  corrupts and vitiates the functions, but reduces  them
to a slate of languor and effeminancy which unfit them for their
systematic offices. We are constrained to deplore this depar-
ture from  their frugal and  economical usages, since it has es-
tablished a multiplicity of diseases, and  consequently  given us
a host of philosophers.
  By concurrent historians, it appears that the Chaldeans  were
the first who attempted the collection of a Materia Medica.—
It was a custom  among them of exposing their sick to  the pub-
lic gaze, and making  it imperative on all persons to state  what 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
51
they knew in  regard to medicine.   And here we behold the
first faint  ray previously to the outbursting  of  this splendid
science.   However, the superstitious tinge which it afterwards
obtained from the Chaldeans, in consequence of  their total ig-
norance of the laws that  govern the animal economy, com-
pletely divested it of a portion of its utility.   But it  was not
destined to remain long in this state.
  At this early period, however, the knowledge of medicine
must have been extremely limited, and confined to a very few.
The ancients were in no wise prone to the placing of too much
confidence in medicine, the secrets of which they knew but
very little.  Their reliance in Divine Interposition, in case of
sickness, and their ever-burning fires of sacrifice upon the al-
tars of their Gods, for the purpose of  averting disease, placed
them in a  state of secured ease as to its power or ability to ap-
proach them.   Under this mistaken idea  of  special preserva-
tion, few were found able or willing to throw off their supersti-
tious observances, for what seemed to them extremely frivo-
lous—the  alleviation of disease by earthly agents  !
  In this  state of ignorance and duplicity, they continued to
an indefinite period ; and it was long ere  those advocates of
medicine, who have  since shown in the bright blaze  of philoso-
phy, could win their confidence as to  the curability of disease,
except by special divinity.
  It is somewhat paradoxical, that a people so ignorant and in-
credulous on the score of medicine, should have eclipsed the
world in Sculpture and Architecture.
  Melampus,  of Argos, the most ancient physician, of whom
we have any record, appears to have  understood the nature of
disease, at least as well as could be expected, considering the
rude state of society, and the difficulties with  which he was
surrounded.   He cured one of the Argonauts of sterility by
the rust of iron and wine, and King Proteus of melancholy. 
52
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
   " In our researches," says Dr.  Paris, " to discover and fix
 the period, when remedies were first employed to alleviate dis-
 ease, we are left in conjecture and involved in fable.   We are
 unable to reach the period in any country when the inhabitants
 were destitute  of medical resources.  We find among  the
 most uncultivated  tribes, that  medicine is cherished as a bles-
 sing and practiced as an Art, by the inhabitants of New Zea-
 land ; by those of Lapland and Greenland ;  of North Ameri-
 ca, and of the interior of Africa.   Charms  and amulets were
 the expedients of the barbarian, ever more inclined to indulge
 the delusive hope of superstition,  than  to listen to the voice of
 sober reason.   Traces of amulets may be discovered in very
 early history ; for Galen informs  us, that the Egyptian King,
 Nechepsus, who lived 630 years before the Christian era, had
 written that a green jaspar, cut into the form of a dragon, sur-
 rounded  by rays, if applied externally, would strengthen the
 stomach and organs of digestion.  We have, moreover, the au-
 thority of the Scriptures in support of thi3 opinion ; for what
 were the ear-rings which Jacob buried  beneath the oak of Se-
 chem, as related in Genesis, but amulets ?   Theophrastus pro-
 nounced  Pericles insane,  because he discovered that he wore
 an amulet about his neck."
  But very few of the doctrines of the ancients relating to
 medicine, are found to proceed from what should be their only
 source, a complete knowledge  of  human nature.  They knew
 not that this is the living spring from whence they should have
 drawn their treasure ; consequently, they have involved their
theories in baseless speculation.   On  all subjects beside, of
which we have any knowledge, we are completely amazed at
their superior tact and genius.   Indeed, we are  lost  and be-
wildered  in contemplating their perfect models of  Art, and the
beauty and perspicuity of their Literary achievements !
  The Romans, disregarding  every tribute to the shrine of 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
53
knowledge, contented themselves with being the first in arms ;
but her sister, Greece,—although her annals are not empty of
the blazonry of martial deeds,—seemed swayed by the fire of
a more laudable ambition—the culture of Science and the es-
tablishment of Letters.  The Roman Empire, in its subjection
of Greece, became their inheritors, and profited largely from a
science, the theory and principles of which they had thereto-
fore been ignorant; and, consequently, with the rising genera-
tion, became conspicuous  in the  annals of chirurgery.   The
Classics of Greece, yielding the  influence of their powerful
genius, warmed the heart of the rude Roman; and, like the
earth-reaching medium  of intellectual  virtue, showered upon
their laps, in  great profusion,
                  " Barbaric pearls and gold."
   The principles of the Science of medicine now spread over
the ample field in which it was destined to act a leading part,
drawing in its train, by the vigour and importance of its salu-
tary tenets,  the greatest talent, and holding out individual ag-
grandizement, because of its absolute bearing upon the weal of
the world.   Under such circumstances, the healing art became
established, and its principles promulgated for the relief of man-
kind.  But, as we  proceed,  we  find that it was planted in a
barren soil, or that its meek  progenitors and fathers were cal-
lous of its  preservation;  for, by the might of priestcraft, it
was wrested from the grasp of its legitimate possessors, who
held it with a weak hand, and all progress  towards its general
tendency, rendered at least for a time, impossible.
   Thus  their religious  power  and temporal government be-
came enhanced by the  addition of a code of medical ethics,
which gave them an ascendency, not only over the spiritual,
but also, over the bodily and corporeal attributes of man.   And
how did they use these important acquisitions ?  They  fet-
       5* 
54
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
tered the soul with the adamant of their clerical  prerogatives,
and corrupted the flesh by the mal-administration of medicine.
A science that had bid fair to be of the greatest importance to
the world, was thus chained, perverted, and  rendered impo-
tent by a host of monks and selfish  Churchmen.   Did  they
stop there ?   Were  they contented with the undisputed pos-
session of their power over  the soul and body ?  The  pages
of history tell us they were not.   Nor did they rest until they
had garnered  within the walls of their polluted Convents, the
Science of Letters — the power  and  wealth of the  mind.
Armed with the spiritual attributes of the church, and treading
upon the twin sciences of Literature and Medicine, they were
ready  to commit the greatest ravages, always hiding beneath
the ample folds of the church, the  most wanton and cruel usa-
ges.   But the beclouded horizon was  soon sundered and dis-
pelled, and the light  of  reason  again  spread its warm breath
over the groaning shadows of religious oppression.
  With accumulating wealth, luxury, and sensual gratification
usurped the healthy athletic sports in which it was part of the
religion of the Romans to indulge.   They soon saw the ne-
cessity, from  the ravages of disease, for instituting the science
of medicine, and giving it that protection from the hurtful ten-
dency  of clerical dictation, which was  found necessary, in or-
der to  shield  themselves from those ills, with  which their in-
temperance had threatened them.   Thus freed, and supported
by the  most powerful, the Science of Medicine took a renewed
start;  and in process of time neither the patrician nor plebeian,
regretted its enlargement from the hands of the monks.
  " Rome had existed for five hundred years," says Mr.  Dun-
lap, " without professional physicians.   Like  all semi-barba-
rians, they believed  that maladies were cured  by the special
interposition of superior  beings.  Deriving, as  they did, much
of their worship from the Etruscans, they probably derived 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
55
from them, also, the practice of attempting to overcome disease
by magic and incantation.  Cato, the Consor, was the first of
his countrymen who wrote on the subject of medicine.  In his
book of Domestic Medicine, duck,  pigeons and hare were the
food he chiefly recommended to the sick.  His remedies were
principally extracted from  herbs,—and colewort,  or cabbage,
was his principle cure.  The recipes, indeed,  contained in his
work on agriculture, show that his medical knowledge did not
exceed that which usually exists among a semi-barbarous  peo-
ple, and  only extended to the most ordinary simples which na-
ture affords.  Cato hated  the compound drugs introduced by
the Greek physicians, considering those  foreign  professors of
medicine as  the opponents of his own system.  Such, indeed,
was his apathy, that he believed, or pretended to believe,  that
they  had entered into a  league to poison all the barbarians,
among whom they classed the Romans.   Cato, finding that the
patients  lived, notwithstanding this detestable conspiracy, be-
gan to  regard the Greek practitioners  as impious sorcerers,
who counteracted the course of  nature, and restored dying
men to health, by means of unholy charms; and he therefore
advised his  countrymen to remain steadfast, not only by their
Roman principles and manners ; but, also, by their venerable
unguents and salubrious  balsams, which had come  down to
them from the wisdom of their grandmothers."  We think the
stoic Censor quite right in this latter proposition, as they  con-
sisted  of the mildest preparations of roots and  plants.  But
this violent and prejudiced man thought  to govern the posses-
sors of the wealth of the universe like a  convent of monks, or
as he  managed his own household,
  During this stage  of uncertainty,  in all that respected the
Science of Medicine,  several other writers and practitioners
of medicine  appeared; but their theories were effeminate, and
wanted that solidity of structure, which is found indispensable 
56
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
 as a basis for the erection of the doctines of Physic.  Confined
 and narrow as their views must have been in regard to this
 science, the Romans, by this time,  conceived their materia
 medica to be replete in all its features ;  and that there was no
 room for innovation and improvement.   But, it soon appeared,
 that the whole fabric had been woven from so  fragile a thread,
 that it was completely cast down and trampled upon  by suc-
 ceeding practitioners, and expunged from the  records of their
 materia medica  as so much useless trash.  Indeed, it was with
 good reason  that it so  suffered ; for,  though somewhat en-
 larged  upon by its  professors ; and,  besides, containing many
 useful hints in therapeutics, as, also, an  indifferent, but  some-
 what acceptable view  of the nature and power of disease;
 yet, in many of its points, where the utmost harmony and con-
 cord was looked for, it abounded in superstitious parables, and
 abortive speculations.—These,  by degrees, were  reformed in
 proportion as new practitioners made their appearance ; or, as     i
 well as the rites and observances of  the  age were capable of
 reforming.  But still  their doctrines were very exceptionable
 from its non-conformity with what has  since been ascertained
 to belong to  the immutable  laws of nature.  A nation, whose
 worship and religious duties, apart from their private and do-
-mestic character, were of the most delusive quality, could not,
 with a  just allowance, be deemed capable of following these
 dictates in the Science of Medicine, when their opinions on
 what was most holy and  righteous, were of a  tendency  bor-
 dering upon the most consummate ignorance.
   About this period, and beneath the atmosphere of such de-
 pravity, in all that should have  been held most secred, a  new
 spirit made its appearance in the person of the renowned and
 classical Celsus.  He flourished in the second reign of the im-
 perial dynasty.   His  writings,  at least  that portion  of  them     ]
 which relates to medicine,  have been received by  the  mo-     i 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
57
 derns as a work of great  merit.  The opinion has prevailed
 that he did not follow medicine as  a profession, but only with
 the view of instructing himself in this branch of philosophy so
 far as it consisted with the preservation of his own health.—
 Be this as it may, his works on medicine evidently show eru-
 dition ; and when they are divested of the superstitious tinc-
 ture which they received, more from the rude state of the times
 in which he wrote, than from any predisposition of his own,
 they  will be  found  useful and instructive.  The opinions of
 Celsus were somewhat exhorbitant in view of the present state
 of medical ethics; but, though incompatible  with the natural
 dictates arid feelings, which alone should be their beauties, they
 are sufficient to show that at that time the Science of medicine
 had been invested with
                " A local habitation and a name."
   What from  wars—civil and foreign—and the consequent
 overthrow of the equipoise of Literature, and the general ob-
 struction of the channels of Science and the Arts, it is but rea-
 sonable to suppose that medicine suffered in common with the
 rest; for such  distractions are likely, even in this age, to inter-
 cept  the quiet progression  of science.  Under such misfor-
 tunes, the materia medica of the Romans was destined to suf4
 fer : it lacked in repletion, as, also, its progenitors the requisite
 calm  for its prosecution to the literal degree of human attain-
 ments.
  Pursuing our enquiries to a later period, we find, shortly af-
 ter Celsus, two other individuals who appear to have made
 themselves conspicuous in systematizing and arranging  the
 laws of medicine :—these are, Dioscarides, and the elder Pliny.
 The former, a  celebrated Greek Physician  and Botanist, who
is supposed to have lived in the time of Nero.   He paid parti-
cular  attention to medicine, and especially  to  botany.  Al- 
58              KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.

though several eminent physicians have written much in dero-
gation of him as a physician—probably because of his botani-
cal principles—yet I am inclined to  the belief that his system
was at least not inferior to those of his contemporaries.   He
had his followers and advocates, and also, his  opponents.—
However, like all his predecessors, he appears  to have been
stimulated by motives of ambition  rather than philanthropy—
looking at the general welfare  of the science as an after con-
sideration.   The numerous transitions which the science had
undergone by this time, in consequence of the fluctuating char-
acter of the disciples of each  school, became proverbial.—
Crude, unsound, savouring of barbarism, and begetting a com-
bination of selfish axioms with the view of crushing opposition,
the practitioners of the Healing Art eventually retrograded to
the most preposterous principles.
   The acquisition of the experience of the ancients in the for-
mation of our modern  materia  medica,  has  been somewhat
productive of evil, and that too, when the  redundant parts and
false hypotheses, have been apparently lopped off.  In a word,
so far as we have traced the subject,  there appears to be a re-
mission of the first principles of medical philosophy, and a dis-
sonance in their premises with the regular and imperious codes
of nature.   I have wandered along to this conclusion with
some regret, and deem  it  hardly possible that  a people who
have  been considered as the modellers of literature, and  the
fine arts, should so far fall below the moderns in point of me-
dical  knowledge.  We  have some notion of sculpture—but
we have never been able, nor ever will be able, to produce ri-
val specimens.   Whereas, in the science of medicine, in which
they had an equal chance to surpass us, as in any of the arts
which I have named, their disquisitions  are  curious and in-
ferior. 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
59
     Decidedly warlike—and  burning for the  extension of their
   arms to all parts of the world, any art but what contributed to
   this end, was considered, by the Romans; as comparatively un-
   important, though its prosecution should tend to the alleviation
   of disease, and the manumission  of the ills of life.   After the
   death  of Galen, the progress of medicine  in  this stupendous
   empire, became completely paralyzed, indeed it  may be said
   to have stopped entirely; for all improvements were put com-
   pletely out of the  question.  The repeated agressions of the
   Romans, and other acts of  oppression which they instituted in
   view of national aggrandizement, soon brought upon them the
   barbarous tribes of Arabia,  and other nations which completely
   inundated their provinces: thus  fell  imperial Rome, flanked
   upon seven hills by the swarthy Saracen, and dragging  with
   her to the dust,  her palaces and monuments of grandeur.
      In consequence  of the victory of these savage invaders, over
i   the city of the Caesers, (which, however, survived, and phce-
   nix-like, rose  prouder from  her ashes)—the progress of medi-
   cine, was for a time completely suppressed; nor  was it till the
   commencement of the ninth century that it again rose from its
   depressed state.
      In order however that the reader may have a comprehensive
   view of the whole science of medicine from its earliest estab-
'   lishment, we will endeavour to give its history somewhat in de-
   tail bv which the various opinion?, theories and doctrines since
   its first origination  may be the more fully understood, reserving
   our comments upon them until we shall have arrived at our own
   times.
      Esculapius is the first individual whose name we have on re-
   cord as a practitioner of medicine ; but his history appears so
   completely involved in fable that no dependence can be placed
   in the  account given respecting him.   He was a  Greek, and is
   alleged to have been the son of Apollo by the nymph Coronis, 
60
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
born at Epidaurus, and educated by Chiron, who taught him
to cure the most  dangerous diseases, and even to  raise the
dead.  Homer gives an account of the two sons of Esculapius
Machaon  and Podalirius being engaged at the siege of Troy,
but their only  office appears to have been to bind up wounds.
Some time, however, elapsed before Esculapius  was favoured
with divine honours, or became deified, and temples raised and
dedicated to him, in which tablets  were hung, and  on which
were recorded the  diseases cured, as they imagined, by his as-
sistance ; and from which period he was reverenced, particu-
larly by the ancients, as the God of Physic.
  Little progress appears to have been made in the Healing
Art for many centuries.
  Greece—first in  the field of Medical Science, the seat of the
Muses, gave  us  Hippocrates, who flourished about four hun.
dred and sixty years anterior to the birth of  Christ.  He was
the first that studied medicine as a science, and from whose
writings,.which have descended to us, we have gleaned  a great
deal of useful knowledge ; but they are also celebrated for the
most crude and absurd  doctrines.    He is  reckoned  the
eighteenth  lineal descendant of Esculapius, the [profession of
medicine having been hereditary in his family.  Born with this
advantage, and stimulated by the fame of his ancestors, he de-
voted himself zealously to the philosophy of medicine.  Though
history gives Hippocrates the merit of  being the  first scientific
classifier of the science of Medicine, yet we find an Alexan-
drian physician, by the name of Aaron, who wrote in  the Syri-
ac tongue, about six hundred and twenty years before Christ—
thus preceding Hippocrates 160 years.
  Hippocrates having acquired the title of Father of Medicine,
we shall commence our illustrations on this  subject with the
pathological doctrines first by him introduced.   He consider-
ed that the fluids  were the primary  seat of disease,  which 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
61
opinion generally prevailed among all classes of medical men
down to the eighteenth century, under the name of thellumoral
Pathology.  He supposed that there were four humours in the
body, blood, phlegm, yellow and black bile.   He likewise intro-
duced the doctrines of crises, or that there  existed a  certain
tendency in the system at certain periods to a cure of disease
which proceeding regularly, dispelled morbid action.    He as-
sumed certain theoretical principles respecting the powers and
functions of the  human body.   It was with him that a specific
principle first originated which he called "nature," and which
he alleged influences, superintends, directs and controls all the
motions of the coporeal frame : which  specific principle was
likewise possessed  of an intelligence, by  which it  repressed
those actions having an injurious tendency, and promoted those
which were beneficial.
   The practice  of Hippocrates consisted in the employment
principally of evacuents, and although many of his admirers
in their writings would favour the opinion that his practice was
of the mildest character, we cannot but arrive at a  contrary
conclusion.  He employed purgatives of various  kinds very
freely and often  of  the most  drastic character.  He likewise
employed sudorifics and diuretics—he drew blood by the lan-
cet freely, sometimes opening two veins at once, and frequent-
ly bled until it produced fainting.   He used the scarificator and
cupping glass, administered injections, and inserted issues.  His
external applications were ointments,  plasters, liniments, &c.
 The remedial agents which he employed were exclusively of
vegetable origin, as  the various mineral and  metallic  agents
brought into use in   modern  practice  were  then totally  un-
known.   Many of  the remedies used by him yet retain a place
in our pharmacopoeias.
   Hippocrates transmitted his profession to his two son3 The?-
salus and Draco, and to his son in  law Polybus, who established
          6 
62
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
as is generally supposed the first medical sect, and which they
named the Hippocratean school; but soon became more gen-
erally known as the Dogmatical  school or sect, in consequence
of the adoption of certain theories and  principles of practice
advanced by Hippocrates.   These  theories being considered
erroneous by some, and calculated to lead to injurious results
in practice, soon gave rise to another medical sect called Em-
pirics, who discarded all theory and advocated the establish-
ment of medical  science, upon  no other basis  than that of
experience alone.
  After the  establishment of the Alexandrian School, about
three hundred years prior to the Christian era, the science of
medicine was pursued with great assiduity; and where the first
medical professors were appointed to the different branches or
professorships as anatomy, pharmacy &c.  It is here we find
the  first instances  of dissection of the human body practiced
by Erasistratus and Herophilus,  for which purpose the bodies
of criminals were  allotted them by the government, by which
means much information was acquired in regard to the human
system not previously known : dissections had only heretofore
been made on Animals. Erasistratus hid studied with Chrysip-
pus, who opposed bleeding and active remedies in the treatment
of disease.   Entertaining and advocating those principles, he
is therefore  not held in as high estimation by a portion of the
medical world  as  his  associate and  co-laborer  Herophilus,
who advocated  the use of most  energetic agents.  Some au-
thors state that they opened bodies while alive to discover their
internal motions.   Erasistratus described the brain, the heart
and large vessels, liver and  kidneys, and pointed out their of-
fices, but supposed digestion  performed by  tituration.   He
supposed  fevers and inflammations to arise from the blood be-
ing forced through the minute veins into the corresponding ar-
teries.   He is said to have terminated his existence by taking 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
63
poison at an extreme old age,  having been tormented  for a
long time with an ulcer on his foot.  The two  rival sects the
Dogmatists and Empirics  had for some  hundreds of years,
kept the whole medical world in commotion.   About this time
the Empirics organized themselves  into a distinct  body as the
declared opponents of the Dogmatists.
   The next account given  us is from Pliny who tells us that
about two hundred years before Christ, Archagathus aPelopon-
nesian established himself as a practitioner in Rome.   He was
received with great respect and even supported at  the public
expense.  His  practice however was  very severe, generally
using the knife  and powerful caustics, and consequently so un-
successfully  as to  excite the  dislike and disgust of the people
against the profession generally.   At this time a fatal epidemic
prevailed at Rome in order to allay which the senate determin-
ed to introduce into Rome the worship of Esculapius ; they
therefore consulted  the Sybilline books, and found it obligato-
ry upon them to transfer the worship of this deity from Greece
to their city.   A deputation was therefore appointed for that
purpose ; but  the  deity being  unwilling to  leave  his native
place, was forceably siezed  by them, and conveyed to  Rome
under the form of a serpent,  where the people received him
with great transport, and erected a temple to him on an island
in the Tiber,  and appointed priests with  the ceremonies ac-
cordingly, and  the  plague is represented to have ceased.  In
fact, the most abject superstition had evor been attached to the
car of medicine both by the Greeks and Romans.
   Little more  transpired in respect to the Healing Art for the
next century, during which time it was retained in the hands of
superstitious priests, and subjected to all their rites and cere-
monies, charms and incantations.   About one  hundred years
before Christ an individual named Asclepiades, acquired con-
siderable popularity in Rome in the  practice of medicine.— 
64
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
Medical authors,  especially  modern, speak in no enviable
     s of his reputation,  although they admit him to have been
a man of good natural talents  and acquainted with human na-
ture ; a man of acuteness and discernment;  yet it so happen-
ed that he was not regularly  bred  to  medicine, but originally
taught rhetoric at Rome.  They allege that he had but " little
science or professional skill;" that he was ignorant of anatomy
and pathology ; and because  he deprecated  harsh and violent
remedies ;  was opposed to emetics and purgatives, and recom-
mended bathing, exercise, diet, and mild treatment, attended in
all cases his patients with assiduity, and contributed  to their
comfort ; he was opposed by the prevailing  theorists then ex-
isting ;  and not  having  entered the  medical profession  the
" regular way," he was not of the true " scientific stamp," and
of course heretical.  Yet he acquired an eminence in his pro-
fession which he  maintained  to the end of his life,  and which
many of the ancient as well as modern practitioners might
well envy.   Medical writers  are, however,  compelled  to ad-
mit that they are indebted to him for many important arrange-
ments in disease : with him originated the distinction between
the two great classes of disease, as acute and chronic.   His
object was  to reduce the science to a few general laws and so
to simplify  it as to render it universally intelligible and of easy
application.   He advocated  the philosophical principles of
Epicurus, and supposed that acute disease was produced by a
constriction of the pores of the skin, and  that chronic disease
was a relaxation of the  pores.   It is said that he pledged  his
reputation on the preservation of his health which he retained
to a great age, and died  at length from a fall.
  After the death of Asclepiades, his pupil, Themison, contin-
ued to advocate his principles, and was successful in establish-
ing a new sect in medicine called the Methodic sect, which for
some time eclipsed all the former.  The doctrines of this sect 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
65
seemed to be  to adopt a medium course, or one between the
Dogmatists and Empirics, and to adopt from each that which
possessed the most excellence.  They  contended that it was
essential that the practitioner be well acquainted with the nature
of the'human frame, the laws that govern it in a state of health,
and the changes to which it is subjected in disease. The Meth-
odics considered the solids as the seat of disease,which was con-
trary to the opinion of  Hippocrates that  had always heretofore
prevailed, and which was directly in opposition to the Humoral
Pathology then  advocated both by the Dogmatists and Empirics.
Thus we perceive that at this period of time there existed three
different and distinct sects of medical practitioners, each in many
particulars, both in theory and in practice, essentially differing
from each other.   The Methodics were diligent and sagacious
in the particular phenomena of disease, and the employment of
remedies.    The opinions and doctrines of the Methodics ap-
pear to have been generally adopted in Rome, and almost to
have superceded their rivals.
   About fifty years anterior to  the Christian era, Thessalas
made his appearance.   He is said to have been of mean birth
and  defective  education, and to have acquired great wealth
and  a high reputation as a practitioner.  Yet if his biograph-
ers be  correct in their remarks respecting him, he  possessed no
inconsiderable  share of egotism, as it  is said that he styled
himself the  " conqueror of physicians."    He advocated  a
theory, as he alleged, which would lead to more correct prac-
tice.   What this particular theory was we at this day are una-
ble to  determine.   Medical writers consider him as an unwor-
thy  character; how far this may be, we  have  no  correct
source of judging, as all the records of the rise and progress
of medicine are written with no little degree of prejudice and
calculated to give a colouring to  the whole subject the  most fa-
vourable  to the views  of particular theorists, the aspirants to
       6* 
66
KEY  TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
" scientific knowledge" and fame : the fact is certain, as disre-
putable as he may have been, medical theorists have not failed
to avail  themselves and to adopt  a portion  of his particular
principles, one of which  serves at the present  day to illustrate
some of the most important indications to medical  men, "meta-
syncrasis," the mode of effecting an entire change in the state
of the human body.
   A distinguished physician by the name of Soranus appeared
in Rome about this time.  He was of the methodic sect; none
of his writings are now extant.
   C. Aurelianus appears as the next author of  importance who
is supposed to have lived about the first centuryof the Christian
era.  He was considered to be  a Numidian by birth ;  he was
zealous in the Methodic cause, yet is censured for not adopting
more active remedies ; and his practice is  hence considered
defective : the reason he assigns for this course, is that he could
not reconcile severe practice with  the  Laws  of Nature.  C.
Aurelianus generally resorted to a preparatory course in  the
cure of disease which consisted in diet, exercise, frictions,  use
of the bath and other external applications.  In inflammatory
diseases, his practice was abstinence, rest and friction, which,
if unsuccessful,  then general or local bleeding, baths and cer-
tain vegetable preparations.   He seldom  if  ever employed
purgatives, and very sparingly employed diuretics,  and entirely
discarded caustics and narcotics and similar applications.
   The Methodic sect gradually changed in some measure its
original tenets, but was generally adhered to by the Roman
physicians the most part of the two first centuries of the Chris-
tian era ; but it at length became divided into several different
sects.  The two most important sects which  arose out of  the
Methodic sect, were  called the Pneumatics and Eclectics —
The Pneumatics entertained the opinion that the  human body
possessed a principle which they termed " spirits," which with 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
67
the fluids and solids, constituted the composition of our system.
Aretaeus  of Cappadocia, who flourished about this time, ap-
pears to have been the principal leader of this sect.   He was
considered a medical writer of some repute.   He was however
the advocate of a harsh or strong practice, and very  partial to
hellebore and other drastic cathartics, and in favour of narcot-
ics, bleeding, &c, and appears to have been the first individual
who introduced cantha rides for blistering the skin.  Of the sect
called Eclectics,  little  is known :   We, however,  have the
name of Archigones given us as one of their principal practi-
tioners, to whom we are indebted in some degree for the intro-
duction of new and obscure terms into medicine, and who la-
boured hard to establish a medical dialect.
   The next individual we have to notice is Celsus, whom it does
not appear was regularly bred to medicine ; but being a distin-
guished wiiter,  and  embracing  and  advocating energetic
treatment in disease, has met with the most  favourable recep-
tion on the part of medical theorists.   In  his writings, he does
not appear to exclusively adopt the doctrines of Hippocrates,
Asclcpiades or any of his predecessors, although he advocated
a similar specific principle with his contemporaries and prede-
cessors, to which he gave the term  " nature," and contended
that fever was an effort of " nature" to throw off disease.  He
freely used  the lancet, even to a greater extent than those that
preceded him.
   We now arrive at the account of an individual, who of all
others of the medical profession acquired a popularity, which
was unsurpassed  by any, the distinguished  Galen, who was
born at Perganus, in Asia Minor, A. D.  131.  His  father in-
structed him in the  rudiments of knowledge, and sent him to
the  best schools  of  philosophy.  He soon  displayed  much
judgment  in selecting what appeared  most rational from the
different sects of physicians which existed at that time, totally 
68
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
rejecting the popular systems of the day.   He commenced
his studies at a  very early age, and although he  met with
much opposition from his professional brethren, who stigmati-
zed him as a theorist, yet so successful were some of his cures,
that they were even ascribed to magic.  This success natu-
rally excited  the prejudices of a powerful and popular party
of physicians; and  being unable to contend against them, he
left Rome, but was  soon recalled to attend  the Emperor who
had so high an. opinion  of Galen, that he committed his two
sons to his care, both  of whom being seized  with a fever, in
which  he  prognosticated a favourable issue,  contrary  to the
opinion of all his colleagues, and restored them to health.  He
thus acquired a power and an eminence of reputation, which
enabled him to defy the envy of his opponents, and which he
in a great measure  availed himself of to their disadvantage.
As he was a man who  paid little attention  to the opinions of
others, confident of his own powers, of a very  decided charac-
ter and  possessed of a  superior mind, he has been accused
of arrogance and want of candour.   The superiority which
he acquired and  actually assumed, swayed  public opinion  on
all points connected with medicine.  For ages, it was deemed
sufficient in argument against any hypothesis, or even matter of
fact, that it was contrary to the opinion of Galen.  The greater
part of Galen's life was spent in study ; and he is said to have
been the author of 500 volumes on  medical subjects.  The
foundation of his medical theory  was in accordance  with that
of Hippocrates, of whom he was an ardent admirer, speaking
of him with great respect, and professing to practice upon his
principles.  He adopts the four  elements, four humours, four
qualities, &c, and his system of medicine was the correcting
the morbid state of the fluids, as depending  upon these four
qualities, or any of their modifications.  He considers the fluids
to be the primary seat of disease, thus again reviving the 11 u- 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIEACE.
69
moral  Pathology, but at the same time he introduces so much
refined speculation, divisions and sub-divisions, as to be in a
measure regarded as the inventor.  He had a strong predilec-
tion for theory, and rendered his  practice conformable to it,
and which he was successful in establishing over all other pre-
ceding ones.  So  high was the authority of the name of Galen,
that for  about  fourteen centuries, his systems and  doctrines
were  most  sacredly adhered  to, and revered by all descrip-
tions of men.
  For a length of time after the death of Galen we have lit-
tle  to  interest us,  they seem  to have supposed that medical
science in the then existing state of society was not suscepti-
ble of further improvement.  At this time commenced the de-
cline  of the Roman Empire,  which continued to grow more
feeble, until its final overthrow.  Sprengel states  that the medi-
cal writers  of the  third and fourth  centuries were " blind em-
pirics, or feeble  imitators of the  Physician  of Pergamus."
Sextus Empiricus, a contemporary of Galen, who it is suppo-
sed derived his appellation from the sect to which he belonged,
in his  writings, attacks the principles of the Dogmatists  with
much severity.  There are several who wrote during the fourth,
fifth and sixth centuries,—but their writings are so  filled with
superstition and credulity as to plainly show the degraded
state to which  medical science had fallen.  A wiiter  by the
name of Arteus, recommended the use of magical ai ts and in-
cantations, expressly for the treatment of disease.   About the
middle of the seventh  century, the Greek school of medicine
terminated, and the science was consequently reduced to the
most abject state.    The  great medical school at Alexandria
however still retained its reputation, but the catastrophy which
befel  the  Alexandrian library by  the brutal violence  of the
Saracens, produced for a time a general wreck of literature :
but, fortunately, the writings of Galen, were  preserved from 
70              KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.

this general conflagration, and translated into the Arabic lan-
guage, which being commented upon, and elucidated, soon ac-
quired a  degree of celebrity  equal to that entertained by
the Greeks.   The Arabians were previously  in possession of
the works of Hippocrates.   The Arabic physicians implicitly
adopted the speculations and theories of Galen, seldom ventu-
ring in the smallest degree to deviate from his practice.  We
here perceive that the science of medicine, became principally
transferred to the Mahometans.  Amongst the earliest Arabic
writers, we have the name of Ahrum, a priest of. Alexandria,
who gives us a a description of small-pox, and Rhazes informs
us that medicine was  cultivated among the Arabians with as
much success as among the Greeks.
  For the next  three centuries there appears  no particular
writer of eminence.   In the  ninth century we have  Serapion,
who wrote in the Syriac language, his professed object being to
incorporate the principles and practice of the Greek and Ara-
bic physicians.   Contemporary with  Serapion appeared Alk-
hendi, who obtained great celebrity :  he assiduously cultivated
mathematics, natural  philosophy, medicine  and  particularly
astrology.  He was called the  Greek astrologer, the subtle
philosopher and the learned physician : he applied the  rules of
geometrical  proportion and of musical harmony,  to  regulate
doses of medicine and to explain their mode of opperation.
   A writer appeared about this time named Rhazes, who gives
rather an elaborate  description of small pox and  measles and
the treatment employed by  the Arabians, but his  writings  ap-
pear to evince nothing original, being principally abstracts from
Galen and  the  Greek physicians.  Shortly  after the death of
Razes, appeared Ali Abbas called the magician, who pretends
to give a complete account of  medicine in its various branches :
his writings  however,  consist principally of abstracts from
Greek physicians: he enjoyed  considerable reputation, but it 
                 KEY TO  MEDICAL SCIENCE.              71

 Was soon eclipsed by the appearance  of Avicenna, who was
 considered by his countrymen even superior to Galen. He was
 a man of great industry, desirous of knowledge, but somewhat
 fanatical, conceiving himself under the influence of superna-
 tural revelation :  his reputation became great, and  for a time
 was without arrival.  His writings appear to evince nothing
 new, but are principally compilations from others.  He was a
 great admirer of Galen, and considered  the ultimate object of a
 physician, was to be intimately acquainted with his writings,
 and to defend them against objections.
   We here pass over a period of three or four hundred years,
 in which nothing of sufficient importance occurs  to interest us
 in regard to the progress of Medical Science.  The doctrines
 introduced  by Galen,  were held as oracular, and  the people
 themselves  were involved in  the  rankest superstition.  The
 Arabic school of medicine terminated, and in fact, the study of
 all sciences became in a measure suspended.  The world seem-
 ed enveloped in mental darkness.  Even until the 15th century
 all Europe was subjected to a complete state of barbarism and
 superstition.   The  only  place  where  any disposition was
 manifested in favour of science at this  time, was amongst the
 Mahometans, who introduced into the practice of Medicine, va-
 rious gums and resins, rheubarb, cassia, camphor, senna, man-
 na, &c.   But even to the 13lh century all  remained shrouded
 in the grossest darkness, and the science of medicine was re-
 duced to the lowest state of degradation.  The practice of me-
 dicine was principally  confined to monks, who  were grossly
 ignorant, and whose interest it was that mankind in general
 should not be otherwise.   Although they adhered to the prin-
 ciples of Galen, yet they frequently had recourse  to magic and
 astrology.
  In the  13th century we find the science of anatomy revived •
and about the year  1315,  Mondini, a professor at Bologna is 
72
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
said to have dissected two females, and published anatomical
illustrations of the human body with plates.
  The first English medical writer of whom we have any ac-
count was Gilbert, who lived about the first of the 14th centu-
ry ; at which time there appears to have been no public means
of instruction in natural philosophy, or any of the  sciences in
that country :  all sciences were in the lowest state of degrada-
tion, and all that was known respecting  them was confined to
polemical  theology,  and that  confined  to  the  monks.   The
writings of Gilbert are principally extracts from the Arabian
physicians, and the medical theories of Galen. Indeed  it could
not  be expected that from the then existing state of science,
any thing more than a mere repetition of the previous existing
theories and principles could be adverted to.
  About this period several important circumstances transpir-
ed to  change the whole aspect of general science. The feudal
system which  had existed for centuries, began  to  be shaken
and a general  revolution to take place, producing an  entire
change  in the political condition of the people.  The army of
the  crusades had been instituted for the recapture of the Holy
Land; but the  first capture appears to have  been  the City of
Constantinople by Mahomet the second, about the middle of the
15th century.   The City of Constantinople had  long been the
refuge of the most learned,  who  had  in their possession the
manuscripts of  the most ancient  classical writers, the exist-
ence of which were probably unknown to the world.   Those
men being expelled from the Turkish Empire, took refuge  in
Italy,  and carried with them their  manuscripts.
  The invention  of the art of printing occurring about this
time,  secured those manuscripts  against the possibility of fu-
ture destruction.   One of the first uses made of this pre-emi-
nent art, was  the  publication of those  ancient manuscripts 
KEY TO MEDICAL  SCIENCE.
73
which was received with eagerness.  Other manuscripts were
likewise discovered and published, and in the course of a few
years the knowledge contained in them was extensively diffused.
  Another important circumstance likewise tended  to free
the  Human mind, and awake a general spirit of free enquiry,
was the Reformation introduced  by Luther; and although it
had a direct tendency against the papal authority, we find that
Leo X. and other Italian potentates, extravagantly encouraged
literature  and the fine arts.  Both the works of Galen and
Hippocrates, with learned dissertations thereon, were printed,
in order to explain them  ; yet the works of Galen continued
in the ascendant  Medical Science being thus encouraged, a
new spring was given to  it, and a number  of medical schools
were established in various parts of Ita^.
  In 1460, Thomas Linacre was born at Canterbury, in  Eng-
land, and after studying at Oxford, he travelled into Italy, and
after perfecting himself in the Greek and Latin language, de-
voted himself to medicine and natural philosophy at Rome.
He returned to England, graduated at  Oxford, and gave lec-
tures on physic,—was appointed physician to Henry VII. and
Henry the VIII., and eventually stood above all  rivalship.
In 1518, he founded the Royal College  of Physicians in  Lon-
don,  of which he was the President  until his death.  The
practice of medicine in England,  was  thus  arrested from the
hands of the monks, who heretofore had been licensed to prac-
tice  by the bishops.   Linacre  died in 1524, with  the stone,
and  bequeathed his residence to the College.
  We now arrive at that period in which we have to notice
the most important change in medical science, both as regards
theory and practice, of any which had heretofore transpired
since the   origin of the art, in  the formation of a sect called
Chemieal  Physicians.  At what period of time the word Che-
mistry was first introduced, it is  impossible to tell: it appears 
74
KEY  TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
 to be of Egyptian origin,  and originally to have been equiva-
 lent to our phrase of Natural Philosophy in its most extensive
 sense.  In time it acquired a more  limited signification, and
 became  exclusively  confined  to the art of working metals.—
 The founders and improvers of it were considered as the grea-
 test benefactors of the human race ;  statues and temples were
 consecrated to their honour ; they were raised above the level
 of humanity and deified.
  At what period Chemistry changed this new signification, it
 is impossible to say.   In the third century, we find it used in a
 much more limited sense, signifying the art of making gold and
 silver.  The origin of the idea that gold could be made by art,
 is equally unknown.   In this new sense, Chemistry, or the art
 of making gold, was  cultivated with  eagerness, both in Egypt
 and Greece, and was  also introduced into the West of Europe
 by  the  followers of  the Caliphs.   Those who professed it,
 gradually assumed the form  of a sect under the name of Al-
 chymists ;  a term which is supposed to  be merely the word
 Chemist, with the  Arabic article al prefixed.
  The Alchemists laid it down as a principle, that the substan-
 ces which compose gold exist in  all metals, contaminated in-
 deed with various impurities, but capable, by a proper purifica-
 tion, of being brought to a perfect slate.  The great object of
their researches was to find  out the means of producing this
change, and consequently of converting the baser metals into
gold.   The substance which possessed this wonderful proper-
ty they called lapisphilosophorum—"  the philosophers stone;"
 and many of them boasted  that they were in possession of this
grand acquisition.
  Chemistry, as the term was used by the Alchemists, signified
the art of making the "philosopher's stone."   They affirmed that
this art was above human capacity, and  that it  was made
known by God to those happy sages only  whom he  peculiarly 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
75
favoured.  The fortunate few. who were acquainted with the
philosopher's stone, called themselves adepti, " adepts," that is>
persons who had got possession of the secret.  This secret they
pretended that they were not  at liberty to reveal, affirming
that dire misfortune would fall upon that man's head who ven-
tured to disclose it to any of the sons of men without the clear-
est tokens of the  divine authority.
.,.  In consequence of these notions,  the  alchemists made  it a
rule to keep themselves as private as possible.  They conceal-
ed with the greatest care, their opinions, their knowledge, and
their pursuits.  In their communications with each other, they
adopted a mystical and metaphorical language, and employed
peculiar figures and signs that their writings  might be under-
stood by the adepts only, and be unintelligible to the common
reader  ; they even appear to have assumed the form of a sect.
 Notwithstanding all these obstacles, a great number of alche-
mistical books made the'r appearance in the dark ages ; many
of them under the real names of the authors ; but a still
greater number under feigned titles, or  ascribed to the celebra-
ted sages of antiquity.
   The Alchemists seem to have been established in the west of
Europe so early, at least as the  10th century.   Between  the
 11th  and 15th centuries, Alchemy was in its most flourishing
 state.   The writers who appeared  during  that period were
 sufficiently numerous,and very different from each other in their
 style and abilities.   Some of their books are nearly unintelligi-
 ble, andjbear a stronger resemblance to  the reveries of madmen
 than to the sober investigations of philosophers.  Others if we
 make allowance for their metaphorical  style,  are written with
 comparative plainness, displaying considerable acuteness, and
 indicate a pretty extensive  acquaintance with natural objects.
 They often reason with great precision, though generally from
 mistaken principles; and it is frequently easy enough to see the 
76
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
accuracy of their experiments, and even to trace the particular
circumstances which led to their wrong conclusions.
   The principle Alchemists who flourished during the  dark
ages, and whose names deserve to be  recorded, either on ac-
count of their discoveries, or the influence which their writings
and example had in determining the public taste, were Albertus
Magnus, a German Ecclesiastic, born in 1205; Roger Bacon,
born in England in 1224 ; Arnaldus de Villa Nova, born in Pro-
vence in 1240;  Raymond Lully, born in Barcelona  in 1235;
and the two Isaacs  of Holland,  supposed to have lived in the
13th century.
   The writings of the greater number of Alchemists are re.
markable for nothing but obscurity  and  absurdity.  They all
boast that  they are in possession of the  philosopher's stone:
they all  profess  to communicate the method of making it; but
their language is enigmatical, that they may be understood by
those adepts only, who are favoured with illuminations  from
Heaven.   Their writings in those benighted ages of ignorance
gained implicit credit; and the  covetous were filled  with the
ridiculous desire of enriching themselves by means of the dis-
coveries which they pretended to communicate. This laid the
unweary open to the tricks  of a set of impostors, who went
about the world  affirming that they  were in possession of the
philosopher's stone, and offering to communicate it to others
for a suitable reward.   Thus they contrived to get possession
of large sums of money, and afterwards  they either  made off
with their booty, or tired out  the  patience of their pupils by
tedious,  expensive  and ruinous processes.    It was against
these men  that Erasmus and Ben Johnson directed their well
known satyres, the latter that entitled " The  Alchymist."—
The tricks  of these  impostors gradually exasperated mankind
against the whole fraternity of Alchemists.   Books appeared
against them in all quarters, which the art of  printing, just in- 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
77
vented, enabled the authors to spread with facility ; the wits of
the age directed against them the shafts of ridicule ; men of
science endeavoured to point out the infinite difficulty, if not
the impracticability of the art; men of learning showed that
it had never been understood ; and men of authority endeav-
ored, by  laws and  punishments, to guard  their subjects from
the talons of alchemistical impostors.
  Alchemy becoming obnoxious and disreputable in the public
mind, the alchemists determined upon turning their attention in
another direction, one by which  they  would be enabled more
securely  to practice their arts and deceptions upon the public.
They had long hinted at the  importance of discovering a uni-
versal remedy, which should be capable of curing, and even
preventing all diseases ; several  of  them had asserted that this
remedy was to be  found in the philosopher's stone, which not
only converted baser  metals into gold, but possessed also the
most sovereign virtue ;  was capable of curing all diseases in an
instant of time, and even of prolonging life to an indefinite period
and conferring on the adepts the gift of immortality on earth.
   At this time a noted Alchemist made  his appearance in the
person of Theophrastus Paracelsus, who was ,born in Switzer-
land in 1493.  The history  of this  man evinces his character
to be anything but  honorable ;  that he bqasted of secrets he
did not possess, cannot be denied ; that he stole  many opin-
ions and  even facts from others, is equally certain ;  his arro-
gance was insupportable, his bombast ridiculous, and his whole
life a continued tissue of blunders and vicje.  About the age of
34, after a number of whimsical adventures, which had raised
his reputation to a great height,  he  was appointedby the ma-
gistrates, to deliver lectures at Basil ;  but he  in a short time
quarrelled with them and  left  the  city.   He led a rambling
life—his  associates were those of the lowest order of society
__he was of very  intemperate  habits, seldom,  if ever sober,
       7* 
78
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
He was arbitrary, overbearing,  and egotistical,  by which he
obtained a great degree of influence : in fact, he appears for a
time to have  been the leader of the sect—the Alchemists.—
As has previously been suggested, the  Alchemists, despairing
of ever accomplishing their object in discovering the philoso-
pher's stone, and the general disapprobation then publicly ma-
nifested against them; unwilling  that their " noble art" should
sink into insignificance,  or that the time and money expended
in their visionary pursuits should prove unproductive, they re-
solved, with this notorious individual as their leader, to direct
their attention  to medicine: hence originated  the sect called
Chemical Physicians.   Paracelsus  resolved  to  subvert  the
doctrines, principles and  theories of Galen which had existed
until this period, and which had  now been  respected and re-
verenced by  all descriptions of  men for upwards of fourteen
centuries.  In  one of his  lectures (in order to produce effect)
he burned the works of Galen before his audience, and then
and  there declared that if God would not impart .the secrets of
physic to man,  it was right to consult the devil.  He however
alleged that he  was in possession of an  elixir prepared by him-
self, which would prolong  life to  an indefinite period.   But nei-
ther the councils of the devil, nor his famed elixir, saved him :
he  died in Switze^and, about 48 years of  age.,  amongst the
lowest and most degraded company.  Hence perfectly illus-
trating in himself the folly, presumption and falsity of his own
declaration to the discomfiture of his own particular adherents.
For years before his death, seldom was he known  to change
his clothes, or sleep in a bed.  It was by the influence of  this
man that the  then  existing practice  of medicine  was over-
thrown.   Previous  to this time,  the treatment of disease had
been confined  to vegetable  remedies—plants, the product of
nature's garden, had been  the great source from which  the
physician derived his  specifics for the cure of  the various  dis- 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
79
eases to which mortality is subjected.  It was Paracelsus who
first introduced mercury into use internally for the treatment
of diseases.  His reasons for so doing were,  he alleged, that
the human body was a compound  of  salt, sulphur, and quick-
silver.  This appears  to have been the character of the Great
Apostle of Mercury, the hydra which has destroyed the health
and lives  of thousands — the " beast" whom " all the world
hath  wandered  after."   We, however, find  that previous to
this time  antimony had been used as a medicine.  Its first in-
troduction was by Basil Valentine,  a  Benedictine Monk, who
is said to have been born  in 1394, who likewise was one of the
Alchemists.  During his time the  practice  of medicine was
generally confined to ignorant priests  and  soothsayers, who in
many instances undertook to cure disease by charms, amulets,
incantations, &c, pretending to have  power granted them by
supernatural agents to perform miracles.   Basil Valentine dis-
covered a black powder, the properties  of which  he knew
nothing, and which in the then existing state of chemical know-
ledge, he  was incapable of analyzing : wishing to ascertain its
medicinal virtues, he gave a portion of it to some hogs which
he supposed made them fat: thinking  it would have a like ef-
fect upon men,  he gave  it to his associate monks,  (but was
careful enough to avoid it himself) but  it poisoned the monks so
they died,  and hence it derived its name, antimony, or anti-
monk.
   The introduction of metallic agents  for the treatment of dis-
ease,  caused great excitement.   The regular physicians of
that day—those who advocated the Galenian system,  and who
employed vegetable remedies alone, contended with much spir-
it against the introduction of metallic agents,  as being those
which were calculated to produce  much  mischief: whilst on
the other hand  the advocates  of  metallic agents contended
that vegetable  agents were  too weak and  inefficient.  The 
80
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
whole medical world for upwards of two  hundred years, was
thus kept  in commotion ; each assailing  the  other  with the
most vindictive and opprobrious epithets.   It was in this way
that the term quackery  originated.   The German  name  of
quicksilver (mercury) is quacksalbar, and  the Regular Physi-
cians called all those who used quacksalbar, Quacks.   It is true
that the word at this day is diverted from its original meaning:
as lexicographers now define it " it is mean or bad acts in phy-
sic"—be it so !   With this perverted definition, how many of
the  mercurializers are exempt from the charge ?   We honestly
consider it equally as applicable at this day to the same class
of practitioners as it was then.  In this contest, however, at
length the advocates of  what  is termed the mineral practice,
the  disciples of the notorious Paracelsus gained possession of
the  schools, which, unfortunately for the cause of suffering hu-
manity, they yet surreptitiously retain.
  After the death of Paracelsus, some of his peculiar theories
became more or less unpopular;  yet the  sect of Chemical Phy *■
sicians continued to flourish  with their visionary speculations
and mysticism.  Magic, Astrology and a belief in supernatu-
ral agencies, together with various rites and ceremonies form-
ed a necessary part in the practice of physicians.
  We cannot pass over a remarkable circumstance in regard to
the  appearance of several new diseases, in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, immediately after  the  introduction of me-
tallic agents into  the practice of medicine.   The disease called
sudor anglicanus, or sweating fever,which  prevailed in several
parts of the continent of Europe, and raged with considerable
violence for upwards of fifty years, commenced about the end
of the fifteenth century.   In the fifteenth century the first ac-
count of whooping cough is given. The sea scurvey had never
previously existed so as  to render it of much notoriety ; but
about this  time it began to manifest itself with much severity : 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
81
neither was leprosy known to exist to any extent previous to this
time.  The disease termed the plague, although some account
is given us of its prevalence prior to this time, yet about this
period developed itself with far greater fatality than at any
former period.   We likewise find that  syphilis, made its  ap-
pearance about the same time ; and although, authors endeav-
oured for a long time to favour the opinion of its being  intro-
duced into Europe  from America,  by Christopher Columbus,
and that other diseases spoken of, were introduced from Asia
and various parts of the continent of Europe, they have since
abandoned such ideas, and are satisfied to attribute it to a cause
unknown in which we may concur, but not without strong sus-
picions that the true cause is not altogether so  mysterious.
   After the Reformation during  the  fifteenth century, general
science as before named, continued its march of improvement,
by which the writings of Hippocrates began to obtain greater
repute, and a new school of medicine was  established, called
the Hippocratean ; thus reviving the ancient doctrines of Hip-
pocrates.
   The sixteenth century was still remarkable for  the contest
existing between the Galenists  and Chemists.  The  former
were  far more learned and scientific than the  latter, although
modern authors charge the practice of the Galenists as  " com-
plicated and  inert,"  because their remedies were exclusively
derived from the vegetable kingdom; and  further, that their
prescriptions were so multifarious, comprising so great a num-
ber of articles as to  render  it impossible to understand their
probable operation.   They are likewise charged with incor-
rect and unintelligible hypothesis.
   The Chemical Physicians possessed neither  learning nor
experience, but  supplied this deficiency with  confidence and
temerity.  Their arrogant pretensions, together with cunning,
and artifice,  were powerful weapons against the Galenists. 
82
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
They rejected the prescriptions of the Galenists, which they
alleged  were weak and inefficient, and  made free use of the
most active metallic agents, and the  most powerful remedies
of all kinds, which rashness  was attended by  many  fatal re-
sults.
  About this  period the study of anatomy was again revived
with considerable spirit by Versaleus, who was born in Brus-
sels in 1514.  He taught anatomy at Padua, and subsequently
throughout Italy.  He was appointed, in 1544, physician to
Charles  V.   About the year 1564, in the midst of his profes-
sional career, an unfortunate  occurrence took place which
proved his ruin.   He was  summoned to examine the body of
a Spanish gentleman, but commencing the operation too hasti-
ly, it was discovered that the heart palpitated ; he was accused
of murder before the Inquisition ; but by the interposition of
Philip II., he was only compelled to make a pilgrimage to the
Holy Land.  On his return, the ship in which he embarked was
wrecked on  the  coast of Zante, where he died.  There were
other distinguished anatomists existing about  that time, among
whc m were Eustachius and Fallopius, by the investigations of
whom the science of anatomy acquired  a far greater state of
perfection than it had ever heretofore.
  Fabrius, born in Italy, in 1537. who studied at Padua, under
Fallopius, and whom he succeeded as professor of anatomy, first
discovered in 1574 that the  veins contained numerous valves,
which precluded the blood from any retrograde action in them.
Prior to this time many supposed that the  blood  in the veins
ebbed and flowed like the tide, or moved first  in one direction
and then in another.  They likewise supposed  that the veins
were the only conduits for the blood, and that  the arteries were
filled with air—they supposed that the liver, was the important
organ which prepared the blood for its transmission through the
veins.   But the science of medicine derived very l'ttlo advan-
tages from their  discovery. 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
83
   During the seventeenth century, the doctrines of Hippocra-
tes continued to gain ground, and the science of anatomy be-
came a favourite study, which studies extended to every  part
and structure of the human body, even to the most minute ves.
sols ; which resulted in the very important discovery of the
circulation of the blood by  the distinguished Harvey, which
brought upon him the most unprincipled opposition from medi-
cal men, some condemning it  as an invasion, and others preten-
ding that it was known long  before.  By these and other des-
picable means, they succeeded in materially injuring his repu-
tation and practice ;  yet he lived to see the truth of his illustra-
tions amply verified, acknowledged and adopted by the world ;
and eventually, acquired a reputation which it was impossible
for his enemies to subvert.  Contemporary with Harvey lived
Bartholine, who was the first to describe the absorbent system
with accuracy.   Malpighi, born in  1628, explained the struc-
ture and office of the lungs, and their relation to the heart.   He
was the first to employ the microscope in examining the circu-
lation of the blood ; and  authors allow him some praise for
pointing  out the mischief of bleeding in malignant epidemics.
   About the middle of the seventeenth  century, Boyle, a dis-
tinguished chemist of that age, contributed greatly to advance
the cause of the chemical physicians.  He introduced an elaborate
investigation to ascertain the  actions which bodies produce up-
on each other when brought into the sphere of their attraction.
These investigations laid the foundation  for new principles and
theories among  the chemical physicians ; yet many of them
still continued to adhere to their fanaticism.   Flood who prac-
tised  medicine in England, about this time placed implicit faith
in astrology.   The general doctrine of the chemical physicians
was that" the operations of the living body are all guided by
chemical actions," and that fermentation  was the chief of those
actions—health and  disease  were both referable  to certain 
84              KEY TO  MEDICAL  SCIENCE.

states of fermentation, which  might be in the blood or other
fluids; and the productions of those fluids themselves the result
of fermentation, by which they were eliminated from the constit-
uents of  which the body was composed.  Certain  humours
were supposed to be produced by the existence  of acids, and
others again by the existence of alkalies ;  and as the acid  or
alkali predominated, diseases were produced,  which diseases
were to be removed by a counteracting agent, as an acid or an
alkali.   The theory of fever was, that it originated in  conse-
quence of an excess of acidity, and hence it was supposed that
alkalies were the best remedies  in fever.  These doctrines in
a few years,  became  the most fashionable, both among the
French and German physicians, in consequence of the influence
they acquired by  the writings of Sylvius at Hanan  in Flan-
ders, and Willis of England, who endeavoured to prove " that
every organ of the body has its peculiar and  appropriate fer-
mentation,  and that  a morbid state of  these ferments  is the
cause of all diseases."  Willis was however soon  eclipsed by
Sydenham, who acquired the tittle of the  English Hippocrates ;
and  it is alleged " that there are various points of analogy be-
tween them, both as to general character, and as to their pecu-
liar  mode of viewing  the operations of the  animal frame."
He agreed with Willis, that  diseases originated from morbid
fermentation ;  and with Hippocrates " that diseased action con-
sists essentially in an effort of " nature" to remove some morbid
or noxious cause, and  that  the great object of  the practitioner
is to assist in bringing about  the proper crisis, and to regulate
the actions of the  system,  so as  to prevent either their excess
or their defect."   Sydenham with others, has been accused of
adopting a practice too inert;  yet it is admitted  that he was
an individual exercising great  caution and judgment in the
treatment of disease.   It appears  to us that he possessed no
particular attachment  to any peculiar theory ; yet he consid- 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
85
ers the changes which take place in the fluids chemical and fer-
mentation to be the  primary cause of disease.   He  was an
individual highly respected for his  talents and  acquirements
by his contemporaries.
   About this time, we have to notice the origin of another new
theory in medicine,  which gave rise to a sect known by the
name of Mathematical physicians.  Borelli an  Italian writer
of some eminence, who is said to have been a profound mathe-
matician, which science had been cultivated with much assidu-
ity for a length of time,  wrote  a work on muscular motion,
in which he illustrated somewhat comprehensively the manner
in which several of the functions of the body might be explain-
ed upon mechanical  principles.  These principles being some-
what new and novel, failed not to attract the attention of spec-
ulative minds, and in a  short while the  new  doctrine gained
many powerful adherents, especially that  of a  Professor at
Pisa  named Bellini: he  extended the  principle " to all the
functions and actions of the body, both in health and disease;"
and that all the vital functions could  be  explained  upon the
same principle.  The converts to this theory, embraced some
of the most learned  men of the age.  The  Human Body was
regarded simply as a machine, composed of a number of tubes ;
calculations were made of their diameters, the force of friction
in them, the velocity  and retardation of the fluids, and the size of
the particles composing them.  So general was the mechanical
treatment of disease established towards the last of the 17th
century, that the mechanical terms of revulsion, lentor, obstruc-
tion, resolution, &c, were almost the universal  language of
medical men.  In  consequence of the popularity of  this sect,
the Chemical physicians declined, and the'old Galenists became
nearly extinct.
   The popularity  which the  mechanical physicians had ac-
quired, soon  became  eclipsed by the appearance of another
            8 
86
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE*
 sect, which had for some time been rising into notice) called the
 Vitalists.  The chemical physicians  finding their  popularity
 declining, put forth the  most strenuous efforts in support of
 their cause;  and having been industriously for several years
 investigating the  laws of chemistry, in which had been devel-
 oped much important information, and in some measure freed
 the science from the gross superstitions  in which  it  had been
 involved, they succeeded through the popularity of Van Hel-
 mont, who was born in Brussels in 1577, and who* devoted the
 greater portion of his life to the study of Chemistry,  in the es-
 tablishment of their sect, (but somewhat deviating from their
 former principles) and of supplanting in the public mind all
 sther sects.  Van Helmont was an ardent admirer of Paracel-
 us,  and professed himself to  be a  disciple  of  that  school,
 whilst at the  same time, he manifested  a  disgust against the
 Galenian system.
   Van Helmont was a man of considerable talent and abilities,
 of a strong mind  yet was not free from fanaticism, and was
 quite enthusiastic.  He embraced the doctrines of the Chemists
 with much ardour, but contended that in addition to the chemical
 changes which took place in the system by its own action, and
 by the administration of remedies, there existed a specific prin-
 ciple, the definition of which it is not easy to illustrate ; neither
 does he attempt it, and to which principle he gave the name of
archeus ;  alleging it to be a [specific principle  independent of
matter.   The  adoption of this principle originated   the  sect
termed Vitalists.  The term "archeus" was applied  to the ex-
planation of every principle  or operation in the animal econo-
my,  which they could not comprehend.  It was the cause of
digestion, of fever, of inflammation, of the production of blood
 &c.  In fact it was the principle for explaining every  action
of the Human Body,  both in a state of disease and health.
 This principle has been referred to by various theorists  at dif- 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
87
ferent periods throughout our history, but under numerous ap-
pellations.   At this time it had in a measure been lost sight of,
until  thus revived by Van Helmont, by whom the  foundation
was laid for a theory judged the most important that had hereto-
fore entered into the minds of medical men, (as hereafter will
.appear) but we in reality consider it as one the most visionary.
   After the death  of Van  Helmont, Stahl, who was born at
Anspach and  graduated at Jenna, in 1684 was appointed a
professor at the university of Halle, on its establishment in 1694
at the solicitation of Hoffman.   He  was strongly devoted to
Chemistry, and the reputation which he attained in that sci-
ence  was far  greater than that of any of his predecessors.
It is said that he  had great activity of mind and industry, that
he was zealous  and enthusiastic, inclined to fanaticism  and
mystery, bold confident and arrogant, fully  impressed with the
importance of his own  opinions, i nd disposed to place  little
reliance on those of others.  These principles led him to disre-
gard  and treat with contempt the usual studies of medicine, and
even that of anatomy.
   Stahl determined upon the foundation of a new sect, or ra-
ther a re-organization of the chemical sect, for which his char-
acter was well adapted.   He  therefore contended that the
reasonings of neither the mechanical nor chemical physicians
were capable to  account for the phenomena of life.  He con-
sidered all matter as passive or inert, and that  it derived its
power of action from  an " immaterial animating principle"
which he called anima, or the soul; which be  affirmed not only
originally formed  the body, but is  the sole cause of all its mo-
tions.  He alleged that this " immaterial superintending agent''
governed and directed every  portion of the  animal economy
from  its very  first  formation ; "that it prevented or repaired
injuries ; counteracted the effects of morbid causes, or tended
to remove them when actually present;  yet that we are uncon- 
88
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
scious of its existence; and that, while it manifests every at-
tribute of reason and design, it is devoid  of these qualities,
and is in fact, a necessary and intelligent agent."
  He alleged the office of the anima was to preserve the sys-
tem in a perfect state of health, and the duty of the phy.-ician
the mere superintendence of its actions—to co-operate with its
efforts in preserving health, or to restrain or counteract its ac-
tions when irregular.  He regarded diseases as salutary, and
that they were the act of the soul to prevent the destruction of
the body.   These opinions left little for the physician to per-
form, but generally to trust to this superintending agent: hence
although of the chemical school, he ardently opposed power-
ful agents,  particularly mercury, opium, chincona, and very
sparingly employed bleeding,  emetics, &c.  He  considered
most diseases produced  by plethora; and  the great  and im-
portant office of the anima was to promote generally the evac-
uations in order to effect  a cure.  As inconsistent as the doc-
trines of Stahl may appear, yet we find that they gained nu-
merous  adherents, among whom were many of intelligence
and influence.  Contemporary with Stahl, was Hoffman, pre-
viously  his colleague at  the  University of Halle.  He was a
person of a very different character, and seemed not fully to
embrace the doctrines of any sect, but adopting both the opin-
ions of the mechanical and chemical physicians to a certain ex-
tent.  His  practice differed little from that of his contempora-
ries.  Hoffman ascribes to the nervous system, " operating by
its own  laws," many of the principles which Stahl attributes to
the anima.    He  considered  that in most cases, diseases had
their origin in the solids.
   Through a long train  of years, we have  perceived the gene-
ral prevailing opinion to.be, that the origin of disease was in the
fluids under the name of Humoral Pathology.  This opinion is
now again to become changed, and the doctrine of Solidism 
KEY  TO MEDICAL  SCIENCE.
89
introduced.   Bagliva, born about the close of the 17th century
appears as the first writer who opposed the humoral pathology,
although in his general principles, he adopted the opinions of
Hippocrates :  his writings, together with the illustrations made
by Hoffman upon the nervous system, laid the foundation of
the doctrine of Solidism ; which doctrine, to the rejection of
the Humoral Pathology, has prevailed to the  present day.
  The next individual we  have to notice, is Boerhaave, born
in Holland in 1668.   He preferred Hippocrates among the an-
cients, and Sydenham among  the modern physicians.   He
formed another new theory of medicine, by selecting from the
various preceding theories that which he considered judicious;
which being generally adopted by the chemical sect, which had
become almost the exclusive sect, prevailed in Europe for near-
ly fifty years.   He was a Chemist of considerable repute, and
delivered lectures upon that science.   Boerhaave adopted the
opinions  of Hoffman respecting  the  influence of the  nervous
system.  The doctrines of Boerhaave were more  fully  illus-
trated by his pupils, particularly his nephew, Gaubius and Van
Sweiten ; Van Sweiten accepted an invitation to the  Court of
Vienna, by Maria Theresa, where honours were heaped  upon
him ; and the  high reputation which  he attained, rendered his
influence important in disseminating the principles of the Boer-
haavian school.   De  Haen, who was also a pupil  of Boerhaave,
afterwards appointed a  Professor at Vienna, opposed the use
of poisonous plants in medicine. Perhaps the most distinguish-
ed of the pupils of Boerhaave was Haller, who  was intended
for the Church ; but  loosing his father, he determined upon the
Medical  Profession.   He was  appointed Professor at Gottin-
gen, by George II., in 1736, where he was indefatigable in his
labours  and researches for  upwards of seventeen years, and
by his writings on physiology, it is stated that he dissipated the
metaphysical and chemical jargon whereby it was before ob->
      8* 
90
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
scured.   He is said to have  succeeded by investigating what
is termed  " the innate powers of the components of the body,"
in establishing his theory of " irritability and sensibility, as spe-
cific properties attached respectively to the two great systems
of the animal frame, the muscular and nervous, to which, either
separately or conjointly, may be referred all the phenomena of
the  living  body."   He is regarded as having introduced a new
era into medical science,  by his  Elements of Physiology.—
The controversies which arose in consequence of the theory
advanced  by Haller, was  various and somewhat acrimonious.
The most formidable of those opponents was Whytt, born in
Edinburgh, in 1714, and subsequently chosen President of the
College, at Leyden.  He possessed considerable celebrity as a
physician, and opposed the Stahlian Theory, ascribing the vi-
tal  actions to  the operation of stimuli ; so his opinions were
rather a combination of both Haller and  Stahl.   Whytt sub-
sequently  became a Professor at Edinburgh, where it was that
he had the controversy with Haller, in which he attributed the
operation of vitality to a sentient principle, which was suppos-
ed to be something  distinct from the animal frame, but at the
same time necessarily attached to it.   Whytt is regarded as
the  founder of  the sect called semi-animists, or half-animists.
  Contemporary  with  Haller, was Cullen,  who  succeeded
Whytt in  the Professorship of the University at Edinburgh.—
Cullen was born at Lanark, in Scotland, in 1712.   He had but
the  usual school education, and was apprenticed to an apothe-
cary and  surgeon at Glascow.   Being peculiarly fortunate in
his  practice, and a man of talents and assiduity, he  soon ac-
quired the reputation of a teacher in medical science.  In 1751,
he was chosen Professor of Medicine in the University, and in
1757 to the Chemical chair of Edinburgh.  Cullen is consider-
ed as a writer of brevity, which consists principally in general
views and abstracted deductions, but not as " mere speculative 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
91
positions,  but  as the condensed result of patient research and
extensive  observation."  It is said " that no one produced a
more powerful and lasting effect upon the state of medicine, in
all its branches, both theoretically and practically,  than Cul-
len."  He is said to have displayed great sagacity in the "de-
scription  and  discrimination of  the  phenomena of disease,"
even rivalling  Sydenham, or  any of his predecessors.  The
foundation of the pathological principles of Cullen, was " that
the living body consists of a number of organs, which are all
of them possessed of powers of a specific and appropriate
nature,  distinct from  those  which are  attached to inanimate
matter.    These powers are so  ordered that they have a ten-
dency to  preserve the whole machine in a  perfect state, when
its actions and functions proceed in  their ordinary course.—
When any irregularity supervenes, either from internal or ex-
ternal causes,  if it be  not in an excessive degree, the self-regu-
lating principle, or, as it was termed  the " vis medicatrix na-
tures, would correct it, and which principle differs essentially
from the archeus of Van Helmont, or the anima of Stahl, inas-
much as it is  supposed not to be any thing superadded to the
body, but one  of the powers or properties necessary to its con.
stitution as a living system, and the existence of which is  re-
cognized  by its effects.  Although the  laws of gravity and of
chemical affinity affect the animal body, so far as it is composed
of material organs,  yet its appropriate actions are under the
immediate influence  of the specific laws of vitality.   Hence
all explanations, depending upon mere mechanical or chemical
reasoning, were abandoned, and in their places was substitu-
ted the  vital action  of the  parts, and  more especially that  of
the extreme  branches of the arterial  system, or as they are
styled, the capillary  arteries."  The Cullenian  school which
consisted  of his pupils and those who adopted his principles
among the profession, continued throughout the remainder of 
92
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
the eighteenth century ; and at this time a very large propor-
tion of the medical profession both in Europe and America
continue  to advocate his views and adhere to his principles.
  In 1765 John Brown, who was born in the county of Ber-
wick, in 1735 became a candidate for one of the medical chairs;
but proving unsuccessful, he resolved upon establishing  a new
theory of vitality.  Brown  was originally educated for the
church, and in his youth made rapid progress in the study of
the languages, but changing  his  opinion,  he devoted himself
to the study of medicine.  The professors  allowed him  to at-
tend lectures  gratuitously, and  being poor he maitained himself
by instructing the  students in Latin:  Dr. Cullen  employed
him as tutor to his children.  It is said that some difficulty of a
professional nature took place  between him and Cullen, which
led Brown to adopt the course  which he did:  be that as it may,
the principles introduced by Brown, for a  time acquired a con-
siderable degree of popularity : it obtained many  adherents
in Europe and Italy, and was embraced by many men of lear-
ing and science, and was adopted in  some of the most respec-
table medical schools.   Brown  " assumed  that the living body
possesses a specific property  or power, termed excitability;
that every thing which in any way effects  the living body, acts
upon this power as an excitant or stimulant; that the effect of
this operation, or excitement,  when in its ordinary state, is to
produce the  natural and healthy condition of the functions ;
when excessive,  it causes exhaustion, termed direct debility ;
when defective, it produces  an accumulation of excitement, or
what is termed indirect debility. All morbid action is conceived
to depend upon one or  other of these states of  direct or indi-
rect debility,  and diseases  are accordingly arranged in two
great corresponding classes of sthenic or asthenic; while the
treatment, is solely directed to  the general means for increasing
or diminishing the excitement,  without any regard to specific 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
93
symptoms, or any  consideration but that of degree, or  any
measure but  that of quality."   The  principle producing  this
result, Brown attributed to caloric.   Being of intemperate hab-
its his popularity declined, and he died in London in 1786.
   We now come to speak of Darwin, who was born in 173'.
Darwin had studied medicine regularly as a science.  He  was
a writer of considerable abilities, and exhibited genius and ori-
ginality.  His doctrines generally agreed with those of Brown,
differing, however, in terms respecting the principle of vitality.
The  principle called caloric by Brown, was termed  sensorial
energy by Darwin.   He died in 1802.
   During the 18th and  19th centuries, up to the present time,
we might refer to numerous writers if it would be rendered of
interest, or our room permit ; yet  there  are  some which we
deem of sufficient importance, both in Europe and America, to
take some notice of.  In  the latter part of the 18th century,
medical authors seemed  to have exhausted their resources in
the formation of new theories,  and felt little disposed to form
new  systems of medicine,  but  confined themselves more to
anatomy  and physiology, and to the introduction of new  arti-
cles into their materia medica, assisted by the various discove-
ries made in  Chemistry.
   Among the writers of the 18th century, we find the namecf
Joseph Lintaud, of France, born in 1703.   In 1749, he  was
appointed physician to the Royal Infirmary, at Versailles, and
subsequently physician to the Royal Family, and Louis XV I.
He wrote several works in relation to medical science.  In his
general principles, he-maintained certain  parts of the doctrines
of the old Mathematicians, Humoralists and the  Vitalists, to
which he  included the opinions of Hoffman.
   Morgagni, born in 1682, and  who attained the age of ninety,
commenced his studies at  Bologna, and completed them at Ve-
nice and  Padua, is  represented to have acquired  the greatest 
94
KEY  TO MEDICAL  SCIENCE.
degree of proficiency  in anatomy.   To  Morgagni is assigned
the honour of perfecting what is called the anatomical pathol-
ogy introduced by Bonet in Italy, during the  17th century,
which was further illustrated by Valsalva, of Bologna, the pre-
ceptor of Morgagni.
  Little change has taken place in medical  theories since the
close of the  18th century, medical men have generally consid-
ered the  opinions of Cullen as orthodox, and more or less cm-
braced them, although several  writers  have appeared : yet
their object generally  appears to have been to  form systems
and theories in accordance with the Cullenian  School.   Dr.
Rush, who appears as an American writer,  but  who was edu-
cated at Edinburgh, was a great admirer of Cullen, adopting
his vis medicalrix naturae, under the name of occult cause, and
who advocated in his  publication, the use  of most powerful
agents in the practice  of medicine, particularly  blood-letting.
He fell a victim to his  own imprudence in this respect, in 1813.
The various American Universities throughout  the United
States, have generally adopted the theories of Cullen and Rush,
improved or modified  according to the judgments  of their re-
spective  Professors.
   Before we close  the history of medicine, in order to carry
it down to the present  time, it becomes necessary to take no-
tice of an individual, who was  born in  1755, at  Meissen,  a
small town in Saxony, by the name of Hahnemann, who at the
age of twenty, we  find connected  with the  University  of
Leipsic, and subsequently in 1779, obtained the degree of Doc-
tor of Medicine, at Erlangen.   Not coinciding with the exist-
ing medical  theories, he resolved  upon adopting one more in
accordance with his own peculiar fancies.  In the year 1790
Hahnemann introduced his new system  which he named Ho-
moepathia (from the Greek).  It is founded upon the principle
that those medicines  which will produce the symptoms of a 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
95
disease, should be given to cure such  disease when  existing,
but in minute doses,  and endeavours to illustiate this position,
by introducing the  action of mercury, arsenic,  sulphur, &c.i
which articles, it is contended will cure where a disease exists
similar to that which their application creates upon a healthy
person.   The  system of Homoepathia, has within a few years
obtained various  adherents  in  the  United States, as well as
considerable influence in some parts of Europe, although  there
are some accounts that would go far  to show its inefficiency
and in which dependance cannot be placed, if we are to give
due credence to Hospital Reports.
   In the United States, we have likewise to notice the origin
of another sect of Physicians, called Thomsonians, who date
their origin from Samuel Thomson, who it appears had never
studied  medicine in what is  termed the regular way, nor does
it appear that he was possessed of even an ordinary education
but ascertaining the  properties of some  plants, particularly
Lobelia, he commenced the practice of Medicine, with but lit-
tle knowledge of the human system, depending  entirely upon
the energies of his own  mind, which evidently was rather cou-
rageous ; he accomplished that under which many would have
been disheartened and discouraged.   The opposition which he
met with from individuals of the regular faculty  was very se-
vere, it  appears he was for a long while imprisoned, and even
tried for his life.  None but a mind  possessed of superior ener-
gy  could have  faced  the storm  of opposition  with which
he had to contend, and eventually  has his practice been suc-
cessfully and extensively established. The Thomsonian  prac-
tice was originally principally confined to  steaming and eme-
tics, yet a large body of them  calling  themselves such, have
departed in a great degree from the tenets of its  original foun-
der, and have introduced into their practice, the use of cathar-
tics and other  medicinal agents ; but they contend  exclusively 
96
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
for the use of Vegetable remedies, and call themselves Botanic
Physicians,  rejecting  at  the same time those Vegetables  as
medicine which they consider of a poisonous character.   They
adopt the principle that " life is heat."   There are other Botanic
Physicians in various  parts of the United States, but with the
exception of the Thomsonians we have no regularly organized
sect of them at present existing, with the exception of the Insti-
tution now existing in  the State of Ohio, under the name of the
Reformed Medical College.   The Reformed Medical Society,
was primarily established in the city of New-York,  and had its
origin with Dr. W.  Beach.  This  Society seemed for a time
to bid fair to be the pioneer to a course of practice that should
eventually be of the utmost utility to the healing art: it was at
this period when this school presented its most flourishing con-
dition, that  Dr. Beach  published  his " American  Practice of
Medicine," and that the establishment  of the Ohio School took
place, which was so successful as  to obtain a Charter from the
State of Ohio, and whilst that school still (as is supposed)  con-
tinues its progress, the original School  in New-York has ceas-
ed to exist, and its members are now  private practitioners in
various sections of the country.   The principles  and theories
of the  Reformed  Medical Society, were in almost  every res-
pect similar  to the prevailing theories of  the  day, or those en-
tertained by the regular faculty, with this  exception, they  op-
posed the internal use of  Mercury, Antimony, Arsenic &c, yet
in some instances allowed  their use externally.   They  were
likewise opposed to  blood-letting,  and generally  to blistering.
Upon the whole, their practice was of a mild and  reasonable
character, with the  exception of emetics and somewhat drastic
purgation.   Their general remedies were Vegetable, which
they contended for, should be used exclusively internally, and
opposed with some  vehemence  what they called the  mineral
and depletive plan of  the Regulars. 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
97
   Within a few  years a very extensive disposition has been
apparent throughout the  United States  in favour of a Botani-
cal system of practice. There exists no doubt that a large ma-
jority of the people of this country, give this principle of prac-
tice the decided preference.    The  public mind could not thus
be swayed in favour of triis principle, unless there was some very
essential and prominent cause.   This cause it certainly cannot
be  difficult to trace, and were it not of the utmost importance,
and the force of conviction of the strongest character in its fa-
vour, it could not have obtained the multiplicity of adherents
 it now can number.  It is directly  at variance with the long
 cherished opinions of  Regular Physicians, which form a class
 in community extremely numerous, perhaps in a ratio of 20 to
 1 greater than all classes of Botanical Physicians united togeth-
 er  throughout the Union.   Those  men  are  computed  to pos-
 sess all the science, all the learning, all the experience.   Their
 united  influence, which  they have not failed  to avail them-
 selves of, as well as to seek and obtain protection to their own
 peculiar systems by legislative enactments, we would suppose
 was of no ordinary cast.
   The access which they  constantly have  to all classes of
 society—the reverence  in which they are so frequently held,
 afford them  the fairest opportunities they could desire to influ-
 ence the public mind, to decry and hold up to ridicule and con-
 tempt, any principle or doctrine which  they may deem proper
 to  contemn, and which they have not failed  to avail themselves
 of to its full extent.   Every epithet which  meanness and ma-
 lignity  could command,  has been  resorted to,  to accomplish
 the downfall of the  humble botanical practitioner.  He is cal-
 led empiric, quack, nostrum vender, &c, whilst the would-be
 imperative Simon Pure, lifts his arrogant head, looks wise, and
 with a  dignified consequential air,  and a scientific wave of the
 hand, hurls his vindictive anathemas upon the devoted head of
        9 
98              KEY  TO MEDICAL  SCIENCE.
the poor Botanical Doctor.  With all this power, this influence,
and popularity, to which may be added, the  entire possession
of the  different schools and Universities,  where  the  popular
practice of medical science is taught, and the influence brought
to bear upon community through them.  Under all these cir-
cumstances, is it not strange that so large a proportion of com-
munity should dare to rebel  against their popular and  influen-
tial dogmatical dictation.  Is  there not a cause ?   There is ?
But not one which is the result of prejudice.  If you would
find it, ask the poor cripple,  hobbling about upon  his wooden
leg; ask the poor sufferer, whose jaw  bones have exfoliated
and rotted out—ask him whose body has become like a walk-
ing skeleton, who is constantly tormented with aches and pains,
—who is  a walking  barometer, affected by every wind that
blows ; he who can tell you better by his aches and pains
when a storm is approaching  than  your  almanac, and then
say is  there not a cause ?   If the Regular Faculty consider all
others  as  impostors,  and that they and the community  are
imposed upon, why  do  they enshroud themselves  in their
burrow?—-why do they fear  to meet the light of day?—dare
they discuss the subject at issue between Botanical Physicians
and themselves,  publicly before the people ?—why evade it ?
they dare not do it—their Craft is in danger.  They say it is
beneath their dignity ;  not your dignity gentlemen, it is your
imbecility, your cowardice—you know it would be your de-
feat—your overthrow ; your  only safeguard is " keep quiet ;
let them alone."   But how can  you justify yourselves before
community, to suffer such impositions which  you in your wis-
dom allege to be false, and which the plainest of argument, if
it were so—you could by your superior intelligence completely
prostrate  them.   If you are  honest men, if you have a single
desire to save the people from the  impositions which you al-
ege are practiced upon them, do your duty; put them down 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
99
by fair argument—show the world the incorrectness of their
principles.
   We have now travelled through a long series of years, since
the origin of Medical Science.  To cast a retrospective view
back, and  collect from the various authors their various and
peculiar views, can afford no particular degree of interest, nor
is it of utility farther than to draw conclusions and deductions
from their experience.  From the very first introduction of
Medical Science by Hippocrates with but little exception, the
same practice has been invariably pursued.  The same violent
practice marks the profession  at  this  day as then.  Hippocra-
tes bled, so do they now-—he employed purgatives of the most
drastic character, so do they now—he employed sudorifics and
diuretics, so do they now—he used the scarifier and cupping-
glass, issues, &c, so do  they now—with him originated the
principle of crisis in fever, which they yet retain.  His suc-
cess in the treatment of  disease, depended upon vegetable re-
medies, which at  the present  day are at  least partially aban-
doned  and  minerals substituted.  This  same treatment has
ever since, with one or two exceptions, characterized the pro-
fession, and in those instances where an  individual dared to
depart from this general  course, and advocate that of a milder
character,  he  was sure to be  denounced as  an ignorant pre-
tender, or  inefficient practitioner.  An instance  of this kind
occurs with Asclepiades, who  practiced at Rome,  about 100
years before Christ; and  although his practice evinced judg-
ment and discretion, and was of great utility, yet he could not es-
cape  the mean prejudice  of those whose intelligence  was far
short of that  possessed  by this distinguished Physician.  C.
Aurelius who practiced in the first  century  of the Christian
Era, is likewise  condemned, because he would not resort to a
more violent practice.  In fact, it appears to have been the
prevailing spirit which has ever governed medical  men ; that 
100
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
where disease exists, the most violent and harsh means should
be resorted  to for its treatment.  Not  only do we find this
treatment resorted to  during the time in which diseases  were
treated by vegetable agents, but particularly more so after the
introduction of mineral agents ;  indeed it was alleged as a rea-
son for the introduction  of minerals into practice, that vegeta-
bles, which  had been the only remedies for so long a period,
were too inefficieiit.
  To review the different theories, and the different prevail-
ing opinions which each successive theorist has entertained>
would afford but little  light.   The successive  and frequent
changes which mark the course of  medical science,  only go to
show the incorrectness  of human judgment, and that in form-
ing their  respective  theories,  they depended more on  their
fruitful imaginations, than upon  plainly ascertained facts, truth
and experience.
  My readers, however, will remark that there is one princi-
ple which appears to have been generally adopted by all clas-
ses of physicians, from Hippocrates, down to the present  day,
and in which they all seem cordially to agree with, under some
form or other.  Although this  principle, like the chameleon,
has changed its form or character almost every century, yet
by all descriptions of physicians has it been pertinaciously ad-
hered to.  It has been the main spring, the foundation on which
every system  has heretofore been established, and  without it
has it been deemed impossible  to erect any theory  whatever.
It was first introduced by Hippocrates by  the name of " nature,"
which he contended influences,superintends,directs and controls
all the motions of the corporeal frame, and  possessed an intel-
ligence by which it repressed those  actions having an injurious
tendency, and promoted those which were beneficial.  Shortly
after the time of Hippoerates we find the name of Esculapius
deified as the  God of physic, and a Temple for the worship 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
101
of this deity erected to him in Greece, and about the same time
was Hygeia deified as the Goddess of health. Those deities the
ancients considered possessed unbounded power over  life and
health, and  which they continued to reverence until after the
Christian era.
  In the second century of the Christian era, when the wor-
ship of those deities  was somewhat abandoned, again was re-
vived the original principle  of Hippocrates by the sect of phy-
sicians called Pneumatics, who maintained the opinion that the
human body possessed a principle which they termed "spirits"
which with the fluids and solids, constituted  the composition  of
our system.  Celsus revives the term given it by  Hippocrates,
" nature," and contends that fever is an effort of " nature"  to
throw off disease.   From the time of Celsus, this specific prin-
ciple, or inferior Deity, appears to have  remained at  rest, or
the people were satisfied with it, as it was  now  reinstated as
emanating from Hippocrates.  But  in the  17th century, the
sect called chemical  physicians, who were but the disciples  of
Paracelsus,  possessing in truth but a small share of chemical
knowledge, dared to advance the doctrine that the " operations
of the human body are all guided by  chemical actions," and
that .fermentation was  the chief action.  This  doctrine was
soon met by another from the mechanical physicians who con-
tended that all the vital functions could be explained upon me-
chanical principles.  But the contest between these two con-
tending parties was placed at rest by the doctrine of Van Hel-
mont who introduced a new name for this specific principle or
deity, which he called " archeus," and alleged that its existence
was independent of matter.  Stahl  succeeded Van Helmont,
and the length to which he carried his opinions, respecting this
specific principle, governing animal matter, was far beyond that
ever assigned  to any theorist or author before  or since his
time,  to which  no doubt he was led  by his ambition to estab-
lish a new sect in medicine.  He contended that all matter de-
       9* 
102
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
rived its power of action from an " immaterial animating princi-
ple," termed "anima" or soul; that it not only originally formed
the body, but was the sole cause of every motion, and governed
and directed every action throughout  life.  The doctrines of
Stahl prevailed until Haller after laborious investigations as-
cribed the actions  of vitality to the operation of a "stimuli''
which was opposed by Whytt, who ascribed it to a " sentient
principle," and something distinct from the animal frame. Con-
temporary with those men, was Cullen, who introduced another
term, which he calls vis medicatrix natures, differing materially
from the archeus of Van Helmont, or the anima of Stahl.  Cul-
len considered it one  of the  powers of the Human Body, but
indefinable, and which regulated its actions.  Brown,  who was
contemporary, attributed this specific  principle  to "caloric."
Darwin, called it  "sensorial energy."   Rush, the American
writer, termed it the " occult cause." And even Samuel Thomp-
son, must  have a specific and regulating principle, as  " Life is
Heat."
    Many other writers might be referred to both in ancient and
modern times, who advocated this principle with no  small de-
gree of energy as  the vital spirits proceeding from the heart,
by Culpepper. The vital steam from the blood, which may be
distinguished by the smell on drawing blood, as named  by North
an American writer who wrote a  small treatise a few years
ago,   Broussais, a French writer, named it vital chemistry—
Chapman  and Hunter term  it vitality—Combe,  Good,  Eber-
le, Turner, Armstrong, Dewees, Gregory, Thatcher and  Tho-
mas call it " living principle," and " living powers," and  "pow-
ers of life"—Hooper, in his Medical Dictionary, terms it the
" vital principle."
   It is here perceived that  a certain  principle having its rise
and origin in the grossest superstition and ignorance,  has ever
been the leading principle and foundation stone of all Medical 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
103
Science, and which it still retains with an obstinacy that bears
no parallel.  This opinion has not only passed current with
all description of educated and  learned physicians in all ages
since the estalishment of medicine, but with learned and scien-
tific Philosophers.   It has always  been that  accommodating
principle  to  which they  could  refer, and thence  account for
every transaction or circumstance, which they were incapable
of comprehending.  But these learned authors cannot agree at
all in relation to this " Vital Principle," only on the circumstance
that it does exist.  In order  that  the reader  may more fully
comprehend  the opinions  entertained upon this  subject at the
present day, we will here quote the language of some of the
most reputed modern professors.  N. Chapman, M. D. Professor
of the Institutes and Practice of Physic, and Clinical  Practice
in the University of Pennsylvania, President  of the Academy
of Philadelphia, &c. &c, published in 1823 a work called Ele-
ments of  Therapeutics and Materia  Medica,  in which, under
section first,  he gives  us the following view of  this " Vital
Principle."  " Of the various doctrines of Vitality, one only
appears to me to be well  founded and consequently deserving
attention.  It presumes, that every  animated body, animal or
vegetable, is endowed with a primordial principle of life,
which resident in the  egg of  animals, and  the seed of plants,
constitutes the power by  which, in the first place,  the various
organs are  moulded, developed and perfected, and by which
afterwards, the animal economy is  defended against the Action
of Mechanical and Chemical laws.   Located perhaps in the
highest degree  among  the digestive and assimilative organs,
it enables them to  change or  destroy the qualities of  the sub-
stances exposed to their operation, without sustaining in return
the slightest injury or change.  It  would hence really appear,
that instead of matter, whether aliment, drink  or medicine act-
ing on the living system, as is  commonly imagined, it is, on the 
104              KEY TO  MEDICAL SCIENCE.
contrary the living  system which operates on these matters."
In the first instance the doctor frankly admits the disagreement
among physiologists respecting this principle, but like his prede-
cessors he cannot but  pay due homage to the idol and illustrate
it in his own way, which by the by,  exhibits no  peculiarity of
difference from  that  originally  entertained.   He calls it a
" primordial principle  oflife" what it is, he does not  pretend
to tell, but attributes to it the  most  extensive and unlimited
powers, first producing life, moulding and perfecting all the or-
gans of the human body, and afterwards defending them both
from the action  of mechanical and chemical laws.  It would
indeed be a happy thing for mankind if this were true ; no poison
could effect us, we  could sustain no injury under any circum-
stance whatever.  It  would  have  been  well if this  specific
deity had not so  far forgotten its duty as to have been  present
and saved the lives of the thousands  who fell on the fields
of Waterloo.  The doctor goes on and supposes it to be  prin-
cipally located  "among the digestive, and  assimilative or-
gans," and draws the conclusion that the effects produced by
food, drink or medicine, is not produced by the action of those
articles upon the system, but the several organs acting upon the
substances introduced  into the stomach, by the ability furnished
these  organs by this  vital principle, this opinion would  be in
perfect accordance with his first position.  In the course  of a
few sentences  the doctor again refers to this subject, in which
he confirms  the  opinion which he has above  expressed in the
following language :
   " To me it is clear  that the progress  of  assimilation, as per-
formed either by the  chylopoietic viscera,  or by any  part of
the absorbent apparatus, completely decomposes  all substances
—and however discrepant in their properties, reduces them to
a homogeneous fluid, fitted for  the purposes  of  nutrition, but
when thrown into the  secretions or excretions, being removed 
KEV TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
105
beyond the controul of the vital energies, chemical affinities,
are sometimes again brought into play, by which these substan-
ces are in part or wholly regenerated."  We cannot but admire
the inventive genius of  the learned Professor.  Arsenic,  cor-
rosive sublimate, or the most corrosive poison, can do no  mis-
chief to the digestive and assimilating organs because it is the
seat, the throne of the vital principle, and by which  power all
substances, as discrepant as  their properties may be, are de-
composed and reduced to a homogeneous mass, fitted for the
purpose of nutrition.   If this were true, sawdust, clay, &c.
would be as fit for  food as anything else.   But when thrown
into the secretions or excretions, says our author, they are be-
yond the controul of the vital energies, and then by chemical
affinities, the original substances may again be regenerated.—
These doctors are  strange folks.  Perhaps this is the way in
which they account for the discovery of quicksilver in some
parts of the body after death.
   Dr.  Hooper, in his Medical Dictionary, adopts the doctrine»
that the vital principle is diffused throughout the fluids and so-
lids ;  and further observes, by  the  aid of this principle " na-
ture produces the animal fluids, as blood, bile, &c."   But " if,"
says he, " in consequence of death, the laws of vital attraction
or affinity cease to operate, then the elements, recovering their
physical properties, become again obedient to the common laws
of chemical affinity."   What does Dr.  Hooper mean?  Does
he intend to say that death kills  this vital principle ?  and that,
that is the cause why life  ceases to exist ?  We  have always
been led to suppose that death took place in consequence of the
organs essential to the  preservation of life, and necessary for
its support,  becoming incapable of performing their requisite
functions.
   Some writers locate this principle in one organ, and some in
another, scarcely any two of them agree in this particular, ex- 
106              KEY  TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.

cepting its existence ;  they all feel the utmost confidence ; so
strong are their prejudices wedded to this opinion, that there
are those among them  who would not  hesitate to charge him
who would even suggest the possibility of a misconception in
relation to it, with arrogance and presumption ; nay even scep-
ticism and infidelity, when in truth the contrary would be more
in character and justifiable.  Of its office,  and of its  pow-
ers, they can  discuss  and reason learnedly and wisely, but
what it is, they all allege they can know nothing—they say it
is neither material nor immaterial—that it is neither matter nor
spirit; with the single  exception of Stahl, who contended that
it was the human  soul, which  all authors since his time  have
utterly disavowed, and very justly too.   Such an assumption
could have only been the result of the grossest ignorance and
presumption.   To define the properties of an immortal soul,
we must be  placed in a situation to fully comprehend things im-
mortal—to comprehend and understand that which in  a state
of mortality cannot be  cognizable to any mortal sense.  It is
that which no philosopher or divine has hitherto attempted.—
And were we  to  so determine, what inextricable difficulties
should we soon be placed in.  If we are to take it for granted,
and consider and believe that all the motions,  actions and per-
formances of the human body, both in disease and health, are
chargeable to the  soul, and as motive always  precedes action,
motive must be likewise an act of  the soul, consequently, we
should be seriously at a loss to conceive how the transactions
of the body  eould ever  be wrong,  as the will of the soul was
paramount to the body, and the body compelled to be obedient
to its will.   Such  an opinion we can view in no other light than
contempt, as it is calculated to favour the  opinion of the soul
itself being impure when first issuing  from the hands of the
Creator ! 
                KEY TO MEDICAL  SCIENCE.             107

   This principle had its origin in idolatry and superstition at a
time when the world was in a great degree enshrouded in men-
tal darkness, at the time when the people bowed to idols erect-
ed by their own hands and superstitious fancies.  The heathen
had a specific deity created by their own imaginations to gov-
ern every matter, circumstance and thing.   Thus they had a
deity which they called " Mars," the God of War ; "Vulcan"
the God of Subterraneous Fire ;  " Pluto"  the God of  Hell ;
" Neptune," the God of the Sea; " Mercury," the God of Elo.
quence, Merchandize, and Robbers; " Vitula" the Goddess of
Mirth ; " Vesta," the Goddess of Fire ; " Venus," the Goddess
of Love,  Beauty, &c.;  " Rumina,"  a Goddess  of new-born
Infants.  " Pales," the Goddess of  Shepherds.   These deities
the ancients supposed possessed unlimited powers over every
principle or thing, which these specific deities were supposed to
govern ;  and hence, they considered it imperatively necessary
that  they should have a specific deity to govern medicine, and
the name Esculapius, received the cognomen of God of  Medi-
cine,  and the  names of  Hygeia  and Palis, the  Goddess of
Health.  Here, then is  the foundation and  germ of this vital
principle, which has undergone so many changes and transfor-
mations,  but has continued to be the cherished idol  of the
Medical Profession.
   It answers a very important purpose, for an  inanimate ma-
chine, as a locomotive, &c. that an individual direct, manage,
and control  it—it is necessary, but when we come to apply  it
to the human body, it presupposes that the Great Jehovah was
incapable of so organizing  laws,  that would  produce and
maintain life, without placing  in every  human body, a little in-
ferior deity, to  superintend and regulate its actions—and the
office of this little fellow, or little indefinable something, was
first to run from one organ and  then  to another, to see how
each performed its duty, and  if it got tired,—refused to work, 
108              KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENC2.
or forgot its business, death followed.   The very idea is pre-
posterous :  the doctrine in itself is no other than an inferior
deity usurping the  place of a superior deity.  It is the com-
mon error of the science  of Medicine, and  the  rock upon
which  all former systems have split, and upon which all pre-
sent systems must  soon be wrecked.   It is this false system,
that has retarded all advancement in Medical Science, turned
aside investigation,  and  left the  principles and practice of this
science at least a century behind the " intelligence of the age.'
   An important doctrine connected with this theory  of vitality»
is the metaphysical chimera of  sympathy, which supposes that
a given medicine produces specific impressions, or action upon
the stomach or organ to which it is applied—which  impression
is thence conveyed " through  the  medium of sympathy," to
other and remote parts  ; the  action produced, being the same
wherever there is  similarity of structure, yet  differing when
extended to  dissimilar  structures.   This theory presupposes
that remedial  agents act primarily upon  the solids, and that the
changes in the fluids are produced by the action of  the solids.
But the very reverse of all this, is the fact, in truth it leads to
thousands of other discrepancies, which will appear  more fully
in the  issue.
   We here pause, and  cast our eye back upon preceding ge-
nerations ; picture  to our minds the many reputed distinguish-
ed individuals and philosophers, who have written largely and
learnedly upon this subject, who even are reverenced by those
computed the most learned and intelligent men of the present
age. we find them all without an exception, unhesitatingly and
confidentially embracing the doctrine of a  specific  vital prin-
ciple,  separate and  apart from the Laws of Nature ;  which
vital principle, they allege performs all the  offices in the hu-
man system necessary to vitality.   We reason and reflect, can
this be so, or  is it only to be found in the brains and books of 
                 KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.              109

 authors, is not a mysterious humbug, and only  calculated to
 blind  and bewilder  the student  of medicine—to  arrest free
 inquiry—free  investigation—to arrest the onward march  of
 Medical Science, and prevent it ever  attaining that eminence,
 correctness, and simplicity of which  it is so susceptible, and
 to afford the ignorant professor a refuge to flee  to, whenever
 his prescriptions produce effects different  from what he expect-
 ed or intended.  We have weighed this matter well; we have
 studied and reflected upon it  deeply ; we have brought our
 whole reason  and intellectual  faculties to bear  upon it, with
 due respect and consideration to the opinions and views of the
 various scientific writers upon the  subject. To this subject we
 have devoted  the greater attention, it being the  main founda-
 tion stone  of medical science, that upon  which every medical
 theory, structure and doctrine has heretofore  been based and
 erected.  We  have deemed that it might be  considered  the
 height of presumption in  us to even  deviate  in the smallest
 degree from  this  universally acknowledged  hypothesis.  But
 whilst we are thus poised  between imagination and evidence,
 truth and error, we boldly determine, let consequences be what
 they may, though we be called fool or idiot—theorist or vision-
 ist, to absolutely disclaim the existence of any such principle as
 that advocated by Medical Philosophers whatever;  and that the
 introduction of such principles into Medical Science, can serve
 no other purpose,  than  greatly to retard the progress of true
 science and render the existing ignorance respecting the healing
 art still more dark and obscure.   We  have taken our position
 and stand ready to support it, against the sophistry and  argu-
 ments of both ancient and modern theorists, and not only so, but
 we challenge its refutation  by the most learned. The  adoption
of this principle, has given  rise to the opinion that the  practice
of medicine could never be any other than empirical, for this
reason, as it was impossible to know what this specific principle
       10 
110
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
 was, and as it was this principle that  performed every action,
 both as it regards the mechanical actions of the body and the
 involuntary  acts, and  likewise  upon  food,  medicine,  &c,
 every thing taken into the  stomach, the  circumstances being
 such as to render it impossible to ascertain its properties, it was
 alike impossible and would ever necessarily remain so, to as-
 certain what the direct action of any agent could be, unless by
 a trial, and even then it may  be found to act differently at one
 time from what it would at another.  In other words any thing
 taken  into  the stomach, which  this Vital  Principle was  not
 pleased with would produce mischief; but if it  happened to be
 pleased with it, the  action would be beneficial ; and even then,
 sometimes from its  peculiar fancies, or in  one of its freaks, it
 would act somewhat contrary to its general course and so dis-
 appoint the expectation of the physician !  What nonsense !—
 Has common sense become totally extinct? and do we now live
in the age of the grossest and worst idolatry and superstition 1
   Having, not only  abandoned the idea of the existence of any
 such principle, but both directly and indirectly utterly  denied
the existence of any specific vital  principle whatever, in what
situation have we placed ourselves ?  How are we to account
for vitality, the various principles by which the whole organi-
zation of the human frame performs its various offices ?  How
 are we to account for that state of existence called life? Why
is it that the lungs inflate ?   Why is it that the  blood becomes
changed in the lungs? What that change is? What power in-
duces the heart to propel the blood through the system ? How is
it that  the bones,  muscles, ligaments,  cartilages, nerves, &c.,
obtain their support from the arterial blood ? and why it is that
they abstract  from  the blood, only that  part  or constituent
of the blood which they require for their support ?   How is it
that digestion, assimilation, &c, are performed  ?  What office
do the various fluids perform?  What power is it that governs
the peristaltic motion of the bowels, &c. &c. ? 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
Ill
  We shall illustrate these principles upon entirely different
grounds, and in that way that shall render it perfectly intelligi-
ble  to every mind,  who is  sufficiently  acquainted with  the
existing  and not unintelligible  laws of nature.   They will
plainly  comprehend cause and effect;  and the  principles in
themselves  are reasonable, rational  and  comprehensive; —
against the  truth of which as  I  have before  said, I challenge
refutation.   That a power superior to mortality, has originally
directed organization,  I have  no disposition to  deny — that
has orignally constituted matter,  or the elementary principles
of matter  capable  of  organization is equally evident, which
laws when once  instituted, once in action, preclude even the
necessity of further action or direction.   Those  laws are the
laws of nature, and are always uniform and forever unchange-
able.   No action can possibly take place except in accordance
with the laws of nature,—there can be no other.
  Genius and talent have expended their time and energies not
to develope truth, but in endeavours to demonstrate the errors
of each other.
  The  Human body is constituted of those same  principles of
matter which surround  us, which  comprise  and are found in
the world of inert matter, (if any thing may be termed inert,)
and from which it  is   directly or indirectly drawn, and back
again to which  all the variety of matter,  forming the human
system or otherwise evidently must return.   A knowledge then
of the constituents and properties of this matter, must therefore
be of the most vital importance to the practitioner of medicine.
  To pursue the practice of medicine and  at the same time be
ignorant of the principles from which matter originates, the laws
by  which matter is formed, the changes to  which  matter is lia
ble, the actions to which under various circumstances  it can be
subjected:  in fact,  all  laws by which all matter is first organi-
zed, afterwards governed, and the  principles again producing 
112
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
its decomposition, by which it eventually is returned to its pri-
mary constituents, should be fully known, comprehended  and
understood.
  This knowledge is indispensable as it regards animal matter,
the human body, and without  which it is utterly impossible to
treat disease upon correct principles—without this knowledge
medical men must, like the mole, grope in the dark ; or, as the
distinguished Dr. Hunter observed, when he could  not under-
stand the disease to which he was called to administer," we will
fire into the tree, and see what falls," which induced a wag to
exclaim, "it was the patient which he  too often made to fall."
This knowledge would enable the physician to direct his pre-
scriptions with a certainty which otherwise it would be impos-
sible, and even if he did not succeed in  effecting a cure in some
cases, he would have the satisfaction in knowing that his pre-
scription produced no injury.  I am aware that my opponents
may say  " Do we not study and teach the science of chemis-
try ?  Have we not Professors of Chemistry in all our institu-
tutions ?" Suppose you have, when and where have they di-
rected their attention to organic chemistry ?  Has it not been
declared utterly unnecessary  to enter into an investigation of
the chemical constituents of animal matter, from the invariably
received opinion  among medical men, that disease or health
did not depend upon any law of chemical attractions  or affini-
ties, but upon what they ignorantly called vital laws, and vital
affinities, a term which in fact it is impossible for them to as-
cribe any meaning to whatever.
  It  may be said  that the principles which I advocate  have
heretofore engaged the  minds of physicians, the ancient che-
mical school, and were  found untenable and incapable of ex-
plaining the  existing phenomena with which  life is environed.
From such, gentlemen I  beg leave to differ. 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
113
  The nearest approach which has ever been made to the dis-
covery of those principles by which life is produced, sustained,
and supported, was at the  time when  the contest existed be-
tween the chemical and mechanical physicians.   At the very
moment when the principles  of life were about to be explain-
ed, the aristocratical and dogmatical Stahl siezed hold of this
important principle in science, and carried it back again to the
dark ages of superstition.
   The present is an age  of investigation.    The public mind
begins to awaken to its necessity.    Subjects but a few years
ago considered the  most mysterious, and shrouded in impene-
trable darkness, begin now to open their rich treasures  to the
enquiring mind—superstition and ignorance are fast fading be-
fore  tire  brilliant sun of intellectual power.   People begin to
think for themselves, and to investigate cause and effect.   We
cannot but hail with the sincerest heartfelt pleasure, those hap-
py combinations of circumstances which have contributed to
this result, and look forward to  that period of time when the
brilliant meteor of science shall so illumine the world as to
 render all that has heretofore been clothed  in mystery, plain
and comprehensive to the most imbecile  understanding ; when
 war  and bloodshed shall  no longer be the medium for adjust-
 ing  existing difficulties,  but general intelligence render them
 few and rare, and  satisfactorily adjusted alone by the intellec-
 tual faculties of man.
   In our introduction of new principles in the science of me-
 dicine, we have been told that we  are in advance of the age ;
 that the time for  their reception has not yet arrived ;  the pow-
 erful  opposition  with which we should have to contend, was
 such as would effectually put to flight all  our puisne efforts.
 To their statements  we answer, that but a partial reception
 will in a measure pave the way at this period to a more spee-
 dy developement of the  true  principles of medical science ;
           10* 
114
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
 and further,  we cannot  bring our minds to conclude that the
 whole and combined influence of the medical  faculty, can so
 far succeed by creating prejudice sufficiently strong against us
 at this day, remarkable as it is  for the diffusion of important
 knowledge, to render our efforts  entirely abortive.   We stand
 ready at any time, orally or otherwise, to discuss the subjects
 at issue between us, if they dare.
   In order that the common reader may more fully compre-
 hend the doctrines which  I am about to advocate, it  becomes
 necessary for me to illustrate some important principles in de-
 tail.   As I have previously contended that all matter derived
 its existence from the  gases of the atmosphere by which we
 are surrounded, and particularly vegetable matter, from which
 animal matter was formed, it  is  somewhat incumbent upon
 me to show how it is that this formation is produced,  and at
 the same time, the  reader must bear in  mind that I have like-
 wise shown that the great and grand agent  engaged in effect-
 ing this work, was Electricity.
   We recognize in our mind the smallest infant; years pass on
 and it arrives at the state of manhood, strong, powerful and
 athletic, completely organized with bone, muscle, sinew, liga-
 ment,  &c, all adapted for  the purpose of locomotion; with
 brain, nerves, &c,  fitted for all the  purposes of sensation, both
 of pleasure and pain, the  exercise of  reason, reflection, judg-
 ment, calculation, foresight, &c.
   To the reflecting and enquiring mind, the question naturally
 arises  how, by what means, and by what powers is this event
 brought about.  Nature has kindly organized us with an impor-
tant  organ termed  the Stomach,  which  is the  first great en-
largement of the alimentary canal.   It lies nearly horizontally
 across the  body, the large end lying  on the left  side, thence
 passing under the liver until it reaches near the centre of the
body, terminating at what is called the pyloric orifice, which
 in the usual language,  is called  the " pit of the stomach."— 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
115
  This part of the  intestinal canal, is formed by a strong band
  of circular fibres, which have the power of contraction, which
  together with a small valve, close the canal, and thus prevent
  the food or chyme from returuing again into the stomach, after
  having passed the pylorus.  After the food  is masticated and
  mixed with saliva in the mouth, it is conveyed into the stom-
  ach, where it  meets with an important  fluid called the gastric
 juice, which is secreted by the mucous, or lining membrane of
 the stomach.    This fluid, the gastric juice, possesses the prop-
 erty of dissolving the food into very minute particles, whilst it
 remains in the stomach,  although there are some articles, as
 seeds, &c, which the  solvent powers of the gastric juice are
 frequently not sufficiently great to dissolve, and therefore pass
 through it unchanged.  When mastication has been imperfect-
 ly performed,  and the food not sufficiently divided, the action
 of the gastric juice, cannot prove so effectual in performing its
 office, and would  require a longer period of time  to effect its
 dissolution, in  consequence of  thus being deprived of  coming
 more immediately in contact  with the whole portion of food.
 Its retention  by this means in the stomach, might create more
 or less irritability or sensations like a heavy indigestible  load in
 the stomach.   After  the food has been sufficiently acted up-
 on by the gastric juice in the stomach, it passes from the stom-
 ach through the pyloric orifice  into another portion of  the ali-
 mentary canal  called the  duodenum or small intestines, which
 are situated immediately below the pit of the stomach, and to
 which they are connected by the pylorus.   The duodenum is
 the first part  of the small  intestines, and its length is about the
 breadth of twelve fingers, and is that portion of the intestines,
 where chylification is performed.  The second portion of the
 small  intestines is called the  jejunum, which commences where
the duodenum ends,  it is generally found empty, but is every
where covered with  red vessels.  The ilium  is the third por- 
116
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
tion, *but is  of a  paler colour than  the jejunum, and termi-
nates in the large intestines by a strong valve.
  In the duodenum, the  food or chyme  so called, is likewise
acted upon by the pancreatic juice, which  is secreted or form-
ed from the pancreas, which is situated under the stomach, of
a fleshy consistence, long shaped similar to a dog's tongue.  It
is composed of a great number of small glands and ducts, which
unite and form a large duct, called the  pancreatic duct, which
enters  the  duodenum, into which it conveys the pancreatic
juice secreted by the pancreas.   When the food in the duode-
num is acted upon by the pancreatic juice, the office of diges-
tion is then completed.
  The duodenum likewise receives another important fluid,
the bile, secreted by the liver, which is conveyed from the gall
bladder", which is situated upon the under surface of the liver,
and from which it  is conveyed  through  the bile-duct, a tube
about the size of a crow-quill, into  the duodenum.   Medical
authors invariably  have  contended  that the bile performed
some important office in digestion ;  that it was the " natural
purgative," and  that its  presence was " highly  necessary to
quicken the motion of the bowels,"  and further,  that " when
the bile is vitiated in quality, or increased in quantity by dis-
ease,  it often acts with violence, producing severe and even
dangerous purging, and when it is greatly diminished in quan-
tity, obstinate costiveness is the ordinary consequence."  This
doctrine we  may agree with in  part; but from  far different
reasons than are here intimated.   That the bile performs any
office in digestion, we totally deny.   Every  analysis of  the
bile that has  hitherto been  made, proves it  to contain even a
free alkali, of the truth of  which our own analysis has fully
satisfied us.   We allege that the only office destined for the bile
to perform in the animal economy, is the separation of the chyle
from the chyme, or the nutritive part of our food from the ge- 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
117
neral mass.   We admit that the bile may become of an un-
healthy character in two ways, and thus become incapable not
only of performing the office destined  to it, but may likewise
be rendered capable of much mischief.
   If in consequence of torpidity or sluggishness of  the liver,
an inordinate retention or accumulation of bile, look place in
the liver, gall-bladder, or bile-duct, the bile would necessarily
become of a thick  and viscid character, which circumstance
is not an unusual occurrence, giving rise  to  the formation of
biliary concretions, as gall-stones, &c, which accumulate in
the parts, producing much distress, and sometimes even termi-
nating fatally.   This  thick, viscid secretion of bile, would pro-
duce costiveness ;  and the  more viscid the bile, the more ob-
stinate would be the constipation.   This thick state of the bile
would soon be followed by a thin  and acrid  secretion of bile,
in consequence  of the necessary  decomposition  which it is
constantly subjected to.  This thin and acrid state would soon
be followed by the disease  called bilious  diarrhoea, which so
frequently occurs in warm climates, or in warm seasons of the
year, when decomposition is carried on with the greatest ra-
pidity. Even the  black vomit in yellow fever, is but a still
further decomposition of the bile.  In no other way is the bile
concerned in the transactions of the alimentary canal.  As to
its being the " natural purgative," we know not how to reply
in more appropriate language, than by saying it is the unnatu-
ral purgative.   That  the bile governs the  peristaltic  motion of
the bowels, is far from correct; and evinces a want  of know-
ledge  in the principles of physiology ; it  would be equally as
inconsistent to say that the  gastric juice  produced  nausea of
the stomach.  The peristaltic motion of the bowels, as well as
all the other excretions and secretions, are governed by a far
different cause than this, as  will by and by appear.   If " obsti-
nate costiveness" is produced  in consequence of the bile being 
118
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
" greatly diminished in quantity," why is it that in the summer
complaints of children, and  many other cases of diarrhoea,
the foeces present scarcely any appearance of bile whatever?
and how will gentlemen account for the fact that alkalies re-
lieve diarrhoea, and that acids both produce and aggravate it.
Are not alkalies an artificial supply of bile ? and do not acids
decompose bile ?  Learned authors may find fault with me for
contending against this universally  maintained opinion ; but
they contend against a truth which they will  find it no easy
task to subvert.
   The chyle being separated from the chyme by the bile with
which it  unites  in the alimentary canal, is then a fine, bland,
milk-like substance, and contains that nutritive part of our food
designed for the constant support of the whole system.   Na-
ture has then again kindly organized us with a numerous set
of small vessels, which are termed lacteals, or absorbing ves-
sels, containing a large number of valves, which  reach the ali-
mentary canal throughout its entire course ; but more  partic-
ularly the small intestines, and in far greater number,  in that
portion of it called the jejunum, where  the lacteals are found
much distended  with chyle an  hour or two after eating.—
These small vessels, the lacteals, absorb the chyle, the  nutri-
tive part of our food, from the intestinal canal, and carry it to
the thoracic duct, or trunk of the absorbents, an organ of a ser-
pentine form, about  the diameter of a crow-quill, and lies upon
a portion of the spine called the dorsal vertebra, between the
aorta, or great  artery ; and the anzygos vein, situated at the
right cavity of the thorax.  The thoracic duct  communicates
with the venous blood at the junction  formed by the union of
the left subclavian and  jugular  vein, into which the thoracic
duct evacuates  its  contents.  The chyle thus  unites with the
circulating mass of venous blood,  and is carried to the heart.
The heart is a  powerful, muscular organ, situated on the left 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
119
 side of the chest, enclosed by a membrane called the pericardi-
 um, in form like a bag or sack, which always contains a liquid
 for the lubrication of the heart, and prevent friction,  and give
 the  heart free  play.   The  heart  has its four apartments : its
 right ventricle  and left ventricle ; its right auricle and its left
 auricle.   Many consider it  of the character of r double heart,
 or two hearts, and which  idea cannot be said to be inconsistent
 considering their distinct adaptation, and uses  of both portions
 of it.  The blood which circulates in the veins, is received into
 the right auricle of the heart from the descending and ascend-
 ing vena cava, which are large veins,  and receive the blood
 from all parts of the body.   The right auricle, becoming dis-
 tended, contracts and throws the blood into the  right ventricle,
 from which through the pulmonary  artery, it is thrown to the
 lungs at every pulsation of the heart.
   In the lungs  the blocd meets with a very  important change.
 Whilst it passed through the  veins to the heart, and whilst
 passing through  that  organ it was  of  a  dark character, but
 the instant it enters the lungs, its dark appearance is  changed
 to a light or florid red.  Hence it is often inquired in  cases of
 hemorrhage  or  bleeding, or spitting of blood, what  was the
 colour of  that blood ?—it  was dark; then it  was not  from the
 lungs—but if it was light, then it  was from the lungs.   This
 altered appearance  in the  blood evinces  that some change
 has taken place in it.   What was that change ?—at every ex-
halation from the lungs, carbonic acid gas is  disengaged, (why
this is so, we shall explain when we enter more fully  into the
subject,) and at  every inhalation,  oxygen and  electricity are
absorbed from the atmosphere.  When  this change has taken
place in the lungs, the  blood is  again returned from them by
the four pulmonary veins  to the left auricle of the heart, and
from thence evacuated into the left ventricle, which contracts,
and throws the blood, (now called  arterial blood,) through tho 
120
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
 great aorta to  every portion  and part of the Human Body.
 This arterial blood eventually reaches the capillary vessels of
 the skio,and mucous membranes in every portion of the body,
 which are very small blood vessels, and  extremely numerous,
 so numerous are  they, that you cannot  place a  pin where
 they are not.   From those capillary vessels,  the blood enters
 the veins, smaller veins entering larger trunks, until that blood
 receiving the chyle from  the thoracic duct  in its course, is
 again conveyed to  the heart, to be thrown  to  the lungs, there
 to be similarly  acted upon, and  for a similar purpose.   From
 this  arterial blood,  every portion and part of the human body
 is formed: it  contains the constituents  for the formation of
 muscle, bone, cartilage, ligament, membrane, &c, and from
 which arterial  blood, all portions of  the body are constantly
 supplied.   Thus, is perceived the  manner in which  animal
 matter, is the  product of  vegetable matter; the vital  organs
 and  the means by  which  vitality is supported.   I am aware
 that the theorists of a specific vitality, will avail themselves of
 the opportunity here offered them to enquire—how do the bones
 know that they should absorb phosphate of lime from the blood ?
 who told the nerves what  specific fluid they must absorb from
 theablood ?  If there be no specific agent governing animal mat-
 ter, upon what principles can this result take  place 1 The asorp-
 tion from the arterial blood that article, and only that specific
 article,  and in the requisite proportion, demanded for the sup-
 ply of the organ requiring it?  Does  this enquiry potent as it
 may appear, prostrate our whole fabric?  Must the  ingenious
 principles which we have  so ardently endeavoured to illus-
 trate, be forever annihilated at a single  blow ?  Stop sirs,--
 not^quite so fast; cast your eye back upon a  few preceding
 pages, and the mystery will be explained ; how it is, and why
it is.   Have we not shown  that  the principles of Electricity
governed and pervaded all matter? and does  not the arterial 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
121
blood return from the lungs highly charged with this important
principle ; and is not that matter highest charged with it attract-
ed to a body less charged with it ?  There is no mystery in
this, is there ?  But I will be asked again, why is it that each
organ receives from the blood only that requisite  or certain
proportion required ?  Why do not larger accumulations take
place in the various organs ?   To which, we reiterate, " that
electricity, like all otherfiuids, seeks its equilibrium ; and when
'that is effected, attraction ceases.   It must likewise be born in
mind that the solids are constantly wasting as well as forming.
Gentlemen, are you answered ?
   We shall now proceed to illustrate in some measure the che-
mical constituents of the fluids and solids of the human body ;
but as we do not calculate on the present occasion to enter into
extensive details, our remarks must necessarily be concise and
embrace the  whole principles relating to the subject as far as
possible.   We shall confine ourselves to such as have hereto-
fore been examined by various individuals, and such  as we have
found by our own experiments, to prove correct.  It is not  our
design in the present work to introduce  those which we our-
selves have made ; our object being to show conclusively that
sufficient on that point had previously  been ascertained (had a
proper  application been  made of  the discoveries)  to  satisfy
any mind ardently devoted to the principles of treating disease.
In a  future publication, we shall  give a complete  analysis of
all the  fluids and solids, as examined  by ourselves, as well as
extensively illustrate the specific action, or modus operandi of
all the medicinal agents,  both  mineral and vegetable, which
are now, and may hereafter form very important articles in the
cure of disease.   As to mineral agents or metallic agents as
they are sometimes called,we altogether object, they are inap-
propriate, they are inconsistent, they are injurious, they are in-
compatible  with the animal economy,  as  will  hereafter  be
illustrated  and explained.
       11 
122
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
  In illustrating the chemical constituents of the human body,
we intend to show in a measure the reason, why and how they
become composed of the specific materials of which they are
composed, and from what source derived.  This illustration we
believe  has never been made before,  but which is absolutely
necessary for a  true understanding of the science.  To know
from what sources the bone is formed and from whence it obtains
the materials for its formation, and by  what means the whole
process is effected,  are certainly  matters of great moment*
to the  individuals who anxiously seek to practice the  healing    ■
art upon scientific and practicable principles, and not only the
bone, but the original and primary source, from which every
fluid or solid  is formed, and the nature of the process required
for their completion.
   The bones are  those hard  or most  solid parts of the body,
which are generally said  to constitute the  frame ; they give
shape to the body, firmness and strength, somewhat insensible,    (
and of a  whitish colour.   They vary in  their appearance :
some of them being long, hollow and spongy ; others flat and
compact.   The  human body  has frequently been  subjected
to analysis.   In 1771, Scheele, a distinguished Chemist, ascer-
tained that the earthy parts of bones were comprised of phos-
phate of lime.   This appears to have been the first  step  in
ascertaining the chemical constituents of bones.  New facts re-    «
specting their composition have  subsequently been illustrated
by Bouillon,  Berniard and Rouelle ; but Fourcroy,  Hatchett,
Vauquelin and Berzelius, have given us the most correct analy-
sis which has heretofore appeared.  The principal constituents
of bones are earthy salts, fat, gelatin and cartilage.  The earthy
salts (so called) are  phosphate of lime, which is by far  the lar-
gest constituent, or greater portion of the whole ; carbonate  of
lime,  and Fourcroy and  Vauquelin, discovered phosphate  of
magnesia in them.  Yet  they allege that the latter ingredient 
KEY  TO MEDICAL  SCIENCE.             123
they could not detect in human bones ; but Berzelius announ-
ces his  discovery of it in them.  Mr. Hatchett detected sul-
phate of lime in a minute proportion in them; but Berzelius
shows that it was produced during calcination.  The only bone
found to  contain no cartilages,  is the  enamel  of the teeth.
Fourcroy and  Vauquelin show that  the enamel of the teeth
are composed of 72. 9 of phosphate of lime, and 27.1 of gel-
atin in 100.  But the most accurate analysis heretofore made
of the enamel of the teeth was by  Mr. Pepys, which exactly
agree with that made by Hatchett, and shows it to be composed
of phosphate of lime,  78 ; carbonate of lime, 6; water and
loss, 16 in 100 parts.
   I will here introduce a table, showing the  analysis of teeth
as made by  Mr. Pepys ; by  which  it  will  be seen that  the
teeth contain more phosphate of lime, and less cartilage, than
bone ;  and the enamel more phosphoric acid than the teeth.
	Roots of the Teeth.	Teeth of Adults.	First Teeth of Children.
Phosphate of Lime, Carbonate of Lime,	- 58 4	64 6	62 6
Cartilage, - - -	- 28 10	20 10	20 12
			
                          100       100        100
  The most correct analysis of human bones, which we have
hitherto met with, was made by Berzellius, which show their
composition to be 71.9 phosphate of lime ;  3.0 fluate of lime;
10.0 lime;  1.1 phosphate  of magnesia;  2.0 soda; carbonic
acid, 2,0 = 100.
  Thus we arc led to discover that the constituents of all bone-
both the teeth  and bones of the  body contain a larger propor-
tion  of phosphate of lime than of any constituent  of which 
124
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
they are composed; and by the analysis of the bone we per-
ceive even free soda and lime to exist in it.
   Phosphoric acid with lime, form four  different  species of
this  salt, by uniting with the  lime in  different proportions ;
thus,  we have the phosphate, biphosphate, quadriphosphate
and subphosphate.  It is the phosphate which forms the basis
of bones.  When bones are divested  from extraneous mat-
ter, by calcination and  purification, they are a white powder,
which is pure phosphate of lime, destitute of taste, insoluble in
water, and not liable to be  altered by exposure  to air, and is     i
capable of  being exposed to a  strong heat without undergoing
change: but if the heat be extreme, it becomes soft, and is con-
verted into a white, semi-transparent  enamel, not unlike por-
celain.  Several  experiments  have been made  to  determine
the constituents  of this salt, the  most accurate illustrate its
composition to be 100 parts of phosphoric acid, to  84.53  of
lime.                                                          (
   Hence we have evinced to us that the far greatest constitu-
ents comprising the human bones are  phosphoric acid ; even
this acid exceeds the lime.   The  inquiry at once arises, from
what  source does the  bone  derive this phosphoric acid and
lime ? or is it by  any power or action of the laws  of nature
formed in the human body ?    We must here  again call the
attention of the reader to the fact that  " animal  matter is the     v<
product of vegetable ;"  that the constituents which exist in ve-
getable  matter form animal.  But do vegetables contain phos-
phoric acid and lime ?  They do ! What vegetables ?  Phospho-
ric acid is found uncombined  with any  alkali whatever in va-
rious plants, as  the onion,  mullein, &c.   But in combination
with lime phosphoric acid exists in abundance in a large num-
ber of plants.  Bergman found it in all kinds of grain.   In
barley and  corn, it is said to be combined with potash  ; but I
suspect they confound it with phosphate of  lime.   From this 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
125
explanation, it is not difficult to perceive from what source we
derive the constituents for the formation of bone, as we must
necessarily constantly be  receiving into the system, a full sup-
ply of it through the agency of food.   All animal food must
likewise  constantly comprize large proportions of it.   Thus it
is that phosphate  of lime is  constantly found in the  blood,
which when taken up from the blood, forms the specific matter
which forms the bone.
   We shall now enter into a more detailed illustration  of the
formation of bone.  We have but examined its constituents as
they present themselves, when completed or perfectly formed.
In the infant, we find that part destined to  become bone, is of
a soft and cartilageous character; and that it requires a cer-
tain process to take  place for  some length of time before the
formation of bone is perfected.   Physiologists have material-
ly differed in their opinions respecting  the formation of bone:
those of  the present day assert that it is from a specific action
of small arteries, by which ossific matter is  separated from the
blood, and deposited  where it is required.  What this specific
action is, they  do  not pretend to tell ; but  the reader before
this time must be aware, that such specific action takes place
by that principle already  illustrated, attraction.   In embryo,
in such parts, where bone  is to be formed, the first appearance
which we perceive is a transparent jelley,  which gradually
bocomes firmer until at length it is formed into cartilage which
gradually increases in size, and ossification or the formation of
bone gradually commences which progresses to its  comple-
tion, which is not till about the twentieth year.  Now the ques-
tion  arises, how and by what means  is this result brought
about ?   From whence did this transparent jelley arise ?—
Why was the  cartilage formed, and how is it that cartilage is
formed into bone ?
       11* 
126
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
  In giving our history of the formation of bone, we perceive
the first  formation to be a transparent jelley.   That  all ve-
getable productions contain more or less jelley none will ven-
ture to deny, and  in many cases constitute  an important arti-
cle of food, it cannot  be considered strange that it should be
one of the constituents  of animal matter ; it  is of tremulous
consistency scarcely soluble in cold water, but freely in warm ;
if long boiled, the property  of gelatinizing, on cooling is lost,
and  is then of the character of mucilage.   When jelley is
dried, it  becomes a transparent, brittle,  mass, possessing the
properties of gum.   Jelley has the property  of combining
readily with alkalies, particularly soda, and thus forming albu-
men, the constituents of which are mucous, soda, and sulphur.
The purest albumen which  we  can ordinarily  obtain, is the
white of eggs.   [Albumen possesses the power of coagulation,
by heat or acid, by which both its appearance and properties
are changed, it is no longer soluble either in hot or  cold water
as before.  The coagulation will take place, although air be
completely excluded ; and if air be present, it will not absorb
it.  Authors  have  advanced several opinions  respecting the
coagulation of albumen ; but to  us it is plain that the effect is
produced by the action of both caloric and oxygen.  None of
the earths form insoluble compounds with albumen, neither do
the alkalies.  The case  is very different with the metallic ox-
ides ; there are few of them but what have some direct action
upon albumen :  nitrate, subsulphate  and muriate of mercury,
as well as several others of them, precipitate it—every metal
but cobalt precipitates it.   Dr.  Bostocks experiments show
that one drop of a saturated solution of corrosive sublimate,
let  fall into water, containing one two-thousandth part of its
weight of albumen, produces an evident milkiness, and a cur-
dy precipitate falls ; he  even proposes the employment of this
salt, to separate albumen from fluids containing it.  The curdy 
                KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.              127

part of milk consists  of albumen, and  abounds in the chyle ;
it forms an essential part of bone and  muscle ; brain may be
considered a species of it, and the lens of the eye.   Cartila-
ges, nails, horns, hair, &c, are almost  entirely composed of it.
In fact, it is one of the most important of the human fluids—
its constituents are, carbon 53.40 ; oxygen 25.30 ; hydrogen
0.80 ;  azote, 14.67.
  Cartilage has been examined with considerable precision, by
Mr. Hatchett, and found to be in every respect coagulated al-
bumen, and  alike  capable of being  converted into gelatin.
This cartilaginous substance  is the portion from which the
bone is formed;  hence the reason, why  they are so soft in
young children,—afterwards the phosphate of lime is gradual-
ly deposited, to give the bone  its requisite firmness.   The ge-
latin give it toughness and strength.
  We shall next take notice of the chemical properties of the
blood, that fluid  being  the great  source  from which  all the
fluids and solids are formed.   Some authors consider the blood
as the vital fluid, because it receives oxygen in the lungs, but
it likewise receives electricity, which renders it  capable, by
being thrown  by  the  heart throughout the whole system, to
continually nourish and support it.  That  it may in a great
degree, be considered as  such, if any one  fluid is entitled to
that appellation,  there is no  doubt—yet the properties which
enable it to impart vitality to the system, are oxygen and elec-
tricity, which it receives from  the atmosphere.
  It  unquestionably is that fluid which gives life and vitality
to every proportion of animated nature ; but it is equally plain>
that it may likewise disseminate the  seeds of disease, when-
ever it shall become  charged  with morbid matter, and,  like-
wise be the cause directly or  indirectly, of producing death :
therefore, upon its  purity or  impurity  depends in a great de-
gree, the  preservation of health, or the existence of disease. 
128
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
We are aware, that by  many, it is contended that the blood
is always the same: although, this opinion may be entertained
by some scientific men,  yet it is  difficult  to induce  others to
believe that such is the fact—we, ourselves, claim to be of
that sceptical number.   There have been numerous analyses
of the blood.   The number of philosophers who have devoted
their time to develope its nature, and  ascertain its properties
are immense.  It was not, however, till towards the middle of
the eighteenth century, that much progress was made in its
chemical analysis.
  Ronelly  was the first chemist who published a tolerably pre-
cise analysis of it.   Since that time much additional informa-
tion has been acquired by the experiments of Bouquet, Four-
croy, Dayeux, Parmentier, Brande, Berzelius, &c.   Dayeux
and Parmentier  examined the blood drawn from patients la-
bouring under different diseases ; but the result was not so
satisfactory as might have been expected.   It has long been
known that blood drawn from persons labouring under inflam-
mation, is  soon covered with a  white crust called buffy ccat ;
in this case, the blood  does  not coagulate as usual.  Blood
drawn in sea scurvey, exhibits a  peculiar  smell.   It is known
that blood when drawn separates into two parts, one of which
is fluid, and is called serum ; the other, the coagulum, has been
called  cruor, because it alone retains  the led colour which
distinguishes the blood.   This  separation is very similar to
the separation of curdled milk into curd and whey.   The se-
rum, or fluid part of the blood, Berzelius analyzed, and found
it to consist in 1000 parts, as follow : 905.0 water ; 80.0 albu-
men ; 6 muriate of potash  and soda ;  4 lactate of soda with
animal matter ; 4.1 soda, phosphate of soda with animal mat-
ter ; 0.9 loss.  The cruor, or clot, according to the analysis
of Berzelius, consists of colouring matter 64, fibrine and albu-
men 36, in 100 parts.    Vogel has shown that when blood is 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
129
placed in the vacuum of an air pump, a considerable quantity
of carbonic acid gas separates from it.  We observe from the
above analysis of both the serum and clot of blood, that a large
proportion of albumen exists in  both ; and that albumen and
fibrine  are  the  two principal constituents.   That albumen
should exist in the blood cannot  be  matter of surprise, being
formed by the transposition  of vegetable matter into animal.
The fibrine in the blood is prepared from the albumen, and is the
first process of nature  to form solids from the blood.  This fi-
brine goes to form the muscular substances of the flesh of ani-
mated beings, whilst at the same time the various other organs
absorb from the blood that peculiar fluid which they require for
their support.  The constituents of fibrine are 18 atoms  of car-
bon,  5  of oxygen, 14 of hydrogen  and 3  of azote, which is
one more atom of  carbon, hydrogen and azote, and one less of
oxygen than albumen.  Hence it is evident that inflammation
decomposes  albumen, or  so  far impairs  its properties as to
render it incapable of  coagulation.
  Much speculation has existed about the  colouring matter of
blood, some  asserting that it  owed its colour to a quantity of
iron which it contained.   It  is true that by the incineration of
blood, traces of iron may sometimes be detected,  but  that it
existed there  previous to  the incineration we deny, but might
be produced by the process.  Albumen as  shown, is a large
constituent of the blood.   Nitric and dilute muriatic acid form
with albumen a yellow colour, and when ammonia is added as-
sumes a deep orange colour  and lets  fall no precipitate ;  buj
when saturated with ammonia, the liquid assumes a deep orange
colour, inclining to red.
  Now as muriatic acid constantly exists in the system in consi-
derable quantities, and is likewise continually received  into it'
in the shape of muriate of soda, as well as  a small proportion
of nitric acid, may not this give rise to the colour of the  bile ? 
130
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
and as it respects ammonia, there is always a large proportion
in the system, as it is produced from the decomposition con-
stantly taking place.   Then may  not this be the  cause of the
red colour of the blood ?
   There is one important point in relation to the blood, which
physiologists  have too much overlooked, I mean the existing
difference between venous and arterial blood: were this differ-
ence fully understood, it would illustrate many important points
in the nature of disease, now involved in mistery.  The char-
acter and office of the arteries are directly the reverse of that
of the veins.   The  arteries from  the very character of their
operation, show that they are exhaling vessels, and the veins on
the contrary evince  themselves  to be absorbing vessels, hence
it is evident, that a vast  difference exists between them; and
the character of the fluid circulating in them must necessarily
in a great degree be of a directly opposite character.   To ex-
plain this  difference minutely requires a  perfect illustration of
the constituents and changes to which animal matter is subjec-
ted.   The analysis of blood hitherto made*,has principally been
confined to  the venous blood, which is of a dark colour, far
more so than the arterial blood.  It is of a thicker consistency
and of a much lower temperature ; why it is so is not difficult
for the mind given to reflection to understand.  The colour of
blood we have before hinted at, but in addition to the idea there    1
suggested, we  find  the  venous blood always  charged with
carbon in a greater or less degree : then is there some  source
from which  it must have derived  it.  Carbon is  always pro-
duced from  the decomposition of both  animal and vegetable
matter, and that the human body is continually and at all times
undergoing  decomposition we consider it  no difficult  task to
demonstrate.  And if so, and the  veins being absorbing vessels,
as a matter of course whatever  product  was formed by the
constant decomposition, must be absorbed  into the venous blood 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
131
and thus necessarily become a constituent of it; and particu-
lar^ if there be deficient action in the capillary vessels of the
skin.   Carbonic acid gas is  an acknowledged constituent of
the blood ; but in  what way does  carbonic acid gas become a
constituent of the venous blood ?  Oxygen, one of the gases of
the atmosphere, is continually absorbed by the lungs, as well as
by other portions of the body ; which oxygen gas readily unites
with carbon and forms carbonic acid gas.   The great office of
the lungs, is to bring the blood into direct  contact with the at-
mosphere, in order  that this carbonic acid gas should be disen-
gaged  from the blood, and a fresh supply of oxygen and elec-
tricity introduced into it, in order to form arterial blood.  It
is this carbonic acid gas, and formed  in this way, supposed to
generate in the stomach, intestines, &c. which so  many  indi-
vid uals are troubled with, under the character of flatulence, &c.
   The venous blood,  always contains more  or less mucous,
which renders it of  a thick or viscid  character.  The mucous
in the blood being so great a source of difficulty, and frequent-
ly the cause of the  most serious  results;  we shall endeavour
to illustrate somewhat  the  character of this  fluid.  Mucous
exists in abundance  in almost all kinds of vegetable  matter, and
consequently must become a constituent of animal matter.  Mu-
cous was once considered as partaking of the character of gum,
but the experiments of Dr. Bostock have shown that its charac-
ter differs very materially from  that of gum, and that if the
solid matter obtained by evaporating saliva to dryness, be re-
dissolved in water  and filtered, the  solution will contain  very
little except mucous.   Saliva is that fluid secreted by  certain
glands, called salivary  glands, in the mouth during mastica-
tion. It fixes with, dissolves, and resolves into its principles the
food; and changes  it  into a  pultaceous mass fit  to  be swal-
lowed.   Its constituents are water, mucilage, albumen, muri-
ate of soda, phosphate of lime and  phosphate of ammonia. 
132
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
Hence the  difference between  mucous and saliva, is that mu-
cous ordinarily contains neither phosphoric acid, lime, nor am-
monia.  Mucous and uncoagulated albumen,  are of a similar
character, and constituted of the same  ingredients,  but  vary
in the proportion of those ingredients.   Mucous has the pro-
perty of absorbing oxygen and thus becoming incapable of so-
lution in water.   Tears are of the same character as mucous.
The mucous  of  the  nose was examined by Fourcroy and
Vauquilin and found to be the same.  Dr. Pearson  examined
that which is expectorated from the lungs and bronchise, with
much care and ingenuity, he distinguished seven different kinds
of expectorated   matter.  1. The jelly-like  semi-transparent
kind of a bluish   hue, excreted in a state of health;  2. The
thin mucilage like transparent matter,  so copiously expector-
ated in bronchial  catarrh; 3. The thick opaka straw coloured
or white and  very tenaceous matter,  coughed up in  a great
variety of bronchial and pulmonary affections,  especially in
that of tubercles.  4. Puriform matter, secreted without any
division of continuity, or breach  of surface of the bronchial
membrane, very  commonly occurring in pulmonary consump-
tions.  5.  The matter, which consists of opaque viscid  mas-
ses, together with a transparent fluid, or the second sort above
Btated, with nodules of the third and fourth kind.  6. Pus from
the vomicae of tubercles.   7. Pus, from vomicae  by simple
inflammation  of the lungs, and without tubercles.  Dr. Pear-
son's experiments show that the constituents of the first five of
these species, are the same, but that the proportions of the in-
gredients somewhat vary.  He supposes them all to consist of
albumen in solution  in  water,  coagulable by heat, and  the
usual chemical agents, and that this albumen is combined with
potash, which it neutralizes.   The property which mucous has
of absorbing oxygen, renders it thick, tough and viscid, hence
the viscidity of the mucous from  the nose and lungs,  as they 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
133
are constantly in direct contact with  the atmosphere,  have
also the great consistence which it acquires during colds, where
the action of the atmosphere is assisted by the increased action
of the parts.
   The foregoing remarks show that mucous is a large constitu-
ent of the blood, which is increased according to circumstances.
When the blood is highly charged with mucous, it is likewise
rendered thick and viscid;  and when it  is not  in considera-
ble portions separated and discharged from the  blood both by
the nostrils and lungs, serious difficulties must soon arise, and
always do when those excretory organs cease to act,  or inef-
ficiently perform  their office, as almost every individual has
witnessed cases wherein a cough has been stopped or suspend-
ed, and  consequently expectoration, by the  administration of
opiates, or some narcotic, that life has soon  ceased to exist.—
When this mucous exists in the blood, in undue quantities, it
must be discharged from it, either by the lungs or nostrils,these
being the principal excretory organs for mucous ; and if the
lungs be sufficiently strong to resist it, it will be discharged by
the nostrils, and is then called catarrh, which, by long continu-
ance, has received the appellation of chronic  catarrh.  On the
contrary, when discharged by the lungs, and the labour of the
lungs thus increased, by which they become debilitated, even-
tually may terminate in a disease of the lungs ;  and the irrita-
ting properties of this mucous often produces an irritation and
inflammatory  state of the lungs ;  particularly when the  catarr-
hal affection is transferred from the head to the lungs, which is
frequently the case, and is  then known as catarrhal consump-
tion.
  Other properties may  likewise contaminate and render the
blood impure.   The evidence existing of the bile from the liver
being absorbed into the blood is conclusive.  It is evinced  by
the yellow or  sallow complexion—dark spots or appearances
       12 
134
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
  on various parts of the body, particularly the forehead—the
  yellow tinge of the eyes—the yellowness and  sallowness of
  the skin generally, often producing yellow  jaundice,  bilious
  fever, and yellow  fever.   The bile when having acquired a
  state sufficiently attenuated by decomposition  to be absorbed
  into the blood, possesses a  very acrimonious  character, which
  imparts this principle to the general mass of blood ; and thus
  from  the venous blood are  many irruptions produced upon the
  skin, and sometimes ulcers of the most malignant character.—
  Soreness of the mouth, tonsels, &c, which are often known by
 the name of  canker, erysipelas, scarlet fever, bilious fever, pe-
 techial fever, and a variety of other complaints, thus derive
 their origin from the acrimony of the blood, and particularly if
 there  exist a state of the atmosphere favourable to the devel-
 opement of disease.   Other evils arise from the thick and vis-
 cid state of the blood thus acquired.
   The office  of the heart is to propel  the blood  both to the
 lungs and through the system.  In  consequence of the blood
 acquiring this thick and viscid character, the labour  of the
 heart  is increased; which  increased labour  debilitates that
 important and essential organ, and hence its powers are pro-
 portionally diminished, which give rise to man)T most serious
 evils.  The increased debility of the heart gives rise to palpi-
 tations, the debility  still progressing, terminates in a disease of
that organ, as enlargements, water in the pericardium,  the
 membrane, or sack, which surrounds the heart, containing a li-
quid for its lubrication.  Pain, dizziness, drowsiness, dimness of
vision, fullness of the head, ringing of the ears. Vertigo is often
experienced.   This is generally called a " rush of blood to the
head."  The  reverse is directly the fact.  At  every pulsation
of the  heart, the  blood is thrown from the heart to the head,
through the arteries.   From those large arteries, it ramifies
into smaller and smaller ones, until it reaches  the capillaries, 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE,
135
 or small blood vessels of the  skin, from which capillaries, it is
 received into the extremities of small veins which enter larger
 ones, until it returns again to  the heart.   A moment's reflec-
 tion will render the whole principle familiar to the mind.  The
 blood becoming of this thick  and viscid character, renders it
 incapable of passing through the veins back to the heart as fast
 as it is thrown from the heart  to the  head.   Its motion, there-
 fore, through  the veins is slow and sluggish—it is retarded.—
 Not only is the blood thus retarded by  its thick, viscid consis-
 tence whilst flowing through the veins, but it must be born in
 mind, that the accumulation constantly increases by the power
 of  the  heart  continually propelling the blood  to  the  head
 through the arteries.    Hence, instead of its  being " a rush of
 blood to the head," it is an accumulation of blood in the  head
 arising from its retarded passage through the veins. The veins
 of the head thus  becoming  filled, charged,  and in some cases
 even gorged with blood, gives rise  to those difficulties above
 named, and even to apoplexy itself.   Nervousness is another
 result arising from  this viscid state of the blood.   As all  or-
 gans receive their  support from  the blood, it is evident that
 blood must be in a  situation, and of a character calculated to
 render them the requisite support.  The nerves are very small
 organs, and the source from which we derive all sensibility—
 without them we could not  be animated or  intelligent beings.
 When the  blood is of that thick and viscid character, those
 small vessels,  the nerves, cannot absorb from the blood that
 support, that  nutriment which they  require—in common lan-
 guage they are deficiently fed, or starved ; consequently they
 become weak, debilitated and exhausted, and not unfrequently
 does it progress so far as to produce the most serious consequen-
ces, as derangement of the human intellect, a total loss of rea-
son and intellectual power.  The nerves may be compared to
 a spear of grass,  withering and  dying for want of moisture ; 
136
KEY  TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
just so are the nerves when deprived of their necessary sup-
port from blood.  The same character of debility is produced
in every organ of the body, by a thick and  viscid state of the
blood, as occurs in extreme hemorrhage, or bleeding from any
portion of the body ; the debility in both instances is produced
by the various organs  being deprived  of support  from the
blood—the only difference is, that in the thick state of the blood,
the blood vessels, filled and gorged with blood, become disten-
ded, from which circumstance much pain may be experienced,
which is often supposed to be rheumatic pains.   My readers
will bear in mind that I have  before shown that the veins are
filled with valves,  which  is not the case with the arteries.—
These valves serve the  purpose of preventing the blood from
having a retrograde action in them.   The  blood can pass on
through them, whilst those valves open in order that it may
pass;  but should any circumstance arise to induce the blood to
return  back, those valves close, and prevent such an occur-
rence.  Nerves pass in every direction of the body, and as we
have just said, they are the only organs from which we derive
sensibility.   They always accompany  blood-vessels, and in
many cases  form large clusters, running and intertwining them-
selves among each  other.   When the blood is thick, it  often
accumulates in the veins, between the valves, which necessari-
ly enlarges or distends the, vein,  in that  particular part which
presses upon  the  accompanying nerves, and  thus produces
pain, upon the same principle that you pinch your hand  and it
gives pain, because the nerves are oppressed,  It  is always the
case when an accumulation of blood takes place  in a  part that
pain is produced—it is in this way that pleurisy  arises by the
pleura being charged and distended with  blood.  Upon the
same principle do we account for  what is termed "  shooting
pains across the chest, &c.   We will here notice another cir-
cumstance, that the weakest part of the system will invariably 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
137
become highest charged with blood, simply because in the first
place by its debility it is rendered incapable of  resisting the in-
flux of the blood to  that part;  and secondly, that when the
accumulation  takes place in such part, it is less able to expel
it from such part.  Pain may take place in a part where there is
no inordinate accumulation of blood ; but pain could not exist
there independent of obstruction in the circulation of the ner-
vous  fluids,  which  become  obstructed either by themselves
becoming rigid, or the cartilage or ligaments assuming a similar
character,and producing pressure or obstruction in them.  This
is generally called rheumatism, which to say the least is no other
than an ambiguous term which  few understand, and  still less
comprehend.  Numbness of the limbs, palsy, paralysis, the en-
tire loss of the use of a limb is produced by this same principle
of action, the circulation of the blood being so deficient in
many cases, as to  cause a limb or part more or less to dwindle
and perish.
   In  the arterial blood we find difficulties of another character
arising.   As before  shown, the blood contains phosphate of
lime ; when it contains a surplus or more than is absorbed or
taken up  from the blood, for the supply required for the general
fluids and organs of the system, ossifications are sometimes
formed near the heart, or in the coronary artery, and likewise
in other parts of the  body : these formations are phosphate and
carbonate of lime.  The formation on the internal coats of an
artery, lessens its  calabre, and as  nerves are intimately con-
nected with arteries, and blood is  thrown though arteries in
volumes from the heart at every pulsation, by the force of the
volume of blood the artery is slightly enlarged, but by passing
through that portion,of the artery where this ossification exists
its distention would  be so great as to produce pain,  which is
quick, and not inaptly termed similiar to that of a sharp knife.
It is  this enlargement which we call pulsation,  and is felt in
           12* 
138             KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
 every portion of the system at the same time, where an artery
 is found.
   We will dismiss the subject of the  blood by pointing out in
 some measure, the different  diseases that may  be produced
 both  by the  arterial and  venous blood.  We have  already
 noticed that a difference existed in temperature between them;
 that  the arterial was  higher  than  the venous.   The high
 temperature of the arterial in certain climates, and at certain
 seasons of the year, may produce a disease of the lungs.  The
 ordinary temperature of blood, is about 102 degrees above zero.
 The difference between the blood and the atmosphere, is often
very great at certain seasons of the year.  Sometimes the temp-
erature  of the atmosphere falls to 10 and 20 degrees below ze-
ro, making a  difference of  112  and  120 degrees, between  the
atmosphere and the blood.   The blood in the lungs is constantly
exposed to the atmosphere, and the consequence  arising from
 this great difference is frequently of serious import; a sudden
exposure, such as  passing from a warm room, immediately into
such a state of the atmosphere produces so directly an  irrita-
tive action upon the lungs as to  produce cough, and frequently
to terminate in pulmonary affections.  This difference of temp.
erature, is the  cause of the  existence of diseases  of the lungs,
in a great variety of instances, and may almost invariably  be
considered the cause  where the lungs themselves are the only
organs diseased.  The arterial blood predominates in the chest,
which contains the heart and lungs ;  this being of the highest
temperature, is the reason  why diseases of the lungs, prevail
more  in cold climates than in warm.   The venous blood,  the
blood which circulates in the veins, predominates in the abdo-
men, which contains the liver, kidneys, spleen  and digestive  or-
gans,being of a much lower temperature than  the arterial blood
shews likewise the reason, why it is that diseases of the liver,
abound  most in warm climates.  The low temperature of  the 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
139
 venous blood, being acted upon by the high temperature of the
 atmosphere, upon the same  principle produces irritation, and
 consequently a disease of the liver follows, which  in its  train,
 produces a great variety of other affections, which medical men
 have construed into a variety of different  diseases, and  have
 almost uniformly undertaken the treatment of them  as such ;
 whilst they at the same time have suffered the original and pri-
 mary organ diseased to pursue its course of destruction, until the
 liver itself,  has  become a mass of irrecoverable obstruction, as
 we shall ere long more fully illustrate.  In this illustration we
 find another important fact developed to our understanding.
   It is generally known that it is the general  practice, where
 an individual is labouring under  a disease of  the lungs, to di-
 rect, that the patient be  sent to a warmer climate, particularly
 during our winter seasons.  We have the evidence, that there
 are some who go  there  and return apparently well, while
 others who  go there for the benefit of their health, die.  There
 must be a  reason  for this!   What that reason is, none  have
 attempted to define.  A little reflection, renders  the  subject
 perfectly intelligible.  There is a possibility of an individual,
 having a disease of the liver, and that disease to  extend its in-
 fluence to the lungs, and hence produce pulmonary consumption
 —it is the most usual form of the occurrence of the disease of our
 climate ; out of every twenty cases of diseases of the lungs, in
our country, hardly two can be found that do not date their ori-
gin in a disease  of the liver;  therefore, if there  exists a disease
of the liver which has extended its influence to the lungs,the liver
 and lungs both being diseased, if such patient be sent to a warm
climate, the disease of the liver will be increased, which would
likewise, and must necessarily increase the disease upon the
lungs, and the patient would in all probability be lost. But if, on
the contrary, there existed a disease of the lungs, in which the
liver was not implicated, such individual visiting  a  warm  cli- 
140
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
mate  might  induce more  or less  affection  of the liver, and
thus the disease might be transferred from the  lungs to the
liver, under which  circumstances it would not be very  diffi-
cult to cure the diseased liver, and in all probabilty the disease
of the lungs might effectually  be cured.   We thus distinguish
that diseases of the lungs, and diseases of the  liver, are two dis-
tinct and opposite diseases, and although produced from the at-
mosphere, yet the state of the atmosphere in one case is directly
the reverse in that of the other—and further, as the properties
of the arterial blood are different from the venous blood, it is
evident that there are diseases confined exclusively to the ve-
nous  blood,  whilst others, again, are confined to the  arteri"
al blood ;  and,  consequently, each  must absolutely require
different modes  of treatment.  What will  the  advocates of
the doctrines  of  " one  disease"—" disease is a unit"—say to
this illustration ?   They will find greater difficulties to contend
with than  this, before  we close our subject.  Nor will those
who advocate the doctrine of so great a multiplicity of disea-
ses, find any room whatever to sustain the opinion, that their
prognostications  are founded  upon any other principles  than
their prolific imaginations.  Neither will they find  us advoca-
ting the doctrine, that  all diseases primarily originate in the
blood and  that alone.   And much less entertaining  the theo-
ries of the present day, that  " all diseases originate in  the
solids." We leave that  to those—-who guess—who try experi-
ments—because  they don't  know—who worship their Idol—
their " vital principle."
   The  next  subject  we shall enter  upon is the bile, which is
formed from the venous blood in the liver.  Having heretofore
referred to this fluid in some measure, it only becomes necessa-
ry now to refer to it so far only as it has not  before been treated.
The liver is the largest  gland of the body, situated in  the abdo-
men, and is attached firmly to the diaphragm, or midrif, a mus' 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
141
cular substance which divides the chest from the abdomen.  The
liver is of a deep red colour, divided into two principal lobes, and
again  divided into  smaller ones,  the  right lobe extending far
down on the right side, thence extending across the middle of
the body towards the left side, filling the hollow formed by the
diaphragm.    It never entirely reaches  the left side, the large
end of the stomach being placed between the left lobe of the
liver and left side.  The upper surface of the liver is convex ;
the under part slightly concave.   Its front margin is thin,whilst
its hinder edge is very thick and  rounded.   Much the largest
portion of the liver lies upon the right side, and is much thicker
and massive there than on the left, and as it approaches the left
side, it becomes thinner and smaller.  The liver receives nearly
all the venous blood from the lower extremities of the body and
abdomen by a large vein which enters it, called the vena porta.
The instant the vena porta enters the liver, it ramifies through
the whole organ, like an artery, thus diffusing the venous blood
throughout  the whole substance  of the liver.  From the ve-
nous blood is that important and essential fluid the bile produ-
ced.   Under the liver is situated an oblong membraneous re-
ceptacle, called the gall bladder, the use of which is to receive
the  bile from a vessel called the hepatic  duct, which is the
trunk  of what is called the biliary pores, which, together with
the cystic duct, which is the trunk of the biliary ducts, carries
the bile to the gall bladder.   The gall bladder is therefore the
receptacle and reservoir of the bile.   From the gall-bladder,
the bile  is conveyed through a small tube about the size of a
crow-quill, into the duodenum, or small intestines, situated im-
mediately below the pit of the stomach.   The composition of
human bile, as illustrated by Thenard, is from 1100 parts of hu-
man bile, 1000.0 water, from 2 to 10 yellow insoluble matter,
yellow  matter in solution a trace, 42.0 albumen, 41.0  resin,
5.6 soda, 4.5 phosphate of soda  ; sulphate of soda, muriate of 
142            KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
soda, phosphate of lime, oxide of iron.   The analysis made by
Berzelius is somewhat different.  In 1000.0 parts, he found its
constituents to  be water 90S.4, picromel  80.0,  albumen 3.0,
soda 4.1, phosphate of lime 0.1, common salt  3.4, phosphate of
soda with some lime, 1.0.   Human bile differs somewhat from
animal, which  is easily accounted for from the difference in
food.   Its taste is not very bitter.   Medical authors state that
the exact duty the bile has to perform in the office of digestion,
is not understood.   We agree with them that they do not un-
derstand it, nor will they so long as they form their conclusions
upon supposition  and imagination.   Let them ascertain but
the chemical constituents of lhe bile, and of the chemical  con-
stituents of the chyme in the duodenum, and then say whether
or not the bile performs any other office than that heretofore
named, or  whether or not it  is the " natural purgative."  As
before shown, the liver is capable of becoming torpid and inac-
tive, by which  means accumulations of  blood, bile, &c, take
place in the liver, which would cause the blood vessels of the
liver to become distendsd,  and the liver to enlarge or swell ;
under such circumstances, the liver being attached to the dia-
phragm, its enlargement would press it up,  and hence lessen
the cavity of the chest which contains the heart and lungs. The
lungs would then be crowded or oppressed, and hence would a-
rise shortness of breath, difficulty of breathing,  giving rise to
phthisic, asthma, and a variety of similar  affections. Sometimes
by long continuance, the liver becomes permanently enlarged,
and the consequence is, a continued asthmatic affection.  I am
aware that many physicians have considered asthma produced
by spasmodic action of the lungs ; but I am at a loss to determine
how spasm can take place where there is no muscle;  and I
have yet to learn that the lungs are a muscular  substance.   I
defy gentlemen to exhibit a case of asthma where the liver is
not at all implicated. As before shown,the bile inconsequence 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
143
of decomposition, becomes thin and acrid; and when in this
state, conveyed through  the  bile-duct,into  the duodenum,
it is capable by its acrid properties of producing a disease of
the duodenum by irritating and inflaming the mucous or lining
membrane of the small intestines ;  hence is frequently experi-
enced a sinking, fainting, indescribable weakness just below the
pit of the stomach.   It often extends its  influence to the py-
lorus ; so much so as to  produce ulceration in that part, by
which, at times  small blood  vessels become ruptured,  and
blood is discharged by the mouth, and may be mistaken for blee-
ding of the lungs. But the blood discharged under these circum-
stances, at once distinguishes its true character—such  blood is
dark and has rather the appearance of  blood  drawn from a
vein, whilst that which is  thrown  from  the lungs is of a light
or florid red.   In this way, may the organs  of digestion and
assimilation become so injured  or impaired, as to be rendered
incapable of duly performing their office, so that the food ea-
ten  cannot impart  that nourishment and support  to  the sys*
tern  which it requires, and emaciation will then progress, al-
though the stomach be inordinately supplied with food.
   Another difficulty which may arise, in  consequence of this
decomposed state of the  bile,  is  ascidity or sourness of the
stomach.  It will be perceived by the analysis of the bile, that
it eontains, even a free alkali when in a healthy condition; but
by the decomposition, this alkaline principle is destroyed, hence
the bile is rendered incapable of neutralizing  the acidity, gen-
erated from food in the stomach, or conveyed therefrom other
sources. Another evil complained of, is flatulence or wind upon
the stomach.  By what peculiar change or operation are gases
engendered in the stomach and intestines?  We have before
shown that the blood contained carbon,  and that it  was
the  carbon uniting with  the  oxygen, forming carbonic  acid
gas   which  was the cause of this  difficulty.   Sickness and 
144
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
 nausea of the stomach, is another difficulty  experienced under
 these circumstances.  When the bile  is thrown into the small
 intestines in larger quantities than is required, it is frequently
 found to regurgitate through  the  pylorus,  into the  stomach
 which there coming in direct contact with the gastric juice,
 creates sickness and nausea, Which, from their very different
 properties and constituents, no other result could be predica-
 ted.   Hence the very correct observation so frequently made,
 that the " stomach cannot tolerate bile," it rejects it almost as
 soon  as  introduced  into  it.   This state of disease is often
 met with in what are called bilious habits of body, in bilious
 fever, &c., yet the general mode pursued in the treatment of
 such cases, is of a character which I can by no means sanction.
 A physician is called to a patient, to whom after examining his
 case, he directs an emetic.  In a short time he calls again : the
 emetic has operated;  "see," says  the physician, "what a
 quantity of bile he has thrown up ;  it was well that I gave him
 the emetic."   Does not the medical  gentleman know that the
 bile of which he speaks was not originally in the stomach, but
 was induced there by the direct action of the emetic upon the
 6mall intestines, and that it was urged  from them by  the exci-
 ting  action of the emetic ?   The reader may be somewhat
 surprised that I oppose  the use of emetics, when they have
 long been (even since the establishment ofmedicine as a sci-
 ence) in almost constant use, and at this day without scarcely
 an exception, universally advocated and adopted by every de-
 scription of medical men.   If an individual in the enjoyment of
 perfect health should take an emetic, as soon as  the contents of
the stomach should be thrown off, bile would inevitably follow,
not because  it originally existed there, but because it was in-
duced there  by the emetic.  The bile forced into the stomach
by the use of emetics, often keeps up vomiting until the patient
dies of exhaustion, or until the over-exerted liver loses its pow- 
                KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.             145

ers of secretion, and stops.  In the latter case, the patient may
recover, but his convalescence will be long and protracted, at-
tended  with an inactive liver, without tone to the stomach—
his recovery being most generally ascribed to certain medicine
and extolled for its  virtues, when in fact it was the ostensible
agent in producing his desperate  situation.  As useful as they
may appear to be, defended by argument ever so strong, I am
satisfied, and  much  experience will  afford ample  testimony,
of serious evils resulting from their use ;  especially where em-
ployed to the almost unlimited extent, so frequently practiced
by its particular  votaries.   We  cannot  consider, that  nature
ever  designed the contents of the stomach should be dischar-
ged by the mouth ;  yet it is said, does not nature indicate this
when she is about  to  disgorge  the stomach  of its  contents ?
The contents of the stomach being offensive to her, does she not
repel it ? Is this action of stomach not sufficient to determine  us
in our prognosis ?   If the peristaltic motion governed the stom-
ach, as well as the bowels, it  would be;  but the case is vastly
different, one is the regular  action  conducive  to health; the
other, the irregular action indicative of disease.  One is the
healty action of the intestines ; the other, the irritability of the
stomach, dependent upon  disease.  But  we are again asked
shall we not give  an emetic to disengage the offending  matter
from the stomach ?  What 1  increase the irritability ?  Would
it not be better to  allay it?   But it  is again said;  the  emetic
acts by relaxation I   Relax the stomach—deprive it of its ener-
gy—subdue  its ability, to compel it to evacuate its contents?
This is incomprehensible; but  were this  even probable, and
were I to admit it to  be  so, by such relaxation, might not perma-
nent  injury  accrue  to  the stomach?  It is frequently asked
does not nature produce nausea  in young  children  when the
stomach becomes over charged ?  What organ  will not disgorge
itself,  when  overloaded;  the blood vessels  themselves are
        13 
146             KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.

ruptured when over  loaded.  Does such an illustration argue
the indispensability of emetics ?   The safest stept, is to avoid
the danger altogether.
   I think  every  judicious  practitioner  will agree with me in
this particular.  The proper and only course of the alimentary
canal is downward.   It is the course clearly pointed out in the
anatomy of all animated beings.   To institute emetics, is to re-
verse nature's known and obvious laws.  Who that will reflect
for one moment, but must perceive the injurious action of emet-
ics, particularly in bilious affections, where they are so frequent-
ly prescribed.  I do not mean to be understood,  that emetics
are invariably useless ; there may be cases where they may
prove beneficial; it is their too frequent use that I object to.  In
cases of insufficient  secretion of bile, or a  torpid state of the
liver, emetics, so far as to restore  this secretion, would  be useful;
but if persisted in further, they would produce mischief.  Again,
an emetic would be useful, where it were necessary  to evacu-
ate immediately  the  contents of the  stomach, as in cases of
swallowing some  powerful escharotic or narcotic,—yet in gen-
eral, their use is seldom required.  The use  of emetics has led
many physicians into error.   They generally have a sudorific
effect,  in  consequence  of the excitement  produced by  their
operation ; and the benefits  arising therefrom, are attributed to
the evacuation of the stomach.   Where emetics are employed,
we are decidedly opposed to tartarized  antimony, as this rrti-
cle, it is well known, is capable in the form of ointment, of pro.
ducing  pustules upon the skin,  when externally applied.  It
cannot therefore, be  difficult for us to imagine what must be
their action upon the tender coats of  the stomach.   If used at
all, vegetable emetics, are far the least objectionable.
   The evils  which are produced by the absorption of bile into
the blood, we have before stated  ; yet there are other points
which might interest our attention.  The bile appears to be the 
KEY  TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
147
only fluid separated from venous blood which is applied to any
useful purpose in the animal economy ; it appears in a measure
the connecting link between animal and vegetable substances,
by the office which it  performs, as it is impossible for the nu-
tritive part of our food  to be separated from the general mass
of food thrown into  the intestines, without the aid of this im-
portant fluid.   All the other secretions from the venous blood,
are thrown from  the system by the various excretory organs,
as that which is useless  and inappropriate  for the growth and
support of the body.
   We shall now enter  upon a most important task, the illustra-
tion of  the brain  and nerves, in which we  may  advance opin-
ions from the views which we  entertain, of a very different
character, from that generally advocated by medical men.  It
has been usual to consider all the nerves as emanating and de-
riving their origin and support from the brain.  We shall, how-
ever, present a different view, and consider the entire nervous
system  as originating from  two distinct  sources, from which
they derive entire different properties ; and their uses in the
animal  economy  of an entire distinct application.   We  shall
contend that there are two distinct nervous  systems of an en-
tirely different character, one having its origin in the brain, and
the other in the spleen, which  by the illustrations which we
think we shall be able  to make, may in a  measure at least in-
duce further investigation.  We are aware  that anatomists
have not heretofore assigned any particular uses to the spleen.
We, on the contrary, consider it one of the most important or-
gans of the human body.  It is situated on the left  side between
the  eleventh and twelfth  false ribs, in contact  with the dia-
phragm beneath  and behind  the  stomach,  and  between the
stomach and spinal column.
   The  spleen or milt is a spongy, dark, red substance, of an ob-
long, round  figure,  larger when  the stomach is empty  than 
148
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
when full, convex towards the ribs, and concave internally,
with an excavation, in which vessels are inserted.   It forms
connections with various organs by ligaments,  vessels, nerves,
&c., as the stomach, caul, left kidney, diaphragm, peritoneum,
pancreas, large intestines, &c. It is covered with a strong mem-
brane, which adheres to it very firmly.  The splenic artery pur-
sues a serpentine rout over the pancreas, and behind the stomach
in which it gives off branches to neighbouring parts, then enters
the concave surface of the  spleen,  where it ramifies into nu-
merous smaller arteries,  from  which it  is  taken  up by small
veins, which  uniting with  each  other,  form the splenic vein,
which uniting with the coronary vein of  the stomach, and some
others, form the left branch of the vena porta.   It is admitted
that the spleen receives a larger supply  of blood than is neces-
sary for its mere nutrition ; but in what manner this blood is
appropriated, has ever been  matter of conjecture.  Some have
supposed, that by its intimate connection with the stomach—it    *
performed some important office in digestion, but the idea has
hitherto been considered but speculative.  That the  spleen re-
ceives a greater supply of arterial blood  than any other organ
of the human body of  similar  size (the  brain alone  excepted)
is a fact which cannot be refuted.  And further, that such arte-
rial blood, after having become venous, as in the splenic veins,    t
is incapable of coagulation, a circumstance which does not ma-   '
nifest this result from the venous blood of any other proportions
of the system whatever, shewing  most conclusively  that in the
spleen a greater proportion of the essential and vital constitu-
ents of the blood  must be in a greater degree exhausted, than
in any other organ.
   The brain is a  large, round organ, situated within the cra-
nium, surrounded by a thick, and somewhat opaque, and insen-
siber membrane, formed  by two layers, which  defends the
brain, and adheies strongly to the internal surface of  the era- 
KEY TO MEDICAL  SCIENCE.
149
nium.   This membrane is supplied with blood from the inter-
nal maxillary artery, which is a branch of the external carotid
artery : when it reaches this membrane called the dura mater,
it divides  into three or four ramifications and spreads  itself
throughout  the dura mater, to the anterior, middle  and poste-
rior lobes of the  brain.  The brain is thus constantly large-
ly supplied with arterial blood.
  From these two important organs, the brain and  the spleen,
we shall base our doctrines of the nervous system, leaving the
opinion entertained by some distinguished anatomists, " that a
certain portion of the nerves  have their  origin in the spinal
column " for the reflection  of the reader,  after he  shall  have
investigated the principles herein presented.   The nerves are
the great source from which we derive every sensation either
of pleasure or pain—they ramify minutely into every portion
and part of the human body, thus imparting feeling  and sensa-
tion.   By means  of nerves, we see ; by means of nerves, we
hear;  by means  of nerves, we smell;  by means  of nerves,
we taste; by means  of nerves, every power and sensation
which we enjoy  is imparted to us; were it not for those
nerves of sensation, we could not be possessed of intelligence.
How can a  blind  man judge of colours ? how can a deaf man
judge of sound ?—how can an individual distinguish between
sweet  and sour, except by taste ?  how can we distinguish ar-
ticles by their smell, except by the olfactory nerves.   What
would be our situation deprived of the nervous system ? could
we reason ? could we calculate ? could we reflect ? could we
think?  would we  be capable of judgment? would  we  be
capable of receiving one  sensible impression ? could  motive
for the performance of any act be  engendered ?  or could we
possess the will or the power to perform any act whatever in-
dependent of the nervous system?   According to the strength
of the nervous system, are our powers of mind, our energies,
       13* 
150
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
 our talents.  It is by their powers, that we derive and retain
 information and  knowledge.   Hence is perceived the cause
 why it is, that the mind of one individual is more sagacious and
 penetrating than another ; and why it is, that one becomes in-
 sane whilst another remains sane.   Why it is, that the mind of
 one man is directed in one channel, and another directly the
 contrary—that one is credulous and another incredulous—thai
 one receives impressions and convictions, which another does
 not.  It is the different structures of the nervous system.  We
 have but spoken of the nerves  of  sensation, which have their
 origin in the brain, from which they receive their support, and
 from which they derive their power to act.  All the nerves o'
 sensation communicate  with  the  brain,  and instantaneously
 communicate  information to the brain on  every occasion.—
 The eye perceives danger—how ?  Through the medium of
 light acting upon the optic nerve, which sensation being instant-
 ly conveyed to the brain by the optic nerve, other  nervous
 powers are instantly placed in  requisition by  the brain, the
 grand focus and superintending agent of the nervous power to
 escape the danger.  Thus is intelligence imparted to the brain
 and judgment determined.  Judgment, reason, reflection, &c..
 are the result of the union of  the different nervous powers of
 sensation.  We can have no cognizance  of mind independent
 of matter, and that the result of a peculiar organization.   The
nerves of sensation are straight cords, of a white colour, exten-
 ding to all parts of the animal  frame, and in some parts very
numerous, and so small, and  their course so intricate, that it
has been impossible for the anatomist to detect them ; yet the
 evidence of their existence  cannot be matter of doubt, it is
 confirmed by sensation itself.
   We now enter upon the illustration of another set of nerves,
 which for distinction  sake,  we  shall denominate   Organic
Nerves, which we allege are of a very different character and 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
151
their purpose and office, of an entirely contrary order.   They
likewise run throughout every portion and part of the system,
often along side of the nerves of sensation, and in some instances
enclosed within the same sheath ; but never uniting or forming
a part or portion of the nerves of sensation ; neither do they
draw their support, from the same source which the nerves of
sensation do;  and although their small twigs may  enter  the
dura-mater of the brain, and even into the substance of  the
brain itself, yet are they not found  uniting with the nerves
proceeding from the brain, or receiving support from the brain,
but on the contrary, imparting important properties to that or.
gan.   We find these organic nerves, running along arteries in-
tertwining themselves in their sheaths and even in many cases
forming almost the internal coats of arteries.  Where they enter
arteries or form the internal coats of arteries, they are of a more
pulpy or softer mass, than when pursuing their  devious  routes
through the system.  The organic nerves are distinguished from
the others  by their colour and consistence, being neither so
white  or  dense, but of a  dingy and flocculent appearance.
They again very materially differ from the nerves of sensation,
by their forming in various parts, knots or enlargements ; some-
times there are several of these knots or  enlargements together,
whieh are called by  anatomists, ganglions  and plexuses,  and
some  physicians have considered them, as the formation of
small brains in the nerves, out of which enlargements, a num-
ber of those nerves arise and follow diversified routes.
  To trace the  history of this system of nerves, from its first
origin in embryo, will  in a great degree, satisfy the mind of
its separate existence, apart from the nerves of sensation,  and
plainly show that the brain and nerves originate  therefrom, are
clearly of secondary formation ;  and that the existence of the
brain itself, with the  nerves of sensation,  depended  on  the
organic nerves.   Why this  existing difference, in the nervous 
152
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
system'should have so long escaped the attention of acute ana-
tomists, is not easy to determine ; but it doubtless must have
more or less excited their attention, from the very different
character and appearance existing between these two systems
of nerves;  but  the determination heretofore, to trace  all the
nerves  to the brain, as  the common origin,  has no  doubt,
caused this important consideration to be overlooked.
  In the first formation of this system of nerves in the foetus,
whilst  it is  no more  than a sack, we distinguish its nervous
system to be that of  a mere fibre, and while the foetus gradu-
ally  becomes compounded of different  organs, we perceive
that  this system of nerves, (the organic nerves) become  more
complex and complicated, with  the  addition of ganglia and
plexuses, from which emanate  the nervous fibre, which, rami-
fying through the different organs, arteries, and some veins, as
the pulmonary and vena porta,  each of these fibrils superinten-
ding the organ under its immediate  controul, and all acting in
perfect harmony with each other, whilst  the original fibre first
discovered, has  continued to enlarge and extend itself from the
cranium to the  os sacrum, the lower extremities of the  body
which is now generally called the great intercostal or sympathe-
tic nerve.  It is at a  much later period of gestation, when the
brain, its nerves and the spinal  column are formed. The  knots
or nodules,  called ganglia, are the  reservoirs for the nervous
fluid deposited  there for the support of this system of nerves,
which they have directly drawn from the arterial blood. Hence
is perceived that the  brain and nerves are an after formation,
a secondary thought of nature.
  As the organic nerves are the primitive formations, and can
neither  be  traced to the brain  nor spinal marrow (although
most authors contend that they  can, but have no other evidence
of it than conjecture)they most evidently cannot be nerves of
sensation.  That the  organic nerves perform a very important 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
153
part in the animal economy, it would be folly to deny.   Now
the fact cannot be denied that the nerves, proceeding from the
brain, are the organs of sensation and motion.   If they were
not the organs of sensation,  how could they convey informa-
tion to the brain ?  If they were not the organs of motion, why
do we  move or act by the will emanating from the brain ?  but
where a nerve is cut or severed, thereby destroying or impair-
ing its connexion with the brain.   The brain may direct, but
such nerve cannot perform.   The power of moving a part is
lost the instant that the nerves entering it  are cut.   But there
are other motions of the body, such as do not depend upon the
will : these are called involuntary motions ; they are the mo-
tions over which the will cannot exercise controul, and conse-
quently cannot be connected with the nerves of sensation and
motion.  Such involuntary motion we  find governing the heart,
the lungs, the  diaphragm, the bowels, the  kidneys, the stomach
and the pancreas ; and  we might ask with the utmost proprie-
ty, what portion or part of the human system is there in which
this involuntary motion is  not evinced,  under some form or
other—a motion and action  which is not at all  governed by
the will.  We have the evidence of the existing supeiintend-
ence of the organic nerves over the  various organs, and in a
measure the source from which they derive their support, and
can they not be plainly traced to every organ ?   What office
is there  then left  for them  to perform, than this involuntary
motion ? and  which action is  indispensable for  the growth,
strength, and support of all animated beings.
   As  the nerves of sensation, or cerebral  nerves (so called)
have  one general reservoir for the nervous fluid,  and from
which they derive their energy of action, it is but reasonable
to conclude that the organic nerves required a similar struc-
ture.   That organ we think we  shall  be  able conclusively to
show  is the  spleen,  to which we have before referred.  The 
154
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
   spleen is invariably found in all the larger and more perfect
   class  of animals ;  all those animals possessing a brain have
   likewise the spleen, and those found without the brain are like-
   wise devoid of the spleen.   The inference is therefore conclu"
   sive that the  spleen must perform some important office in the
   animal economy;  and further, that there is necessarily some im-
   portant connection between them, the brain and spleen.  They
   resemble each other in various particulars, they are both very
   largely supplied with blood, the structure of both are  peculiar
   and soft, their membranes are of like texture.   In a variety of
   circumstances do they agree with each other.   The spleen lies
   in close contact with the great sympathetic nerve.  The spleen
   is connected  with this system of nerves in a variety of instan-
   ces, they are  found  arising out of the spleen,  and  pursuing
   their devious routes to various organs, others are found running
   directly from the spleen  to ganglions  and plexus us.   In the
   sheath of the  splenic artery entering the spleen, these nerves
   are extremely numerous.   The whole  spleen is chiefly com-
   posed of white fibre, similar to the  brain, and of nerves, veins,
   and arteries.
      We here perceive  the direct connection of the spleen, with
   the organic system  of nerves.  We perceive the large sup-
   ply of arterial blood, which it constantly is receiving, fresh
   from  the heart;  the  important change  and loss  which this
   blood meets with in the spleen, is it from thence to be conclu-
   ded that th's important organ, is of no use in the animal econo-
   my—if so, upon what principle, shall we account for these re-
!   suits ?   It has be said  that  the spleen has been removed without
|   injury.  Some instances have occurred, where it has been re-
I   moved from animalg, and they have continued for a while, to
   survive, but  not  with unimpaired health.  In  man,  even  a
   wound of the spleen, has proved as certain and  as quickly fatal
   as  if  inflicted upon  the brain.  That the spleen is to the or- 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
155
ganic nerves, what the brain is to the nerves of sensation, can-
not be an opinion devoid of consideration.  The existing evi-
dences, that it is such, are of the same character, that enables
us to determine the brain, to be the grand reservoir of senso-
rial power.
  The spleen then being the  source  from Which the organic
nerves, together with the arteries, as before shown, derive their
support,  their powers and energies  ; and those organic nerves
extending themselves, and ramifying throughout the various
organs, govern, perform, produce and keep up this involuntary
motion, by  a power  which  they derived from the  arterial
blood, and imparted  to them by both the spleen and arteries.
Then follows this most important  principle, that the organic
nerves thus  maintained by the  spleen  and  arteries, are the
grand source and cause of both  secretion and excretion ; that
they are the great and ostensible sources for both the  growth
and decay of the human body.   We here perceive the great
wisdom in the  designs of Providence by our organization, that
while one set of nerves are ordained to govern, guide,  and re-
gulate the growth, action, motion, strength, sustenance, &c, of
the human  body— another set  is  subsequently instituted as
centinels to watch,  to notify, to  give the  alarm  when  danger
approaches,  or any organ or portion of the system is subject-
ed to a  course not in  accordance  with the laws of health by
their sensitive principle.   Thus,  then,  does this system of
nerves govern the peristaltic motion of the  bowels—the mo-
tions of the heart,Mungs, diaphragm, arteries, &c. and likewise,
by the action of these nerves, is the bile, blood, gastric juice,
pancreatic juice,  urine, and in short,  all  the  fluids  and solids
of the  human body produced and formed, and  their various
actions and involuntary motions constantly maintained.
  In  evidence of this fact, we  will here quote from a work
now in our possession, the case of an injury to the spleen, and 
156
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
if practical illustrations will furnish  the strongest testimony, in
favour of the position, which  we have  taken, we cannot but
think they must be conclusive. It says the case " was that of a
man in the prime and vigor of life, who was knocked down by
a piece of timber, striking upon his  left  side and  back.   The
shock deprived him for a period of breath, and was accompa-
nied by sharp pain.  In a short time, however, he so far recov-
ered, as to rise and walk, and the next day was able to resume
his business, and although  he  complained of neither sickness
nor pain, he looked wan and dejected, his movements were less
firm and determinate than usual, and he  had neither appetite
nor thirst.   Little variation took place in his condition, except
increase  of debility and deeper dejection  expressed  in  his
countenance, for several days.   On the  10th day he was siezed
with convulsions.  In the intervals,  he complained of general
lassitude and prickling sensations in the limbs, his respiration
was anxious and hurried ;  his pulse was very feeble and slow,
and occasionally  irregularly  intermittent; the  tongue  was
clean, smooth and tremulous; temperature reduced so much as
to  impart  a  feeling of  coldness : he had taken  no food,  nor
voided excrement.  When desired  to  impart  his  feelings,  he
distinctly stated, that he felt as if his whole insides were dead,
and that he was confident they  had been so, ever since ho re-
ceived the blow, as he had never felt them move or act as he
was wont to do, — and that they felt  heavy."    In opposi_
tion to expressions of hope of recovery by  his friends, he re.
joined " No—no ;  I am not mistaken ; my  insides are dead,
and you will soon find that the outsides will not  long survive
them."   He  was insensible to the  impression of every medi-
cinal agent.  The convulsions  continued to return, time after
time, until at length they subsided  in the tranquility of coma
and death. 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
157
   The spleen alone exhibited marks of injury.  It appeared as
 if it had been crushed, and all its interior structure destroyed ;
 yet there was no rupture of its coats  The abdominal viscera
 generally, had the decayed appearance they usually present a
 considerable time after death.  The cadaverous smell was per-
 haps unusually great.   The lungs were considerably engorged
 with blood, giving them the aspect of hepatization.
   There was nothing remarkable in any other structure."
   Many cases of a similar character might be introduced were
 it necessary : they are familiar with many practical physicians-
   That  the spleen is so greatly concerned in a vast number of
 affections of the body, is so  conclusively evident,  that its func-
 tions can scarcely be  doubted ; in many of the derangements
 of the liver, stomach  and bowels,  intermittent and  remittent
 fever &c, the spleen exhibits the  strongest marks of derange-
 ment.
   As to the power  derived from the arterial blood for the sup-
 ply of this system of nerves, we have before referred to, and it
 is only necessary  here to remark, that  it  would appear  by
 the specific and direct action of the organic nerves, that they be-
 come quickly or instantaneously charged with electricity and
 as quickly impart it to  the various organs,  probably  as every
 volume of arterial blood is thrown from the heart, evincing that
 peculiar balance of power,  existing between positive and ne-
 gative electricity, (so  called,) and  is observable by placing
 small figures between a body charged with electric fluid, and a
 body less charged with it, called by some, the electrical dance.
   The  composition of the nervous  fluid,  which is not of so
 volatile  a  character as to be disengaged,  it is of importance
 to understand ;  as it evinces the constituents required to keep
 up a healthy action  of those organs in the system.  The chem-
ists who  have examined the nature of the brain, are Thouret,
Fourcroy and Vauquilin.  Vauquilin made quite an elaborate
        14 
  158             KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCJ.

  analysis of the brain, in which he gives us the following as the
  constituents in 100 parts, watei 80 ;  albumen 7 ; white fatty
 matter 4.53 ; red fatty matter 0.7 ; osmazome  1.12, which is
 a principle  abundantly found in all  animal matter, and it is
 doubtful whether it be any thing other than fibrine, for it is ob-
 tained by digesting that substance in water; phosphorus  1.5
 and acids, salts, and sulphur 5.45.  Couerbe has discovered in
 the brain a large quantity of cholesterine, which is a substance
 somewhat allied to spermaceti, and is supposed to be produced
 by deranged vascular  action.  M. Couerbe also  states that the
 brain  of persons of sound intellect usually contains from 2 to
 2% per cent, of phosphorus .* in  the brain  of idiots, the phos-
 phorus about 1 to l£per cent., and in maniacs it amounts to 3,
 4, and 4J per cent.
   We shall not be able, in the present  edition of our work, to
 give that extensive illustration, of the chemical constituents
 of the  fluids and  solids of the human  body, as many  perhaps
 might  desire, we shall therefore, touch but slightly upon some
 more of them, and progress to illustrate the important changes
 to which animal matter is subjected.
   The gastric juice, is that  fluid which  is secreted  by  the
 mucous or lining  membrane of the stomach, and thrown into
 the stomach, for the purpose of dividing or dissolving the food
 taken into the stomach, into small particles.  The power of this
 fluid, in many  cases, is very great, as in  the Ostrich, where
 cases have occured of  its even having the power of dissolving
copper, and even so great, has its solvent powers been known
 in man, as to dissolve  the coats of the stomach itself.  The
 celebrated physiologist, John Hunter, ascribed the corrosions
of this  organ, to this cause, as sometimes witnessed in persons
who have  died  suddenly, while fasting  and in  good health.
This fact has been more fully proved by the distinguished Dr.
Carswell, and recorded in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgi- 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
159
 cal Journal, October, 1830.  The nature of the  gastric juice,
 for a long time baffled the skill of medical philosophers, from
 the difficulty of procuring it in sufficient quantities and of suf-
 ficient purity for an accurate analysis.  The gastric juice is
 not the same in all animals, for many animals cannot digest the
 food  on which  others live.  The hemlock, for instance, is a
 poison to man, yet the goat often feeds upon it.  Sheep live
 wholly on  vegetables,  and it would therefore be difficult for
 them to digest animal food ;  yet by perseverance they may be
 rendered capable of it—so with man, habituate him to the use
 of any article, although  it might be  poison to  others, yet from
 the constant use of it, he would become so inured to its action
 that little if any injury would accrue.   This is the case with
 the free use of opium, tobacco, &c.
   From all  these circumstances we need not be surprised at the
 contradictory accounts  given us respecting the properties of
 the gastric juice in man  ;  neither is it worth while to trans-
 cribe them.   Sometimes it has been alleged to be acid, at oth-
 er times, not.  Spallanzani supposed that its acidity was caus-
 ed by the food ; and when he fed on vegetables and fruits en-
 closed in tubes,  they  were sometimes altered and a little di-
 minished in  weight, just as if they had  been  put into weak vin-
 egar ; but when he used only animal  food, it came  out un-
 touched.   According to him the gastric juice  is naturally nei-
 ther acid nor alkaline.    The result, however, of the experi-
 ments of Spallanzani shows that the  gastric juice attacks the
 surface of bodies, unites to the particles of them, which it car-
 ries off and cannot be separated from them by  filtration.  The
 food is not merely  reduced to very minute parts, but its taste
and smell are quite changed, its sensitive  properties are de-
 stroyed, and it acquires new and  different ones.   That 4he gas-
 tric juice  does not act as a ferment ; so far from it, that it is a
 powerful antiseptic; and even restores flesh already putrified. 
160
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
There is not the smallest appearance of such a process ; in-
deed when the juice  is renewed frequently, as in the stomach,
substances dissolve in it with a rapidity which excludes all idea
of fermentation ; only a  few  air bubbles make their escape,
which adhere  to the alimentary matter, and  buoy it up to the
top, and which are  probably extricated by the heat of  the so-
lution.  For further remarks illustrative of the knowledge pos-
sessed upon this important fluid, but a few years since, we will
give  the following  extract from  an author  some time since
published.   " With respect to the substances contained in the
stomach, only two facts have  been  perfectly  ascertained : the
first is, that the juice contained in the stomach of oxen, calves,
sheep,  invariably contains  uncombined  phosphoric acid, as
Macquart  and Vauquelin have demonstrated  : the second.that
the juice contained  in the stomach,  and even  the inner coat of
the stomach itself has the property of coagulating milk and the
serum  of blood.  Dr. Young, found  that seven grains of the
inner coat of a calf's stomach, infused in  water, gave a liquid
which coagulated more than 100 ounces of milk, that is to say,
more than 6857 times its  own weight ; and yet, in  all proba-
bility, its weight was not much diminshed."
   " What the substance is which  possesses this  coagulating
 property has not yet been  ascertained ; but  it is evidently not
very soluble in water : for the inside of a calf's stomach, after
 being steeped in water for six  hours, and then well washed
 with water, still furnishes a liquor on infusion  which coagulates
 milk;  and Dr. Young found that a piece of  the inner coat of
 the stomach, after  being previously washed with water, and
 then with a diluted  solution of carbonate of potash, still afford-
 ed a liquid which coagulated milk and serum."
   " It  is  evident, from these  facts, that this coagulating sub-
 stance whatever it is,  acts  very  powerfully ;  and that it is
 scarcely  possible to separate  it  completely from the stomach, 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
161
But we know at present too little of the nature of coagulation
to be able to draw any inference from these facts.   An almost
imperceptible quantity of some substances seems to be suffi-
cient to coagulate milk : For Mr. Vaillant mentions, in his tra-
vels in Africa, that a porcelain dish  which he procured, and
which  had lain for  some years  at the bottom of the sea, pos-
sessed, in consequence, the property of coagulating milk when
put into it; yet it communicated no taste to the milk, and  did
dot differ in appearance from other cups."
  " It  is  probable that the  saliva is of service in the conversion
of food into chyme as well as the gastric juice.   It evidently
serves to dilute the food ;  and probably it may be serviceable
also by communicating oxgen."
   Such was  the existing state of knowledge in respect to the
gastric juice  but a few years ago, when an important but acci-
dental circumstances brought it before  the world, in a way by
which its properties and character could not fail  to  become
understood.
   We will now introduce testimony upon the nature and pro-
perties of the gastric juice, of u nature which cannot be mista-
ken.   William Beaumont,  M.  D. a  Surgeon in the  United
States Army,  whilst stationed at Michillimackinac, Michigan
Territory, in 1822, had a case of surgery under his care, which
affords the most complete opportunity for the investigation of
this subject in every particular.  The subject was a Canadian,
about eighteen years of age, of good constitution,  robust and
healthy, but was accidentally  wounded by the discharge  of a
musket which consisted of powder and  duck shot, in  the  left
side, which entered posteriorily, and in an oblique direction, fo-
ward and inward, literally  blowing off integuments and muscles
of the size of a man's hand, fracturing and carrying away the
anterior half of the sixth rib, fracturing the fifth, lacerating the
lower  portion of the left lobe of the lungs, the diaphragm, and
          14* 
J 62
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
perforating  the  stomach, which  was  larcerated through  all
its coats, and pouring out the food through  an orifice, large
enough to admit the forefinger.   Under the distinguished sur-
gical skill of Dr. Beaumont,  this individual recovered and a
few years ago lived in  the  enjoyment  of good health.  The
wound of the stomach did not close and adhere by cicatrization
as ordinarily, but formed an aperture in the stomach and side,
over which a small fold or doubling of the coats, of the internal
portion of the stomach formed a valve, which covered the ori-
fice.  Here an  opportunity was offered for the most ample  in-
vestigation of the properties of the gastric juice ;  and for ascer-
taining its action on the food, with every particular which could
be desired ; and which the Doctor fully availed himself of.  By
pressing  the valve when the stomach was full, its contents
would flow out freely.   When the stomach was  nearly empty
and quiescent, the interior of the cavity might  be examined to
the depth of five or six inches, if kept  distended, by artificial
means; and the  food  and drink might be  seen  entering it, if
swallowed at this time.
   We are indebted  to Dr. Beaumont for many illustrations on
this important subject.   His experiments upon the various pro-
perties of the gastric juice, were continued for a great length
of time, and from the  favourable  opportunity which he had,
could not fail to render them correct.  In order to show the
chemical  properties of the gastric juice thus obtained, I will
only introduce the copy of a letter from Professor Dunglison,
Professor of Chemistry in the  Virginia University, to whom
Dr. Beaumont had sent a portion for analysis. 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
163
                           " University of Virginia,
                                    February  6th, 1833.
" My dear Sir : —
  " Since I last wrote you, my friend and colleague, Professor
Emmelt, and myself, have examined the bottle of gastric fluid
which I brought with me from Washington, and we have found
it to contain free muriatic and acetic acid, phosphates and mu-
riates, with  bases of potassa?, soda, magnesia and lime, and an
animal matter, soluble in cold water, but insoluble in hot.  We
were satisfied, you recollect, in Washington, that free muriatic
acid was present, but I had  no conception it existed to the
amount met with in  our experiments here.   We distilled the
gastric  fluid, when  the free  acid passed over; the salts and
animal matter remaining in the retort.   The quantity of chlor.
ide  of  silver thrown down on the addition of the nitrate of
silver, was astonishing."
  Thus is perceived, that  the gastric juice contains free muri-
atic acid, and if so, is it difficult to determine how it is that the
food in the stomach  is dissolved into fine partcles.  The expe-
riment is easily made by placing a piece of meat in muriatic
acid.
  Having  shown  the  constituents  and actions  of the prin-
cipal fluids and solids of the body, let us lead the mind of the
reader back to  another  most important principle then not fully
explained—the principle op life !   We perceive the vari-
ous organs to be compounded of the same materials of matter
which surround us, and the powers  which organize them are
the known laws of nature.  Then does  life depend upon orga-
nization ; and  the result of certain  organization is what we
term life.  All of which  is independent  of any specific vital
principle, which ignorance and presumption have supposed to
exist.   As it respects vital principles,  we may consider that
there are many, but no one of them is indefinable or incompre- 
164
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
hensible — they  are the result of known and obvious laws.—
Can a person live without lungs ?   No.   Then are they a vital
principle !  Can  he live without a brain ?  Then is that a vital
principle!  Can  he live without a heart ?  Then is that a vital
principle!  Can  he live without  nerves?   Then are  they
vital principles! and  thus  might we refer to every organ or
fluid of the human body, and consider them as vital principles ;
but they are  not indefinable vital principles ;  they are compre-
hensible !  Yet  neither is organization life !    Every organ of
the human body may  exist in a state of perfection—yet that
is not life.   Notwithstanding, life cannot exist without this or-
ganization.   Life  yet  depends on  other existing laws, which
must be  brought into  requisition before the great  principle of
life can be developed.   The organization of man was thus per-
fect when first emanating from the hand of his creator; but it
was not life, neither was it such  until Deity " breathed into
him the breath of life, and he became a living  soul."  Then
are other laws in requisition to produce and support life !  Can
a man live without air ?  Can he live without food ?   Can he
live without water ?   Thus it is perceived that life is the result
of certain  laws, and  those the laws of Nature and no other.
But those laws must act in concert,  and in  union with  each
other; and if one  of them is  violated,  death as a necessary
consequence  follows.   If any portion of the  organization ne-
cessary  for  the maintenance  of life, be  rendered incapable
of performing its requisite  functions, or those organs  be  de-
prived of those  agents which  exist in either food, drink, or
air,  so absolutely and indispensably necessary for their suste-
nance, a cessation of  their action  takes place (which may be
termed  vital  action)  and  that which we call death  at once
follows.
   We must again  request the reader to cast his eye back a few
 pages,  where we contended, that animal matter was the pro- 
KEY  TO MEDICAL  SCIENCE.
165
duct of vegetable ;  and traced the growth of the  human
frame from infancy to manhood, showing that from the arterial
blood by the constituents which it  acquired, constantly nour-
ished and supported the system, and that  the arterial blood
eventually entered the small capillaries, or blood vessels of the
skin, from which it entered the veins and was again conveyed
to the heart.
  The important circumstance to be here related is the changes
and actions, which under various circumstances can take place
in animal  matter.   Heretofore we have only spoken of its for-
mation, the powers by which it is formed and its composition
when formed.  That we are constantly subjected to change,
every moment of our lives, from the cradle to  the grave, the
slightest observation furnishes the most conclusive evidence.
Take an animal, or if you choose, let the most robust and cor-
pulent individual be placed in a condition where he can obtain
no more than sufficient food to sustain life, is it not evident that
in such  situation his flesh would  all waste away, and he be-
come a  mere skeleton—then  again permit him to partake of
food, in  the quantities required; is it not reasonable to conclude
that he would again recover his flesh.  Man may  be compared
to a stream of running water, like it, he is constantly  passing
away and as constantly resupplied ; first by the agency of food,
through the  agency of the stomach ;  and secondly  by oxygen
and electricity, through the medium of the lungs.  The same
identical particles of matter which composed our system but
yesterday, does not to day.  The system is at all times constant-
ly undergoing composition and decomposition.    Philosophers
have differed in their opinions respecting the time required to
produce an entire  change in the human body, some have com.
puted the time at seven years, others  again at four and even
three ; that  is, that seven years ago, no portion of matter that
now constitutes our frame, did then—nor will there sevan years 
166
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
 hence any portions of matter, that now constitute  our system
 constitute  it at  that time ;  but all be decomposed and passed
 away, whilst its place is resupplied with new and other identi-
 cal particles of matter.   To determine this point, many experi-
 ments have been made, such as feeding an ox, madder &c, in
 which cases the bones  themselves, have been found so far im-
 pregnated  with  the  madder dye,  that no  chemical process
 employed could disengage the colour.
   The specific actions in animals, which constitute this change,
 it is of the greatest importance to understand ,as upon those ac.
 tions in a great degree, depends our philosophy,  in the treat-
 ment of disease.   When the decomposition in the human sys-
 tem progresses with too great rapidity, disease follows, as de-
 bility, exhaustion, an impoverished  state  of the  system, &c.
 When not  progressing  with sufficient  rapidity, then do accu-
 mulations take place, giving rise to plethora, fulness of the
 blood vessels, corpulency, dropsy, &c, which in their turn, pro-
 duce debility and diseases of a more violent  character.   We
 here perceive a line of health, above which, we require not the
 aid of excitants, nor beneath which we require not the aid of se-
 datives.  As to the specific actions, that can be produced upon
 animal matter, they are  few.  In this respect, animal matter
 does not differ from vegetable, except  in character.   Among
 all the diseases which flesh is  heir to, and under any circum-
 stance that can be named, or in any, or all the various diseases,
 which nosologists  have  swelled   to  the most inordinate num-
 ber, there can be but three direct actions.  Cullen makes the
 number of diseases 149, Macbride 180, Sauvages 315, Lin-
 naeus 326, Sagar  351,  and Vogal swells  the number to 560,
 whilst some modern authors undertake to  show, that they ex-
ceed 700.   Medical  men  seem to have been determined, to
multiply the number  of  diseases  to an incredible number, as
if their popularity  in a great degree, depended upon the dis- 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
167
 covery of some new disease, and have exhausted their voca-
 bulary in order to find a name by which they  might christen,
 as they supposed, some new disease.  This doctrine of numer-
 ous diseases, has led to the principles  of different treatment
 for each disease, and the introduction of a vast variety of medi-
 cinal remedies ; and has  likewise, most eminently subserved
 the purpose, of rendering the science much more prolix, indefi-
 nable  and incomprehensible,  which in all probability, might
 be a desirable circumstance with those whose interest it might
 be, to continue its mystification.  But this doctrine of numerous
 diseases, has likewise led to the most incorrect principles in
 practice,  from the very fact,  that those symptoms which led
 to the opinion, that  a new disease had  made its appearance,
 was no other than the symptoms of a disease already existing,
 and thus, has it become the almost prevailing practice, to treat
 the symptoms of a disease  as a distinct disease in itself; whilst
 the original organ diseased, and which produced the existing
 symptoms, was left unattended to, to pursue its course until the
 organ  itself had become a mass of irrecoverable obstruction.
   By  contending, that  but  three direct actions can be  pro-
 duced upon animal matter, I do not wish to be misunderstood ;
 I do not mean to say, there are but three diseases.  There are
 a number of different diseases, which are all different in char-
 acter, and require different treatment; but they are  far, very
 far, from being so numerous as the  folly of some have  sup-
 posed.
   The first action that can be produced on animal matter, is ir-
 ritation,which is succeeded by inflammation, and  which is again
 succeeded by putrefaction. If I rub my hand it is irritation,which
 irritation produces inflammation, and  which inflammation will
 produce decomposition, the formation of pus or putrefaction.—
 These actions are then taking place every moment of our lives.
" What" says my learned and dignified opponent, "are we in a 
163
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
 state of putrefaction ?  Do you presume to say that the human
 body, while in a state of health, is undergoing putrefaction ?" I
 did not say so, and had I, how far should I have been incorrect?
 I do not wish to be understood to say, that the  principles of
 putrefaction are developed during life, any more than 1 would
 that a stream of running  water is in a state of putrefaction ;
 but it contains the principles of putrefaction, which  are  devel-
 oped the instant it becomes a stagnant pool.  So with the hu-
 man body,  whilst the heart continues to  propel  the  blood
 through the  system, putrefaction cannot be said in the  sense
 which we understand it to have taken place, but so soon as this
 power and action is suspended, like the pond of stagnant water,
 putrefaction progresses with rapidity.
   Although this decomposition is constantly taking place in the
 system,  by which  putrescent  matter is continually forming ;
 nature, in her wise  designs, has kindly so organized us as to
 escape the difficulties arising therefrom, by constituting us with
 certain excretory organs, that this putrescent matter might be
 thrown from the system as fast as it is formed, in order that the
 fluids should not be contaminated with its deleterious proper-
 ties.  The principal  and essential excretory organs are the
 skin, the bowels and  kidneys.  There are, notwithstanding, a
 vast many cases where those excretory organ-?, or some one of
 them, do not freely perform their office.  When this happens,
 instead of the decomposed  or putrescent matter being thrown
 from the  system, as fast as it is formed, a portion of it at least
 is retained, and  when retained, the veins  being absorbing ves-
 sels, take it up, from which serious difficulties and disease may
 arise.  In this way are fevers produced.    In fever, the skin is
 dry, the  bowels costive, the kidneys inefficiently perform  their
 office.    All the excretory organs are in a measure inactive—
 the change is partially suspended.  But so soon as this change
is  again  properly progressing—the instr<nt  we  can produce 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
169
 perspiration, and a healthy action of the excretory organs, fe-
 ver is gone ;  then is this  morbid or putrescent matter thrown
 off, and the system relieved from both the irritation and inflam-
 mation.
   That the excretory organs in  all  cases of disease, should be
 duly attended to is of the utmost importance, and cannot be too
 strongly enforced.  In consequence of one or the  other, not
 duly  performing  its office, much  mischief arises; the blood
 thus becoming impure, and carried to the liver, diseases that or-
 gan, which is more likely to become subjected to disease than
 any other, but in fact there are few  organs, if any, that can es-
 cape its influence.  A course pursued by many in regard to the
 excretions cannot be too strongly deprecated, and cannot, but in
 many cases produce extensive mischief; and although it in many
 cases may have been countenanced,  and even recommended
 by distinguished-practitioners, yet is nevertheless deserving of
 the strongest censure.   I mean the extravagant use of cathar-
 tics, so generally in use, under the form of pills.  Upon what
 principles of reasoning should  we induce all the fluids of the
 body  to the bowels ?   With equally strong objections would
 we also oppose that practice which is directly opposite, steam-
 ing or violent  sudorifics, which induces  all  the fluids  to the
i skin ;  or that practice which would induce all the fluids to the
 kidneys,  by  powerful diuretics.   Each of the excretory or-
 gans,  have their  own respective duties to  perform,  and  they
 are of a character only suitable to be performed by each respec"
 tive organ, and when  such organ is performing the duty which
 belongs to another, it cannot be done  without much danger of
 producing an  unfavourable  result.  Each respective organ
 should perform its own proper office, and no more ; this  would
 be in  accordance  with the grand design of nature.
   The action of  the  excretory  organs has considerably en-
 gaged the minds of medical philosophers, with a  view in  seve-
       15 
170
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
 ral instances, to ascertain the period of time required to bring
 about an entire change  in the human system.  We will here
 give an illustration of the experiments made upon the skin, by
 which the reader will readily recognize it to be of greater im-
 portance than he at first imagined.    Sanctorius was the first
 individual who undertook to illustrate the amount of perspirable
 matter thrown  from the skin  in a given time.  He continued
 his experiments on that subject for upwards of thirty years.—
 Subsequent experiments have been made by Dodart, in France,
 by Keil, in England, by Bryan, Robertson and Rye, in Ireland,
 and by Lining, in Carolina.    The result  of these experiments
 was collected by Haller; but  they give no  precise estimate of
 the amount of the transpiration, those  philosophers not having
 distinguished between  what was lost by  the  skin, and by the
 lungs.  Lavoisier and Seguine, are  the only philosophers who
 have  attempted to ascertain the amount of  perspirable matter
 thrown from the skin in a given time.   They procured a bag
 composed  of varnished silk, which was perfectly air tight, in
 which Seguine, who was  usually the subject of experiment,was
 enclosed, and  the bag was closed  exactly over his head.—
 There was a slit in  the  bag opposite to his mouth, and the
 edges of this slit were  accurately cemented round the mouth
by means of a mixture of turpentine and pitch.   Thus every
 thing emitted by the body was  retained in the bag, except what
 made its escape from  the lungs by respiration.  By weighing
himself in a very  delicate balance at the commencement of the
experiment, and again after he had continued for some time in
 the bag, the quantity of matter carried off by respiration, was
ascertained.  By weighing himself without this varnished cov-
ering,  and  repeating the operation  after  the  same interval of
time had elapsed as in the former experiment, he ascertained
the loss of weight occasioned  by perspiration and respiration.
By subtracting from that sum  the loss  of  weight indicated by 
KEY TO, MEDICAL SCIENCE.
171
the first experiment, he obtained the quantity of matter  which
made its escape  by  perspiration in a given time, which  was
52.89 ounces in twenty-four hours.
   By this illustration, which is no doubt correct, it would ap-
pear, and especially the more so, when we take into account
the amount of the other excretions,  that the  human body is
much more  rapidly undergoing change than the casual obser-
ver would suppose.  Even the perspirable matter from the skin
alone, according to this experiment, would in one year exceed
1200 pounds ;  but it must  be born in mind that there are vari-
ous circumstances to be taken into consideration,  and that the
quantity perspired is increased by drink, but not by solid food ;
that it is greatest in hot weather, and in hot climates, and  after
great exercise.   And likewise when the quantity perspired is
great, the  quantity  of urine is small, and vice versa.  Perspi-
ration is at  its minimum immediately after a repast.   It reach-
es its maximum during digestion.
   The  substances emitted from the skin by  perspiration has
been ascertained to be water, carbon, carbonic acid, phosphate
of lime, and even urea, is sometimes emitted through the  skin.
The skin being so important a membrane in which the whole
body is enveloped, and the office assigned to  it involving im-
mense interest as it regards  health, we cannot pass over it
without a  partial consideration of its properties and office.—
The  skin consists of three distinct  layers or membranes  ; the
outermost  is termed scarf-skin,  or  cuticle, the second has no
English name, but is known to anatomists by the rete mucosum,
which gives the colour of the skin.   The next is what is called
the true skin.   The nerves in the skin are very numerous, by
which the sensation  of  feeling  is imparted, and particularly at
the ends of the fingers.  The skin is likewise  largely supplied
with blood, which is constantly charging  the capillary vessels,
and  from  which large quantities of morbid, effete matter, the 
172
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
impurities generated  in  the blood, are continually thrown, in
the form of both sensible  and insensible perspiration.  For this
purpose the skin is filled with innumerable pores, which by the
disengagement of this effete matter in the form of sweat, often
become  charged and filled up, so that this  perspirable  matter
cannot pass off in proper proportions ; and as previously shown
in this way generate disease.   The carbonic acid gas thrown
offby the skin, is  principally that portion  termed  insensible
perspiration, but contains more or less oily substances, some-
what volatile, evinced by the fact that every  animal has a pe-
culiar smell, and is well known by the  scent.  A dog chained
some hours after  his master had set out on a journey of some
hundred  miles, followed  his footsteps by the  smell, and found
him on the third day in the midst of a crowd.   We are like-
wise aware  that an oily matter collects on various parts  of gar-
ments after having been  worn for some time.   When rubbed
on paper, it  makes it transparent, and hardens on it, like grease.
It burns with a white flame, and leaves behind it a charry  re-
sidium.    Berthollet  concluded  that  the acid of perspiration
was phosphoric.  Thenard alleged that he obtained acetic acid
from it.   But Berzelius supposed it was the lactic, and that in
Thenard's experiments the acetic was formed at the  expense
of the lactic.
  Fourcroy and Vauquelin rscertained that the scurf  which
collects on the skin of horses, consists chiefly of phosphate of
lime, and urea is even sometimes mixed with  it.   Hence it
would not be an improbable conclusion that  the result was of a
similar character with many individuals.
  The next  excretion which we  shall consider, is the urine,
which has attracted the attention of philosophers more than any
other of them, from the circumstance of its being a source from
which posphorous  could be produced, which subject engaged 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
173
the attention of Boyle, Boerhaave, Haller, Haupt, Maugraff,
Pott, Rouelle, Proust,  Scheele, and Klaproth, each of whom
successively improved the method of obtaining the phosphoric
salts from urine.  Fourcroy, Vauquelin, and Mr. Proust, have
published quite elaborate analyses of the existence of several
substances in  urine, which had been overlooked by other che-
mical philosophers.   But the most elaborate and exact analy-
sis of urine, has been made by  Berzelius.  The  constituents
of healthy urine, according to his analysis, are as follows :
     Water.......933.00
     Urea.......        30
     Sulphate of potash,      .           .         3.71
     Sulphate of soda,.....3.16
     Phosphate of soda,     ....       2.94
     Muriate of soda,.....4.45
     Phosphate of ammonia,    ...        1.65
     Muriate of ammonia.     .     .    .    .     1.50
     Free lactic acid, lactate of ammonia, animal
       matter, soluble in alcohol, urea, not separa-
       ble from the preceding together     .      17.14
     Earthy phosphate with a trace of fluate of lime, 1.00
     Uric acid,......1.00
     Mucous of the bladder,     ....     32
     Silica........0.03
                                              1000.00
  In consequence of the quantity of gelatin or albumen which
urine contains, as ascertained  by Fourcroy and  Vauquelin,
urine putrefies sooner than any  other substance, and exhales a
most detestable odour.  In some, putrefaction takes  place  as
soon as voided; in others, scarcely  any change appears for a
number of days; there is a great difference  in  this respect-
The new substances produced by the putrefaction of urine, are
       15* 
174
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
ammonia, carbonic acid, and  acetic acid ; the ammonia may
be distinctly recognized by the smell.  Putrefied urine  con-
sists of ammonia, carbonate of ammonia, phosphate of ammonia,
phosphate of magnesia and ammonica, urate of ammonia, ace-
tate of ammonia, benzoate of ammonia, muriate of soda, muri-
ate of ammonia; besides the  precipitates, albumen and phos-
phate of  lime.  When  urine is distilled,  the products  are
water, containing ammonia and carbonate of ammonia, forming
chrystals ; the acids  in it are  saturated with ammonia; the
gelatin and phosphate of lime precipitate.  The heat produced
by  the distillation is sufficient  to decompose the urea.
  These are the properties and constituents of urine in a state
of health ; but this excretion is materially modified and changed
in a state  of disease, to  illustrate which  we will introduce the
following  observations.
   1.  In inflammatory diseases the urine is of a red  colour,
and peculiarly acrid ; it deposites  no sediment on standing,
but with corrosive sublimate  it yields a copious precipitate.
  2.  During jaundice, the urine has an orange-yellow  colour,
and communicates the same tint to linen.    Muriatic acid ren-
ders this urine green, and thus detects  the presence of a little
bile.
  From the experiments of Fourcroy and Vauquelin, we learn
that urine sometimes in these cases contains a substance anala-
gous to  the yellow matter which they  formed by  the action of
nitric acid on muscular fibres.
   3.  About the end  of inflammatory diseases, the urine be-
comes abundant and deposites a copious  pink-coloured sedi-
ment, composed of rosacic acid, a little phosphate of lime and
uric acid.
  4.   During hysterical  paroxysms,  the urine usually flows
abundantly.'   It is  limpid and colourless, containing much salt,
but scarcely any urea or gelatin. 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
175
  5.  Mr. Berthollet observed that the urine of gouty persons
contains usually much less phosphoric acid than healthy urine.
But during a gouty paroxysm it contains much more phospho-
ric acid than usual, though not  more than  constantly exists in
healthy urine.
  6.  In general dropsy, the urine  is loaded with  albumen,
and becomes milky, or even coagulates when heated, or at least
when acids are mixed with it.    In dropsy from diseased liver,
no albumen  is present ; the urine is scanty, high coloured, and
deposits the pink-coloured sediment.
  In certain cases,  females have been observed to pass urine
which had the appearance of milk,  and which upon examina-
tion, proved to differ from common urine, in containing a nota-
ble proportion of the curdy part of milk.
  7,  In dyspepsia,  the urine always yields a copious precipi-
tate  with  tan, and putrefies rapidly.
  8.  The urine of  rickety  patients is said to be loaded with
phosphate of lime,  or, according  to  others, with oxalate of
lime.
  9.  Mr.  Rose has ascertained that in  chronic hepatitis the
urine is destitute of urea.  This curious fact has been confirm-
ed  by the experiments of Dr. Henry.
   10.  In diabetes the  urine is sweet tasted, and often loaded
with  saccharine matter.  In one case, the urine emitted  dai-
ly by a diabetic patient according to the experiments of Cruick-
shanks, contained 29 ounces of sugar.
  We hence perceive that urine in a great degree, may exhib-
it the character of disease.   Its disposition to speedily run into
putrefaction, always shows  an unhealthy  state of the system,
and even in  many  instances, the specific character of a disease.
There are those who altogether determine the character of a
disease by the observations  which they are capable of making 
176
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
upon this fluid.   A superabundance of albumen in urine always
indicates some defect in the powers of digestion.
  Urine is one great source by which the decomposed and pu-
trescent matter is  carried from the system, and must necessa-
rily therefore contain the products formed from  the decompo-
sition constantly taking place.  It is one of the most important
agents for the purification of the blood.    As the urine is in-
creased by drink, and the rapidity wiih which it is formed after
drinking, has induced many anatomists to suppose that there
was some direct conduit by which the water drank was imme-
diately conveyed from the stomach to the kidneys, other than
passing through the blood.  When either  of those important
excretory organs,  the skin, the bowels, or kidneys, act ineffi-
ciently, the labour of another is increased ;  thus when the ac-
tion of the skin is deficient, the  action of the  kidneys is increas-
ed, as in cold weather, the action of the skin is less, and the kid-
neys greater.  In warm weather, the skin greater and the kid-
neys less ; and again, it is frequently the case when the bowels
are costive, the kidneys are very free.
  The kidneys are situated on each  side of the spine behind
the  peritoneum,  opposite to the  two lower vertebra of the
back.  The  right kidney is somewhat lower than the  left, and
nearly in contact with the  liver ;  the  right lobe of which over-
laps  the kidney.  The external portion of the  kidneys  is full
of small blood vessels. The  kidneys  are  constantlyfclargely
supplied with blood ; in fact, it appears evident, that the  whole
blood in the body, frequently passes through  the kidneys.  The
artery supplying the kidneys,  is a branch of the aorta.  The
emulgent vein from the kidneys, evacuates its  blood into the
ascending vena cava.  Anatomists have  ever considered the
action of the kidneys inscrutable, by what means, and  by what
process, the  water  was separated in the kidneys, has been im-
possible to comprehend ; and finally, have satisfied themselves
by attributing it to  an  incomprehensible something ;  a power 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
177
which was  indefinable—the specific action of their archeus,
vital principle, &c.  The same principle of action, is required
by the kidneys, to separate the water from the blood, as is re-
quired to produce any other secretion or excretion ; as the  gas-
tric juice, the bile &c.  We  have before illustrated the general
principles,  how  both the secretions and excretions are  pro-
duced, and shall here refer particularly to the kidneys, which,
as we there stated,was connected with the spleen by the organ-
ic nerves, and all  anatomists  admit, that the kidneys receive
branches of nerves from  what they term the great sympathetic
nerve.  In order  to  establish  our position yet  more conclu-
sively, we will extract the following statements from Hooper,
in respect  to the  renal glands.   "Renal capsule.  Supra-re-
nal glands.   The supra-renal  glands  are two hollow  bodies,
like glands in fabric, and placed one on  each  side upon the
kidneys.  They are covered by a double tunic, and their cavi-
ties are filled with a liquor of a brownish colour.  Their figure
triangular; and  they are larger in the foetus than the kidneys:
but in adults, they are less than the kidneys.   The right  is
affixed  to  the  liver, the left to the spleen  and  pancreas, and
both to the diaphragm and kidneys. They have arteries, veins,
lymphatics, and  nerves ;  their arteries arise from the diaphrag-
matic, the aorta,.and  renal arteries.   The vein of the  right
supra-renal  gland, empties  itself into  the vena  cava ; that  of
the left into  the  renal vein ;  their lymphatic vessels go di-
rectly into the thoracic duct;  they have nerves  common alike
to these glands and  the  kidneys.  They have  no excretory
duct,  and their use is at present unknown.  It is supposed they
answer one  use in the foetus,  and another in  the adult, but
what these uses are, is uncertain.  Boerhaave supposed their
use to consist in their furnishing lymph to dilute the blood re-
turned, after  the secretion of the urine in the renal vein ; but
this is very improbable, since the vein of the right supra-renal 
178
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
gland goes to the vena cava, and the blood carried back by
the renal vein wants no dilution.  It has also been  said, that
these glands not only  prepare  lymph,  by which the blood is
fitted for the nutrition of the delicate foetus ; but that in adults,
they serve to restore to the blood of the vena cava, the irrita-
ble parts, which it  loses  by the secretion of  bile and urine.
Some, again, have considered them as diverticular in the foetus,
to divert the blood from the kidneys, and lessen the quantity of
urine.   The celebrated Morgagni believed their office to con-
sist in conveying something to the thoracic duct.   It is singu-
lar, that in children who are borne without the cerebrum, these
glands are extremely small, and sometimes wanting."
   If this statement contained all the knowledge we possessed
upon the subject, it would be amply  sufficient  to illustrate and
confirm our whole position.  The renal  glands, although they
have no excretory duct, are connected with the  liver, spleen,
and  pancreas, and  to  the  diaphragm and kidneys.  Both of
the renal glands have their arteries, veins, lymphatics and
nerves, and their cavities are filled with  a liquor  of a  brown-
ish red colour, evincing at once the commencement of the pro-
cess of separating  the urine from  the blood, and the direct
connection with the several organs above named, shows the
various  sources  from which the blood is drawn for this purifi-
cation ;  and likewise accounts for the reason why  the water
from the stomach is so quickly  conveyed to the kidneys.—
That their structure  and action  are  connected with the organ-
ic nervous system, is plainly evinced by the fact, that in chil-
dren born without the brain, these glands are extremely small
and sometimes wanting, and where  the foetus is perfect, those
glands are larger than  the  kidneys, showing even that these
glands are formed in  the foetus before the brain or kidneys ;—
yet with all  these  facts before  them anatomists have decided
their uses to be unknown. 
               Key  to medical  science.             179

  Before we quit these illustrations, we will make a few obser-
vations  upon the formation of morbid concretions, such as are
usually  called ossifications and calculi which frequently pro-
duce excruciating pain and suffering, which can only be ob-
viated by removing the cause.
  Small concretions like sand are sometimes found lodged in
what  is called the pineal gland of the brain.  Dr. Wallaston
analyzed them and found them to consist principally  of phos-
phate of lime.
   Small concretions sometimes make their  appearance in the
salivary glands which have been examined by  Wallaston,
Fourcroy and  Bostock, and found to consist of phosphate of
lime and coagulated albumen.
  In some forms of Pulmonary Consumption, particularly tu-
berculous, persons are known to cough up small, rounded, hard
and white concretions.  These concretions  have been exam-
ined  by Fourcroy,  Henry and  Thompson, who found them
composed of phosphate of lime, united to a thick membraneous
substance.   Mr. Crumpton examined some which were com-
posed of carbonate of lime united with animal matter.
  Concretions sometimes form in the  liver, called hepatic con-
cretions.  They were examined  by Thompson  and found to
consist  of phosphate of lime and a tough animal membraneous
matter.
   Hard bodies sometimes form in the gall bladder and bile
duct, which are called biliary concretions, biliary calculi, gall
stones,  Sf-c, which  have been described by different anatomists.
The accounts generally given of them previous to 1764, were
collected by Haller,  which he published to  the world.  Since
his time, new facts have been discovered by  Fourcroy, Gren
and Saunders, and also by Thenard, who  subjected them to
analysis.  Chemists have divided them into  four different clas-
ses, but there appears  little necessity for this, as they are gen- 
ISO
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
erally of the same  constituents as the  bile,  and are formed by
the bile itself,  becoming viscid,  hard and  indurated.  Some-
times they assume  a variety of shapes, as oval, sharp, &c. and
of different sizes, so large sometimes, as to prevent their pas-
sage through  the  bile duct, giving  much  distress,  and even
sometimes terminating fatally.  In one instance, I had a patient
who after passing a large quantity of biliary  calculi of this char-
acter, it was followed by  a large quantity of coagulated bile
of a brilliant green tinge of hard consistence,  and  in pieces
from two to  three inches long, and from an  inch to half an
inch in diameter;  which, being exposed to the air for two or
three hours, became soft and watery; this last occurrence, I
attributed to the agent which I  made use of, to dissolve them
previous to evacuating them.
   Concretions are  not unfrequently formed  in the bladder and
other urinary organs, called urinary calculi,  which produce the
most dismal  diseases,  to which the  human system  is liable.
Paracelsus alleged, that calculi were composed of  mucilagi-
nous tartar, which  floated  in the blood vessels.  The  oppo-
nents of his system at  that time, considered  them as a pecu-
liar mucilage, concocted and petrified by the heat of the body.
Von Helmont, refuted those opinions and made the first attempt
at their analysis ;  he demonstrated  that the  materials consti-
tuting calculi existed in urine.  Several chemical philosophers,
have laboured to illustrate the properties of calculi;  as Boyle,
Boerhaave, Slare,  Hales, Whytt, Alston, and  Black.   In  1776,
Scheele and Bergman  removed much uncertainty, which hung
over the subject, by ascertaining the nature  of calculi, which
they subjected to examination.  Since which time, more addi-
tional  light has been thrown upon it, by the labours  of Austin,
 Walker, Brugnatalli, Pearson and others.  After which Wol-
laston pointed out several new constituents  which had not been
 suspected  before.   Subsequently  Fourcroy and  Vauquelin 
KEY TO MEDICAL  SCIENCE.
181
analyzed  about 500 calculi, with precision, detecting some
substances  which  had not  been discovered before.   Mr.
Brande, likewise examined 150 calculi, rectifying some mis-
takes, and adding several new facts.
   Urinary calculi are usually spheroidal or egg shaped ; some-
times they resemble a cluster of mulberries.  The size  of the
calculi  is various, sometimes they are very small, and  some-
times as  large as a goose egg,  or larger.  Their colour is
various, sometimes of a deep brown, resembling the colour of
wood, others again are white,  resembling chalk—others  are
hard and  of a dark grey colour.  These various colours  are
often intermixed, and  are  of different degrees of intensity.
The  surface of some of them  is polished like marble,  others
are rough and  unequal—and others  again  are covered with
semi-transparent chrystals.
   The substances which have been discovered in urinary cal-
culi, are uric acid, phosphate of lime, phosphate of magnesia
and ammonia, oxalate of lime, muriate of ammonia, magnesia,
phosphate of iron, silica, urea, cistic  acid  and mucous.  All
calculi  contain more  or less animal matter,  and  serve  the
purpose of a cement to glue the other ingredients together,
it is  sometimes in very small quantities, at other  times  consi-
derable.  It was ascertained  to be mucous by Fourcroy and
Vauquelin.
  Gouty concretions appear from the analysis made by Wol-
laston to be  composed of uric acid and soda.
  We have  now in a somewhat limited  degree given the che-
mical constituents of the human body;  shown its actions, and
its changes.   The laws of nature are always the same—they
never change—the  same  chemical constituents which form
the human body at this  day, have ever been its constituents
since the first formation of  our species, and must forever re-
main such.  They were ever compounded  according fo cer-
        16 
182
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
tain existing laws, and always comprised of the same propor-
tion of ingredients;  they  could form in no  other way, and
could they, it would not form  the particular article, as bone,
&c;  it would be some other  substance.   The  principle by
which the various substances are separated from the blood to
form the  solids, as bone, muscle, cartilage, &c, is called assi-
milation, and over which authors observe, "the thickest dark-
ness hangs."   We have more  than once referred to this  sub-
ject, throughout our work, and even illustrated it; but in order
to render it  somewhat more  comprehensive,  we again take
notice of it under the character of assimilation.  The facts
regarding assimilation, have accumulated in sufficient num-
bers, to show conclusively,  the existence  of such a process 5
the healing of a fractured bone or wound, is proof of the exis-
tence of such principle.
   " Every organ employed  in assimilation  has a  peculiar of-
fice ; and it always performs this office whenever it has mate-
rials to act upon,  even when the performance of it is contrary
to the interest of  the animal.   Thus the stomach always con-
verts food into chyme, even  when the food is of such a nature
that the process  of digestion will be retarded rather than  pro-
moted by the change.  If warm milk, for instance, or  warm
blood, be thrown into the stomach, they are always decomposed
by that organ, and converted into chyme ; yet these substan-
ces are much more nearly assimilated to the animal before the
action of the stomach than after it.  The same thing happens
when we eat animal food."
   " On the other hand, a  substance introduced into an organ
employed in assimilation, if it has undergone  precisely the
change which that organ is fitted to produce, is not acted upon
by that organ, but passed on unaltered to the next assimilating
organ. Thus it is the office of the intestines to convert chyme
into chyle.   Accordingly, whenever chyme is introduced into 
                KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.             1°«*
    •
the intestines, they perform their office, and produce the usu-
al change ; but if chyle itself be introduced into the  intestines,
it is absorbed by the lacteals without alteration.  The experi-
ment, indeed, has not been tried with true chyle, because it is
scarcely possible to procure it in sufficient quantity ; but when
milk, which resembles chyle pretty accurately, is thrown into
the jejunum, it is absorbed unchanged by the lacteals."
  " Again, the office of the  blood-vessels, as assimilating or-
gans is to convert the chyle into blood.   Chyle  accordingly
cannot be introduced into the arteries without undergoing that
change  ;  but blood may be  introduced  from another animal
without any injury, and consequently without undergoing any
change.  This experiment was  first made by Lower, and it
has since been very often repeated."
   " Also, if  a  piece of fresh muscular flesh be applied to the
muscle  of an animal, they adhere and incorporate without any
change, as has been sufficiently established by the experiments
of Mr.  John Hunter  ; and Buneva has ascertained, that fresh
bone may, in the same manner be engrafted  on bones of ani-
mals of  the same or different species."
   " In short  it seems to hold,  at least  as far as experiments
have hitherto  been made, that foreign substances may be  in-
corporated with those of the body, provided they be precisely
of the same kind with those to which they are added, whether
fluid or  solid.   Thus chyle may be mixed with chyle, blood
with blood, muscle with muscle, and bone with bone."
   It can hardly be doubted that this same principle extends
itself to all the  animal substances, even to the nerves.  In the
nerves, however, we have  the  illustration of a still more im-
portant  action, which conclusively  illustrates that it is  the
power  of electricity which governs the nervous action.  When
a nerve  is cut,  the sensibility of the part into  which it enters is
lost,  but although  a  portion of  nerve for some inches may be 
184
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
taken out and the connection and  sensibility  thus completely
destroyed between the parts ; it may be as completely again
restored, by introducing a wire which shall intimately connect
itself with the two ends of the nerve thus separated.   This is
not a new idea—it has been done.   If any thing more is want-
ing to  evince that the nerves  are  governed by electrical ac-
tion, we  are at a loss to know what it is.   But on  the other
hand, when substances are introduced into any part of the bo-
dy, which are not the same with that part, nor the same with
the substance upon which that part acts (the nerves as above
excepted)  provided they cannot be thrown out readily, they
destroy the part, and  perhaps  even the animal.  Thus some
substances introduced into the  blood very soon prove fatal ;—
and  introduced  into wounds of the flesh  or bones, prevent
them from healing.
   "Although the different assimilating organs  have the power
of changing certain substances into  others, and of  throwing
out the useless ingredients, yet this power is not absolute even
when the substances on which  they act, are proper for under-
going  the change which the organs  produce.   Thus the stom-
ach  converts food into  chyme, the intestines chyme into chyle,
and  the substances which have not been converted into chyle,
are  thrown out of the body.  If there happen to he present in
 the  stomach and intestines any substance which, though inca-
pable  of undergoing these changes, at least  by the  action of
the  stomach and intestines, yet has a strong affinity, either for
the  whole chyme and chyle, or for  some particular  part  of it,
and no  affinity for the substances which are  thrown out, that
substance passes along with the chyle, and in many cases con-
tinues to remain chemically combined  with  the substance to
which it is united in the stomach, even after that substance has
been completely assimilated, and made a part of the body of
the  animal.   Thus there is a  strong affinity between the col- 
KEY TO MEDICAL  SCIENCE.
185
ouring matter of madder and phosphate of lime.  According.
ly, when madder is taken into the stomach,  it combines with
the phosphate of lime of the food, passes with it through the
lacteals and bloodvessels, and is deposited with it in the bones,
as was proved  by the experiments of Bechier and Duhamel.
In the same manner,  musk, indigo, &c, when taken into the
stomach make their way into many of the secretions."
   " These facts show us that assimilation is a chemical pro-
cess from beginning to end ; thatali the changes are produced
according to the laws of chemistry ; and that we can even
derange the regularity of the process by introducing  substan-
ces whose  mutual affinities are  too strong for the organs to
overcome.
   "It cannot be denied, then, that the assimilation of food consits
merely in a certain number of chemical decompositions which
that food undergoes, and the consequent formation of certain
new compounds.  But are the agents employed in assimilation
merely chemical agents ?   We cannot produce any thing like
these changes on the food out of  the  body, and  therefore we
must allow that they are the consequence of the action of the   j
animal organs.    But this action, it may be said, is merely the
secretion  of particular juices which has the property  of indu-
cing  the wished-for change  upon the  food ; and this  very
change  would be produced out of  the body provided we could
procure these substances ; and apply them in proper quantity
to the food.   If this supposition be true, the specific action of
the vessels consists in the  secretion of certain substances ;—
consequently the  cause of this secretion is the real  agent in
assimilation.   Now, can the cause of this secretion be shown
to be  merely a chemical agent ?"   We shall only answer—It is
produced by the  power of electricity, affinity  and attraction.   i
  As the human  body is then composed of certain  constitu-
ents, such as we are acquainted with ; such as constantlv sur"   '\
         16* 
186
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
 round us, and they united together by certain laws, by which
 those  constituents are constantly governed, and those laws
 natural laws, the study of which can render us familiar with
 their operation, both in the formation of the human frame, its
 constant changes and decompositions ;  every circumstance to
 which animal matter can  be subjected.  Is it not therefore, an
 indispensable requsite, for him who undertakes to cure disease
 to become perfectly acquainted with all  the  laws governing
 animal matter ; the  chemical  constituents of animal  matter,
 both as it regards a state of perfect health and disease ; to know
 by what powers, processes and combinations the human body
 is formed—what the chemical chages are, may be,  or can be—
 and how produced ?  Is the attainment of  this knowledge to be
 denominated quackery ?   We cannot but consider the want of
 it, to be quackery ; the very essentials of quack practice.   It
 is knowledge which we seek to advance—it is science—not ig-
 norance—it is to render the treatment of disease more efficient,
 more certain, not an experimental practice, but one  founded on
 science; and one of that perfection, that scarcely if ever  can
 err; one which  will enable the practitioner to determine with
 certainty the character and nature of a disease; and the diffi-
 culty or morbid matter with which he may have to contend ;
 what that morbid matter  is, and  the  direct knowledge of the
 agent, necessary to employ to decompose and render harmless
 such morbid matter,  and  carry it from the system.  The phy-
 sician should know, whilst preparing his medicine in a mortar,
 the direct action it would  have upon his patient, as well as after
 he had witnessed its operation.   This is not the case now—no
 such knowledge at this day appears  to  be possessed  by  the
 medical profession ; it is all but a mere principle of experiment 5
 the reason why  a medicinal agent acts, thus, or so,  appears ut-
 terly incognizable ; it is merely a matter of guess.   Were  we
in possesson of the true principles, all those violent, harsh, ex- 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
187
hausting and depleting agents would be abandoned—a man
would no longer be made sick, to make him well—agents would
no longer be directed against the constitution—against the heal-
thy  portions of the system—physicians would distinguish be-
tween healthy and diseased matter, and would learn how to
neutralize,  and render  harmless  this morbid  action ;  their
remedies would be  directed against the diseased part, not
promiscuously acting upon the healthy, as well as upon the
diseased portions of the system ;  they would act on the disease,
not on the system.
   The want of this knowledge, has led to the employment of
most destructive agents, but, how those agents act, or why
they act, none have defined.   They have been left involved in
mystery, being satisfied that  they acted as  cathartics, sudo-
rifics, &c.   without enquiring further whether their other ef-
fects were beneficial or  injurious.   The effects  and direct
chemical actions of medicines and remedies, now most general-
ly resorted to, we will next endeavour in some measure, to il-
lustrate.
   As we resort to vegetable remedies and them alone, for the
treatment of disease, disclaiming  in the most  decided manner
against the  use of any  mineral or  metallic  agent whatever,
either internally or externally, we shall commence our illus-
trations on this head,  with what the  medical  faculty call their
" herculian remedy"—the  " Sampson of medicine," which, by
the by, has been of greater injury to the constitutions and lives
of mankind than any other which quackery has ever introduced
into the practice.
   Mercury as appears  in our history,  was first  introduced
into practice by that noted empiric Paracelsus, in the sixteenth
century, upwards  of 320 years ago ; and at this day, there is
scarcely a country on earth, where it is not resorted to.  The
use of it has become so extensive, as to be an important arti- 
188
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
cle of  commerce ;  some  governments even derive their prin-
cipal revenue from this source.  The extensive  use  made  of
it as an article of medicine in warm climates, is surprising, not
unfrequently are 100 grains or more administered at one single
dose, and  its use has  been almost  indiscriminately extended
to every bodily or  mental malady, yet  no one,  thus far, has
been able or has even presumed to give us any thing but the
merest conjecture upon the question, how it operates.   They
know it produces salivation, but how, or why, they appear per-
fectly  ignorant  of.—Of the most learned authors, who have
hitherto written upon it, many of them evade the question alto-
gether, whilst those who do refer to it, consider its action utter-
 ly  indefinable, or  refer it  to the  " vital principle."  Cullen
observes, " that it acts as a stimulus to every sensible or moving
fibre of the human body, but what  the peculiar excitement
which it produces may be, "he says," it is in vain to enquire."
 We may ransack volume  after volume of medical history, and
are met  by  similar  language.   In  the  United  States Dis-
pensatory, a work  published periodically  and designed for the
 express use  and information  of the physician, student, and
 apothecary—a work supposed  to  contain all the knowledge,
 heretofore acquired on the direct action of every article made
 use of, for the treatment of disease—the text  book of the whole
 medical profession, and in which the compilers avail themselves
 of  all the advantages and information, they can derive from
 the dispensatories  of other countries.  What information  do
 we derive from it, in  respect  to this article ?  Let the reader
 judge  from the following quotation, under the  head  of  the
 « Medical properties of Mercury."  Of the modus operandi of
 mercury we know nothing, except that it probably acts through the
 medium of the  circulation, and that it possesses a peculiar altera-
 tive power over the vital functions, which enables it, in many
 cases to subvert diseased actions, by  substituting Us oun in their 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
189
stead."  Here then is the concentrated knowledge of the  great
science of medicine.  The constant and most extravagant use
of one of the most deleterious  articles,  for  upwards of three
hundred years,  without knowing its specific  action!   Is it
science, or is it quackery ?  The reader must judge—it is the
" blind leading the blind."   Gentlemen will say it will produce
salivation—they will admit that  it will rot out teeth—that it will
produce exfoliation of the bones, produce debility, ulcers, erup-
tions, &c.  But how ?   Why does it do so ?  Oh !  We can't
tell that.  " Modus operandi of mercury we know nothing,"
and yet, you are learned and scientific doctors and constantly
prescribe it.
   The usual forms in which the preparations of mercury are
used  at the present, are.
   1st.  Blue Pill.  The component elements, of the active in-
gredients in this preparation, are mercury and oxygen, in the
form  of an oxide of mercury.   It is prepared  by rubbing to-
gether quicksilver, conserve of roses and liquorice powder,
until the globules disappear, and the metal  by combining with
the oxygen of the viscid substance, becomes converted into the
black oxide.   This the mildest form in which mercury is used.
   2d.  Mercurial  Ointment.   This  is prepared by rubbing in
a mortar, quicksilver and lard,  until the  globules disappear, by
which process, the mercury is oxidized,  and the black oxide of
mercury is thence likewise formed.
   3d.  Corrosive Sublimate.   This is the  most active prepa-
ration of the metal.  It is composed of muriatic acid and mer-
 cury.
   4th.  Calomel.  This is  the  most common  form in which
mercury is administered.  This also  is formed by muriatic
acid combined with mercury.
   The great difference in the activity of these two last articles
depends upon the greater quantity of the  acid, or degree of 
190
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
oxidizement of the mercury in the corrosive sublimate than the
calomel.  By those chemists who adopt the theory of chlorine,
these preparations are considered to be the perchloride, and the
proto-chloride of mercury, that is, the former having two pro-
portions of chlorine and the  latter one.
  5th.   Red Precipitate.   This is composed  of nitric  acid
and  mercury.
  6th.   White Precipitate.   Composed of mercury, muriatic
acid and ammonia.
  7th.   Cinnibar, constituted of two parts of sulphur and one
of mercury.
  8th.   iEthiop's Mineral, constituted of one part sulphur and
one part mercury.
  9th.   Turpeth Mineral, formed of sulphuric acid  and mer-
cury.
  There are some other mercurial  salts which  have been in-
troduced into practice, yet are seldom used, as the
  10th.  Acetate of Mercury, composed of acetic acid (vine-
gar) and mercury.
  11th.  Phosphate  of Mercury, formed by phosphoric acid
and mercury.
  12th.  Prussiate of Mercury, formed by  prussic  acid and
murcury.
  All the preparations of mercury  produce  the same general
or specific effects upon the human  system,  differing however
somewhat in time and  degree in  each, and  each produces
some particular effects peculiar to  itself.  They are all alike
capable of producing salivation, exfoliation of the bones, and
that state or condition of things which physicians have called
" the mercurial action."    Calomel purges most easily, corro-
sive sublimate and turpeth mineral  vomit most readily, while
the sensible actions of cinnibar and  iEthiop's mineral are com-
paratively weak. 
                Key to medical science.              191

   The particular  effects of the several preparations of mer-
 cury are perfectly explicable upon a due consideration of their
 chemical constituents, and the requsite knowledge of the con-
 stituents of animal matter.   The sensible activity of these pre-
 parations bear a relation to the degree of oxidizement, that is
 the amount of oxygen with which the metal is combined.
   In order to clearly understand the exposition we  are now to
 give, it is necessary to keep in view the following facts :—
   1st.   In whatever soluble form the usual preparations  of
 mercury are introduced into the stomach, they are  reduced to
 an oxide of the metal previous to being absorbed into the system.
   2d.   Most acids are capable of combining with  all the ox-
 ides of mercury.
   3d.   Phosphoric acid pervades almost every fluid and solid
 of the  human body, and is more abundant than any other acid.
   4th.  Phosphoric acid and lime in the form of phosphate of
 lime, constitute the greater part of the composition of human
 bones.
   5th.   Phosphoric acid does not act upon mercury, but com-
 bines with its oxide, forming phosphate of mercury.
   6th.   Phosphorus acid (differs from phosphoric acid in con-
 taining one proportion less of oxygen,) decomposes all the ox-
 ides and salts of mercury—separating the mercury in its me-
 tallic state.
   7th.   Human bile which is secreted by the liver, is compos-
 ed of water, albumen, picromel,  muriate  of soda,  phosphate
 of soda, phosphate of lime, and  soda and lime uncombined
 with any acid—hence the chemical character of the bile is al-
kaline.
   8th.   Saliva (secreted by the glands of the mouth) is com-
posed of water mucous, a peculiar animal matter, alkaline mu-
riates, lactate of soda, and  pure soda. 
1 92              KEY TO  MEDICAL SCIENCE.

  When mercury  has been taken  into the stomach—say, for
example, a dose of calomel—as soon as it passes through the
lower orifice of the stomach [the pylorus] into the duodenum
[the first intestine] it comes in contact with the bile, which is
discharged from the liver into the bowels at this point.  Here
a mutual decomposition takes place, both of the sub-muriate of
mercury, and phosphate  of lime of  the bile, upon the principle
called in chemical language, electric affinity.   Thus, both the
soda and the lime have a  stronger affinity [chemical attrac-
tion] for the muriatic acid of the calomel, than the affinity ex-
isting between the muriatic acid and the mercury.   Hence,
the soda and lime  combine with  the muriatic acid, forming
muriate of soda [common  salt] and muriate of lime, while a
portion  of  phosphoric acid is  set free  by a  decomposition of
the phosphate of lime ; and the mercury, by losing its acid, is
reduced to an oxide.  This is not only proved  by chemical
laws, but also confirmed by physiological facts.  Whenever a
cathartic effect is produced upon the bowels by any prepara-
tion  of  mercury, whether given in  the form of a salt as  calo-
mel, or an oxide,  as blue pill, and anguintum,  or in a candied
electuary,  as in peppermint worm lozenges-the discharges
from the bowels are invariably dark coloured, like the black or
gray oxide of mercury.
 =  In the form of an oxide, then, we are to consider mercury as
being taken up by  the absorbents, and carried into the mass of
blood, to be thence circulated to every  part of the system.--
But at  this stage of our enquiry, we are met by a long array
of names learned in the  sciences of chemistry and physiology,
who stoutly deny that mercury is, or ever can be absorbed in-
 to the system  at  all.  But from this denial, our readers may
 learn how much there is  for men of learning yet to learn.—
 They support this non-absorption theory by supposing [we say
 supposing —for they cannot  prove] the time-honored vital 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
193
principle has the requisite intelligent or other mysterious pro-
perty, of refusing to take such passengers as are of noxious
quality into the absorbing  vessels ; or if they pertinaciously
attempt to " force a passage," the next " conglobate gland,"
located in advance of the  approaching  enemy, " takes on in-
flammation,"  thus obstructing its own vascular conduits, so that
the foe is obliged to stop.  The noxious material is then de-
composed by the same ever ready, and  very convenient vital
principle ;  but  what ever becomes of its elements they do not
tell us.   We wonder if a substance, when decomposed goes
into a state of non-existence.
   On our side of the question, viz:  that the oxide of mercury
is absorbed  and carried into the system, we have also a long
array of the  names of chemical  and physiological writers,  to
which we can add no inconsiderable force of another kind  of
testimony, that of stubborn facts.  If we were to adopt the in-
ternal use of mercury, we would certainly adopt the theory of
solidism, and  say  that it operates by producing " an impression
upon the stomach, and the article  then  passes off by the bow-
els; but the impression is conveyed by  sympathy [another
convenient notion]  to all parts  of the  system.   We should
readily perceive  that our patients would much rather have the
impression of the mercury circulating through the system than
the thing itself.   But as  we cannot give the article, and trust
to  the vital principle to  regulate the consequences, we  have
concluded not to use it  at all.   Dr. Chapman, in his Elements
of Therapeutics, seems to think the idea that mercury enters
into  the circulating fluids, perfectly absurd.  We think Dr.
Chapman,  upon  this subject, is perfectly mistaken.  But we
will now follow the  oxide of mercury in its course, and see if
we cannot demonstrate its existence  by  its effects in other
parts of  the system than the stomach and bowels.
17 
194             KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
   After a dose of calomel has been repeated a certain number
of times,  the  gums  become  red, swollen, and  tender, the
tongue red  and enlarged, the teeth loose, ulcerated matter is
deposited  upon the edges of the gums of a whitish, fleecy ap-
pearance ; there is a  brassy, copperish or metallic taste in the
mouth, a foetid putrescent breath, and a copious discharge of sa-
liva.  If the salivation does not stop here, the teeth, bones of
the jaw, palate and nose, or  of the  cranium become carious
or decomposed, deep ulcers are formed in the gums, throat or
cheeks, attended with foeted, and sometimes bloody, ichorous
discharges.   Now if the oxide of mercury does not actually
come in  contact with the  salivary glands, gums, throat, &c,
how is it possible these changes can occur ?   Are these chan-
ges vital or  chemical ?   A foeted  breath can  only be produ-
ced by putrescency ; putrescency can only be produced by
decomposition;  decomposition is  the separation from each
other of the constituents of any substance: hence it is a che-
mical change.   Whence occurs the metallic taste in the mouth
except by a  contact of the  nerves of taste with the oxide of
mercury ?    How is exfoliation of  the bones produced ?   We
have already  stated the constituents in part of bone.  The
oxide of mercury  combines with the phosphoric  acid of the
bones, forming a phosphate  of mercury, leaving the bone in the
state of an oxide of  calcium,  which  is our common  lime : —
hence  the boney  structure  being chemically decomposed,
crumbles and  exfoliates.   Thus we say, in familiar language,
mercury rots the teeth.   We will  now illustrate another  pro-
blem in chemical science.   Some anatomists have found pure
mercury,  in its metallic state, in various  parts of the human
system—in  the  brain, in the  joints, between the tables of the
skull, in the cells of the cylindrical  bones, &c.   Some writers
upon theory  have asserted this to be impossible.  Other dis-
sectors have again asserted it, and other theorists  have again 
                KEY TO MEDICAL  SCIENCE.              laj

denied it.   That mercury has been thus found is unquestiona-
ble.  To understand how it may be produced there, is not dif-
ficult, by opening to our sixth proposition.  Phosphorous acid
may be produced by any element capable  of abstracting from
phosphoric acid a part of its oxygen.  Phosphorous acid being
thus formed, and coming in contact with the oxide or any other
combination of mercury, will precipitate it, that is, separate the
mercury in its metallic state, and in  this state it may remain any
indefinite period of time.—This also affords a clue to an under-
standing of the  statement made by Dr. Goldsmith in his natural
history, that those miners who have been condemned to  labor
for life in mines abounding in mercurial ores, often " transpire
quicksilver at  every  pore"  before death  releases them  from
their sufferings.  The oxide  of mercury is capable of produ-
cing decomposition to some extent in every fluid or solid of the
human  body.  By  combining with the phosphoric acid of the
nervous  fluid it decomposes  that also;  hence result all that
train of symptoms  attendant upon a mercurial course called
nervous debility,  nervous irritation, &c.
   We wish now to propound a question for the particular con-
sideration of the Medical Faculty.   It is this :
   Does it not often happen, by the destruction of the Nervous
fluid, consequent upon a long continued course of Mercuiy, that
the patient sometimes  sinks  suddenly, unexpectedly, and in a
manner somewhat analagous to a fatal shock of electricity,  or
of the Leyden Jar ?
   To call attention to  this subject, we  must quote from Dr.
Chapman's Therapeutics, page 361, vol. 2, as follows :
   "Mercury,owing to some unintelligible cause, operates occa-
sionally as a poison, inducing effects totally different from its or-
dinary agency, as a remedy ; and which seem not at all influen-
ced  by the quantity taken, or the  severity of the salivation.
Though the mode in which it displays this deleterious operation, 
196
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
is not uniform, it generally  appears in the shape of what has
been denominated erethismus, by Mr.  Pearson.   As in most
instances of poisoning, there is here  a sudden and sometimes
unexpected prostration of strength, attended by anxiety about
the pericardium, irregular action of the heat t, small, quick pulse,
occasional vomiting, nervous tremours, pale, contracted coun-
tenance, sense of coldness, &c.   In  this state, a very slighfex-
ertion such as attempting to walk, or rise from bed, will some-
times instantly prove fatal."
   Dr. Paris,  in  his Pharmacologia, in speaking of Calomel,
says, " It is a singular fact, that children  bear  larger doses
than adults."
   Dr. Robinson says,  " The mouths and gums of children are
more liable to run into gangrene (mortification)  from  the use
of calomel, than  adults.   These things are true, but  not so
very singular as to be inexplicable.   The greater facility with
which excrementitious or noxious  matter is  eliminated from
the excretory organs, particularly  the  skin in  children, ac-
counts for the former fact.   Yet this by no means proves, that
all the calomel administered  to  children is disposed of  in this
way.   The latter circumstance again demonstrates the absur-
dity of the vital principle  of medical theories, for if this prin-
ciple exists as a conservative  of health, it is contrary to all
 natural phenomena, to suppose  it less vigorous or less capable
 of resisting putrefaction or gangrene, in young  than in older
 subjects."
    We  come now to  the  remedial  effects of mercury. The
 various conjectures which have been offered upon this subject
 in medical books may be resolved into  the following, viz:
    1st.   That mercury acts as a remedy by producing a gen-
 eral  and  permanent stimulus in every part of the  system.
    2d.  That it  subverts morbid actions by substituting its own
 peculiar  action in their stead. 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
197
   These ideas have been expressed in other words, by some,
 as—
   It operates by imparting oxygen to the system.  It  produ-
 ces a general change in the condition or action of the absorb-
 ents and secernments incompatible with the  existence of the
 diseased action, &c.
   That  mercury does overcome some morbid conditions, by
 substituting, or rather producing a different one, we admit.
   That  its  effects sometimes aggravate a disease is also ad-
 mitted by all; and our exposition of its modus operandi affords
 the key  to an understanding  of these things.  We admit that
 a cathartic  dose of calomel usually relieves the bowels of their
 contents, and is followed by a disappearance of the symptoms
 of obstruction in the bowels.
   But does the calomel in this case all pass off by the bowels,
 in every case, or even in any case?   If it does, why is it that
 upon "catching cold," or drinking cold water, or acids, some-
 time the next day, a sore mouth is frequently the result ? Why
 is it that salivation  sometimes occurs days, weeks,  months*
 even years  after taking mercury ?
   Perhaps there is not a more important subject that can be
 suggested to the consideration of the medical profession, than
 the influence of salivation in fevers in oveicoming those disea-
 ses.  Authorities are at all points  of the compass respecting
 the particular kind of fever in which salivation  is  most be-
 neficial or at least injurious; but it seems to be a kind of maxim
 in the science, that where salivation can be produced in any
 fever the patient will get well.
   Though there are abundant exceptions to this rule, yet we
 are willing to admit it as a general rule, and that too, upon an
 explanation afforded by Dr. Chapman.  (Elements of Thera-
 peutics, page 304, vol. 2.)   He says, " When the yellow fever
occured among us, (in Philadelphia,) the same practice, so far
       17* 
198
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
as relates to the copious use of mercury, was instituted.  It was
applied as well to evacuate  the bowels copiously as to excite
salivation. At first this plan was deemed so singularly efficaci-
ous, that, in the enthusiasm of the moment,  it was proclaimed
that death never took place after mercury evinced its  effects.
But a so''>er and more deliberate observation soon exposed the
illusion, and the propriety of the practice became universally
distrusted.   It appeared that mild cases  of the  disease  were
cured  without it, and  when violent, so rapid  was their career
that death took place long before the system could be brought
under  the mercurial  impression."  It is well known by  most
physicians, that in what are  called malignant or, low fevers,
mercury will not salivate, or at least not until the virulence of
the disease abates.   Now if  there is a vital principle to resist
the absorption of mercury into the system, the  reverse ought
to be the case, as  in low diseases the vital principle ought  to be
less capable of opposing its passage than in a state of greater
vital energy.  We here wish to propose another question for
the consideration  of  medical men, viz:  does any  fever  form a
crisis in consequence of salivation taking place, or does saliva-
tion take place in consequence of a  subsidence of the  fever ?
Which is cause, and which effect ?   We take the latter side of
the proposition.
   Of the evils resulting from the  mercurial practice, authors
have not-ced  several  which are characterized by such an as-
semblage of symptoms as to have received the  appellation of
mercurial diseases;  as mercurial erythismus, mercurial eczoe-
ma, mercurial opthalmia, mercurial rheumatism, &c.
   This last is much more common than most people suspect.
Indeed there is reason to believe that a majority of the  rheu-
matic diseases we meet with are of mercurial  origin.   Most
persons are aware that children in consequence  of taking cold
after using mercurial ointment for some cutaneous disease, are 
                KEY TO MEDICAL  SCIENCE.              199

frequently troubled with  pains, swelling  and stiffness of the
joints, resembling, and indeed usually called a rheumatic affec-
tion.
   A great variety of circumstances determine  the  particular
quality  of the morbid condition mercury produces in any given
case, as well as the particular part of the system in which such
condition is manifested.  Thus if while using it, a free  perspi-
ration is kept up by diaphoretics, its effects upon the skin and
its functions would  be less  than in opposite circumstances.
   Its constitutional effects are in no way  soapparent as by  its
operation upon the  salivary glands and gums, yet it must not be
overlooked that its  action,  though less apparent, is still equally
destructive upon many other parts of the  system. No articles
of the materia medica are  more uncertain in relation to the spe-
cific effects of a given dose, than the mercurials.
   "Some practitioners  have given from 5 to 10 grains of calo-
mel  or  blue pill daily for weeks without producing  salivation.
While Dr. W. Phillips in his work  on chronic diseases, relates
the cases of two females, in one of  which a single dose of half
a grain, and in the other a quarter of a grain of the blue pill
(the mildest possible form)  produced severe salivation.
   A volume could easily be written upon the general subject we
have partially discussed.   We  will dismiss this subject with a
quotation from Dr. Thatcher's  practice, (page 214.) who is a
strenuous advocate for the  mercurial practice in fevers : " Such
is the diversity of circumstances in  different examples of fever,
and so great is the uncertainty of the effects of mercury  upon
the human system, that no precise rules for its administration
can be ^iven or regarded."
   The ancients appear to have had some knowledge  of anti-
mony.  Pliny informs  us that it was found in  silver ore.  It
generally contains a portion of arsenic.   Basil  Valentine first
described the mode of extracting it from ore.  No  metal not 
200
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
even mercury, has attracted so much the attention of physicians
as antimony.  One party extolling it  as an  infallible specific
for every disease, while another derided it, as a most virulent
poison, which ought to be expunged from the list of medicines.
The oxides of  antimony are somewhat soluble in water ; in
this respect, it in a degree resembles the oxide of arsenic in
approaching an acid state.  Antimony is capable of combining
with oxygen, and forming an acid called antimonious acid.—
By the  addition  of cream of tartar to antimony  (sometimes
called glass of antimony) in boiling water tartarized antimony
or tartar emetic  is formed.  Cream of tartar is composed of
potass and  tartaric acid, hence the true character of tartar
emetic is tartrate of antimony and potass.   The taste of tar-
tar emetic is nauseous  and caustic.  In this  form it is made
use of in medicine, sometimes by uniting it  with  some plant
possessing emetic properties,  as ipecacuanha; at  others dis-
solving it in water, and giving the patient small quantities at a
time, as in tablespoonful doses, until the emetic effect is produ-
ced.  Why is it an emetic ?   In order to show how and why
it acts as an emetic, we must  again refer to both the chemical
properties  of antimony, and  the chemical constituents of the
body.  Sulphuric, nitric, and muriatic acids, when thrown into
a solution of this salt (tartar emetic) precipitates its  cream of
tartar.   Soda,  potass, ammonia and their  carbonates, throw
down the oxide of antimony.    Barytes, strontites and  lime
(the alkaline earths) not only  produce a precipitate of oxide
of antimony, like the alkalies, but likewise insoluble tartrates
of these earths.   The decoction  of Peruvian bark and various
other  plants, which are astringent, or contain the bitter princi-
ple, decompose  tartar emetic.  It is well known to almost eve-
ry individual that tartar emetic, when rubbed with  lard, forms
tartar emetic ointment, and when rubbed over the chest forms
pustules and eruptions on the skin. 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
201
   The reason why this effect is produced, is perfectly obvious,
it is by its irritating properties, which is produced by its acrid
and caustic  character, and which it has more  effectually ac-
quired by its intermixture with  the lard,  in consequence of
which, it becomes partially decomposed, parting  with  a por-
tion  of its  oxygen, and the lard abstracting from  the  tartar
emetic the  potass,  originally comprising the cream of tartar.
We  perceive likewise, that there are  various  articles which
decompose tartar emetic, and particularly muriatic acid, which
my readers  have heretofore perceived, is the most prominent
constituent  of the gastric juice.   Thus when tartarized anti-
mony is taken as an emetic in the  stomach, the muriatic acid
of the gastric juice, abstracts from it, the potass, and the irrita-
 ting  poisons, oxide of antimony and even antimonial acid  is
 formed, the powerful action of which, on  the  tender coats
 of the stomach, is  as likely to produce pustules there, as upon
 the skin.   Tartarized antimony, or the oxide of antimony, both
 beino* soluble are as capable of being absorbed into the system
 as mercury, and extending its destructive, irritating and poi-
 sonous influence to every organ, which is plainly evinced by
 its action on the system, in cases where  its effects become ob-
 vious, which are  an  austere metallic  taste,  nausea,  copious
 vomiting, frequent hiccough, burning pain in the stomach, cho-
 lic, frequent evacuation from the bowels,  fainting, small con-
 tracted and accelerated pulse, cold  skin, intense heat internally,
 difficult respiration, loss of sense, convulsive movements, very
 painful  cramps, prostration  and death.   And  where  these
 dreadful effects, do not immediately follow its  use, as it  is ca-
 pable of being decomposed  by various articles composing the
 human body, and they in return being capable of being decom-
 posed by tartar emetic ; evils of  the most  serious character
 follow in their train ; even the picromel, the bitter principle in
 bile, is decomposed  by  it—the  nervous fluid is decomposed 
202
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
and poisoned by it, and  the  blood  itself.   Look  at  the blue
and livid appearance of the  skin, the dead and inactive state
of it, where this poisonous metallic agent has been used, as in
some fevers.  That many dyspeptic derangements are produ-
ced from  this source, there is little doubt.   Antimony even
when combined with lime, as in  the celebrated  James' pow-
ders, its poisonous effects are  not overcome.
  Arsenic is an article  often  resorted  to  for the cure of dis-
ease ; and not unfrequently is it attended with the most serious
consequences.  Arsenic appears  first to be  mentioned about
the commencement of the Christian era; by Dioscarides.   It
appears to have been known,  both by Aristotle and Thephras-
tus.  It is  likewise spoken of by Avicenna in the  eleventh
century.    Paracelsus seems to have been acquainted with it,
and Schroeder  in his Pharmacopia, published in 1649 describes
the process for obtaining it from the ore.
  In 1733, Mr. Brandt demonstrated its peculiar nature, and
its properties were still  further investigated  by Macquer, in
1746, by Monnet,in 1773, and by  Bergman, in  1777.   To the
labours of these philosophers, and to those of  Mr. Scheele, we
are indebted, for almost every thing known, of the properties
of this metal.   Its combination with  oxygen has been carefully
examined  by Proust, Buchotz, Berzelius, and other chemists.
  Arsenic  is capable of combining with two proportions of
oxygen, and forming two compounds, which possess acid pro-
perties, and which have been  denominated arsenious and arse-
nic acid.   The article used'in medicine  is called arsenious acid
or white arsenic, and is one of the most virulent poisons known.
It is soluble both in cold and warm water, in alcohol and in
oils.  It is likewise  soluble in  muriatic  and nitric  acid.   It
combines  with hydrogen,  forming  arsenured  hydrogen gas,
having a nauseous smell, extinguishes flame, and  destroys ani-
mal life.   Arsenic combines readily with  phosphorus, by pla- 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
203
ting them together in  water of a moderate  degree of heat.
Of the  deleterious properties  of arsenic,  we have  abundant
and most ample testimony, either when given internally or ap-
plied externally ; a portion of them we shall here transcribe ;
an austere taste, fetid state of the mouth, frequent  ptyalism,
continual hawking, constriction of the pharynx and aesopha-
gus, the sensation of the teeth being on  an  edge,  hiccough,
nausea, anxiety, frequent sinkings, burning  pain near  the heart,
inflammation of the lips, tongue,  palate, throat and gullet, irri-
table stomach so as not to be able to support the blandest drinks,
vomitting of matters, sometimes brown, and  at other  times
bloody, .black, horrible fetid stools ; pulse small,  frequent, con-
centrated and  irregular, occasionally  slow and unequal, pal-
pitations, fainting, insatiable thirst, burning heat over the whole
body, or a sensation of icy coldness, difficult respiration, cold
sweats, scanty, red, and bloody urine ; change in the  counte-
nance ; a livid  circle  round the eye-lids;  swelling and itching
of the body ; livid spots upon the surface, and occasionally a
miliary eruption ;  prostration of strength ; loss of feeling, es-
pecially in the  feet and hands ; loss of sight; delirium ; con-
vulsions, falling off of the hair ;  detachment of the cuticle, &c.
It is not often that all these symptoms  appear in the same per-
son, but in some instances death takes  place  without much
pain, or prominent  symptoms.  The appearances after death
vary, but they usually exhibit inflammation of the mouth, stom-
ach and intestines ; the stomach and duodenum exhibit spots
resembling eschars, and perforations  of all their coats ; and
the villous coat of the stomach is in a manner destroyed, and
reduced to the consistence of a reddish brown  pulp.
   From the above effects produced by  arsenic, it is not difficult
to determine its modus operandi, when  we call to mind the ac-
tion which ft must have upon  various fluids of the body, when
brought into contact with them, it destroys the gastric juice— 
204
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
  it destroys  the  nervous fluids—it unites with hydrogen and
  forms a most powerful destructive agent.   Add  to  all this its
  unsurpassable irritative powers, and  the  reason  why arsenic
  acts as it does is no longer inexplicable.
    We might refer to many other deleterious and  pernicious a-
  gents, made use of in  the  treatment of disease,  would our
  present limits permit, as Lunar Caustic or Nitra of  Silver, fre-
  quently given in the form of pill; Acetate of Lead called Sugar
  of Lead; Sulphate  of  Zinc  or  White Vitriol; Sulphate of
«  Copper or Blue Stone;  Oxide of Bismuth &c,  as  well as to
  other poisonous preparations, under the denominations of vege-
  table, as Strychnia prepared from Nux  Vomica ; Acetate and
  Sulphate of Morphine,  prepared from Opium ; Prussic acid
  prepared either from the prussiate  of mercury, or  vegetables
  containing a somewhat similar principle; Cicuta or its extract,
  which was the plant that destroyed the life of Socrates ; Digi-
  talis or  Foxglove ; Hellebore, Strammonium, Hyoscyamus or
  Henbane &c.
    We will now take  some  notice of the  different treatments
  which may be called mechanical remedies, which in their char-
  acter and effects are equally objectionable.
    Bleeding  has  long been practised, even so early as the  time
  of Hippocrates.  He bled  his patients to excess,  sometimeg
  opening two veins at once,  and frequently suffering the blood
  to flow to such an extent as to produce fainting.   The prac-
  tice of modern physicians is not so frequently carried to such
  an extent as to  produce fainting; but  the operation is more
  often repeated.   In pleurisy,  it is deemed indespensable, but
  where is the physician that does not know,  that in  this case a
  thickening of the pleura is  the result, and a chronic disease of
  that  organ invariably follows,  which  extending  to  the lungs,
  terminates in  Pulmonary Consumption.  In  inflammation of
  the lungs, liver,  kidneys, &c,  recourse  is immediately had to 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.       "     205
 bleeding.  For what  purpose ?  To lessen the inflammatory
 action of the affected part—to relieve the pain or difficulty of
 breathing, as the case may be.   Does it relieve ?   Certainly !
 In many cases it does.  How ?   By lessening the quantity of
 blood, by which means the force of  the circulation is reduced*
 the vessels become less distended, and the pain thereby mitiga-
 ted.  How long  ere the same  operation is required to be re-
 peated.   But a few hours, and yet  it again  requires to be re-
 peated.   Judge what must be the effect, thus, every few hours
 drawing  such  quantities of blood  from a healthy and robust
 person.   Would not the system become  exhausted ?   Must
 not nature sink under it?  Is not the whole system which is
 constantly nourished and supported by the blood, thus  depriv-
 ed of its vitality 1  In pleurisy there  is a determination of
 the  blood to the  pleura, a congestion of blood in that organ  :
 is there no other mode of relief but depletion ?   Can no course
 be  adopted  to equalize the  circulation 1  Are there no refri-
 gerants ?   Can no incitement be produced  to a distant part?
 The manner  in which  disease is overcome  by bleeding, is by
 debilitating the system  so far, as to deprive  it of its powers of
 action.    Yet the disease  is  not thereby cured ;  it is only
 changed from an acute to a chronic, fixing itself upon some
 internal organ as the  liver or lungs ; and  should the  patient
 eventually recover, he owes  it to  kindness of nature  and a
 good  constitution alone.  The assertion that bleeding is requi-
 site in consequence of  increased accumulation  of blood is un-
 tenable.   BloocF can only be  produced  in  proportion  to the
 food  we use, and  if in  a healthy slate, must constantly make
its deposits throughout the system, and the result that must
follow, would be an increase of flesh, and a more robust, athle-
tic and vigorous constitution.  Would you not bleed in con-
gestion of the brain,  or apoplexy ?  Not at all  !   These affec-
tions  are  produced  in  consequence  of  the blood becoming
        18 
 206    *-         KEY TO MEDICAL  SCIENCE.

 thick, viscid or glutinous ; and consequently, does not return
 from the head by  the veins, as fast as it is thrown through the
 arteries by the heart; hence the accumulation  or congestion.
 The fatal  effects of blood-letting are strongly  pourtrayed by
 many judicious authors.
   The  precise time, and by  whom, blisters were first  introdu-
 ced into practice, we are  not  able to determine.  Previous to
 the discovery of  the vesicating power of Spanish flies, va-
 rious powerful stimulants or escharotics were employed for that
 purpose.   Since  the introduction of this  article, they have
 been, and are yet very extensively  employed, and their use is
 strongly recommended in  almost every derangement of an ab-
 dominal organ, as well as inflammation  of the lungs and pleu-
 ra.   Likewise in fevers, and  a vast variety of complaints.—
 Yet there  are numerous  instances  of the evils produced by
 them.  On some constitutions  a poisonous impression is made,
 attended with frequent pulse, dryness of the mouth and fauces,
 heat  of the skin, nervousness  and stranguary, and even con-
 vulsions ; and some physicians have been so much alarmed by
 the occasional occurrences  of these  symptoms, as to induce
 them to employ the remedy with great hesitation.  That these
 affections  result from the absorption of the active and irrita-
 tive principles of  cantharides  into the circulation, there can be
 no question.  But the abc ve admitted evils are not to be com-
 pared with the mischievous consequences too frequently resul-
 ting from their use.  The human system is at all times more
 or less  impregnated  with that morbid matter, which is con-
stantly  carried through the  system by the  circulation, which
is capable of engendering disease.   Therefore,  by placing a
blister over any  organ,  that organ becomes weakened, or so
far debilitated as to render it incapable to  resist the influence
of this morbid matter.  Such organ is  thereby  in a condition
not to resist, but  to  become  the  convenient  receptacle for 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
207
whatever train of morbid humours may be forming in the sys-
tem.   How frequently is it the case, where an individual has
had a  blister placed over the region of the liver ; that, upon
the occurrence  of any slight change  of the atmosphere, or,
having taken a  slight cold, that the first sensation of pain will
be  experienced  in that part.  In  Pulmonary Consumption,
what action can be more conducive to the permanent estab-
lishment of that disease, than a blister over the thorax ?  How
long ere an affection of the Lungs would accrue, in that indi-
vidual most free from it, by placing a blister over the chest.—
Like bleeding, urgent symptoms may sometimes be relieved by
them : yet it predisposes to permanent  injury, by the determi-
nation which it creates of the fluids to  the  blistered part.  A
little reflection will convince  us of its utter  uselessness in con-
sumption when we consider  the little influence it can possibly
have upon the lungs.  The lungs hang in the chest; they have
no connection with it, and are only attached  to the chest by
the pulmonary  vessels ; and  to the neck by the windpipe.—
Of the evils of blistering, the cases are numerous.   Of all the
afflictions to which mankind are liable, none are so appalling to
the humane and sensitive physician as that produced by burns.
Few out of the  pale of the profession are aware how frequent-
ly, burns  apparently trivial and insignificant, are followed by
fatal results ; preceded in some by  symptoms of a decidedly
typhoid character,  in others, disturbance of the mental func-
tions amounting even to madness, and again, not unfrequently
are the symptoms so fallacious as to deceive any but the most
experienced in prognosis, in regard  to the fatal event.   Now,
if there be so much danger from inflammation of the capillary
nerves, by fire ;  how can the same effect be free from danger,
when produced by blisters ?   Does not pathology daily prove
to us that the cutaneous system is more acutely sensitive than
any other organ.   To follow nature, to produce a natural de- 
208
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
termination to the surface of the body, is consistent and prop-
per ;  such is the course nature pursues in a state of health.—
But who will assert, that an ulcerated and suppuiative surface
is a healthy action of nature ?   Will the advocates of blister-
ing contend that nature frequently produces ulcers on the sur-
face of the  body, and so relieves internal affections ?  We
contend, if the various outlets of the body are not destined to
carry off excretions of the body peculiar to their offices, why
has nature ordained more than one emunctoiy ?   Would they
defend the doctrine by asserting that so long as it be evacuated,
it matters not by what emunctory it be done. Is nature's course
always beneficial ?   This is, when  unperverted by unfavora-
ble circumstances, true :  but when perverted, does it not pur-
sue a course leading  to death ?    They would be unwilling to
deny this, as it leaves the treatment pursued entirely, and only
chargeable  with the  fatal result.  So numerous  and  so  well
founded are the objections  against blisters, that it is matter of
wonder, that they have not been long since exploded.
   That the action of  cantharides produces inflammation of the
bladder by symptoms of stranguarv, is universally conceded.
Is there any proof of its morbid influence being confined to the
bladder ?  How does it produce these deleterious effects ?  Is
it not by absorption ?    Why may they not by these means be
carried to any other organ ?
   Steaming, as practised by some, at least, experience has
shown, is not without its evils; and these sometimes have proved
to be of the most serious character even to the destruction of life.
It may be said that where such has been the case the operation
was performed by those who were unacquainted  with the pro-
cess.  We admit them to have been  unacquainted with the re-
sult, or the effects likely  to be  produced, had they been  so,
no excuse could be satisfactory  thus to jeopaidize life—a pa-
tient can be almost as easily steamed or sweated  to death, as 
                 KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.              209

 bled to death—the process and result is not vastly different.
 Steaming to a moderate extent, in many cases of acute disease
 is doubtless  very beneficial, particularly vapour baths, but the
 repeated and inordinate extent to which it is often carried, from
 the very nature of the  case,  must produce  serious mischief;
 and even more permanent than that of blood-letting.  Where
 bleeding is had recourse to, the  thick or glutinous  portion of
 the blood is discharged from the  orifice,  as well as the more
' fluid parts;  but in steaming the most fluid parts of the blood are
 disengaged,  whilst the thick viscid or glutinous principle is left
 behind, or retained in  the  system ; this effect  becomes very
 soon obvious, by almost an entire  prostration of the  nervous
 energy.  The nerves, like all the other solids of the body, de-
 rive their support from the blood;  and  when the blood thus
 becomes thick and viscid, it cannot impart, or rather the nerves
 themselves, cannot receive that supply necessary for their sup-
 port or nourishment.  The idea likewise of steaming in every
 affection, appears utterly fallacious ; some complaints can only
 be aggravated and promoted by it; and  particularly where
 there is great debility or prostration of strength, which so fre-
 quently characterize affections of the lungs, or other chronic dis-
 orders.   It would appear that there have been instances where
 the patients have expired under the operation ;  and although it
 is alleged that  it occured  through mismanagement or igno-
 rance, and that regular practitioners are subject to the same
 mishaps by  their mode  of treatment, it neither justifies the
 one nor excuses the other.  He who practises medicine, ought
 at least to know how much his patient can withstand, particu-
 larly when it is in  his  power, every moment  of the opera-
 tion, to increase or decrease its action ; the truth is the whole
 principle is objectionable, and cannot be tolerated by the sci-
entific practical physician.
          18* 
210
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
   Issues and Setons.—This practice has been instituted, in or-
 der to divert the diseased fluid from an affected part, to an arti-
 ficial channel ; thereby to relieve the system from the oppres-
 sion and difficulty under which it  laboured.   The practice is
 quite common, especially in affections of the lungs.  Yet it is
 impossible to suppose, that  any permanent benefit can  arise
 where the morbid matter producing this result, is continually
 generating and acquiring strength.  It may  in some instances
 prolong the  life of the patient for a short time; but even that
 is doubtful,  as the facilities  granted for the disengagement of
 this morbid  matter, might produce an  increased tendency in
 the system to its generation.  Their action is always unplea-
 sant  and disagreeable,  and frequently produces  considerable
 debility.   In fact it is  but  another drain  through which life
 must continue to ebb.
   We need not here refer to emetics, having taken that into
 consideration upon a previous occasion.
   We  will yet say a word in  regard  to Cathartics.   They
 in many instances are rendered of great utility, provided they
 be of the appropriate character.   The bowels are one of the
 grand excretory organs, to which nature has assigned an  ob-
 vious duty, and the  promotion of a healthy and natural action
 of the bowels,  are  therefore, in accordance with her known
 principles.   But let us  enquire, how do cathartics act ?  Va-
 rious ideas have been entertained in regard to the action of
 cathartics, but the " specific vital principle," which we have
 so  frequently referred to, has ever stood in  the  way of its
 elucidation.  There are three ways in which  cathartics act:
 one class  of  cathartics, as senna, jalap, aloes, gamboge, coly-
 cinth, croton  oil, &c, act by irritation  and stimulation.   Cas-
 tor oil, olive  oil, &c, act by lubrication.  There  are  others
again, which  act by  decomposing  the morbid contents of the
bowels ; which thus becoming sufficiently attenuated, are  ren- 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
211
dered capable of evacuating their contents.  Those which act
by irritation,  produce  pain  and distress in the bowels, and
sickness of the stomach, and may, if their acrid properties are
taken up by the absorbing vessels, be  carried  into the blood,
and produce an irritative quality of that fluid, terminating in
eruptions, &c.  Oils give less pain, and are milder generally in
their operation:  but no further  benefit is  experienced,  than
relieving the bowels when in a state of congestion.  Both those
that act by lubrication  and irritation, leave the bowels more
costive  or constipated,  after their use.   Not so with those arti-
cles which act by decomposition: they are seldom if ever at-
tended  with pain and distress; nor  are they attended by sub-
sequent  constipation or costiveness, and almost invariably a
regular action of  the bowels succeeds their use.   By the de-
composition which they produce of the hard and  indurated
foeces, or  contents of  the bowels, a free  and  full  discharge
from the alimentary canal is effected,  which  particularly  in
costive  habits, affords the greatest relief.   Again, their opera-
tion is of the  mildest character,  never  debilitating the patient
unless used to excess, or in very large  doses.   They are the
only kind of cathartics  that should  be  employed in any state
or stage of disease.
   As our limits wiil  not permit us to pursue  our enquiries
farther on  the present  occasion,  we shall be obliged to close
our little volume, by some  desultory remarks on the character
and nature of diseases  generally.   We have seen, that there
can be but three  direct actions produced upon animal matter,
be disease what it may, or where located.   That composition
and decomposition is necessarily and constantly taking place
in the whole animal  economy, and  that no other  than these
actions  take place, either  in  decomposition or disease.   It is
true, that various  specific viruses, as small-pox, measles, &c.»
may be introduced into the system, and thus create disease of 
212
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
a specific character; yet the direct action is the same—some
of them  run their  course  and terminate, but their violence,
may always be more or less obviated ; others again require
particular treatment, in order to neutralize or subdue the spe-
cific virus  originating the  disease ; here  again is shown, the
absolute  necessity of a knowledge of the chemical constituents
of animal matter—as to  contagion,—all diseases are more or
less contagious, according  to their acrimony, or volatility of
the miasma exhaled, and  the susceptibility  in an  individual
to receive  the infection.   Physicians  have  divided diseases
into  two classes which  they term acute and chronic.  Under
the name acute, they class  all those diseases that are severe
and  painful, of but short duration, as the various kinds of
fevers  and inflammations.   Under the head  of chronic, they
class all those  diseases which are of long duration; sometimes
called lingeiing, as diseases of the liver, lungs, kidneys, drop-
sies, scrofula,  debility, &c;—where they  exhibit little, if any
evidence of acute  inflammation.   The  division of diseases
into those classes, appears to me arbitrary, and not fully calcu-
lated to  convey  comprehensively, the requisite information.
The body  is composed of  fluids and solids—and as composi-
tion  progressses,  the fluids  are  constantly  forming solids;
whilst  those solids,  are  again constantly decomposing,  and
this decomposed matter is either thrown from the system, by
the excretory  organs, or absorbed into the venous blood.
   Now if the venous blood becomes impure, it may render the
arterial blood  impure ; or  the arterial blood may be rendered
impure by  inhaling deleterious gasses into the lungs ; or by a
sudden change from heat to cold, inducing irritation and inflam-
mation, or fever which in fact, is but another name for inflamma-
tion. Where is the difference whether the inflammation be con-
fined to a certain organ, or to the whole body, as in fever ; it is
precisely the same specific action. In one case the debility of an 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
213
organ may be such as to concentrate the action all to one part;
in the other it is diffused through the system.  As to the pecu-
liar forms of fever, there is no mystery in it.   With diseased
lungs there  may be fever.   Diseased liver is the origin of bil-
ious fever, intermittent fever, fever and ague, remittent fever
and yellow fever.   Fever may be produced by a sudden check
of perspiration, which progressing, assumes  a more  serious
character, by debilitating the nervous  system ; it is then called
typhus, and  is  that stage  near allied to putrefactive fever-
scarlet, petechial,  and spotted fever, owe their  origin, to an
acrimonious state of the fluids generally—it is all inflammatory
action—and the only available treatment, is to restore  to heal-
thy action the excretory organs, and neutralize the virus when
existing—Fever  (so called,) when properly treated, is never
dangerous, and will continue but a few days.  If by any of the
above  means,  the arterial blood  becomes impure, can it be
supposed, that diseased arterial blood, could make healthy de-
deposits, to  form healthy solids—then as a natural and  inevita-
ble consequence, follows a disease  of the solids.  If the arte-
rial blood was pure,  it must make healthy  deposits, and  of
course  the  solids must remain in a healthy  state.  Hence it
cannot  but readily be perceived, that as the solids are a secon-
dary formation, and formed from the arterial blood, that the
healthy character of the solids, must  depend  upon the fluids ;
all fluids are separated from the blood,  and they form  the re-
spective conduits, in which they circulate.  In answer to the
question which the advocates of solidism might here feel dis-
posed to raise—" Does  not a solid become immediately affec-
ted, or  diseased from a blow or other cause ?"  To which we
say, inflammatory action does not take place, until the atmos-
phere has produced  sufficient irritation upon the  circulating
fluid, and would further deny, that the atmosphere affects the
solid, but the solid  may become decomposed from the fluid, 
214
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCB.
 acquiring properties, by imbibing oxygen of a character capa-
 ble of producing this result.
   If these views are correct, then  is the present doctrine of
 solidism entertained by the profession, erroneous.  The dis-
 tinction  between acute and  chronic, would be rendered  far
 more intelligible, if it simply referred to a disease of the fluids,
 and a  disease of the solids—distinguishing fever, inflammation,
 &c, as diseases of the  fluids—the  formation of pus, &c,, as
 diseases of the solids.  The fluids being* first diseased in every
 instance, it would be an  important and valuable acquisition to
 be able to determine with some precision when a solid be-
 came affected.
   In the above  remarks, I may be  considered  as advocating
 the humoral  pathology, and as that is not the fashionable doc-
 trine of the day, it must be  somewhat disreputable.  Gentle-
 men, my object  is truth  not  fancy—I have before said that I
 should pursue truth, let it come in collision with what  it might
 —I have done so, I  shall continue to  do so; and if you can
 disprove one single position which  I  have taken, it  is your
 duty to do so—you know you cannot—you dare not  attempt
 it—you know your defeat would be inevitable.
  That disease cannot exist without a cause is obvious:  these
 causes we have in  a measure  pourtrayed. We have said
 they were not so  numerous  as  some  nosologists contended.
 We have spoken of  the possibility of morbid matter being  in-
haled or introduced into the system, engendering disease, but
 the instances  of  this character are comparatively few.  From
whence then originates the great multiplicity of disease, which
constantly surrounds us?  It consists not  so much in different
diseases, as in the similarity of disease;  by far the greatest
majority of diseases, in our climate, are of a similar character,
and consequently have their  origin in one  general source.—
 There  are scarcely any two, who have been labouring under 
KEY  TO MEDICAL  SCIENCE.
215
disease  for some time, that by conversing together, will not
among their  various symptoms, discover  in many points, a
similarity between them.  In our climate  there is one organ
of the body,  far more predisposed to disease than any other
whatever ; scarcely  an individual can be found whose symp-
toms, do not in some  way show a greater or less derangement
of this organ.
  Therefore  as most diseases to which we are subjected ordi-
narily arise fom some  derangement of some specific organ,
let us enquire what organs there are liable to this derangement.
In the chest we have the heart and lungs.   In the abdomen we
have the liver, kidneys and spleen.  To these organs,  are  the
nerves, vessels &c. attached, for the pupose of receiving fluids
for their]nourishment, or carrying therefrom the fluid eliminated
either to answer some important purpose in the animal econo-
my,  or to throw therefrom that which is of no further utility.
In these organs then, must we look for the direct and immediate
cause of disease, in the general and  ordinary course of natu-
ral laws.   The symptoms  which characterize  affections  of
either of them, are of too obvious a character to mislead that
mind which is familiar with the animal economy.  We have
above spoken of an  organ,  more predisposed to disease than
any  other.  That organ  is the liver ; every day's experience
proves  it,  the thousands of cases which I have met within a
few  years, place this subject beyond  all question.  Why it is
so, we have  before  shown, as well as many  of the symptoms
which characterize it.   So  extensive has been this complaint,
within my observation ;  so universal has it  been,  that I have at
times been almost  ready  to  conclude that  all the ordinary
chronic diseases had their origin in  the  liver ; or with very
few  exceptions.  From  a  disease  of the liver,  the  kidneys
may become diseased ;  from a disease of the liver, the lungs
may become diseased, likewise the spleen,  the heart, stomach, 
216
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
 &c.; and  from them again, other organs and fluids as before
 •shown.   When  an affection of the liver extends its influence
 to the kidneys, pain is experienced  across  the small of the
 back, across the loins, often extending down one or both thighs
 difficulty, pain, and often a smarting sensation in passing urine
 which is milky or high colored, with considerable deposition
 of a brick-like sediment; the patient  will frequently feel a dispo-
 sition to pass urine, sometimes in small quantities, at other times
 much  more  freely.    Females are  particularly subjected to
 these affections.   Much weakness  and  distress, fluor albus,
 relaxation of the ligaments of the womb, called " falling of the
 womb,"  and bearing down pains, similar to labour, will be ex-
 perienced under these scircumstances ;  sometimes it is atten-
 ded with bloating of the limbs, and  abdomen,  and not unfre-
 quently terminating in dropsy.
   I am aware that affections of this nature have  frequently
 been  denominated  " spinal complaints."   How gentlemen
 could have determined them to be such, is most singular ; cer-
 tainly no man conversant with the subject, and who was tena-
 cious of his reputation,  would hazard such an avowal ;  yet by
 such erroneous conclusions have many patients been tortured
 by blisteis, setons, issues,  &c, along the  spine of the back,
 until it has resulted in great debility and weakness, and even
 curvatures of the spine by  relaxation of its ligaments.  The
 spine is composed of twenty-four irregular  bones, called ver-
tebra, which are most powerfully defended by strong cartila-
ges and ligaments, both internally and externally ; upon the
 spine the whole body turns.
  Diseases of the spine have been confined to young children,
some living two, three  and four years ;  the oldest one on re-
cord appears to have lived but eight years.   But the most  re-
markable feature in a disease of the spine is, that it is attended
with a total paralysis of the lower extremities.   The person 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
217
 having a disease of the spine, is incapable of using the lower
 limbs.       *
   When a disease of the liver extends itself to the spleen, pain
 is experienced in the left side, above the hip, sometimes exten-
 ding up the side, where the spleen comes more  immediately in
 contact with the stomach ; and near the diaphragm.  Costive-
 ness is often very troublesome in  such cases, and a want of
 power and energy in the bowels, attended  with weakness and
 debility.   The organs of assimilation are much impaired, and
 although the appetite be most  voracious, yet will not the food
 afford that nourishment to the body it demands.
   Of  diseases of the heart, we have before spoken.
   In order to treat the above diseases correctly, how necessary
 must it appear to every  observer,  to any individual, that will
 give it one moments reflection, that the physician should per-
 fectly  comprehend, and understand!he chemical constituents of
 the various fluids circulating in those organs, and every change
 which under any circumstance, they could be subjected to.
 How can we tell,  what is necessary to be done without this
 knowledge.  How can we tell, what is necessary to administer
 to destroy  a virus raging in the system, which is undermining
 and destroying the constitution, unless we can tell  the charac-
 ter, and  nature of that virus.  In  diseases  of the  liver, what
 change, what  decomposition of the bile, what new principle it
 formed, to produce the mischief which exists ?  If we cannot tell,
 how can we, how dare we, administer a remedy, when it is im-
 possible to  determine  the results that may  ensue.   Too often
 has this practice been pursued, and  the results attending it, have
proved the most fatal, as the administration of morphine,  strich-
nine, prussic acid, arsenic &c, but it is hushed up—kept quiet
—the administerer of it, had friends in the profession—they say-
it is all right—it was one of those fatal occurrences, which from
the peculiar idiosyncrasy of the case, it was impossible  to for-
       19 
218
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
see ;  and thus the ignorant culprit is shielded from just retri-
bution.   When at the same time, should a similar  occurrence
take  place, with  a  poor Botanic Doctor, one who deals in
simples, roots and herbs, these  ignorant pretenders, would be
the first to cry quackery, empiricism, ignorance &c, and hunt
him through every channel of the law, supported by their whole
popularity and influence, until they could have him indicted*-
tried for his life, or sent to the State Prison to palliate his offence,
and all forsooth because he had not a peculiar parchment, not
inaptly termed "a license to kill."  In the  the above language
I by no means wish to be understood to refer to the whole med-
ical profession, there are many of them, that  would detest such
acts.  But my readers  are aware that such  things have  been
done, and I mean to apply it to those, and only those, who have
or can be guilty of such  acts, several who have been guilty of
mal-practice, who were regularly licensed, have  met their
lawful deserts, though it is probable,  they may not  have been
particular favourites.
   Diseases of  the liver  may, and  very often do produce dis-
eases of the lungs,—this is by  far the most usual form of dis-
eases of the lungs ; although they may exist, independent of a
diseased liver.   As disease of  the lungs, has a long time  been
considered a disease of  so invariable fatal termination ; I shall
enter somewhat more  into detail, in  which  I  shall not fail to
take notice of the usual mode of treatment, now commonly re-
sorted to,  it being that, which in my humble opinion, is not
even  calculated to allay in any degree, the progress of the dis-
ease ; far less to  be remedial  or  curative; but on the other
hand, well calculated to aggravate and increase diseased ac-
tion.
   The evidences existing of the curability of Pulmonary  Con-
sumption, are numerous.  This  disease may be said, to occur
in two specific  forms,  one by immediate  inflammatory ac- 
                KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.             *lw

tion, resulting in the formation of ulcers, evinced by the ex-
pectoration of pus, this is  the  most usual form; the other is
produced by the gradual deposition of hard and concrete sub-
stances, in the air cells of lungs, before alluded to, which con-
crete substances, after a while take  on inflammation, from  the
nature of their irritability, and likewise result in ulceration.—
This form of the disease is called tubercular consumption  In the
early ages of medical science, little was  known respecting  the
nature of tubercles.  Nor was the attention of physicians  di-
rected  particularly to it,  until about  the year 1679, when
Sylvius de la Boe published a work, in which he gave a tolera-
ble correct account of tubercles, as the cause of consumption ;
but  he attributed their formation to scrofulous derangements of
invisible glands, which opinion was adopted by Morton  and
Wepfer,  and some others ; and  since  more  particularly by
Broussais. From that time to 1733, little more transpired, when
Desault of Bordeaux, published an essay, in which he maintained
that the sole cause of consumption was the formation of tuber-
cles in the lungs, which in the last century received the sanction
of several of the profession. Tubercles have subsequently been
investigated by Stark,who examined morbid anatomy with con-
siderable industry; and still more recently by Baillie, Louis,
Andril, Lsennic and Carswell.   All of which investigations have
not settled the principles among physiologists:  various opinions
continue t>  be (-ntertained.   Among those opinions perhaps
there is none deserving more attention than that of Dr. Cars-
we]l—his researches were minute and careful.   He considers
that the surfaces of the mucous and serous tissues and the blood
form the exclusive  seat of tuberculous  matter—he observes,
" in whatever organ the formation of tuberculous matter takes
 place, the mu< ous system, if constituting a part of  that organ,
is in general  either the exclusive  seat of this morbid product,
or it is far more extensively affected with it  than any of the 
220
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
other systems, or tissues  of the same organ."  Dr.  Clark,
Physician to Queen Victoria, in his late treatise on Pulmonary
Consumption, makes the following observations on the subject
of tuberculous matter,—" In general, tuberculous matter, first
makes its appearance in the lungs, in the form of grey semi-
transparent granulations, gradually takes on the characters of
crude tubercles, and  ultimately becomes softened.  During the
process of softening and  ulceration, tuberculous matter con-
tinues to be deposited in other portions of the lungs, the proofs
being generally from above downwards,—so that we often
find  excavations at  the  summit, crude or  softened tubercles
below  these, and granulations, with no trace of opaque mat-
ter in the lower part.  At a late period  of the  disease,  the
substance of the lung is often so filled with tuberculous matter,
as to leave but few traces of its original structure, the whole
constituting a mass of dull opaque, grey or white tubercular
infiltrations, excavated to a greater or less extent."
  Of the curability of pulmonary consumption,  opinions are
most various.   The most prevalent and general belief is, that
it is incurable ;  especially after the lungs have become tuber-
culated, or ulcers are formed.  This  belief could have had its
origin in no other source, than the very limited success, which
has attended the  usual course of treatment.   It is generally
supposed  by  all classes of community, that, when the lungs
have once become ulcerated ; that no principle  or  mode of
treatment, could prove  available; — and that no  remedial
agent could be successfully applied.  And  consequently, all
hopes are abandoned by the friends of the patient so soon as
those prominent symptoms make their appearance.  That in
such cases, all hopes should be abandoned, and all efforts for
recovery cease, certainly cannot  be determined with proprie-
ty from the very fact that  in numerous cases where the lungs 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
221
have been deeply ulcerated, by judicious treatment, a perfect
restoration to health has followed.  The question, however,
is  frequently raised,— "how can any  medicine  reach  the
lungs ?"  It is not impossible !   Again, how is it possible for
healthy granulations  to take place, when the  lungs are con-
stantly in motion, and this actron being indispensible with life ?
must not this constant friction or chafing in the lungs keep up
the irritability and inflammatory action ?  And is there not  still
a much greater difficulty ?  Is not the purulent matter effused
from an ulcer in the lungs constantly in contact with the atmos-
phere ?   Does not the oxygen  of the 'atmosphere  constantly
unite with  the  purulent matter, forming  a poisonous  ichor
which extends itself to the edges of the ulcer, and induce it to
spread wider.  Does not the constant action and moisture of
the lungs prevent the formation of any scab, or indurated mat-
ter, so as to protect an ulcer, from the action of  the atmos-
phere ?  External ulcers form incrustations, by which they are
protected from the  action of the atmosphere, and are thus in-
duced to heal ; but upon the lungs such formations  are impos-
sible.
   These arguments against the curability of consumption,  for-
midable as they may appear, are not sufficient  to establish the
case, that the disease is absolutely  incurable, for the very best
of all reasons, because facts  in abundance exist, in proof of its
being permanently cured  where deep ulceration of the  lungs
had existed.   Dissections have even proved that life has been
maintained, when not  over one  twentienth  part of  the  lungs,
were capable of performing their functions.  A delineation of
these evidences of the curability of consumption, would be
far more numerous than is  generally supposed.   Dr.  Clark
states  " that Pulmonary Consumption admits of a  cure, is no
longer a matter  of doubt; it has been clearly demonstrated by
the researches  of  Laennic  and  other modern pathologists."
       19* 
222
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
Dr. Carswell's language upon the subject is equally strong: he
says " Pathological Anatomy has perhaps, never afforded more
conclusive  evidence,  in proof of the curability of a disease,
than it has in that of tuberculous phthisis."   He likewise
gives the appearance  of the  lung after having been cured of
a tuberculous disease,  "the tuberculous matter whether con-
tained  in a bronchial tube, the air cells, or cellular tissue of the
lungs,  has assumed a dry, putty looking, chalky or crctacious
character."  That Pulmonary Consumption has been cured in
numerous instances, we have so many well attested facts, that
it ought to silence the  constant clamour,  of its being an incu-
rable disease ; the facts of cures having absolutely been per-
formed, should awaken enquiry and investigation ;  it should
cause the most arduous and  indefatigable research, to acquire
a knowledge so important to mankind.  But the reverse of
this  seems to be the  prevailing disposition—the universal cry
is—it cannot be done—it is folly to attempt it—and  if a case
presents itself, where  the evidence  is clear and decided, that
ulcerated lungs have been cured, it  is regarded as a  singular,
unaccountable, unusual, incomprehensible, and extraordinary
occurrence ; it is looked upon as doubtful and uncertain.
  This disposition, has led to the rejection of every  measure
proposed for its treatment: it is even treated with contempt by
those, whose ignorance, pride and folly, have  led  them to be-
lieve, they were possessed of science and knowledge, beyond
that of their contemporaries.   But we  will record facts, and
from them, let those who can dare, and will reason, judge.  "In
the Military Hospital at Capua, where the greatest number of
Consumptive patients of the army are sent, the most recent and
extensive experiments were made by Dr. Giovanni de Vittis,
Physician to the Military Hospitals  of the Neapolitan Army ;
and from the 1st of May,  1828, to  the 8th of January, 1832,
there were sent out  of the  Hospital  perfectly cured, forty 
                KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.              li/io

cases of Chronic Catarrh, forty seven of Consumption in the
first stage, one hundred and two in the second, and twenty sev-
en in the third, making a total of two hundred and sixteen cases.
one hundred and  seventy six of which,  were cases of Con-
Sumption-"  Dr. Magennis, of the Royal Hospital at Plymouth,
m England, reports " that of seventy two cases of consumption,
twenty five with ulcerated lungs recovered, and fifteen from the
stage previous to ulceration.  Thirteen, in an early stage of ul-
ceration, were discharged, grately relieved, nine in the previous
stage, and but ten cases entirely lost."
   The above are reports made by those physicians, to their re-
spective governments ; are they to be  considered false ?  are
they to be charged with base and unprincipled deception ?  will
not their characters, their hard earned reputation, screen them,
from such unprincipled imputation ?   What interest could they
have in an attempt to deceive, and foist upon their governments
a report destitute of truth ?   And had such statements been un-
true, how long ere their falsity, would have been detected, and
their disgrace so permanently established, which nothing could
obliterate ?   Besides were there not the living witnesses to tes-
tify to this result ?
    We might greatly multiply evidence of this character.  Me-
 dical  records are full of them.  Dr.  Beddoes states  that he
 cured three cases out" of five, of tuberculous  consumption in
 his practice.   Would  it not be deemed ostentatious  in me, I
 could illustrate many cases of this disease, within the last four
 years, many of them of the severest character, and far advan-
 ced in ulceration, which  by my treatment have been perfectly
 restored, and now live  in the enjoyment  of  health  : there are
 even some who live in possession of comparative good health,
 with the entire loss  of one lung.   These declarations may ap-
 pear strange and even questioned by some ; but the question
 is easily settled.   Those individuals stand ready to be subject- 
224
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
ed to the  most scrupulous examination which the art of chi-
rurgery  can premise ;  some of whom have  already passed
through the ordeal.   I have not said, nor do I say that all can
be cured.   To  determine positively when a disease can be
cured, or cannot be cured, is utterly impossible.   Many cases
apparently within the controul  of remedial agents may prove
mortal, whilst others again, which bear the strongest marks of
the advanced stage of disease, yield readily  to appropriate
treatment.   The former exhibits the existence of deep seated
ulcers, the latter open ulcers, or located near the surface.
  The treatment of this disease requires a due consideration
of its nature, whether it be originally produced by the deposi-
tion of tuberculous matter in  the lungs, or by the formation of
simple ulcers, by inflammation.   If the former, the nature and
properties of these tuberculous deposits in the lungs, must be
understood.   These  tuberculous deposits  are  from the blood,
and  are of a specific character, the blood being  surcharged
with this matter, or cheesy substance, deposits  them in the air-
cells of the lungs.  Then must  this  morbid constituent of the
blood, be decomposed by the use or application of such agent,
which uniting with the tuberculous matter,  will render it fluid  ;
it may then be carried from the system by the excretory or-
gans.  But if ulceration has already taken place, or the disease
is of the character produced by  inflammatory action, treatment
of a  different character is required.
  We are aware that for a long series of  years, but one prin-
ciple, upon a general scale, has been pursued for the treatment
of this disease, although the daily illustrations of which,  prove
beyond all equivocation,  that it is not only unavailable,  but in
many instances very injudicious, and even deleterious.
  When there exists but slight symptoms of a disposition to
disease of the lungs the almost invariably first application  is  a
blister accross the chest.   The propriety of this practice to 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
225
say the least is extremely dubious.   But it is a practice which
has been strongly recommended and advocated by the most dis-
tinguished medical writers, philosophers and practitioners for a
long period of time.  lam aware that in opposing it I have a
mighty phalanx to contend against.   Notwithstanding the influ-
ence which may exist in its favour, and as popular as the doc-
trine of blistering may be (especially in this disease) I cannot
from a due consideration of its nature and effects, but raise my
hands against blistering the breast,  especially where there ex"
ists the slightest disposition  to a  disease of the lungs.   The
doctrine of  sympathy,  one of  those  convenient chimerical
fancies which had its origin in the vital principle, has led to the
practice of  blistering.   It has been alleged that there existed
great sympathy  between the lungs and the skin ;  and that a
blister across  the chest was  calculated  to divert the disease
from the lungs  to the  skin.   This doctrine  of sympathy be-
tween the skin and lungs, has  received no further illustration
of its'existence  by learned medical philosophers — " than  it
is so."   How, why, or  by what vessels or organs it is convey-
ed, science nor observation has never acquainted us with.
   The impropriety of  blistering the chest in Pulmonary  Con-
sumption  will be more fully comprehended when we take a
view of the situation  of  the lungs.  The lungs are two vital
organs situated in the chest, by means of which we breathe.—
The lung in the right cavity  of the chest is divided into three
lobes ; that  in  the  left, cavity into two.   They hang in the
chest—not attached to  it—they are attached  at  their superior
part to the neck by means of the windpipe, and are separated
from each other by what is termed the mediastinum, or middle,
which  is formed by the  folds of  the pleura, the membrane
which  surrounds the  lungs,  and divides the chest into two
parts.  The lungs are likewise attached to the heart by means
of the pulmonary vessels, which consist of the pulmonarv ar- 
226
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
tery,  which carries the blood from the right ventricle of the
heart to the lungs, and the four pulmonary veins which re-con-
vey the blood back from the  lungs  to the left auricle of the
heart.   The lungs contain but few nerves of sensation ; they
are from what is called the eighth pair ;  so little sensibility do
the lungs possess that the patient seldom feels much pain in them
when seriously  diseased.  He cannot tell when they are ulce-
arted, and often is  the  most critical  examination by the ste-
thescope, unavailing in discovering the extent of diseased action
upon the lungs.  The pains experienced  across the chest are
not in the lungs, but are  produced by the blood passing  through
the blood vessels, traversing near the surface of the chest.
The lungs are however freely  supplied with organic  nerves
from branches of the great sympathetic.
   Here is perceived the situation of the lungs.  There is no
direct connection between the surface  of the chest and lungs
whatever; they are not attached to the chest, they hang in it,
and are there surrounded by  a membrane called the pleura, it
has no  connection with  the chest—they may  be compared to a
bellows, constantly  expanding  and contracting.   The very
blood that circulates in the  lungs, has to return from them to
the heart, and then to be thrown by the heart through the ar-
teries and enter the capillary vessels of the skin, before there
 can be a more immediate contact between the lungs and skin;
 and the blood of the capillaries does not immediately return to
 the lungs.  There is no possible way whatever,  for any im-
 mediate connection to exist between the skin and lungs, andm
 no other way does it, but through the agency of the blood, as
 just shown.   There  is yet  another difficulty to surmount in
 blistering the  chest.—Between  the lungs and the surface of
 the chest is interposed the  sternum.—Do  gentlemen, really
 believe, that a blister, when  the lungs  are  thus situated, can
 draw the disease  from  the lungs through the breast bone ?—if 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.             227
 so, their folly must be greater than we supposed ; but the con-
 stant practice of blistering would go far in support of this
 opinion.   But will it be denied, that blisters ever afford relief?
 they sometimes do, but more frequently do not.  Well, how do
 they afford relief?   A blister placed  across  the chest, or any
 other part is capable, and does create painful irritation, inflam-
 mation and suppuration,—and if kept up for some time, as is
 usually the case, the free discharges from it  weakens the part,
 and creates a tendency of the fluids from all  parts of the body,
 to concentrate themselves  there,  which by the decomposition
 then taking place in such particular  blistered  part, much  of
 the  virus supporting the  disease may be  carried  off, and the
 patient thus relieved—the same effect would be produced by
 bleeding—powerful cathartics, &c.  But does this  view of the
 subject argue  the  propriety of blistering, especially over the
 chest.   Suppose  it were to have been carried so far as to com-
 pletely relieve the  patient of the disease,  is it conclusive evi-
 dence that the practice was unobjectionable ?   As the objsct of
 the blister is to deplete  from the lungs,—we  would  ask can
 a blister across the chest  deplete directly  from the lungs—the
 answer is no—it  is impossible—it is contrary to reason, anato-
 my and common sense.  But  this is not the only difficulty.
 When the lungs  have become debilitated  from  any cause, do
 we  not further embarrass  their actions,  by restricting  tfieir
 movements in respiration, which the patient would necessarily
 do to avoid the pain  consequent upon  motion of a vesicated
 surface ?   To  breathe at all  under these circumstances de-
 mands an effort,  as the muscles under  a blister are in a mea-
 sure deprived of  the power of contraction.
  Another important point is likewise necessary to be consid-
ered.  Is not, as above suggested, the part over which a blis-
ter  is placed, debilitated by its action ?   What then is the
consequence, if weakened ?  Is it placed in a condition to re- 
228
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
 sist the influence of disease ?   On the contrary, by the debili-
 ty thus induced, it becomes less able, and hence such part may
 become the location  and rendezvous of every train of morbid
 humours, which may be flowing through the system.   Which
 action is  more frequently the result  than  that of a beneficial
 character.   Thus it is that many cases of incipient consump-
 tion are  rendered permanent by this injudicious  method, by
 the concentration of morbid  or diseased matter in the neigh-
 borhood of the lungs, which by extending its influence to the
 internal portion of the  chest, permanently establish a disease
 of the lungs—and bronchia.   Where is the medical man that
 dare, whilst in the enjoyment of health, place a blister across
 the chest, and keep it open for  weeks, as he w*ould do upon a
 consumptive patient; and yet will he attempt to cure a disease
 by the same means which his own common sense would con-
 vince him would be attended with  great danger in a healthy
 person.   We have yet another important argument against
 the propriety of blisters.   We  have referred to cases, where
 a disease  of the lungs  may be  produced in consequence of a
 primary disease of the liver.  If at that time, or at that point,
 when the  disease of the liver began to transfer its action to the
 lungs,  which might be marked with slight pains across the
 chest  and in the left side, attended with some cough, and a
 disposition to easily take cold, a blister  be applied across the
 chest, would it not  materially aid in much more rapidly trans-
 ferring the disease from the  liver to the lungs.  If blisters must
 be applied at all, why not transfer them to a part which can-
 not interfere with the transactions of the diseased organ.
  Another mode of treatment, is by rubbing the chest with tartar
emetic ointment, for the purpose of forming pustules or erup-
tions upon the skin.  The same argument equally applies here,
as it respects producing a determination from the lungs  to the
skin, as it  does in blisters, and the  general difficulties may  be 
key  To Medical science.
229
increased by the absorption of Antimony into the system, pro-
ducing antimonial action as before referred to.
  Expectorants  are  likewise  a general resort, and are some.
times carried so far as to act as emetics.  Their use in  some
cases may be of some utility, but  their extensive use are by no
means proper or judicious.  By expectorants which nauseate
mucous may be thrown with greater ease  from the lungs and
wind pipe when accumulations lake place there, but if perse-
vered in beyond this point, their action may increase the disease
by increasing the discharge  from the lungs, and thus open a
channel through  the lungs for every morbid humour, which,
flowing through the system, may be thus irritating and increas-
ing diseased action of the lungs.   In ulcerated lungs, it would
prove extremely  injurious, by inducing  the purulent matter
from the lung to its surface, where it would have the tendency
of enlarging such ulcer.   Consider a case somewhat similar
Suppose an  individual labouring  under  violent diarrhoea, the
bowels irritated  and inflamed ; who in  such case would think
of resorting to drastic cathartics to effect a cure.   Yet here is
a case precisely  similar in character, in which emetic expector-
ants are to be employed, they  can serve no other purpose than
to induce the ulcer to become  larger.  It is extremely  doubt-
ful whether such expectorants migh not altogether be dismissed
from the practice  of medicine with advantage.  The mucous
effused from the lungs upon their  surface, is always possessed
of sufficiently irritative  properties to excite the action of the
lungs to Gough, which by colapsing, the lungs discharges the
mucous, and such  expectorant can only act by increasing this
irritability.   But it is a matter of  no  little importance, to have
some correct views, how it is that expectorants so called act
—how they  produce their effects.  Authors have  manifested
considerable reserve on this point, many of them not caring  to
refer to them at all;  and none venturing to advance any specific
        20 
230
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
opinion, how the effect which they produce is brought about.
It is well known, that nothing can be introduced into the lungs
except  inhaled in  the form  of gas, and that  but in small
quantities.
   The expectorant is received into the  stomach,  which from
thence must pass into the intestines, and from thence must be
taken up by the absorbents, and thence  pass through the tho-
racic duct into  the venous  blood, and thence to fhe heart, and
be thrown to the lungs before it could come in  direct contact
with the lungs.   This is  a long way for  the expectorant  to
reach the lungs, and in its passage there, must meet with various
changes by  coming in contact with other agents.  But it is
said, it acts  by sympathy.   What kind  of sympathy ?  Will
gentlemen inform us ?  Will sympathy of the stomach attenu-
ate viscid mucous in the  lungs ?  Remember the stomach is
situated in the abdomen, the lungs are in  the thorax.  They
are separated by  the  diaphragm.   The attachments of the
lungs are not to the  stomach ; they have  no connection but
with the windpipe and heart.  Now, sirs, will you tell us how ex-
pectorants act, or will you be satisfied to erase the  name from
the materia medica, and replace it with one more appropriate.
But will not the inhalations of some gaseous substances attenu-
ate the viscid mucous in the  lungs ?  It may ; and it is the only
way  in which  an  expectorant  so called can directly act ! —
Why does an emetic, or articles  which  nauseate the stomach
favour the discharge  of mucous  from the  lungs ?—by excite-
ment, which it  not only produces upon the stomach, but upon
the heart, and every  other organ of the body—upon  the same
principle by  which  it produces perspiration from  the skin by
increasing the arterial circulation, or when (as is sometimes
the case) it  passes the  pylorus  and  acts upon the bowels.—
Then how do expectorants act ? by attenuation.   We have
before shown that this mucous was a constituent of the blood, 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
231
and when such articles are carried into the blood, as are capa-
ble of decomposing mucous, but in  a limited degree the mu-
cous becomes thinner, and is consequently separated from the
blood in  the lungs more freely,  and  in greater quantities, fur-
nishing often important relief,  which is  called free expecto-
ration.
   Low diet is another course often recommended  in diseases
of the lungs.   This has the same general effect as the other
depletive agents we have  spoken of—just in proportion as we
deprive the stomach of food, just so do we deprive the whole
system of support, and in  the like manner do we deprive it of
strength.   It  is but another course to exhaust and wear out
the system, and hasten the disease to a fatal termination.   It
is really to me sometimes a matter of  surprise, how life is
maintained as long as it is.  A  person is sick—bleed  him, and
weaken  him—give him emetics to  weaken him—give him
violent cathartics to weaken him—give him active sudorifics
to weaken him—give him calomel to salivate him, and thus
weaken him—leech and cup him, to weaken  him—diet him,
give him but the weakestkind of nutriment, and that in quan-
tities hardly sufficient to  sustain life,—and all this  time the
disease is  actively preying  upon him, to debilitate  him still
more ; and under these circumstances, gentlemen wonder why
he don't get well—if is rather a wonder  that  he ever should
get  well; nor would  he, unless he had a more than  ordinary
constitution,—he is surrounded by enemies, without a friend,
but his own constitution, and that too must often yield.
   By the foregoing remarks, it  will be perceived that I almost
in every particular oppose the  usual treatment in  Pulmonary
Consumption, but yet contend that ordinarily, it is not an incu-
rable disease.  The indications of cure are plainly  pourtrayed
in the very  character  of  the  disease itself—the symptoms
which it presents—the whole appearance of the patient show, 
232
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
 in what the derangement consists, and  equally indicate the
 principles of cure.   I am willing  that those who contend for
 its incurability should avail themselves of all the benefits which
 the most disadvantageous circumstances, in regard to  it can
 afford them ; and yet it is not incurable.   I admit that no me-
 dicine can reach the lungs; that the  purulent matter  effused
 in an ulcer,  unites with the  oxygen of the atmosphere, and not
 only prevents the ulcer from healing, but contributes to spread
 it wider; and that human life must cease to exist the  instant
 the lungs be  deprived of this vital air ;  yet is it curable, but not
 by the usual means.
   In diseases of  the lungs the body is emaciated—the whole
 surface of the body,  the  skin, appears from its paleness, as if
 there was very little if any  blood charging the capillaries, the
 patient experiencing  sensations  of chilliness, unless it be dur-
 ing the  hectic exacerbation, attended with rapid emaciation,
 and loss  of strength.  What in reality is  the true nature of
 the case  under these circumstances ?   At every pulsation of
 the heart the blood is thrown to  the lungs ;  but the lungs hav-
 ing become debilitated, are thus  rendered incapable of return-
 ing the blood from them  back again to the heart as fast as the
 heart throws it to them.   The same  result might likewise be
 produced by  a thick  and viscid state of the blood.  The con-
 sequence of this would be that  accumulations of blood would
 take place in the lungs ; the  blood-vessels of the lungs would
 become filled, charged, and  gorged with  blood ; this would
induce the lungs to enlarge or swell, giving rise to shortness of
 breath, or difficulty of breathing.   In  this situation  any slight
 occurrence, as coughing  or sudden exertion, might rupture
 some of the blood-vessels  of the lungs, and blood be dischar-
 ged from the lungs, called bleeding of the lungs, which would
 readily be known by its florid, red colour.  This accumulation
 of blood in the lungs  by so greatly distending their blood ves» 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
233
sels, would produce irritation, which irritation would generate
cough, and this cough and  irritation would soon effect ulcera-
tion, which ulcer would be continually  fed or supplied by the
constant accumulation of blood in the lungs.
   We now have a correct view  of the true  circumstances of
the case, the  true state and condition of the lungs in this speci-
fic form  of the disease.   With these facts before us, we  be-
come enabled to exercise our reasoning faculties ; to form ideas
of the principles  of cure proper  to be  adopted ;  to weigh
those principles, examine  them, and criticise their action in all
their bearings, and are thus  most  capable of adopting such a
course as would be most likely to promise success.  Then the
enquiry  arises,—Is blistering the  chest a correct  practice ?
We  think and reflect  upon  the action of a blister: it may
weaken the part—it may  induce  greater diseased fluids to the
parts, and thus increase the  already existing difficulties.   Be-
sides the irritating properties of cantharides may be absorbed
and increase the irritability.   What advantage shall I derive
from blood-letting ?  I may for a short  while relieve in a mea-
sure  the congestion, but  no longer than is sufficient for an in-
crease of blood to  again charge the lungs ; then will bleeding
be required again. But shall I not by such action much further
debilitate my patient ?    Shall I not deprive the system of its
natural and  requisite  support ?    And what benefit can I ex-
pect to  derive  in  regard  to the ulcer ?  What benefit may I
expect to derive from issues or setons ?   May I not by their
means direct the action from  the lungs, and thus discharge that
virus  through another channel  instead of the  lungs ?   Does
this not  appear reasonable ?   But  it must be remembered this
morbid  matter is  constantly forming ;  and although another
drain other than the lungs be opened for the discharge  of  this-
morbid matter, yet it does not direct the blood from  the lungs,
nor can  it materially lessen the effusion of matter in the ulcer.
          20* 
234
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
 May I not derive benefit from expectorants ?   To give arti-
 cles capable of acting as  expectorants, as they are  generally
 supposed to act, is to increase the discharge from the ulcer up-
 on the lungs  already too  great; as every portion of matter
 induced from the lungs  into the ulcer,  unites with the oxygen
 of the atmosphere, which renders it of a poisonous, irritative
 character ; and by poisoning the edges of the ulcer, it causes
 it to spread wider, and thus the very evil designed to be over-
 come is augmented.
   Is there then any course that can  with propriety be adopted,
 that would promise a favourable result, or even a mitigation of
 the  disease.   There is.  We have already referred to the situ-
 ation of the patient; the blood having left the surface of the
 body, and  charging the lungs:  can we not induce that blood
 to quit the lungs, and return, and again circulate as usual in its
 natural channels, the capillaries of the skin, by the application
 of such  means as  shall  produce a  constant determination to
 the surface.   It may be said, is not  that the object of blisters ?
 If it be the object, the result is of a far  different character.   I
 do not mean  to  a certain part, but to all parts  of the  sur-
 face  of the body ; not  by vesication,  or  producing pustules
 and thus weakening  or  debilitating the  part, but by a process
 free from the evils unavoidable  in blistering.  Will not sudo-
 rifics accomplish  it;  sudorifics  are valuable,  if  not carried
 so  far as  to  exhaust  the  energies of the  system.   The
effects  of  sudorifics  or  steaming  would  be,  that during
their operation, the blood would  be induced from the lungs to
the surface, and the patient for the  time being, would expe-
rience much relief, but the instant their effects ceased, a revul-
sion  of blood  would take  place from the  skin to the  lungs
by which the difficulties of the lungs would be increased beyond
that which existed previously.  Such course must  be adopted,
as to permanently relieve the lungs ; the  blood must be induced 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
235
from the lungs to the surface of the body, and retained there—
not for a few hours, but for  days, weeks, and months if requi-
red, and until the lungs shall have acquired sufficient strength
to return the blood from them to the heart, as fast as the heart
throws it to them ; this cannot be done by blisters, issues, se-
tons, bleeding, steaming, emetics, expectorants  or  sudorifics.
Gentlemen will ever  find Pulmonary Consumption  incurable,
so long as they refuse to adopt this principle, and produce this
effect.  What then  must be  the result  of  this treatment?
Must not the lungs become  relieved of the  accumulations  of
blood in them ?  Must they not become relaxed ; relieved from
their burden, and will they not then  contract to their original
size, and will not then the difficulty of breathing and shortness
of breath be obviated ?  When the blood vessels of the lungs
are no longer distended or strained, will there be that irritation
there; and if the  irritation  has subsided, will not  the cough
likewise cease?
   It may be said,  that all this  is very well and may greatly re-
lieve and benefit the  patient, but you do not effect a cure  ; the
ulcer upon  the lungs yet remains,  which according to  your
own illustration, cannot be  cured, first, because no  medicine
can reach the lungs, and secondly, in consequence of the puru-
lent matter uniting with the oxygen of the atmosphere, of which
we cannot be deprived and live, by  which means the ulcer is
constantly aggravated and enlarged, and must necessarily pro-
gress to a fatal termination.  Not quite so fast good sirs I   Was
it not the accumulation of blood  in  the  lungs, by  which the
ulcer was supported ?   The lungs are now free from this ac-
cumulation, and  the  ulcer is deprived of support,  in familiar
language, starved.   Our object, you perceive, is not to pro-
mote effusions upon the lung, in the  site of the ulcer ; but that
which is directly the  contrary, absorption from the ulcer into the
lung, and from the lung into the system.  The consequence of 
236              KEY  TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.

which is, the ulcer upon the lung becomes smaller and smaller
every day,  until the expectoration of pus  ceases,  the ulcer
closed, and the patient cured.  But you absorb the diseased
matter into the system,—what will you do with it then ? Neu-
tralize it, render it incapable of  doing further mischief, carry
it from the system by the various excretory organs.
   We will yet add a few remarks  in regard to mineral and ve-
getable  agents, in the  treatment of disease.  We are  aware,
that,  those who use vegetable  remedies alone, and contend
earnestly  for their exclusive use, are looked upon by the great
portion  of the community, with an eye of indifference at least,
but often are they singled out as men destitute of the knowledge
of Anatomy, possessed but of a  small share of education  and
but little knowledge of  the science of medicine.   This can only
be attributed to a want of knowledge or to a prejudice, having
its origin in the influence, which interested individuals have been
enabled to exert over their credulity.   The only test must be
a trial of their relative  qualifications.  That point is now at is-
sue,  and  is now rapidly approaching its conclusion.  How it
must terminate, needs  no particular foresight to evince.  The
thousands and tens  of thousands,  in all sections of the  United
States,  who have within  a few years, and  those who are now
daily abandoning the use of mineral agents for the treatment of
disease, speak a language which cannot  be  misunderstood.
 The  ultimate issue is no  longer involved in doubt, a change, a
thorough change, will  soon take place in medicine.
   Physicians will have to start their studies from a new point,
 practice upon different principles, and adopt very different re-
 medies from what they are now using.  A few  years from this
 time, and  the mineral  and depletive practice will be  held in
 contempt, by every well informed mind.   The people them-
 selves will take this great and important cause in hand—they
 begin to  perceive that the health and well-being of both them- 
KEY TO MEDICAL  SCIENCE.
237
  selves and families, demand it; posterity demands it, and they
  will not suffer  the important obligation under which they feel
  themselves placed, to pass by unheeded.  Already have they
  it in agitation, to  establish societies among themselves for the
  furtherance and support of the  Botanical cause, and for the
  suppression of the mineral practice. We bid them good speed,
  and shall not hesitate  to throw all the force and energy of
  which we have controul into  the scale.   It is a good work—a
  worthy undertaking, and one  calculated to immortalize its pro-
  jectors.
   That vegetable remedies, and they alone, were designed for
  the treatment of all the diseases of mankind, is perfectly obvious
  and clear, from their very nature, and from all evidence  which
  can be brought to  bear upon the point.   Is  not our  whole
  system formed from vegetable matter, vegetable productions
  alone.  If so, does it not follow as an indisputable fact, that mine-
 rals are incompatible with the human constitution?  Are  there
 not  medicinal plants ?   If there  are, for  what other purpose
 were they formed than for medicinal agents ?   Were they not
 the  first agents ever  resorted to by the ancients, and were they
 not  most eminently successful  in  the treatment of diseases by
 them?   Minerals are the  last  grade of matter, and conse-
 quently capable of  decomposing all the primary grades. Of
 the  specific action of some of them, we have herein portray-
 ed.   Minerals are poisonous  to vegetable  matter, as well as
 animal.  Place a plant in a bed of calomel, arsenic or antimo-
 ny, and see if it will grow. Both the laws of nature and our own
 common sense and experience, prove to us that  minerals are
 incompatible, and of  course destructive to the human constitu-
 tion.  Even  the dumb brute who is only governed by instinct,
evinces a stronger and more correct judgment in this respect;
the dog will seek the chamomile, the toad the plantain, the cat
the catnep,   Shall we who boast of reason, fall beneath the 
238
KEY  TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
animal in respect to this important matter.  Reason and com-
mon sense forbid it.
   It is true, that there have not been those efforts made use of
to discover the various medicinal properties in plants which the
importance and  absolute necessity of the case require.   The
reason why such efforts have not been made since the lights of
Chemistry have  been developed, is because mineral agents have
held the ascendancy.  Medical philosophers have directed their
enquiries to the discoveries of minerals and their various com-
binations, regarding vegetables as unfashionble, or beneath their
notice.   Why they have done  so; why  they  have neglected
both  Vegetable and Animal Chemistry, is  equally apparent
they would not have done so, had not their minds been contin-
ually warped and biassed by this "specific vital principle" by
which they were firmly of the conviction that the modus operandi
of medicines, could never be understood :  always referring the
power by which a medicine performed its effects  to an agent
beyond  the reach of human  understanding.  Had they aban-
doned this chimerical  principle, studied the  Laws of Nature,
and become acquainted with them; long ere  this, would mine.
rals  have ceased to have a place in  the materia medica.
   The time, however, has arrived when  this important study
must commence.   It can no longer be suffered to remain in
obscurity, unintelligible to mankind.   The day is not far distant
when Schools and Colleges will  be established ; the express ob-
ject of which will be to teach Natural Philosophy in all its vari.
ous departments, and Medical Science, Chemistry, Botany and
Anatomy upon their true principles.   Medical men will then
arise whose science, whose knowledge, whose correct progno-
sis in disease, and  application of medicinal agents, will be of a
character so far superior to the quackery and empiricism of the
present day, that the thousands  of nostrums that now inundate
our land, will no longer maintain a footing or a name. 
KEY TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.
239
   A most important point to be  acquired in the treatment of
 disease by vegetable remedies, is, how properly to  prepare
 their product for use—that is to know what particular article
 there is  in a vegetable  which we require—how to extract it
 from the  plant, to obtain the pure medicinal virtures of the plant,
 free from all the extraneous matter or substances which it may
 contain, other than required.   Some plants impart their virtues
 to alcohol, some to ethers, some to acids, some to oils, &c. some
 impart their virtues to boiling  water, others again the instant
 boiling water is placed upon  them their virtues are gone, some
 are obtained by distillation, others by spontaneous evaporation
 &c.   We here close our remarks, and shall only add,  that our
 Philosophy of Practice is founded on the Laws of Nature;__
 Our Theory of Disease—the Theory of  Experience and Evi-
 dence ;—Our Materia Medica—the  Boundless Forest!
   I have writen this work, under the most disadvantageous
 circumstances, having been compelled to attend to other du-
 ties all the time, in which I have been engaged in it.   Seldom
 could my mind be  devoted  to it, but for a short period at a time,
 •sometimes not more than ten  or fifteen minutes, before my at-
 tention was required to consult with some patient.  I have had
 no  opportunity of  revising, it having been printed as fast as
 written.   From which circumstances it must necessarily con-
 tain inaccuracies, typhographical, literary and grammatical, and
 I may have repeated in some instances the same idea, not having
 examined the sheets since it came  from the press.  I however
 think I have so expressed  my ideas as  to be understood.  Should
 they meet the approbation of that public, whom I am happy to
 serve, they shall soon hear from me in  a more elaborate form, in
 which I shall enter minutely into the symptoms, character and
nature  of diseases, and their appropriate remedies.  The cir-
cumstances under  which they should be used ; and why they
should.  Giving in all instances cause and effect. 
          DR. J.  CLAWSON  KELLEY'S

MEDICAL    OFFICE,

            No. 426 BROADWAY,

                     "Neto*¥orfe,
  Where Advice and  Consultation can at all times be ob-
tained, on the various diseases—particularly in Pulmona-
ry Consumption,  Diseases of the Liver, Heart, Kidneys,
and Spleen, — Scrofula, Dropsies, Fever, Ulcers, Erup-
tions, &c.; — and where Remedies,


           Exclusively  Vegetable,


For the treatment of those complaints can at all times be
obtained, which  are invariably  prepared under our own
direction, and upon the principles advocated in this vol-
ume.
  NEW-YORK,
426 Broadway. 

PRICE  FIFTY CENTS,
\J ~il  ''Hill    'Jj
MEDICAL    SCIENCE.
3.  Clcuuson  licllcn,  21.  ]p
?
  "The time has however arr'ved, when those dark mi's—the spell
 which  las so long bound true science to the car of superstition,
 should  be d'ssohed—l.e cha'n broker"—tie mist d spersed, and tie
 s andard of sc ence crec eil upon tl a' true and imper'shable foundation
 —FAC i'S AND EXPERIENCE ' It is time tl at the re'gn of Experi-
 ment in Med'cal t-c'enc.e should cease : it ! as ruled lhe world with an
 r .m grasp.— 1'hottsands 1 a\ e been lie  vicl'ms ?acr'f;ced at its shr'ne.
 Lei Revolution—Revolution be the cry through mmra'a'n and glen,
 valley and pla'n^unjl Ih's 1 ydra of med'cal ar's'ocraoy be shorn of its
 fangs—un:il the ears shed by suiier'ng Lumani y shall cease to flow, and
. I e sunshine of hope cas* abroad its br'ght beams of joy upon a no
 1 >nger oppressed and suffer'ng human ra ure.  Let those parents who
 i a\ e los a belo\ed child by tl at \iolent and ignorant practice which
 charac eries the med'cal profession, raise theory of Revolution ! Let
 l.er whose home is lef. lonesome and desola'e, without fr'end or promo-
 tion for l.er orphan children,—who feel the unt'mely dea'h of a fa'her
 and fr'end—ali, all rase il « cry of Revolution !   Let thrm refuse at
 once adm'ss'on to  the:r thrcshhold, tl e adm'nis'ra'or of po'son, or h:s
 violent depletive agen's.  Let all uni'e in this great work, and tl e
 nd.ly coun enance, vigor of mnd and body, will soon afford the nicst
 ample evidence that the wcrk is done !"
SECOND UNIFORM EDITION.
V'*)7
                      NEW-YORK:

JOHN W. KELLEY, PRINTER AND PUBLISHER, 424 BF.OADWAY.

                        1344. 
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y 
r l! 151. IS II K I)  MONTHLY.
                  OR
FAMILY   PHYSICIAN.,
EDITED BY
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tl
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 recipes for family use ;  and in  short, it will he a t;om-
|pl,te monitorial.Vamily Physician  of general utility.

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^H

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