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A   FAIR
EXAMINATION  AND  CRITICISM
OF ALL THS
MEDICAL  SYSTEMS  IN   VOGUE;
BY
               ALVA  CURTIS, A.  M., M. D.


Founder of the First Ppysio-Medical College in the World, viz : The Botanico-Mkdi-
  cal College of Ohio; for Nineteen Years President of its Board of Directors,
     and its Professor of the Institutes and Practice of Medicine ; Author
        of "A Synopsis of Lectures on Medical Science," of " Lectures on
           Obstetrics," and  for  Twenty-one Years Editor  of the
             Botanico or Physio-Medical Recorder, and Mkmber
                of many Literary and Philosophical Societies.
•v. 1.Mld.,c."!e M ?n incoherent assemMage of incoherent ideas, and is, perhaps, of all the physiological Sciences
that which best shows the caprice of the human mind.  What did I say? It is not a Science for a methodical mind
it is a shapeless assemblage of inaccurate ideas, of observations often piierile, of deceptive remedies and of for-
mulae as fantastically conceived as they are tediously arranged."—Bichal's General Anatomy, vol. 1, page 17.

 ''But Medicine is a demonstrative Science, and all its processes should be proved by established principles, and
he based on positive inductions. That the proceedings of Medicine are not of thi3  character, is to be attributed to
we manner of its cultivation, and not to the nature of the Science itself."—Prof. Samuel Jackson, M. D.. of the
Vnxversily of Pennsylvania.—Principles of Medicine.
          C T N Ci tf^A TI:

PRINTED  FOR THE  PROPRIETOR.

                1855. 
WBJ
C<?7o5f
Copy Right secured, by B. B. Curtis, in the Southern District of Ohio. 
PREFACE.
   The object of a preface is to give some account of, or reasons for, the pro-
 duction that follows, or the author's motives for its publication.  Ever since
 the true science of medicine was shadowed forth, by Dr. Samuel  Thomson
 and other pioneers of reform, a constant crusade has  been kept up  against it
 by interested men, in the hope of rendering its doctrines and practices ridicu-
 lous and unpopular,  and thus preventing that thorough regeneration of this
 noble science, which would greatly mitigate our sufferings, prolong our lives
 and multiply our pleasures.   I say, by  interested men, those who,  having
 studied  long and carefully, the various  systems  of  error, and found them
 honorable and  profitable in their practice, have been therefore unwilling to
 acknowledge their errors and the worthlessness of  their labors, to give them
 up for truth, and to perform more labor for less profit, for the cause of science
 and humanity.
   Many friends of reform, and practitioners and teachers of medicine, have
 done what they could to develop its principles and illustrate its practice; but
 no one has yet attempted to furnish a full and safe defence of it, against the at-
 tacks of its enemies—especially has no one ventured to branch out from his
 own fortress of defence, and attack the enemy on  the high seas of his own
 crazy craft, and  to drive him into the whirlpools and the certain destruction
 into which he would gladly persuade us that we  are most  rapidly tending.
 Yet such a work is very much needed,  and, though very conscious that his
 talents, his time and his circumstances all fall short of  the magnitude and
 importance of the undertaking, the author has resolved to do what he can, in
 this hitherto little cultivated field; in the hope that it will be useful to phi-
 lanthropists of every character, grade  and condition in life, till something
 better  shall come forth to take its place.
   It is well known that the author  has had a very large experience in the
 work of  defending the cause of truth, science and humanity, and  develop-
 ing the true principles of medical science.  And he hopes to be better able
 to fulfill any expectations that may arise in other minds from this knowledge,
 than to satisfy himself that he has done all that he might have done under
 more favorable circumstances.
   One of the  most difficult things in the  world, as well as the most import-
ant, to the sick man,  is to ascertain what  practice  he  should  employ for the
                                                          (iii) 
iv
PREFACE.
 relief of his physical sufferings.  As it is impossible for any person not thor-
 oughly "bred to physic," to learn, from any sources within his reach, the true
 character of  any system  of practice, I have  been careful to  give  the true
 character of  each system, so that, whoever will make himself thoroughly ac-
 quainted with this little work, will have no one but himself to blame,  if he
 does not choose the best,  at the commencement of his disease, and continue
 it till he recovers or dies.   It is well known that some physicians who belong
 to one class, will often practice on the principles of another; thus the Allopa-
 thist may give good medicines,  the wet sheet, the warm  and vapor bath;
 the Eclectic,  who pretends to "dispense with all deleterious agencies" (403),
 may bleed,  cup, blister  and  give  opium  and  other narcotics,  and  even
 calomel; and the pretended Physio-Medical may, to  some extent, use  like
 agents.  But this work will enable him who is familiar with it, to detect all
 such hypocrisy, and  guard against its ruinous  effects.
  The subjects discussed are the following:
  1st.  Medicine as it is in the various schools.
  2d.  Medicine as it should be.
  3d.  The contrast between them.
  4th. The answer to the questions, what is science and what is quackery,
and where may each  be found.
  Editors or critics,  who  may  deem this work worthy of their notice, will
confer a favor on the author by sending him a  copy of  their notices; and, if
any living authors think  that he  has  done them, injustice, they will  please
show him wherein, and the wrong, if any, shall be corrected in notes to the
next edition, which will soon appear, as this is nearly all bespoken. 
INTRODUCTION.
   To a powerful and well disciplined  mind, thoroughly acquainted with the
 truths and facts of the case, it is both painful and disheartening, to perceive
 how extensively a few comparatively obscure men of moderate talent and
 little information or less discrimination and candor, have succeeded in per-
 suading a large majority of the  talented,  intelligent and  refined of  the
 community, even of the professions of religion and law; of the statesmen,
 philosophers,  philanthropists and  men  of  every trade or occupation, and
 even thousands of their own profession, to believe that the Allopathic system
 of medicine, is based on the solid principles of science, and that its practice
 is worthy of the dignified title of an  art; when, in fact, there  can scarcely
 be found, in the whole ranks of the profession, in ancient or in modern times,
 a single man distinguished for his talents, his education, his accurate discrim-
 ination,  his candor,  honor and  humanity,  who  has sincerely  believed its
 doctrines, or placed any confidence in its practices.   On the contrary, the
 most of them  have publicly denounced its leading doctrines, as  a system of
 "absurdity, contradiction and  falsehood,"  and  its  practices  as "horrid,
 unwarrantable, murderous quackery."   Prof. N. Chapman, (142).
  Did the doctrines of Allopathy work only the profit of the deceivers,  we
 might, to some extent, excuse it; but, when it is demonstrated, that the prac-
 tice  daily and  hourly works out the life-long ruin of the poor,  frail, mortal
 bodies of thousands and tens of thousands of our  citizens, causing them to
 "drag out a few years of miserable existence in extreme debility and emacia-
 tion, with stiff incurvated limbs, a total loss of teeth and appetite," "a loathing
 to themselves and a disgusting spectacle to those around them;" while, with its
 millions of  victims of premature destruction, it peoples,  yearly, the dark and
 silent regions of the dead, our sorrow and chagrin at the deception are turned
 into  deep lamentation, disgust and abhorrence; and we are  constrained to
exclaim—"By what unaccountable perversity of our nature" is it that we
can be so wicked as thus to deceive others, or so blind and stupid as to  be
deceived, in such a manner, to our own or their destruction!
  Another of  the strangest phenomena which the operations of tho universe
present to the contemplation of admiring man, is the fact that  truth and love,
                                                           (5) 
6                           INTRODUCTION.
 or Science and  Benevolence, though the  brightest Angels that ever left the
 throne of God, on an  errand  of mercy to poor, ignorant and selfish man;
 have ever, as a general rule, met the strongest opposition and the most un-
 grateful treatment,  from the very persons whom they have so generously
 endeavored to enlighten,  to refine and to  bless.   Such angels are the truths
 that have heralded true medical  reform, and such have been the opposition,
 slander and  abuse they have  experienced.  Yet I hope that none will be
 startled at the assertion I  now  make, that nothing is easier than to prove, by
 the most abundant and appropriate testimony, by the most indubitable facts,
 logical deductions and tabular results, that  this Allopathic system  is the
 most erroneous,  absurd, dangerous and destructive system of quackery, and
 its practice the most wicked as well as the most specious humbug, that the
 world  has ever  known; and that the very attempt to convince us that its
 principles constitute a solid science, or its practices a noble art, is an  impu-
 dent insult  to our understandings, or morals, as  it supposes us either igno-
 ramuses, simpletons or knaves.
   To demonstrate these propositions, is the object of  this work.
   The subject is systematically and scientifically  treated under the following
 heads:
   1. Proof  that Allopathy and its kindred systems are not science.
   2. Proof  that their practice is not art.
   3. Proof  that their fundamental doctrines are false.
   4. Proof  that their particular practices are injurious.
   5. The character and tendency of  their principles.
   6. The character and tendency of  their remedies.
   7. What is true science?
   8. What is quackery?
   9. Where may each be found.
   When quoting authors, the  figures  in  parentheses refer to the  pages of
their books, or, as at  the  close of the  first paragraph here, (142),  to some
number of the book where the quotation and  reference  are found.   In  my
own composition, they  refer to the numbers of this work. 
EXPOSITION,  fto.
         General Denunciations  of Medicine  as a Science.


   1.  Dr. J. Abercrombie,  Fellow of the Royal  Society of England, of the
 Royal College of Physicians in Edinburg, and first Physician to his Majesty
 in Scotland, says:

   "There has  been much  difference of opinion among philosophers, in re-
 gard  to the place which medicine is entitled to hold  among the physical sci-
 ences; for, while one has maintained that it ' rests upon an eternal basis, and
 has within it the power of rising to perfection,' another has distinctly asserted
 that  'almost the only resource of medicine is  the art of conjecturing.'"
 Intel. Pow., p. 293.

   2.  Dr. John Eberle,  Professor successively in Philadelphia, New York,
 Cincinnati, and Lexington, Ky., says of the fashionable theories of medicine:
   " The judicious and unprejudiced physician will neither condemn nor adopt
 unreservedly any of the leading doctrines advanced in modern times."   Pref.
 to Prac,  p. 1.
   That is, not a tyro, mark it, but "the judicious and unprejudiced  physi-
 cian," the man who is best instructed in them, and  the most capable of dis-
 tinguishing between  truth and falsehood,  even  such a man  is not certain
 whether, not a  few wild notions of some idle theorist, but "the leading doc-
 trines," the fundamental principles of modern medicine, are right or wrong!
 Shade of  Dr. Eberle! you  surely will not  haunt me for trying to determine
 this unsettled question!

   3.  The "New York Medical Enquirer," commenced in January 1830, the
 name  of which was  changed,  in July following, to the American Lancet,
 published in the city of  New York, and conducted by an association of Phy-
 sicians and Surgeons, vol. 1, No.  1, advertisement, says:
   "If we take  a retrospective view of the science of medicine with its alter-
 ations and improvements the last two centuries,  the medical  annals  of this
 period will present us with a series of learned dissertations by  authors whose
 names alone are now remembered, while their writings, under the specious
 term improvement, have  left us only  the deplorable  consolation of knowing
 that their works have heaped  system upon system, precept upon precept,
 error  upon error, each  in  turn  yielding to its  follower.  Year  after year
 produces  a new advocate for a new theory of disease, each condemning its
 predecessor, and each alike  to be condemned by its successor.
  "Happy had it been  for the world, if the  medical  systems which have
been obtruded  upon  it, were only chargeable  with inutility, absurdity, and
 falsehood.  But alas! they  have  often misled the understanding, perverted
                                                          (7) 
8
EXPOSITION.
 the judgment, and given rise to the most dangerous and fatal errors in prac-
 tice.  A short view of the history of  physic will convince us of this melan-
 choly truth.
   "We wish a more  rational  mode  adopted for the promotion  of medical
 knowledge, than hair-brained theories and doubtful facts.   Observation, prac-
 tice, and experience,  in the administration of medicine, with its effects on
 the system, may take  the lead of scholastic learning and hard  names.  We
 must have facts instead of opinions,  reasons instead of theory,  knowledge
 instead of titles and certificates."

   4. The following is the declaration of Bichat, one of the greatest of French
 Pathologists:
   "Medicine is an  incoherent  assemblage of incoherent ideas, and is,  per-
 haps, of all the physiological sciences, that which best shows the caprice of
 the  human mind.   What did I say?   It is  not a science for a methodical
 mind.  It is a shapeless  assemblage of  inaccurate ideas, of observations
 often  puerile,  of deceptive remedies,  and of formulae as  fantastically con-
 ceived  as they are tediously arranged."  Bichat's  General  Anatomy,  vol.
 1, page 17.

   5. Dr. L. M. Whiting, in  a Dissertation at an Annual Commencement in
 Pittsfield,  Mass., said:
   " The very principles upon w^hich  most of what  are called  the  theories
 involving medical questions,  have been based, were never established.  They
 are and always were false, and  consequently, the superstructures built upon
 them were as  'the baseless fabric of a  vision'—transient  in their exist-
 ence—passing  away upon  the  introduction of new  doctrines and hyptfthe-
 *es, like the dew before the morning  sun."   B. M. & S. Journal,  vol.  14,
 page 183.
   " Speculation has been the garb in which medicine has been arrayed, from
 that remote period when  it was rocked in the cradle of its infancy, by the
 Egyptian priesthood,  down  to the present day;  its  texture  varying, to  bf«
 sure, according to the power and skill of the manufacturer, from the delicato,
 fine-spun,  gossamer-like web of  Darwin, to the more gross,  uneven,  and un-
 wieldy fabric of Hunter; its  hue also changing by being dipped in different
 dyes as often as it  has become soiled by time and exposure.   And what has
 been the consequence?  System  after system has arisen, flourished, fallen,
 and been forgotten, in  rapid and melancholy succession, until  the whole field
 is strewed with the disjointed materials in  perfect chaos—and, amongst the
 rubbish, the  philosophic mind  may search for ages, without  being  able to
 glean from it hardly  one solitary well established fact.
   "If this is a true statement of the case,  (and let him who doubts take up
 the history of medicine); if  that enormous mass of matter which has  been,
 time out of mind accumulating, and which has been  christened  medical  sci-
ence, is, in fact, nothing but hypothesis piled  on hypothesis; who  is there
among us that would not exult in seeing it swept awav at once by the besom
of destruction?"  lb.  p. 187-8.                     "
  Professor Jacob  Bigelow, of the medical department of  Harvard  Univer-
sity, says:
  "Medicine in regard to some of its  professed and important objects Tthe
eure of disease], is still an ineffectual speculation."   Annual Address before
rhe Massachusetts Medical Society,  1835. 
EXPOSITION
9
   6. Dr.  Rush, in his lectures in the University of Pennsylvania, says-
   " 1 am insensibly led to make an apology for the instability of the theories
 and practices of physic.   Those physicians generally become the most emin-
 ent, who  soonest  emancipate themselves from the  tyranny of the schools
 of  physic.   Our  want of  success  is owing to  the following causes:  1st.
 Our ignorance of the disease.  2d.  Our ignorance of a suitable remedy."
 trage 79.

   7. Dr. Chapman, Professor of the Institutes and Practice  of Physic iu
 the University of Pennsylvania, says:
   ''Consulting the records of our science, we can not help being disgusted
 with the multitude of hypotheses  obtruded upon us at different times.  No
 where is the imagination displayed to a greater extent; and,  perhaps so am-
 ple  an exhibition  of  human invention  might gratify our vanity,  if it were
 not more than counterbalanced by the humiliating view of so much absurd-
 ity, contradiction,  and falsehood."  Therapeutics, vol. 1, p.  47.
   "To harmonize the contrarieties of medical doctrines, is, indeed a task as
 impracticable as to arrange the fleeting vapors around us, or  to reconcile the
 fixed and repulsive antipathies of  nature."  lb. p. 23.

   8. Dr. Gregory, of London, in  his Practice, page 31, says:
   "All the vagaries of medical theory,  like the absurdities once advanced to
 explain the nature of  gravitation, from  Hippocrates  to Broir-sais, have been
 believed to be sufficient to explain  the phenomena [of dis*v. •  j,  vet they have
 all proved unsatisfactory."
   "The science of medicine  has  been cultivated more  than two thousand
 years.   The most devoted industry and  the greatest talents have been exer-
 cised upon it; and, though  there have been great improvements, and  there
 is much to be  remembered, yet upon no subject have the wild spirit and the
 eccentric dispositions  of the imagination been more widely displayed.   *  * '
 Men of extensive fame, glory in pretending to see  deeper into the recesses
 of nature  than nature herself ever intended; they invent hypotheses, they
 build theories  and distort facts to suit their aerial creations.   The celebrity
 of many of the most prominent characters of the last century, will, ere  lona,
 be  discovered  only in the libraries of the curious, and recollected only by
 the  learned."  Page 29.
  I  must here add that Dr. Gregory's statements respecting medical theories,
 are indorsed by his American editors, Professor Potter, of the University of
 Maryland, and S. Calhoun,  M. D., Professor  in Jefferson Medical College,
 Pennsylvania.   They  are therefore sanctioned by the famous school  of Bal-
 timore, which disputes with the Pennsylvanian, for the honor of being ranked
 the first in the United States.

  9. Professor Jackson, of the University of Pennsylvania,  tells us, in the
 preface to his "Principles of Medicine," p. 1, that,
  " The discovery of new facts has shed a light which has changed the whole
aspect of medical science, and the works which have served  as guides, are
impaired in  importance  and value;  they lead astray from the direction in
which the science progresses, and new ones  are  demanded, to supply the
position in  which they become faulty.
  "  The  want of a treatise on the Practice of Medicine, in the room of  thosv
usually  placed in the  hands of students and young  practitioners, had  long 
10
EXPOSITION.'
been felt."  *   *   "At first I contemplated merely a practical book, com-
piled  in the usual  manner, founded on the experience of preceding writers,
compared with,  and corrected  and extended  by my own.   I  had made a
considerable progress in this method, when I was arrested by the conviction
that it was essentially defective; that  it did not meet  the spirit of the age;
that it did not answer  the purposes  of  a rational instruction; that  it did
not supply the deficiency  I had felt  to exist  in the commencement of my
profession; that  it had been  followed in a servile  spirit, from  the remotest
eras of the science,  and is,  most probably, the cause that, after so long a
period after its cultivation, its practice still continues of uncertain and doubt-
ful  application."

  10.  He therefore strikes out an entirely new path, and writes a large book
which is  no sooner out of the press than Dr. J. V. C. Smith, of the Boston
Medical and Surgical Journal, pounces upon it with a  severity  almost equal
to that of Dr. Pattison upon Broussais.   So they go.
  Menzel, in his specimens of Foreign Literature and Science, says:—
  "The  Science of Medicine  enjoys an  immeasurable literature, which,
unhappily has not  yet been able to be collected into a  Bible.  It numbers
creeds and sects  enough; and, as Theological parties finally come together in
faith,   Medical parties  unite  at  the most in unbelief."—Menzel's German
Literature, vol. II, page 223.
  "The history  of Medicine, which has been  most thoroughly written by
Kurt  Sprengel,  furnishes  a melancholy  proof  how much  the  human race
have been always  groping about in error, upon one of the most important
subjects to them.  We need but compare  the systems of the most celebrated
and best  known physicians, to  discover,  every  where, contradictions of the
grossest kind.    What one derives from the fluids another explains from the
solids; what one  wants to  cure with heat, another  does with cold;  where  an
opposite  is  recommended  by one, a  remedy similar to the  [cause of the]
disease, is recommended by another.   If  one wants to cure the body by the
mind,  another wants to cure the mind by the body.
  "But,  if it is  asked how all these strangely  contradictory  systems  could
have come into being, the  answer is almost always to be found in the pre-
vailing fashion of the times,  which, originally had nothing whatever  to  do
with medicine."—lb. page 226.
  Thus,—"The  age of vapors, of coquettish fainting fits, interesting paleness
and the like,"—"was the  golden age of the doctors  and apothecaries, and
mankind  were  obliged to let  blood  after Stahl;  to vomit  after  Hoffman,
to purge after Kampf; and exhaust deep  alembics after prescriptions a yard
long,  full of every stench  of  the old world and the new, in order to go back
again  finally to  Helmont's theory, that the  real  seat of disease was the
stomach disordered by doctoring."—lb. page 230-231.  See the whole article.

  11.  Medicine  is still in its infancy. M. Louis,  see Paine's Commentary
page 331-2.
  "Men  have for ages devoted themselves to therapeutics, and the Science is
still in its infancy"—"Physicians scarcely agree except on points which are
admitted without any examination, or as established by long usage which has
nothing to recommend it  but time."—"The reader will be astonished, un-
doubtedly, that, in the nineteenth century, authority could have  been invoked
in a Science of observation, without remarking that what we  call experience, 
exposition.                            n
 even now, is nothing but authority!"—"In fact, to what authorities do those
 most celebrated for the wisdom of their precepts,  refer, unless it  be to the
 practice of their predecessors?"—"If the experience so justly scorned  by
 Quesnay, is an uncertain guide in practice, it is because it possesses nothing
 of true experience; but the reverse; because it is, in truth, only the common
 usage, not  justified by rigorous observation."—"The pretended experience
 of authors is worth nothing, and, after all their assertions and denials, we are
 no further advanced than before; the  experience to which he refers, is evi-
 dently tradition, custom, common belief,—an almost worthless thing,—a
 compound of vague recollections."
   C. Hering, in his Introduction to Hahnemann's Organon, says:—
   "Innumerable opinions of the nature and cure of diseases, have  succes-
 sively been promulgated;  each [author] distinguishing his own Theory  by
 the title of  System, though directly at variance with every other, and incon-
 sistent with itself.   Each of these refined productions dazzled the  reader at
 first with its unintelligible  display of wisdom, and attached  to  the  system
 builder crowds of adherents,  echoing his unnatural sophistry; but, from
 which none of them could derive any improvement in  the  art of healing,
 until a new system, frequently in direct opposition to the former, appeared,
 supplanting it, and, for a season acquiring celebrity.  Yet none were in harmony
 with  nature or experience,—mere theories spread out of  a refined  imagina-
 tion,  from apparent consequences, which, on account of their subtility and
 contradictions, were practically inapplicable  at the bed  side of the patient,
 and'fitted only for idle disputation.
   "By the side of  these theories, but unreconciled with them all, a mode of
 cure  was contrived, with medicinal  substances  of unknown  quality com-
 pounded together, applied to diseases  arbitrarily classified, and arranged in
 reference to their materiality, called Allopathic.   The pernicious results  of
 such  a practice, at variance  with nature  and experience, may  be easily
 imagined."—Page 25, 26.
   12. This author  is one of the most distinguished disciples of Hahnemann,
 and advocates of Homeopathy, and yet he says, page 17,
  "For  myself I am  generally considered as a  disciple and  adherent  of
 Hahnemann, and I do indeed declare, that I am one amongst the most enthu-
 siastic in doing homage to his greatness; but nevertheless I declare also, that,
 since my first acquaintance with Homeopathy  (in 1821),  I have never
 accepted a single theory in the Organon, as it is there promulgated.  I feel
 no aversion to acknowledge this, even to the venerable sage himself."

  13. D'Alembert.—"The following  apologue," says D'Alembert,  "made
 by a  physician, a man of wit and philosophy, represents very well  the state
 of that science."   'Nature is fighting with disease; a blind man armed with
 a club, that is, a physician, comes to settle the difference.  He first tries  to
 make peace.   When he can not accomplish this, he lifts his club and strikes
 at random.   If he  strikes  the  disease,  he kills the disease;  if he  strikes
 nature, he kills nature.' "   "An eminent physician," says the same  writer,
 "renouncing a practice which he had exercised for thirty years, said, 'I am
 weary of guessing,'"—Abercrombie, Intel. Pow.,  page 293.
  Dr. Abercrombie adds:—
  "The uncertainty of medicine, which is thus a theme for the philosopher
and the humorist, is deeply felt by the practical physician in the daily exercise
of his art." 
12
EXPOSITION.
    14. Dr.  James  Graham,  the celebrated  Medico-Electrician  of  London,
 says of Medicine:—
    "It hath been very rich  in  theory, but poor, very poor in the  practical
 application of it.   Indeed, the tinsel glitter of fine spun theory, of favorite
 hypothesis, which  prevails wherever medicine hath been taught, so dazzles,
 flatters,  and charms human  vanity and  folly, that, so far from  contributing
 to the certain and speedy cure of diseases, it hath, in every age, proved the
 bane and disgrace of the healing art."—Graham's Electric remedies, p. 15.

    15. The following is the  testimony of Dr. Brown, who was educated in
 Edinburg, Scotland, then called the  Medical Athens  of the world,  a school
 to which physicians from every country lately went to finish their education:
   Dr. Brown, who studied under  the  famous  Dr.  Wm. Cullen, of Edin-
 burg, lived in his family and lectured on his system, (a system that  has had
 as many advocates and practitioners as any other of modern times), says, in
 his preface  to his own work,  "The author of this work has spent more than
 twenty years in learning, scrutinizing and  teaching every part of medicine.
 The first five years  passed away in  hearing others, in studying what I  had
 heard, implicitly believing it, and  entering upon  the possession as a rich
 inheritance.   The next five,  I was  employed in explaining  and refining the
 several particulars, and bestowing on them a nicer polish.   During  the five
 succeeding  years, nothing having prospered according to my satisfaction,  I
 grew indifferent to the  subject; and, with many eminent men, and even the
 very  vulgar, began  to deplore the healing art, as altogether uncertain and
 incomprehensible.  All this time passed away without the acquisition of any
 advantage, and without that which, of all things, is the most agreeable to the
 mind, the light of truth; and so great and precious a portion of the short and
 perishable life of man, was totally lost!  Here I was, at this period, in the
 situation of a traveler in an unknown country, who, after losing every trace
 of his way, wanders in the shades of night."
   I would here remark, once for all,  that  I do not always agree with  the
 authors in all  the sentiments  quoted.   I receive no man's mere opinions as
 infallibly true, till I have demonstrated them by evidences that will not admit
 of a doubt.   For example, I can not admit, with Dr. Brown, that he "had
 spent all that time without the acquisition of  any advantage."   He had dis-
 covered many a valuable fact for future use.   If he had not learned, directly.
 what  medicine was, he had discovered, indirectly, what it was not; and thus
 narrowed the limits of his fruitless researches, as well as stored up experience
 as the foundation of  his future medical philosophy.

   16.  Testimony of Dr.  Donaldson, a Scotch Physician  of high  repute:
 "I was educated in  the Gregorian doctrines of the Edinburg school of medi-
 cine.   I  was  taught the theory of  medicine as  delivered in his Conspec-
 tus, and  was exercised in the Cullenian discipline, divested of all his hypo-
 thetical errors of spasm and atony of the extremities of arteries.   I  learned
all the branches of medical science under the distinguished and erudite pro-
 fessors of the most celebrated  university and school of medicine in the world;
 I always  embraced plausible truths, and rejected visible errors, in theory and
practice.   I admitted doubtful hypotheses to have no  place  in my mind, to
influence  my future practice.   Even during my discipleship, I thought for
myself, and  digested their instructions with an unfettered  and independent
judgment and reasoning, and I had  no sooner completed my studies of the 
EXPOSITION.
13
theoretical and practical science of medicine, and other branches of learning,
in the College of  Edinburg, than I repaired to the schools of London, so
famous for anatomy and physiology.
  Having finished my intended course in the metropolis of the British empire,
I launched into practice, under the auspices of a real imitator of  the Edin-
burg  school, and  a follower of Clarke, Lind, Thomas,  &c, and  soon had
ample opportunities of witnessing the  great insufficiencies of the  medical
practice of the present day, in the hands of  the  most skillful administrators
and practitioners.  In this situation I soon had occasion to dissent from the
doctrines  of  the  schools, but years elapsed  before I could bring  myself to
deviate from  the practice, which they and the  most esteemed authors taught
in their instructions  and works.  I hesitated in the old road until I should
discover a new way by experience and obesrvation to keep me from stum-
bling on the  dark mountains of doubts and errors.   I consulted all the  most
celebrated writings of ancient  and modern physicians;  I  searched for  light
in vain, to direct my steps.
   During my travel in the East Indies, in the  years 1810, '11, '14, '15, and
'16,1 had many opportunities of  trying every method of curing diseases of
all descriptions, and of proving the virtues and efficacies of all remedies com-
monly employed by practitioners, as well as making all necessary alterations in
former modes of treatment, and in  the choice of remedies.   Fevers,  fluxes, in-
flammations,  affections of the spleen and liver, apoplexies, palsies, spasms, &c,
were  the great diseases that attracted my attention, being under  my own care
and treatment in those warm regions, and I  was extremely mortified to find
all my remedies ineffectual to reduce inflammation or subdue many of those
diseases, by  the common  method  of treatment; and  my pride was humbled
at the repeated disappointments I  encountered, in being baffled to  cure them
with  the  common  remedies, carried to the  same extent,  and  administered
with  the same diligence as recommended in books,  or by professors of medi-
cine;  I administered  purges, barks  and wine,  with the  utmost rigor, in all
classes of inter and remittent fevers;  I exhibited saline purges, opiates,  mer-
curials, sudorifics  and nutrients,  in cases of dsyentery,  and  found them all
ineffectual to arrest the progress of fevers, or to cure the affections of dysen-
tery,  in many severe cases.   I could not produce an  immediate crisis  in
fevers, nor remove the agonies  of  fluxes;  they  still continued to return,  or to
torture my patients,  in defiance of all the remedies that have been  recom-
mended by Drs.  Blane,  Lind,  Clarke, Chisholm, Cullen,  Thomas,  Phillip,
Hoffman,   Boerhaave,  Brown,  Farriar, Fordyce,  Currie,  Darwin, Jackson,
Wright, Fowler,  Trotter,  Haygarth, Heberden, Lieutaud,  Huxham,  Russell,
Macgregor,  Falconer, Desgenettes, Milne, Dewar, Bisset, Warren, Pringle,
Buchan, Churchill, Friend, McCord, &c, who are supposed to have delivered
the sentiments of the medical schools in their days.   Neither were the reme-
dies employed by  the most noted of  the ancients, as Hippocrates, Celsus,
Galenus,  Asclepiades, &c, <fec, more successful in curing febrile distempers.
Having read and studied medicine of the ancients and moderns,  I was able
to choose  those remedies, proposed in their writings, best  calculated to cure
disorders  of the  human  frame, in all climates of the earth, and  to employ
them to the greatest advantages, but, without the knowledge of the real nature
of fevers and fluxes, I still labored in the dark, and could not effect, in all
cases, by the use of such remedies, a solution of the disease under my care,
witli  any  degree  of  certainty  of success in  the  commencement.  I was
unacquainted with the principle on which those remedies acted to  bring to a 
14
EXPOSITION.
favorable crisis.   I longed for that day when my knowledge of the nature 01
the diseases, and of the  virtues of the  remedies employed to cure  them,
would enable me to cure the severest of them at pleasure, and to liberate my
fellow  creatures from the iron  grasp of mortal afflictions,  and I began to
lament the universal  ignorance of the professors of medicine, respecting the

  From that day till the present, I never have used the remedies commonly pre-
scribed by writers on medicine,  neither have I followed the doctrines of the
school  in the treatment of the febrile diseases.   I determined that no other
patient of mine should ever become a victim to  the  common old treatment
pointed out by professors of medicine, and authors of medical books.  In the full
belief of the doctrine which experience had taught me, I soon had the pleasure
of seeing almost all my patients recover from fevers, in the space of two, three,
four and five days; whereas, according to the old method of treatment fol-
lowed  by my cotemporaries,  patients labored a month, six weeks, two or
three months, under a violent fever  and its fatal dregs, and either died or
were restored by the  mere  efforts of nature, or languished under the irremedi-
able consequences of such disease, during  the  remainder of their lives, in
misery and infirmity.
   Thus it may be  perceived, by the foregoing collection of facts, how I
came to possess a new doctrine and theory of fevers, and to  institute a new-
method of treatment on the foundation of a sure and certain principle of prac-
tice, deduced from this doctrine in the application of remedies more rational
and successful than  appear  in  any system  of  medicine ever exhibited in
ancient or modern times, as far as I know, by the annals of medicine;  and 1
now come forward to open the discovery for the general benefit of mankind.
In doing this, I shall be under the absolute necessity of exposing and reject-
ing all former opinions respecting the proximate  causes or nature of diseases;
I shall have to combat the errors of the learned and the ignorant, both in the
theory and practice of medicine; I shall be forced to reject all the erroneous
doctrines of the schools in which I was educated;  I shall have to defend my
sentiments against all the invidious malignities  and contumelies of  my ene-
mies, on the basis of  infallible  principles, deduced  from and depending on
the truths and facts  which I  have discovered in  the nature of these diseases,
by experience, observation, reflecting and reasoning, so absolutely necessary
to be known before  we can succeed  in practice.   Many self-confident and
ignorant pretenders  to the science and art of medicine, are inclined to sup-
pose that no errors  can  exist,  in  the present theories  of the  enlightened
schools of Europe and America, to combat, in the treatment of diseases.
   In fact, no physician whose works I have read, no professor of medicine
whom I have ever heard speak on the nature of diseases, has ever discovered,
or even hinted at the cure of fever; all have delivered theories, which amount
to open acknowledgments  of  their ignorance of it; or have candidly professed
the  universal ignorance of all physicians in the world, of the former  and
present times, respecting the nature of these diseases.
   I observed the plan of cure followed by the East Indians in fevers.  I saw
the practitioners cure  the most  vehement cases  of  intermittent fevers in a
single day, with such a mathematical precision and certainty, as I never beheld
in any region of the earth—by purging, vomiting and sweating, &c.  I per-
ceived  that  they also cured without knowing the nature of disease,  or the
principles of their practice; and was led to believe all diseases curable, if we
could only discover the remedies against them and would apply those remedies 
EXPOSITION.                            15
 in  due time and to sufficient extent, to effect these  possible ends.  Their
 method  of treatment consisted in the administration  of a  medicine  that
 effectually purged and vomited their patients, who were obliged at the same
 time, to use the steam bath, and drink abundantly of warm teas,  until copious
 or profuse sweat was  produced, and the  fever  was mechanically reduced,
 leaving nothing to  be done by  feeble nature,  as  the ancient  and modern
 practitioners of Europe were accustomed to do many ages prior to  the days
 of Bottalus and Sydenham.
   Having acquired a knowledge of these things  relative  to the nature of
 febrile diseases, I was induced to abandon the common  plan of treatment,
 and to institute a new method of curing them with the use of new remedies."

   17. Dr. W. Henderson, Professor of Medicine and General Pathology in
 the University of Edinburg, in 1847, says:—
   "Some 80 or 90 per cent, of the patients who employ medical practitioners,
 would be better off without them."—Forbes Young Physic, page 94.

   18. Dr. John Forbes, (whose titles would fill a quarter of this page, I give
 here only F. R. S., F. G. S.,  Fellow of  the Royal College of Physicians in
 London, Editor of the British and Foreign Medical Review, or Quarterly
 Journal of Practical Medicine and Surgery, Physician Ordinary and Extra-
 ordinary to Princes, Hospitals, &c, and member of almost all the medical
 societies in Europe,) after drawing a close comparison between Homeopathy
 and Allopathy,  says:—(Young Physic, page 98).
   "The most important inferences unfavorable to Allopathy are:—
   1.  That, in a large  proportion of the cases treated by Allopathic physi-
 cians, the disease is cured by nature and not by them.
   2.  That, in a lesser, but still not a small proportion, the disease is cured
 by nature in spite  of them;  in other  words,  their  interference  opposing
 instead of assisting the cure.         ,
   3.  That, consequently, in a considerable proportion of diseases, it would
 fare as well or better, with patients, in the actual  condition of  the medical
 art, as now generally practiced, if all remedies, at  least all active remedies,
 especially drugs, were abandoned."
   "We repeat  our readiness to admit these inferences as  just, and to abide
 by the consequences  of their adoption.   We believe  they are true.   Wo
 grieve sincerely to believe them to be so;  but so believing,  their  rejection is
 no  longer in our power; we must receive  them as facts, till they are proved
 not to be so."
   Since I first published the foregoing testimonies, it has been said that "they
 are the mere declamations  of a few disappointed men"—that "others have
 found medicine to be a,true science,"  "having, within it, the power of rising
 to perfection," (1).  Those who think so, will please to examine, in the index,
 the list of authors quoted, and they will see that these are the very men who
 have  made the  greatest attainments in  personal knowledge and skill, and
 been elevated to the highest ranks in the honors of the profession and  the
 estimation of the world.   They all  were,  and many still are, the most dis-
 tinguished Professors in the most renowned colleges and hospitals; or editors,
 or general practitioners, whose writings have been deemed the best authority,
and who had nothing more to  ask, (16, 18).
  The influence of  their honest confessions, has been such, that several of
their own eminent profession,  fearing that medicine would be totally repudi- 
16
EXPOSITION.
ated and abandoned, have attempted to defend it.  Among these, I have room
to notice here, only Prof. Elisha Bartlett, formerly of the University of Tran-
sylvania, now of the University of New York.   Prof. Bartlett says:
   "I am only stating what every body knows to be true, when I say that the
general confidence which  has heretofore  existed in the  science and art of
medicine, as this science has been studied and this  art has been practiced,
has, within the last few years, been violently shaken and disturbed, and is
now greatly lessened and impaired.   The  hold which medicine has long had
upon the popular mind, is loosened; there is a wide-spread  skepticism as to
its power of curing diseases, and men are every where to be found whodeny
its  pretensions as a science, and reject  the benefits  and blessings  which it
proffers them as an art."—"Inquiry into the  certainty of  medicine," p. 9.
   He  charges that medicine  has been "blindly and  unjustly assailed by
parties who understand  neither their own strength nor ours," and,  the next
page,  (8), he complains of the distinguished Dr. Forbes as an eminent con-
tributor to this disparagement of medicine!
   He and Prof. Eve, (who undertook the  same task, of defending medicine,
in "An Introductory to the Third Session of the University of Nashville"),
commence  by showing that anatomy and physiology have become, in a
measure, fixed, (which no  body denies).   Prof. B. then comes up, with evi-
dent fear and trembling, to "the practice as an art,"  pages 16, 17.
   To  prove its certainty and usefulness here, he cites the case of pneumonia,
gives  what is known of its  lesions and their progress, (p.24), and finally says
that the profession are  pretty well united in the faith that "blood-letting"
(p. 29), and  "tartrate of  antimony" (p. 40, 45), are the remedies.  With
these the profession have cured pneumonia, with wonderful success, not hav-
ing lost, in some instances more than "one-sixth," (p. 40), or "one-seventh,"
(p. 46)!  He does not know what would have been the result had no medicine
been given!   The disease is hardly ever left to itself—experiments of that kind
would be "to sacrifice the  interests of humanity to those of science," which
"we have no  right" to do,  (p. 35).   He quotes a statement  of Dr.  Fleisch-
mann, that 105 cases of peritonitis  had been  treated without blood-letting,
and "with only five deaths,"—says  this is evidence that no reliance can be
placed on it, and asks if "any body will believe it"! (p. 43).
   Space requires me to close  here, by saying  that this same author com-
mences (page 49)  his great work on  "the Fevers of  the United States," by
saying that he knows more about Typhoid than any other fever; and, after
gathering up almost every thing that has ever  been said on  the  subject,
declares (p. 159) that  "the materials for a philosophical theory of fever, or
of any individual fever, do not exist." (See Nos. 34 to 38).   He gives six dif-
ferent methods or treating Typhoid fever, and two-and-a-half pages of empy-
ricism under  the head of "Miscellaneous," (p.  104), and concludes (p. 185)
that  "the professional mind" is "in an  unsettled and discordant state  in
regard to the therapeutics of Typhoid fever," and (p. 186), that, "After the
first few days, in cases  of  moderate  or average severity, with no special or
urgent indication, it is quite  clear,  I think, that all treatment, in  any way
decidedly active  or  perturbating, is to be  avoided.    The  tendency of the
disease [fever, inflammation], in all such cases, is towards a  natural termina-
tion in health: [natural for fever to terminate in health/   What a terrible dis-
ease it must be!  C]  and there is no evidence that the dangerous complications
which are liable to occur,  can be prevented by any active interference."
   See Drake on Diseases of the Mississippi Valley, p.  509,  ^[ 2, 3. 
CHAPTER II.
                      THE PRACTICE IS NOT AN  ART.

   Th a preceding quotations which might be accompanied by  others of a
similar  character to any extent, the material being unlimited in quantity,
prove, beyond all controversy,that the medical theories of the schools, ate
not the doctrines of science:—that they "never were established; but are, and
always were false."
   The  following quotations will  prove that "the superstructures built upon
them," the practices of medicine, are "baseless as  the fabric of a vision."
(Whiting,) and wholly unworthy of the dignified title of an art—that, what
is often called  "the  art divine" in honor of what it  should be, is, in fact
the most absurd and mischievous quackery in the world.
   19. Experience of little value.—"When, in the practice of medicine, we
apply to new cases the knowledge acquired from others which we believe
to have been of the same nature, the difficulties are so great  that it is doubt-
ful whether in  any case we can properly  be said to act from experience, as
we do in other  departments of science." *  *  "The  difficulties and sources
of uncertainty which meet us at every stage of such investigations, are, in fact,
sq numerous and great, that those who have had  the most extensive oppor-
tunities of observation, will be  the first to acknowledge that our pretended ex-
perience must,  in general, sink into analogy, and even  our analogy too often
into conjecture."—Abercrombie, Intel. Pow., page 299.
   "What is called experience in  medicine," says Professor Jackson, "daily
observation and reflection confirm me in the conviction, is a fallacious guide,
not more entitled to the implicit confidence claimed for it, than when it was
thus characterised by the great father of the science—fallax experientia.  In
fact, experience cannot exist in medicine,  such as it is in those arts in which
experiments can be made under circumstances invariably the same,"&c.
   Characters  oit Symptoms  of  Disease.—"Since medicine was first culti-
vated as a science, a  leading  object of attention  has ever been to ascertain
the characters or symptoms by which particular internal diseases are indica-
ted, and by which they are distinguished  from  other diseases which resem-
ble them.  But with the  accumulated experience of ages  bearing upon this
important subject, our extended observation has only served to convince us
how deficient we are in this department, and how often, even in the first steo
of our progress, we are left to  conjecture.   A writer of high eminence, (Mor-
gagni,) has even hazarded the assertion  that  those persons are most con-
fident in regard to the characters of disease, whose knowledge is most limit-
ed, and that more extended observation generally leads to  doubt."—Intel.
Pow. pages 294-5.
   Progress  of  Disease.—"If such uncertainty hangs over our knowledge
of disease," says Abercrombie, "it will not be denied that at least an equal
degree of uncertainty  attends its progress.   We have learned, for example,
the various  modes  in which  internal inflammation  terminates—as  res-
plution, suppuration, gangrene, adhesion  and effusion: but, in regard to a
particular case  of inflammation before us, how little notion can we form  of 
18
EXPOSITION
what will be its progress or how  it will terminate!—Abercrombie, page 295.
  20. Action of external Agents.—An equal or even a more remarkable de-
cree of uncertainty attends all our researches  into the action  of external
ao-jnts on the body, whether as causes of disease  or as  remedies;  in  both
which  respscts their action is fraught with  the highest degree of uncertainty.
Intel.  Pow., page  295.
  "In  regard to the action of external  agents as  causes of disease, we  may
take a  single example in the effects of cold.   Of six  individuals  who have
been exposed  to cold in the  same degree, and, so  far  as  we  can judge,
under  the same circumstances, one  may be seized  with inflammation  of
the lungs, one  with  diarrhoea, and one  with rheumatism, while three  may
escape without any injury.  Not less  remarkable is the uncertainty in re-
gard to the  action of  remedies.   One  case appears  to  yield wiih readi-
ness to the remedies that are  employed; on another which  we have every
reason to  believe to  be of the same nature, no  effect is produced in ar-
resting  its  fatal progress;  while  a third, which threatened to  be  equally
formidable, appears  to cease  without  the operation of  any remedy at  all."
Pages  295-6. ' See,  also, page 23.
  21.  D Alembekt.—"The following apologue," says D'Alembert, "made by a
physician, a man of wit and philosophy, represents very  well the state of that
science."   ' Nature is fighting with disease; a blind man armed with a club,
that is, a physician, comes to  settle the  difference.  He first tries  to make
peace.   When he cannot accomplish this, he lifts his club and strikes at  ran-
dom.    If  ha strikes  the disease, he kills the disease; if he strikes nature he
kills nature.'"   " An eminent physician," says  the same writer  renouncing
a practice  which  he had exercised for thirty years, said—" I am weary of
guessing.'"  Dr. Abercrombie continues—
  " The uncertainty  of medicine, which  is thus a theme for the philosopher
and the humorist, is  deeply felt by the practical physician in the daily exer-
cise of his art."—Intel. Pow.,  page 293.
  22. Prof.  Chapman, says:  "Perhaps we shall  ultimately learn  to  dis-
criminate  accurately, the  diversified shades of  morbid action, and to ap-
ply to each its appropropriate  remedies.    As  it  is,   we are  plunged
into aDedalian labyrinth, almost without a clue.   Dark and  perplexed, our
devious career  resembles  the blind gropings  of Homer's Cyclops around
 hiscave."—Therapeutics, vol. 1  page 49.
  23.  Da. James Thacher, author of the "American New Dispensatory,"
of '-The American Modern Practice," "The Biography of American Medi-
cal  Men," &c, says,  "The melancholy triumph of disease over its victims,
and the numerous reproachful examples of  medical  impotency,  clearly
evince that the combined stock of ancient and modern learning is greatly
insufficient to perfect our science.  *   *   Far, indeed, beneath the stand-
ard of  perfection, it is still fraught  with deficiencies, and altogether inad-
equate to our desires."—Modern Practice, page 8.
  24.  Dr. Jacob Bigelow,  Professor in Harvard University, says, in his
Annual Address before the Medical Society in  1835,  "The premature death
of medical men, brings with it the  humiliating  conclusion  that, while the
other sciences have  been carried forward  within our  own  time, and al-
most under our own eyes, to a degree  of unprecedented advancement,  med-
icine in regard  to some of its  professed and important objects, (the cure of
disease,) is still an ineffectual speculation."
  25.  Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, of the Harvard University at Cambridge,
near Boston, Massachusetts, who was one of the  three professors first ap- 
EXPOSITION.
19
pointed in the Medical Department of  that Institution, after lecturing in
it for twenty years, retired, saying of all he had been so long and  so zeal-
ously teaching—"1 am sick of learned quackery."
  26. Dr  Rush, in his  lectures   in   the University  of Pennsylvania,
says, "Dissections daily convince  us of our ignorance of  the seats of dis-
ease, and cause us to bltsh at our prescriptions."—-'What mischiefs have we
done under the belief of false facts and false theories!  We have assisted in
multiplying diseases, we have done more—we have increased their mortal*
ity."—Robinson's Lectures, page 109.
  "Our want of  success  is owing to the following causes: 1st. Our igno-
rance of the  disease.  2d. Our  ignorance  of  a  suitable remedy."—Rush,
Robinson's Lectures, page 79.
  27. Dr. L. M.  Whiting  said,  in  his Lecture at Pitufield, Mass.  "Were
we to see a sportsman standing  beside a grove, continually loading and dis-
charging  his piece  without aim among  the trees, and at the same time de-
claring his intention to be the destruction of a bird, whose song he heard
somewhere within it, "»ve should without hesitation pronounce him not only
non  compos,  but  also  a dangerous  individual,  and fit  only for the strait
jacket or  a  mad house.   Yet such, if we mistake not,  is  very nearly the
course pursued by many a  routine practitioner, in the  treatment of morbid
conditions of the  body by medication.   Shoot away! is the motto; perchance
we  may hit the mark; if not, the law is our safeguard, and we have  the sat-
isfaction of feeling that we have done the best we could."—B. M. &S. Jour-
nal, vol. xiv. page 190.
  The above quotations will suffice for  the present, because I shall treat, in
 ollowing chapters, of the particular means and processes which constitute the
art.   It may be  said that  Dr.  Whiting here objected only to a "routine
practice,"  True, but what is a  routine  practice?   Is  it not one according
to rule  or science?  Are not the operations of mathematics all  routine?
What would be thought of the  Surveyor,  the  Navigator, the Chemist, the
Botanist—any scientific man but a doctor—if he should abandon his rules
and go to experimenting?   The beauty and excellence of science consist in
the fact that all its operations are governed by fixed rules, by strict adhesion,
to which, all desired results are insured.   Medicine is the only exception.
Talk to the Astronomer about abandoning his routine method of calculating
the phenomena of the heavens, and trying this that or the other experiment,
as physicians do  in the practice of medicine, and what would he say?  His
answer  would be, "I know  that my rules are true and  my tables are cor-
uect.  If I have not  correctly solved my problem, the fault has been mine
  the application.   I shall try no new plan nor means: but make a perfect
application of the old."
  So it will be in medicine, when medicine becomes a science, and its prac-
tice an art.   The routine practice will then be the only one approved.
   Nos. 6. 10. 11.  12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. all prove the worthless
ness of the practice, as well as the errors and mischiefs of the theories o*
the system of the schools of physic. 
CHAPTER III.
        THE FUNDAMENTAL  DOCTRINES OF ALLOPATHY ARE FALSE.

  This is  proved by  the testimony of its  most intelligent  and  faithful
friends: (Nos. 7. 10.  15.  16.) and  by facts and sound reasoning.
  But what are these doctrines.
  28. Gregory says, "The doctrines of fever are of paramount importance.
and therefore constitute, with great propriety, the foundation of all patholo-
gical  reasoning."—Practice,  vol 1, page 44.
  29.  Prof.  Marshall Hall says, page  98,  No.   362, endorsed  by
Profs. Bigelow and  Holmes, of Harvard University, Boston Mass:—"The
doctrine of inflammation is the most important in the Theory of medicine and
Surgery."  AndNo; 365) theyall refer us-to Profs. Hunter and  John Thom-
son's works on Inflammation, at! "absolutely necessary," to give  us an "in*
timate acquaintance  with this important subject."
  30.  John Thomson,  page 32, testifies as follows;  "It has long  been ac-
knowledged in the schools of medicine, that the formation of a rational ed-
ucation in physic must be laid in a minute and accurate acquaintance with
the  appearances and treatment of  the different kinds  of fever, but, that the
knowledge of the phenomena of inflammation, is not less extensive in its ap-
plications to practice, nor less necessary  to the acquirement of proper edu-
cation in the art or science  of  surgery, seems to  be only beginning to be
perceived by medical men.   That this view, however, of the subject  of in-
flammation is just, must appear obvious, when we reflect that, of all the mor-
bid  affections to which th3 human body is liable, inflammation is not only one
of  the most distinct in  its forms, and important in its consequences, but it
is also by far the  most frequent in  its occurrence.  Indeed, there are no ex«
ternal injuries of which inflammation is not almost the immediate effect, and
but few, if any local diseases, of which it is not, in some degree or other, to
be  regarded as a concomitant cause,  symptom or consequence."
  [Verily, inflammation must be something very  remarkable to  be   a
cause, a concomitant and an effect of the  same thing!]
  " It is  but just to the late Mr. Hunter, to remark that he appears to have
been amongst the first Surgeons who  became fully aware of the importance
of a minute knowledge  of those curious and singularly diversified appearan-
ces  which  inflammation produces in the different textures and organs of the
body.  We learn from his writings and by his invaluable  collection and de-
scriptions of diseased parts, that he spent upwards of thirty years in the in-
vestigation  of this subject.   The  grand results of his labors, have been be-
queathed to posterity in his Treatise  on Inflammation, a work which, by es-
tablishing the pathology of Surgery upon the solid basis of observation, ex-
periment and accurate  analysis, forms a  new era in  the history of this art.
In  most points relative to inflammation, I shall endeavor to follow that dis-
tinguished pathologist, as my best and most accurate guide."
  And Prof.  Thomson does  follow Hunter, most strictly, in these doctrines,
and from this fact, and the declaration  of Hall, Bigelow and Holmes abov
quoted, it is evident that the testimony of  Hunter  will' either sustain or con-
demn  all  later writers  on  the subject,  and the doctrines of the schools
which they establish and sustain.  But first,  more about the importance of
fever and inflammation. 
EXPOSITION.
21
  31. Prof.  Watson says, (page 94) "Inflammation  must needs occupy
a large share of the attention, both of the Surgeon and of the .physician.  In
nine cases out of ten, the first question which either of them asks himself up-
on being summoned to a patient  is—;Have I to deal with inflammation here?
It is continually the object of his treatment, and watchful care."
  32. Prof.  Paine says, "The most important  principles  in medicine, are
those which especially relate to inflammation and lever."—(Inst.,  page 464.
  33. Prof. 'Clutterbuck says; "Fever is a disease of almost daily and uni-
versal occurrence."—Work on Fever, Preface, page 17.
                 IGNORANCE  OF  FEVER  AND INFLAMMATION.
  34. Dr. Southwood Smith, Physician to the London Fever Hospital, says:
"Among the objects contemplated in the  establishment of this  Institution,
two things were conceived to be of paramount importance; first,the accumu-
lation of facts, by which the true  nature of fever might be more certainly
ascertained;  and  secondly, the cautious trial of remedies by which a more
sure and successful mode of treating this fatal disease might be discovered."
S. Smith on fever, page 1.
  35. Prof.  Gregory says: "Fever has proved a  fertile theme  on which
the ingenuity of physicians in all ages has been exerted; and a glance at the
attention which it has received from every medical  author, both ancient and
modern, would be sufficient to impress upon  any one the importance of the
doctrines it embraces.
  "How difficult is  the study of fever, may be inferred from  this  that,
though  so much  has been written concerning it, there is no one subject in
the whole circle of medical  science, which still involves so  many disputed
points."  Still, much as they are disputed, the Doctor adds,  "The doctrines
of  fever are of  paramount importance, and therefore constitute, with great
propriety,  the  foundation of all  pathological reasoning."—Practice,  vol. 1,
 •page 33-4.
  "It has been a favorite topic of inquiry among all  writers on fever, What
is its nature?   In what particular state of the fluids or solids does it consist?
The subject  has  been prosecuted with great dilligence, but the result of the
investigation is very unsatisfactory.  *  *  All their theories are open to
many and strong objections:"—ib., pages 49, 50.  "The pathology of fever
is so  obscure,  that it affords but little help in determining the plan of treat-
ment."—Page 35.
   36. Dr. Thacher, the venerable author of the American New Dispensa-
tory, says:
  "Notwithstanding the great prevalence of  fever in all ages and in all cli-
mates, and the universal attention which it has excited among medical ob-
 servers ever since the  days of  Hippocrates, the disease  still remains the
 subject of much  discussion;  and its  essential nature, or the  proximate
 cause of its  symptoms, is still  a problem in medical  science."—Practice,
 page 198.                                                .    ,
    Further.__Numerous  hypotheses   or  opinions  respecting  the  true
 nature  and cause of inflammation, have for  ages been advanced, and for a
 time, sustained; but, even at the present day, the various doctrines appear to
 be  considered  altogether problematical."—Practice  page 279.
   37. Prof. Eberle says, "The  history of Practical  Medicine consists of
 little else  than a review of the doctrines which have risen and  sunk again
 concerning the nature and treatment of fever."  *   *   "It is in this depart-
 ment that observation and research have been  most industrious in accumu- 
 22                           exposition.

lating  materials,  and that hypothesis  has luxuriated in her wildest exuber-
ance."—Practice, vol. 1, page 13.
  38. "Fever," says Gregory, "is  the most important,  because  the most
universal and the  most fatal of all the morbid affections of which the human
body is susceptible."   *  *  "The physician must always be  prepared to
expect  its  occurrence.  It is  that by the presence  or absence  of which all
his views of treatment are to  be regulated;  whose rise, progress and  termi-
nation, he always  watches with the closest attention.  [He surely  ought  to
h:ive learned  something about it by this time, if he has so watched it for four
thousand years.]  Some idea may be formed of the great mortality of fevers
from the statement of Sydenham, who calculated  that two-thirds of mankind
die of acute diseases, properly so called; and two-thirds of the remainder,
of that lingering febrile disease, consumption."
  The above quotations show  us that the doctrines of fever and inflammation
are the foundation stones, or fundamental principles of the Allopathic sys-
tem, and that they  are very  uncertain and unsettled.   The following, as
well  as many of the above,  show that, in all the  books of practice, fever
and inflammation are counted as disease.
                        INFLAMMATION, DISEASE.
  39. Thacfier calls it "the disease," (28)—Practice,  vol.  1.  page 43.—
Thomson (22,) says the same of fever and inflammation.
  40. Watson says, (Practice page 94,) Inflammation is "a special form of
disease to which all parts of the body  are liable—a "disease that meets us at
every  turn."
  "It affects  all parts, that are furnished with blood  vessels, and it effects
different parts very variously.  It is more easily excited by many external
causes, and therefore it  is more  common  than  any other special disease.
A great majority of all the disorders to  which the human frame is liable, begin
with inflammation or end in inflammation, or are accompanied by inflamma-
tion during some  part of their course, or resemble inflammation in their symp-
toms.   Most  of  the  organic  changes of different parts  of the  body, recog-
nize inflammation as their  cause, or  lead  to it as their effect.   In short, a
very large share  of the premature extinction of human life in general, is
more or less attributable to inflammation."
   41.  Paine says,  (Institutes, page 464.)  "Inflammation and fever are the
two orders of disease which make up the great amount of human maladies,
and form the grand outlets of life."   "Idiopathic fever is a universal disease
inflammation always local."
   But why need I quote testimonies to prove that fever and inflammation are
called, by the allopaths, disease, when every one know* that all their sys-
tems of pathology and nosology, are built upon the symptoms they exhibit?
Answer, because all modern pathologists refer  us  to Thomson  and Hunter,
for the doctrines of fever and inflammation (See No 21 ) and  Thomson  him-
self refers us to Hunter, (No  22 above,) and therefore 1 am going to prove,
yb Hunter, that these doctrines are false.   C. 
EXPOSITION.
23
             INFLAMMATION  IS A  SIMPLF. PHYSIOLOGICAL  ACT.
  42. INFLAMMATION.  Hunter says; (vol. 3. page  285,)  "Inflamma-
tion, in itself, is not to be considered a disease, but as  a  salutary operation
consequent  either to some violence or some  disease."  "Inflammation is
an  action produced  for the restoration  of the most simple injury in sound
earts, which goes beyond the power of union by  the first intention."
  Again, page  293.  "Pure inflammation is rather an effort of nature than
a disease."
  Again, page  286.  "From whatever [exciting]  cause it arises,  *  *  it
is an  effort  intended to  bring about  a  reinstatement  of the  parts to nearly
their natural functions."  "Disease" (page 233) is a  disposition  to produce
wrong action."
  This is not "restoring natural functions;"  of course it is not inflammation.
  A^ain, "Healthy inflammation probably consists  of only  one kind, not being
divisible, but into its different stages,  as being that which  will always at-
tend  a healthy constitution or part, is to be  considered rather a  restorative
action than  a diseased one,  and would  appear to  be  the  effect rather of a
stimulus than an irritation.  The unhealthy admits  of  vast variety,  [the
causes  of disease being almost  numberless,] and is  that which always at-
tends an unhealthy  constitution, or part, and will be according  to the kind
of health in  that constiution or part, but particularly according to  the consti-
tution."  *   *  "The simple act of inflammation, cannot be  called specific,
for  it is a uniform or simple action in itself: but it  may have peculiarities
or specific actions superadded." (page;286-7,) [by  the causes  of disease, C.,]
  Finally, page 292.  "Fever, in all cases or of all kinds, is a disturbed ac-
tion, like inflammation  itself."
  43,  Here, then, we are taught the real truth in regard to inflammation  and
fever,  that  they are   one and  the  same  thing, accumulated action of the
constitution, produced by the vital force, under excitement, and tending in all
cases to the restoration of equiliblium in the circulation and  nervous actions
__in the words of Hunter, "an effort intended to bring about  a reinstatement
of the parts to nearly [quite] their natural  functions."  And that all  the
different appearances and results, in  different cases of  fever or inflammation,
are to be attributed to the different states of the constitution,  or the specifiic
character or action of the exciting causes, Hunter's "specifications superad-
ded."  Thus, inflammation in Erysipelas, Small-pox, scarlet fever, and cancer
are the same, all proceeding from the action of the vital force, but the specific
exciting causes are  different, each "superadding" its  own  "peculiarity or
specific action," which gives all the different characters  of the specific forms
of disease.
  It  follows of course, then, that the  nosological  distinctions in all  the
systems of medicine, should have been based solely on these  "peculiarities,"
and not on the vital symptoms of inflammation, partial or general, as they
almost all are.   The doctrines of Hunter, then,  and of Thomson, and of
all who sometimes adopt them, as  Watson who  says, (Practice page 94.)
  44.  "It is by inflammation that wounds are closed, and  fractures  repaired,—
 thatparts adhere  together when  their adhesion  is  essential to the preserva- 
24
EXPOSITION.
 tion  of  the individual, and that foreign and  hurtful matters are conveye
 safely out of the body.   A cut finger, a deep sabre wound alike require in-
 flammation to reunite the divided parts. * * The foot mortifies, is killed by
 injury or exposure  to  cold, inflammation will cut  off the dead and useless
 part," (page 95.) are proof that inflammation is not disease.
   45, Prof.  Paine  teaches the  same doctrine, when  he  says,  (Inst, page
 465, No  711. "Inflammation takes its rise in  purely physiological conditions,
 and holds its progress and decline, under the  same great natural laws of the
 Constitution.."
   If these assertions be true, and they certainly are, fever and inflammation
 being "a simple act of the constitution," always "tending to bring about a
 restoration of  the system or its organs, to the healthy functions,"  can  never
 be properly called disease, and, of course, the  fundamental doctrines of the
 schools which make this  act and  its derangements produced by the action
 of the specific causes of disease, and the combined effects of the actions of
these  two forces, "the foundation  of all  pathological reasoning,  (Gregory,
 Thomson,  Hall, Bigelow, Holmes)  must be  utterly false and pernicious,
"and ail the superstructures [the practices] built upon them, must be baseless
as the fabric of a vision," (No 5) nay, more, inasmuch as they are conduct-
ed by violence, bloodshed and poisoning,  they must be ^horrid, unwarrant-
able, murderous, quackery.''—Chapman.
  It matters not  that Gregory, Watson, Pains, Thomson,  and even Hunter
himself teach, in other places, a  doctrine the very opposite of what I have
here quoted from them.  I have  reported the true, but the cystems of path-
ology and practice are built upon  the false; and they must be false. 
CHAPTER IV.
                   allopathic remedies  mischevious.

   The following testimony proves, if this kind of evidence can prove any
 thing, that the particular practices of Allopathy, are injurious and destructive;
 not  occasionally so, by misapplication or mistake, but positively so, by their
 very nature and tendency. I have adduced evidence which proves that, accor-
 ding to the authorities of the Allopathic  school, (see Sydenham, Gregory,
 Thomson, Watson, Paine, &c.) two thirds of all mankind die of acute forms
 of  disease, styled by them fever and inflammation.   I have  quoted from
 Payne, Wattpn  and others, the  statement  that fever  and  inflammation
 "make up the great amount of human maladies, and form the great outlets of
 life."—Paine's Institutes, No 710.
   46. "Therapeutics or the application of remedies to the treatment of dis-
 ease, is the great end of all medical  inquiries."   Professor Paine says: (In-
 stitutes No. 854.)—
  47.  "Remedial  agents operate upon the  same principle as  the  remote
 causes of disease.   They can never transmute the morbid  into healthy con-
 ditions, that is alone the work of nature."
  "The most violent poisons are our best remedies." " Vbi virus, ibi virtus."
 Where poison is,  there is virtue!.
  48.  flooper says, "all our most  valuable medicines are active poisons"—
 Dictionary.  Th«  B.  M. & S.  Journal says, (Vol. 9 page 43.) "All pois-
 ons, whatever their differences in other respects, agree in this; they sudden-
 ly and rapidly extinguish a great proportion of the  vitality of the system."
 Professor  John P.  Harrison says,  of one of the most commonly employed,
 that  it is "a powerful depresser of the energies of life."
             blood-letting the sheet anchor of practice.
  49. Marshall Hall says, (Practice No. 302) "The doctrine of inflamma-
 tion  is the most important in Medicine and Surgery."  And he and others,
 as I  have already shown, consider inflammation an acute form  of disease,
 which must be reduced.  He further  says, (No. 819.)
  ?0 "The subject next in order, in treating of the Theory of  Medicine, re-
 lates to the use of certain important remedies, and amongst these blood-let-
 ting ranks pre-eminently as the first.
  Prof. Clutterbuck, in his "Inquiry into the seat and  nature of fever,"
 page 474, says:
  51. "Blood-Letting,  unquestionably, is the best, because the most effect-
ive remedy we possess, in the treatment of indiopathic fever, as well  as in-
 flammation in  general."
  52.  Prof. Paine, Institutes, No. 836. d. says; That, for inflammation and
 congestion, "blood-letting is known  to be the most efficient remedy."  "Gen-
 eral  Blood-letting is the proper mode of depletion, in all forms of fever, and
 in all the active inflammations  of the  internal  viscera."—lb. 956.
  Professor.  J.  Morehead,  of the Ohio Medical College, in an Essay on
 E^od-letting published in Prof.  Eberle's Quarterly Journal for June, 1837,
 says, page 24.
  53.  "In the whole range of medical science, there is probably  no  other 
26
exposition.
 truth better ascertained or of greater value than this,:  that, for inflammation
 when seaud in thi serous tissues, or in ill;' parenchymatous portion ol  any
 of the organs contained in the three great cavities, free and energetic Blood-
 letting is entitled emphatically to the name of the remedy: and all the other
 remedial means are to  be regarded as but subordinate and auxilliary to it."
   "Under  the  conditions  of disease for  which  in truth it  is  remedial,
 no substitute can be found or admitted  for it."
   54.  Prof. Paine says:  Medical and Physiological  Commentaries, vol II.
 page 325:
   "England  has not yet abandoned  the Lancet, and here, in  America, it is
 as ever, the anchor of hope, in inflammations and conjestive fevers.''
   This i.s the testimony of a large proportion of the Allopathic faculty   To
 quote more  here is useless,
              blood-letting, dangerous and destructive.
   I have said the "first indication in practice, this "sheet anchor  in fevers
 and  inflammations," is dangerous and destructive; and  I prove this by thetes-
 timony of the same men who approve of  and use it:
   55. Dr.  Hunter said, "Blood-letting is one of the greatest  weakeners, as
 we can  kill  thereby."
   56.  Prof. J. F. L»obstein says, ""o far from Blood-letting being benefi-
 cial, it is productive of the most serious and fatal effects—a cruel practice—a
 scourge to humanity.  How many thousands of our fellow  citizens are sent
 [by it | to an untimely grave! how many families are deprived  of their amia-
 ble children!  how many husbands of  their lovely wives! how many wives of
their husbands!   Without blood there is no heat, no motion in the system—
 in the Blood is the  life.   He who takes blood from  the patient, takes away
 not only an organ of life, but  a part of life itself"—Essay on Blood-letting.
   57.  Salmon.—"So zealous are the Blood suckers of our  age," says Sal-
 mon, in his "Synopsis Medicinse,'; "that they daily sacrifice  hundreds to its
 omnipotence, who fall by  its  fury,  like  the children who, of old, passed
through the  fire  to Moloch, and that  without any pity,  left to commiserate
the inexplorable  sufferings of their martyrs, or conscience  of their crimes
 which may deter them in  future from such  villanies, the bare relation of
 which would make a man's ears tingle, which one cannot think of without
grief, nor express without horror!"
   58. Robinson—"An eminent physician has  said that, after the practice
of Blood-letting was introduced by Sydenham, during the course of one hun-
dred years, more died of the lancet alone, than all  who in the same period
p ;rished by war.—page 121.
   59.  Dewees.—"It would appear, that the first or inflammatory stage of puer-
peral fever, the stage in which bleeding has been so eminently successful,  has
no discovered  character by which it can be distinguished  from the second in
which this operation is forbidden, after the lapse of a  few hours."—Females,
page 441.
  "We would ask. What is the evidence  that  the  first stage has run its
course]   This is an important question, and  one from our present data that
cannot, we  fear,  be answered satisfactorily.   Hitherto  this condition of th
disease has been inferred rather than ascertained."—lb. page 438.
  The same author says, page 372,   "Our bleedings are not always renewed
from the arm, for, as soon as we get the pulse pretty well  down by this
m«ans, w<# have leeches  applied over the  parts nearest to the seat of the in- 
exposition.
27
flammation, in such numbers as shall abstract at least eight or ten ounces of
blood, and encourage their after bleeding by the application of moist  warmth.
Should these abstractions of blood prove  not effective, and pain, fever and
other unpleasant symptoms continue, but especially great pain and tenderness
in the parts; if the pulse does not call for general  bleeding, we repeat the
leeching, nor stop  until the end is answered, or until  we are convinced our
efforts will be unavailing, by the approach of the second stage or by the ad-
dition of peritoneal inflammation.—lb.
   60.  Prof.  Morehead already quoted, No. 53: says:
   "The intelligent  physician who  has learned by "the sad and bitter teach-
ings of the sick room, to judge of  the powers of the lancet, not merely un-
derstands, but, without  any glaring impropriety of  phrase, may be said to
feel, that it is an agent which can  never be  neutral in its operation; that,  if
not productive of actual good, it must have an inevitable tendency towards ill;
that, in its capacity, whether for benefit or  for mischief, it is possessed not
merely of great but Herculean force; that, under the conditions of disease for
which in truth it is remedial,  no substitute can be found  or  admitted for it;
that, when employed, however, in  cases to which it is not suited results al-
ways serious, not unfrequemly/a2a/, but too surely follow its misapplication;
that, for repairing the consequences of using it when not needed or improper,
no other means exist except the  slow  and  precarious  process of nutri-
tion; and that, in  the circumstances under which  its misuse is most actively
and certainly mischievous, such reparative process is almost  always suspen-
ded, and consequently no remedy remains for counteracting or removing the
injuries which it has inflicted!" "
   This is startling language, but it is simply just; and we ought not to be sur-
prised at the conclusion justly drawn from the facts stated.
   "Having habitually present to his understanding, a strong and lively per-
ception of these truths, such a physician learns to regard a resort to the lan-
cet as of all remedial measures, that which most requires caution, thorough
consideration, and anxious circumspection; and to hold, as a solemn maxim
a  professional conduct, that, if it is not employed with a judicious  and wise
adaptation to the cases in which it is used, it deserves to be viewed with
somewhat of the abhorrence that attaches  to the knife of the  murderer!"
   61.  Prof.  Marshall  Hall says: "The  diseases of children  best under-
stood, are those which arise from  irritation, and  principally in the Stomach
and bowels, and the irritation of teething and inflammation.  I may observe
indeed, in this place,that,of the  whole number of fatal cases of disease in in-
fancy, a great proportion occurs from the inappropriate or undue application
of exhausting  remedies.   This observation may have a salutary  effect in
checking the  ardor of many young practitioners,  who are  apt  to think
that, if they  have  only bled  and purged and  given calomel enough,  they
have done their duty; when, in  fact, in subduing  a former they have excited
a  new disease,  which they have not understood, and  which has led to the
fatal result."   Quoted and approved by Prof. J. P. Harrison.—Therapeutics,
vol. II. page 189.
   Remark.—Who taught the young practitioner to bleed, purge and give cal-
omel?  Are not these processes styled, by  their  '■''Professors, the sheet an-
chors of practice?"   If so, why not use.them till the case  is cured?   But do
'some young practioners," have and lose, a great proportion of the  fatal ca-
es of disease in infancy?  It is rather unfair to blame young practitioners for 
28
exposition.
doing what the old ones teach and practice.  We have known many a little
innocent to be killed in this way hy old Professors.
   62.  Prof. Hall says; Cyclopedia of Practical Medicine, Voll- page 296;
"The immedate effects of loss of Blood,  are, syncope  convulsion, delirium,
coma, sudden  dissolution: the more remote are excessive reaction, mania,
coma, amaurosis and sinking."
   "Amongst the immediate effects of the loss of blood, must be mentioned
that of sudden and  unexpected  dissolution.   The  patient does not recover
from a state of syncope; or, without syncope, he may gradually sink after
Blood letting.  It has  taken  the most able and experienced practitioners by
surprise."—ib. 299.
   Remark.—We thought the cautions necessary only to "young practition-
ers!"  The doctor gives illustrations, numerous and interesting, of the vari-
ous effects of the "loss of blood," to which we refer the reader.   It is vain
to say that these results proceed from ignorance of the indications for Blood
letting, or inexperience in  the practice, as we have proved and shall do it
more effectually  anon, that the most scientific and experienced cannot tell
when blood should be drawn, nor how much.   See above.
   63.  Prof. J. P.  Harrison says:  Therapeutics, vol. PI. page 180: -"The
morbid consequences  which  spring  from the excessive  use or the  misdi-
rected employment of Blood-letting, are  of so  serious a nature, that the prac-
titioner should sedulously guard against  them."
   64.  Prof. Maguardic in his lectures in  the College  of France, says:  ib.,
"I assert loudly, and fear not to affirm it, that blood-letting induces, both in
the blood itself and in our tissues,  certain  modifications and  Pathological
phenomena which resemble, to a certain extent, those developed in animals
deprived of atmospheric oxygen, of drink and  of solid food."  *  *   "En-
gorgement, oedema pneumonia, and the entire train of what people are pleas-
ed to  call inflammatory phenomena, are products  of loss of blood."  "He
considers  the  utility  of Blood-letting,  at best  problematical,  while its
injurious  effects are at once positive, frequent, and widely extended."
   65.  "The sudden  abstraction of blood by the lancet, always acts in a de-
gree correspondent to the quantity drawn, and the ability  of the  constitution
to withstand the weakening effect of the  remedy."—ib. 183.
   "The immediate  morbid  phenomena observed on the sudden loss of
a large quantity of blood, are, convulsions, delirium, coma and  appoplectic
stupor."  *  *   "The most common results, when inopportunely or exces-
sively employed, are, vertigo; a  feeble and slow, sometimes quick, fluttering
or scarcely perceptible  pulse;  cold, clammy perspiration; sickness  of  the
stomach, confusion of vision; dyspnoea; gasping for breath; great restlessness,
a deep sense of sinking, and finally syncope.""__*   *  *
   "Prostration without reaction,  maybe protracted for several days, and then
death release the patient from  his sufferings.   Or reaction may come  on,
and then we|have a series of symptoms closely resembling cerebral inflamma-
tion."  *   *—ib.
   66.  Prof. Copland, of London, says:
   "When carried too far in cases of excitement, where the nervous or vital
power is not depressed, and the blood itself is rich  or healthy, reaction een
•rally follows each large depletion, and that often exacerbates or brings back
ta» diiMie for which  it was employed, *nd which had  been [apparently re- 
EXPOSITION.
29
lieved by the primary effects of the evacuation.  *   *  Thus every observ-
ing practitioner will have  noticed, that a  large depletion when  carried to
deliquium [prostration] will have entirely removed the  sjmptoms  of acute
inflammation, when the patient has  recovered consciousness; and that he ex-
presses the utmost relief.
  "But it gradually happens that the inordinate depression—the very full syn-
cope that is thought essential to the securing of advantage from the depletion
is  followed  by  an  equally excessive  degree  of vascular reaction—with
which all the symptoms of inflammation return; and the general reaction is
ascribed entirely, but erroneously, to the return of the inflammation  instead
of the latter being imputed to the former, which has  rekindled or exaspera-
ted it, when beginning to subside.   The consequence is, that another very
large depletion is again prescribed for its removal, and the patient, recollect-
ing the  relief it temporarily afforded him, readily consents, Blood is taken to
full syncope—again relief  is  felt—again reaction returns,—and the local
symptoms are reproduced, and thus, large depletion,  full syncope, reaction,
and the supervention, on the original disease,  of some or all the phenomena
described as  the consequence of excessive  loss of blood, are brought before
the practitioner, and he is astonished at the obstinacy, cause and termination
of the disease, which under such circumstan-ces generally ends in dropsical
effusion, into the cavity on which the affected organ is  lodged; or in convul-
sions, or in   delirium running  into coma; or in  death from exhaustion, or
from one of the foregoing states; or, more fortunately, in partial  subsidence
of the original malady and protracted convalescence.  Such are the  conse-
quences which but too often result when  Blood-letting has been looked upon
as the only or chief means of cure—the  "sheet anchor"  of treatment, as  it
has too frequently been called and'considered during the last twenty years."
Copland's Diet. Prac. Med. vol. 1.  page  177.
   Remarks,—On the supposition that  Blood letting is  a curative or even a
directly and properly palliative means of treatment, it is passing strange that
it should be  followed by such  terrible  effects  as the above.  That, when the
nervous or vital power is   not  depressed  and the  blood is rich and healthy
it "brings back the  disease."   Still  more  strange that  the  "irritation"
of "reaction" should be taken for inflammation by the most  scientific and ex-
perienced practitioners.
   67.  Prof. Jqhn Mason Good  says:
   "The immediate effect of profuse  and  repeated bleeding  is exhaustion.
While  this exhaustion continues, there is a, diminution of action of every
kind, and hence an imposing appearance of relief to the symptoms  of  dis-
ease: but it no sooner takes place than, an instinctive effort is made  by the
 vis medicatrix naturae, to  remedy  the evil hereby produced, and to restore
 the system to its former balance of power.  This balance  is called a rally-
 ing- or reaction  of the  living principle.  The arteries contract to adapt
 themselves  to  the  measure of blood  that  remains;  the sensorial organ  is
 roused to the secretion of a large proportion of nervous power to supply the
 inordinate drain that takes  place during the general  commotion, all  is in a
 state of temporary hurry and urgency, and for the most part irregularity of
 action, while the instinctive effort is proceeding.  And hence, no sooner  is
 the immediate effect of prostration, exhaustion  or syncope overcome, than
 the heart palpitates, the puls>?  beats forcibly with a jerking bound, the head
 throbs, the eyes flash fire, and the ears ring with  unusual sounds.  Now,  « 
30
exposition.
 often haspens that these concurrent signs are mistaken for proofs of latent  or
 increased vigor, instead of being merely proofs of increased action; and ac-
 tion too, that adds as largely  to the exhaustion as the  depletion that  pro-
 duced it; and the unhappy patient is bled a second, a  third, and even a
 fourth time, till no reaction follows, at which time it  is strangely suppon a
 that the entona, plethora, or inflammatory  diathesis is subdued  and lused
 into a calm, because the patient has been  so  far  and fatally drained  oiled
 living principle, that  there is  no longer any rallying or reactive power re-
 maining, and gives up the ghost, in a few hours,  to the treatment, instead
 of the disease."—Good's Study of Medicine, vol.  1, page 407.
   Here we  have the direction of Dr. Dewess  to  bleed  "as long as the un
 pleasant symptoms continue," and the  declaration of Dr. Good,  that those
 symptoms will continue "till the  patient  has been  so far and so fatallt-
 drained of his living principle, that  there is  no longer any rallying or reacy
 ive power remaining, and gives up the ghost in a few hours to the  treatment,
 instead of the disease!"
   Hence, to bleed scientifically,  as  taught in Philadelphia and London, and
 wherever  these  text  books of the highest anthority are adopted, is to bleed
 till the patient "gives signs of woe  that all is lost."  Or in  plain English, it
 is" to commit wilful murder.
   But it is said that these terrible effects arise from the abuse of Blood  let-
 ting.   That  we should mind the indications for  its use,  and  not employ it
 improperly.   The following will show  that there are no sure indications.
   68.  The venerable  Dr.  James  Thacher says: "We have no infallible in-
 dex to direct us.  It is impossible,  from the state of the circulation in fever
 or point to any criterion for the employment of the lancet; the state of the
 pulse is often ambiguous and deceptive.  Circumstances require the nicest
 discrimination, as  the result is often very different in cases seemingly anal-
 ogous. A precipitate decision is fraught with danger, and a mistake may be
 certain death."—Thacher's  Practice, page 208.
   69.  Prof. Mackintosh says: "Some patients are bled who do not require it,
and the consequences are injurious; others are bled who cannot bear it,  and
who ought to be treated  by  cordials, and the result is fatal."—Mackintosh,
page 690.
  "No physician, however  wise  and experienced,, can tell what quantity of
blood ought to be taken  in any given case.—Ib. page 418.
  70. Prof.  Morehead says:  "Every body has heard of practitioners, with
whom, in every case for which they did not know exactly what ought to be
done, it was a settled rule of practice to make trial of the lancet."
   "So often, likewise, have I heard it  said,  even of  physicians counted
 ewinent in their profession, that, to prevent their patients dying, they bled
them to death; and I fear that  such charges have foundation in truth."
   71. Opium.—Inflammation or fever, and irritation, being styled by the Alio-
 psthic faculty, the two great forms of disease,  to  which the  human  body  is
 subject, and  the use  of free blood letting to  cure the  former, tending to
produce the   latter, (See Good and  Copland, Nos. 66 and  67) the next in-
dication tothf reduction of the  inflammatory action, is to  subdue the irri-
 ymon.  For this purpose opium is highly extolled and as constantly used as
 athlaacetis for inflammation or fever.
   preeminently  endowed with the most diversified therapeutic powers- 
exposition.
31
and more extensively employed in its various preparations, than any other
single article of the materia  medica, this great drug requires at our hands
a careful and extended inquiry  into its preparation,  composition, modes of
administration,  practical  uses and  morbid  effects."—Harrison's  Therap.
vol II. page 530.
  As I never use it in  any form, nor  recommend nor countenance  its use
1 shall consider only its "morbid (morbific) effects."
  72. "The constituents are  Morphia, Narcotina, &c.   "The  Morphia is
the only one employed to any extent in the practice of Medicine.  Narco-
tina has been extensively given in India as a  substitute for "quinine,  and
its anti-periodic  power is attributed to its  stimulant property."—Ib. 532.
  A stupifying agent must be a glorious stimulant!  The chill is a manifes-
ation of incipient reaction, and it is  no  wonder that the deadly narcotine
checks it.
  73. "Modus curandi of Opium, and of the salts of morphia," For seven
separate  purposes, this important and  valuable drug,  is  in  daily, hourly
use.  1.  As a stimulant;  2.  As a Narcotic;  3.  As an astringent;  4. Asa
diaphoretic; 5.  As an  Antispasmodic; 6.  As an antiperiodic;  and 7.  as a
modifier of other remedies."—Ib. 534.
  In his first vol. the Professor says, there are but four indications to be
fulfilled in the Ireatment of disease!  And here are seven to be  fuifilled'by
Opium!    And the lancet and calomel  will have ati equal share.   But this
is not the place for comments and criticisms; they will coim in due course.
  74. Morbid effects  of  Opium!—"A very  small portion of  opium  will
sometimes produce,  convulsions in  a  very  young patient.   We have
known the half  of a grain  of Dover's powder,  which is but the. twentieth
part of a grain of opium, [a homoeopathic dose,] induce fits in a delicate
child of a few days old.  Christison  relates several interesting e: amples of
death in  children from small portions of opium.   An infant three days old,
got by mistake,  about the fourth part of a mixture containing ten drops of
laudanum.  The child  died in twenty four hours.  The administration of
three drops of Laudanum to a stout child fourteen months eld,  was followed
by convulsions,  and death in six hours.   Another child  of nine months
died in nine hours after taking four drops.  The pernicious custom  which
many nurses pursue, of giving infants  laudanum, or paregoric, to Hill their
cries at night, cannot be too severely reprehended.  This practice is fraught
with evil  results to  the infant, and should never be permitted."
  In his  essay above referred to, Prof. J.  P.  Harrison says, of Opium:   "It
stupifies  for awhile, and  forces the  child into  an unnatural  sleep."   "It
enhances  nervousness."  "If the brain is affected, it increases the disease.
Inflammation injhe stomac'i or  bowels, will be made wors\ perhaps, incura-
bly worse by an opiate."  "It is hurtful, because it is contrary  to nature."
"It is a medicine,—a. foreign substance which  nature does not  call for, or
kindly receive as  long as she  is in her  right  mood."   "Pd'egoric, Bate-
man's drops, laudanum or toddy, lays the  foundation  for heal complaints,
such as inflammations, convulsions, anil dropsy of the  brain,"   A small
dose of paregoric will often indace fits.  The  intellect of a child  will be im-
paired by it, although years may elapse  after  the  practice is abandoned.
A permanent, ill conditioned state of the  nervous system is induced by  the
repeated giving of opiates to infants, that never, through all subsequent Ife,
is entirely got  rid of  by the most  strenuous  endeavors.   A  tendency  we
doubt not, to insanity,  is thus engendered or  augmented.  Such children
r f 
3*
EXPOSITION.
pass through the process of teething badly.  The stamina of the constitution
is weakened  by it.  The stomach  and bowels lose their  tone, and  cholera
infantum, or summer complaint is more apt to fasten on them."-Ther. p. 182.
  What a terrible warning is  this, (also that of Professor Eberle 76,)  to
mothers and nurses, not to give to their children  opiates—"anodynes,"  in
any form or for any purpose!   What an honor  to  the Eclectics, that  they
are so much more enlightened  and liberal than we are, that they can still
hug to their bosoms this viper of the poisonous materia medica!
  The nurses learn this practice from the Doctors, who prescribe it "daily,
hourly," for "seven different purposes,"   See above.
  75. "Females are more  susceptible  than  males, to the morbid  effects  of
the article.  We  have met with many instances of the great intolerance
of the female  system to opiates."—ib. 553.
  That is  because opium "acts primarily on the  nervous  system;"  and,
women and children being more sensitive and delicate,Jare lessable to resist
its deadly  influence.   C.
  76. Prof.  Eberle,  iu his work  on  the  diseases of children, page  199,
calls opium a "treacherous palliative," under which "the appetite and diges-
tive powers fail;  the  body emaciates,  and  the skin becomes sallow, dingy
and shriveled; the countenance acquires an  expression of languor and suffer-
ing, and a general state of apathy,  inactivity and feebleness  ensues, which
ultimately often leads  to convulsions, dropsy in the  head, glandular indura-
tions, incurable jaundice, or fatal exhaustion of the   vital energies.   All  the
usual soothing mixtures, such as Godfrey's cordial, Dalby's carminative,  so
much employed for allaying the colic pains and griping  of infants,  contain
more or less opium; and innumer a Me infants have been irretrievably ruined
by these popular nostrums!"
  Prof.  J. A.  Gallup, in  his  Inst,  of Medicine, vol. 1.  page  187, says:
(fThe  practice of using opiates as anodynes to mitigate pain in any form of
fever  and  local inflammations, is greatly to be deprecated; it  is  not only
unjustifiable, but  should be esteemed unpardonable.  '  "It is probable that
for  forty years past, opium and its preparations  have done seven times the
injury that they have  rendered benefit on  the great  scale of the civilized
world."  Killed  seven where  they  have saved one!   Page 298,  he calls
opium "the most destructive of all narcoctics," and wishes he  could speak
through a  lengthened trumpet, that he  might tingle the ears of empyrics and
charlatans in every avenue  of their  retreat." See B. M.  Recorder,  vol.7,
page 332.
  Dr. J. Johnson  says: "The whole tribe of narcoctics, as opium,  hyoscy-
amus,Iiopand laurel water, orprussic acid, are dangerous sedatives, present-
ing allurements to the   unwary, with all the suavity and  meekness  of  the
serpent of Eden, and the deception too often is equally fatal."
  79. Eankin,  in his   Abstract, vol. 3. page  228,  says:  "An able  bodied
sailor, aged 62, took medicinally,  two pills, each  containing a  grain'and
a quarter of the extract of opium, and was immediately attacked  with a
convulsion fit and died." "Cases are on record, which show that a  person
may recover from the  first symptoms of poisoning, and yet ultimately die
from the effects of a single dose."
  Vol. II. page 32, the poisoning of three children by  the sucking of unripe
poppy heads, is reported.  One died in four-hours,  in SDite of the effort o<
ike physician. 
EXPOSITION.
33
                              MERCURY.

  As mercury has, for several centuries, been  considered, by the Allopathic
faculty, the most effectual remedy for  disease within the compass of their
knowledge—as they also admit that it is one of the most  mischievous agents
ever used as medicine—that they know not  how it operates in any case, to
cure or kill—and, finally, declare that it has produced  more terrible  effects on
the human constitution than any other article they use—I think it  proper to
quote here pretty largely from their testimonies respecting this " all conquer-
ing Samson of the materia medica "—Harrison, vol. i.
  It  is  not my purpose  to give the reader here its physical qualities, nor
the history of its discovery and its various uses.   My object will be accom-
plished when I shall have  presented the best  accounts of its supposed medical
virtues and uses, and its "tendency to mischief when injudiciously  used."  I
begin with Prof. Harrison :

  78.  " First  regarded as a poison, then  most cautiously employed in the
form of ointment, it [mercury] has, step by step, advanced with the improve-
ments of the pharmaceutic art, in a bright career of reputation and  favor,
till it has possessed an immense space in the field of  practical  medicine, and
now, by many, it is regarded as  the first, greatest and best remedy Divine
Goodness has  ever revealed,  in answer to the diligent search of man, to mel-
iorate and cure the bodily ills to which  man is subjected."—Harrison  vol i
p. 233.                                                           '    '  '
  "Mercury was first employed by the  Nubian physicians, Avicenna and
Rhazes; but they ventured to use  it only against vermin and in cutaneous
diseases. _  We are indebted to the  renowned empiric, Paracelsus, for its ad-
ministration internally."—Pereira's Materia  Medica, p. 583.
  '; Of all the remedies which chemical science has conferred upon  the art of
healing, there  stands no single article so pre-eminently endowed with a divers-
ified capability of  curing  disease as calomel."—Harrison,  vol. i, p. 168.
  " When we  declare that, its powers are unique  and unrivaled, we only em-
body the general testimony of  the  profession in its favor."—Ib.
  " Mercury is the great anti-inflammatory, anti-febrile alterant of the materia
medica."—lb.
  Prof. N. Chapman  says :
  79.  '-Of all the purgatives'this is the most  important, and  is susceptible
of the widest application in the practice of physic.   There is scarcely, indeed
any case in which purging is required, that it may not be  so regulated, either
alone or in combination, as to meet the several indications.  It has the sin-
gular property of imparting  force to many of the mild, and  moderating the
severity  of the  drastic, medicines.   Whenever we wish a  strong and promi-
nent  impression to be made on the alimentary canal itself, and through it
on  the neighboring viscera,  and  especially the portal circulation, by general
consent, it is consecrated to these  purposes.   It is, hence, chiefly  relied
on  in fevers,  especially bilious fevers—in obstructions  of  the bowels—in
cholera—and  is unquestionably the most appropriate purgative  in  the  early
stage of dysentery. Besides the superior efficacy of calomel in these respects,
it is recommended by the  facility with which it may be administered. Nearly
devoid of  taste and  odor, and  minute in dose,  it will often be taken when
other medicines are  refused, and may  be so disguised as to be imposed on
/ f 
34
EXPOSITION.
 the most suspicious or unmanageable of our patients."—Chapman's Thera-
 peutics, vol. i, p. 182.   (See No. 142.)
   80.  " As  an adjuvant to blood-letting, mercury is considered  the  most
 powerful of all the  antiphlogistics."   "It  is almost universally  depended
 upon,  in this country, for  the  purpose of  removing the derangements of
 organization which active inflammation may have produced  in  many of the
 tissues of the body."—Prof. G. M'Clellan's Surgery, p. 57-8.
   81.  "Mercury is the great  anti-inflammatory, anti-febrile alterant of the
 materia medica."—Prof. J. P. Harrison, Therapeutics, vol. i, p.  147.
   "That it^cures we know,  but how it cures we know not."—lb., 261.
   "Next to  blood-letting,  mercury  seems to be our  principal remedy in
 inflammation,  especially of the mucous membranes of the larynx, trachea
 and iris."—Marshall Hall, Bigelow and Holmes, No. 577.
   "This mineral [mercury] is a very powerful agent in  controlling  inflam-
 mation, especially acute, phlegmonous, adhesive inflammation, such as glues
parts together and  spoils the texture  of organs.   It is  of the  greatest im-
 portance that you should accurately inform yourselves concerning the various
 effects  of mercury upon the system."—Watson's Practice, p. 154
   It is ;'a very potent, but a two-edged weapon."—lb., p. 154.
   "Of late years, various forms of inflammation have been most successfully
 combated by the use of mercury."—Pereira's Materia Medica, p. 595.
   As inflammation in its various forms is said to " make up the great amount
of human maladies, and constitute  the grand outlet of life "  (Paine, Wat-
son, Hall, Bigelow, Holmes), it follows that the " most  powerful agent in
controlling inflammation" must he, indeed, "the  most valuable  remedy" in
the materia medica; and it should not be counted wonderful that, by those
who believe this doctrine, there should be "scarcely a disease in which  mer-
cury, in some of its forms, is not prescribed."—Hooper.
   82. " According to  Armstrong, ' bleeding is the  right arm, and mercury
the left arm, of medicine."—Cincinnati Journal of Homeopathy, p. 81.
   83. " There is scarcely a  disease in which mercury in some of its prepara-
tions is not exhibited.".—Hooper's Medical Dictionary.

   84. " From  its [mercury's] power of at once limiting or removing effusion,
it is very plain how valuable must be its administration  in all inflammatory
affections of important internal organs."—Miller's Principles of Surgery, p.

                 THEORIES OF  THE ACTION  OF MERCURY.
  85. "Mechanical Hypothesis.—Astruc (De Morb. Ven., vol. xi, p. 149) and
Barry (Medical Transactions, vol. i, p. 25) fancied that mercury acted by its
weight, its divisibility and its mobility."

   86. Chemical Hypothesis.—Some have  advocated  the  chemical  operation
of mercurials, and have endeavored to explain 'their  curative powers  in dis-
ease in reference to their ohemical  properties.  Thus Mitie, Pussavin (quoted
by Richter, Ausfuhr Chzneim, vol. iv, p. 305), and Sweddiaur (Practical Ob
on  Venereal  Complaints)  assumed that mercury acted  chemically  on  the
syphilitic poison, as acids and alkalies do on each  other;  while Gertanner
supposed that the efficacy of mercurials depended on the oxygen  thev con-
lain.   Dr.  Cullen (Treat, of the Materia  Medica, vol. ii, p. 446) endeavored 
EXPOSITION.
35
to account for the action of mercury on the salivary glands in preference to
other organs, by assuming that it has a particular disposition to unite with
ammoniacal salts,  with which it passes off by the various  secretions.  He
thus accounted for the larger quantity of mercury which passed off by these
glands, and which, being in this way applied to the excretions, occasioned
salivation.  Dr. John  Meanay substituted another hypothesis, but equally           /
objectionable: " Mercury," says  he, "cannot pass off by the urine, because of
the phosphoric acid contained in that fluid, which would form, with the mer-
cury, an insoluble compound.  It must, therefore, be thrown out of the  sys-
tem by other secretions, particularly by saliva, which  facilitates this trans-
mission by the affinity which the muriatic  acid, the soda, and the ammonia
of the secretion, have for the oxyd of mercury, and by which  a compound,
soluble in water, is formed."

   87.  Dynamical  Hypothesis.—Some writers have principally directed their
attention  to the quality of the effects induced by mercury, and have termed
this mineral, stimulant, sedative, tonic and  alterative.   Those  who assume
that mercury is a stimulant or excitant, are not agreed as to whether one or
more parts, or the whole system, are stimulated; and, if particular parts,
what these are.  Hecker fixes on the lymphatics; Scone, on the arterial ca-
pillary system ;  Beil, on the nerves.

   88.  On the other hand, Comodi, Bertele  and Horn consider it a weakening
agent or sedative.   Some think  that mercurials, in  small doses, are stimu-
lants, but, in excessive doses, sedatives.  This is  the opinion of Dr. Wilson
Philips.

   89.  " Dr. Murray calls mercury a tonic ;  Voght terms it an alterative, sed-
ative resolvent;  Sundelin, a liquifacient;  Mr.  Hunter accounted for its
action by saying that it produced  a different  action  from the disease."—
Pereira's  Materia Medica, vol. i,  p. 594.
   " For the most part, the local action of the mercurial compounds may be
regarded as alterative and more or less irritant.  Many of the preparations are
energetic  caustics.   Mr. Annesly asserts, from his experiments on dogs and
his experience with it in the  human subject, that calomel is the  reverse of
an irritant; in other words, that,when applied to the gastrointestinal mem-
brane, it diminishes its vascularity."—lb., p.  585.

                    ITS EFFECTS ON THE CONSTITUTION.
   90.  "Mercury, gradually introduced into the  system, seems to  exert a
tonic effect on both the  extreme blood vessels and the lymphatics—that is,
on the exhalents and the absorbents—thus  preventing or limiting impending
effusion, and at the same time expediting the removal  of that which has
been already exuded."—Principles of Surgery, by James Miller, F. R. S. E.,
F. B. C. S. E., Prof, of Surg in the University of Edinburgh, p.  102.
   91.  "It certainly alters the red globules  and diminishes the undue propor-
tion of the fibrin  in a remarkable degree, and will, in a short time, break
down  the inflammatory exudations and adhesions  among inflamed parts,
which have resulted from the preceding stages of the  disease;"—M'Clellan's
Surgery,  p. 57.

   92.  " But the great remedial property of mercury is that of stopping,  con-
trolling, or altogether preventing, the effusion of coagulable lymph ;  of brid-
ling adhesive inflammation."—Waf*nn'.« Practice, n. 155. 
36
EXPOSITION
   93. We regard mercury as an empirical and perturbatory remedy.   By its
 stimulant property it deranges the vital and organic forces."—Prof. Golphin
 in Revue Medico-Chirurgicale, torn, ii, p. 134.
   94. " Of the modus operandi of mercury we know nothing, except that it
 probably acts through the medium  of the circulation, and seems, in many
 instances, to substitute its own action for that of the disease."—U. S.  Dis-
 pensatory, p.  350.
   " When we  produce  a mercurial  impression to cure fever, we substitute
 the action of the remedy for  that of the  disease.
   "The therapeutist will avail himself of this law of morbid  action  to  sub-
 stitute  an  artificial, definite  and controllable constitutional action,  for one
 that is abnormal, unlimited and not corrigible by any power in the system."—
 Har., Mat. Med., vol. i, p. 157.
   In the same volume, Prof.  H. says:
   95.  Mercury "exercises a curative power" (194), and yet (p. 48, 49) it
 "promotes  scrofula and  glandular  diseases, and hastens decomposition."
 "That  mercury cures, we  know—but, how it  cures, we  know not"  (264).
 " There is some mystery about it" (150).
   96.  "It is not an excitant,  but a most  powerful  depresser of the energies
 of life" (146).   " It is not a  stimulant to the vascular system"  (227, 245).
 " It irritates the heart and arteries and invariably depresses the nerves " (228).
 " It excites the heart's action, or depresses the  powers  of life,  as the case
 may be" (146).  " It  is the greatest curative agent"  (147,233).   " Pro-
 motes the secretions (146).   "Calomel subverts nature"  (9).   "Demolishes
 the very pillars of human health" (312).   "Acts physiologically, therapeuti-
 cally and pathologically" (218).   " I pretend not to penetrate into its action
 further than a careful  observance of  the phenomena it exhibits."—Essays,
 page 177.
  97. " Mercury acts upon the system  as a stimulant; but what the peculiar
 nature of that stimulant is, it would  be in vain to inquire."—Eberle's Ther-
 apeutics.
  98. "Mercury  produces universal  irritability,  making the constitution
 more  susceptible of all impressions.  It quickens  the  pulse, increases  its
 hardness, and  occasions a  kind of temporary fever.  It  produces hectic fe-
 ver.   In some constitutions, it operates like  a poison."—Hooper's Medical
 Dictionary.

  99. "Mercury excites restlessness, anxiety, and a very distressing and irri-
 table state of the whole body.  In some it produces delirium, in others pal-
sy and epilepsy."—Dr. Bell.
  100. Prof. Drake, in the  Western  Journal of Medicine, vol. 2, p. 636
 says:  " Mercury has been found in the  bones, blood, brain and nerves."

  101. Eczema Mercuriale—"Alley saw forty-three cases  of this disease,
 eight of which  terminated fatally."—lb.,  p. 588.

  102.  Ulceration and Sloughing.—"Ulceration  of the mouth  is  a well
known effect of mercury.   Ulceration of the throat is likewise a consequence
of the use of this mineral."—lb., p. 589.

  103. Neurosis Mercurialis.—U Various  symptoms, indicating a  disordered
condition of the nervous system, are  met  with in persons who have been  ex- 
                                EXPOSITION.                            37

 posed to the baneful influence of mercury, such  as wandering pains, a  trem-
 ulous condition of the muscular system, sometimes accompanied with  stam-
 mering, and occasionally terminating in paralysis, epilepsy or  apoplexy."—
 lb., p. 589.

   104.  Cachexia Mercurialis.—" This condition is characterized by disorder
 of the digestive organs, loss of appetite, wasting, incapability of much exer-
 tion, with  increased secretion from all the organs, especially from the saliva-
 ry glands.   Mr. Travers says mercurial cachexia is characterized by irritable
 circulation, extreme pallor and emaciation, tenderness of the  region of the
 pancreas, and the evacuations are frothy, whitish, tough and often greenish,
 at least  in the commencement.   These  symptoms may be fairly referred to
 an affection of the pancreas analogous to that of the  salivary glands."—Pe-
 reira, vol.  i, p. 588.

                 PATHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF  MERCURIAL ACTION.
   However difficult the faculty may have found the task of explaining the
 modus operandi of merqury on  the human system, the following extracts, as
 well  as  the  preceding, show very  clearly that they know something of the
 results which follow its exhibition.  The reader will please to be careful,
 however, not  to be imposed  upon, as the faculty are, by the  fatal error of
 supposing  that all these results are the legitimate effects of the action of the
 drug.  He should always bear in mind that mercury is a  simple agent, and
 can produce but one effect, and that must be  for good or for  evil—for the
 vital force or against it: and that all other effects than those that are legiti-
 mate  of mercury, must be attributed to other causes.  Let him especially
 remember  that all the irritation, fever and inflammation, that follow the ex-
 hibition  of mercury, or any other  drug, are  attributable to the vital  force
 alone; and that the great business of the observer is to ascertain whether
 the agent which excites them acts in harmony with this force or against it;
 and  to  prescribe  accordingly.   He will  see, if he watches  carefully,  that
 mercury is said to produce good  effects, only when controlled by the vital
 force and  prevented from producing  bad  ones;  and  that, when it gets the
 upper hand, it produces its own effects, viz., paralysis of the nerves, ulcera-
 tion,  mortification, sloughing of the glands and muscles, and caries of the
 bones, which shows that all the  good ever done on its exhibition, is done by
 the vital force in spite of it.
   105. Mercury is " a Samson to do evil as well as to  do good."—Prof. Geo.
 M'Clellan's Surgery, p. 58.
   106. " If it be resorted  to as a constitutional remedy in the first stages of
 disease, it will be seen to augment the disturbance, and, perhaps, convert the
 fever into a morbid form of irritative excitement."—Ib.
   107. '' In some cases the gums slough, the teeth loosen and drop out, and,
 occasionally, necrosis of the alveolar process takes place.   During this  time
 the system becomes extensively debilitated and emaciated, and if no inter-
 mission be given to the use of the mercury, involuntary actions of the mus-
cular system come  on, and the patient ultimately dies of exhaustion."  ' " I
have repeatedly seen inflammation and ulceration of the mouth  and profuse 
38
EXPOSITION.
 salivation induced by a few grains of calomel or some  other  mercurial."—
 Pereira, p. 587.

   108.  " If you push this remedy in healthy persons, inflammation is actu-
 ally produced; the gums become tender, and red, and swollen, and at  length
 they ulcerate:  and, in extreme cases, and in  young children especially, the
 inflamed parts may perish: the cheeks, for example, sometimes slough inter-
 nally.   Not only the gums, but the throat  and fauces, grow  red, and sore,
 and sloughy."—Watson's Practice, p. 155.

   109.  "Patients, who are kept under the influence  of mercury, grow pale
 as well as thin: and  Dr. Farre, who has paid great attention to  the effects,
 remedial  and injurious,  of this drug, holds that it quickly destroys red
 blood: as effectually  as it may be  destroyed by venesection."—lb., p. 155.
   " The facts I have already mentioned show, that it has a  loosening effect
 upon certain textures—that  it works by pulling down  parts  of the  build-
 ing."—Ib., p. 155.

   110. " Mercury occasionally attacks the bowels  and causes violent purg-
 ing,  even of blood.  At other times, it is suddenly determined  to the mouth,
 and  produces  inflammation, ulceration  and  an excessive flow of saliva."—
 Cooper's Surg. Diet., vol. ii, p. 170.

   111. "Mercury, when  it falls on  the mouth, produces, in many constitu-
 tions, violent inflammation, which  ends  in mortification."—lb., p. 170.

   112. "In 1810, the Triumph man-of-war and Phipps schooner  received on
board several tons of quicksilver, saved from the wreck of a  vessel near Ca-
 diz.   In consequence of the rolling of the  bags the mercury escaped, and
the whole of the crews became more  or less affected.   In the space  of three
weeks two hundred men were salivated, two died, and all  the animals—cats,
dogs, sheep, fowls, a canary bird, nay, even the rats, mice and cockroaches—
were destroyed."—Edinburgh Med. and Surg. Jour., No. xxvi,  p. 29.

   113. "A very frequent consequence of excessive mercurial salivation, and
the attendant ulceration arid sloughing, is contraction of the mucous mem-
brane in the neighborhood of the  anterior arches of the  palate, whereby the
patient is prevented from opening the mouth, except to a very slight extent.
 I  have  met with  several such  cases.  In one it followed the use  of a few
grains of blue pill, administered for a liver complaint.   The  patient remains
unable to open her mouth wider than half an inch.   Several operations have
been performed by different surgeons, and the contracted parts freely divided,
but  the relief was only temporary.  In another  instance  (that of a child
four years of age) it was produced by a few grains of calomel.   Though
several  years have elapsed since, the patient is obliged  to suck  his food
through the  spaces  left  between  the jaws  by the  loss of  the alveolar pro-
 cess."—Pereira's Mat. Med., vol. i, p. 587.

   114.  Mercurial  Purging.—" Violent purging is a very  frequent  conse-
 quence of the use of  mercury.  It is frequently attended with griping, and
 sometimes with sanguineous evacuations."—lb.

   " Dr. John Mason Good, Fellow of the Royal  Society, London, the learn-
 ed author of the " Book of Nature,"  Improved Nosology," " Studies of Med-
ioine," &c, says, in the latter work, vol. i, p. 62 : 
EXPOSITION.
39
   115. " Quicksilver, in whatever mode introduced into the system, whether
by the skin, the^ stomach, or  the lungs, uniformly  stimulates the salivary
glands, producing an increased flow of saliva, and is almost, if not altogeth-
er, the only substance we know of, which, introduced internally, universally
acts in this manner."  *  *   *  " From the  general tendency of mercury
to produce this specific effect,  those who are engaged in working quicksilver
mines, are almost continually in a state of salivation: and when, which is
often the case, condemned as  criminals to such labor for life, drag out a mis-
erable existence, in  extreme  debility and emaciation, with stiff, incurvated
limbs, and total loss of teeth  and appetite, till death, in a  few years, with  a
friendly  stroke,  puts a period to their sufferings.    *  *   *
   116. " Mercury, however, produces different degrees of effect, upon different
constitutions or states of  the body.  In a few rare instances, it has  exerted
no sensible influence whatever upon the excretories of the  fauces: in others,
a very small quantity of almost any of its preparations has stimulated them
at once to a copious  discharge.  In persons of a highly nervous or irritable
temperament, I  have known salivation produced by a single dose of calomel;
and that it is sometimes caused  by dressing ulcers with red precipitate, is  a
fact well known to all experienced surgeons.  *  *  *  Even the occasional
application of white  precipitate  or mercurial ointment to the head to destroy
vermin, has often excited salivation."
   Prof. Thos. Graham, of the  University of Glasgow, and  member of the
Royal College of Surgeons in London, says:
   117. "When I recall to mind the numerous cases of ruined health, from
the excessive employment of  calomel, that has come to  my own knowledge;
and reflect on  the  additional  proofs of its ruinous operations, which still
daily present themselves,  I cannot forbear regarding  it, as  commonly exhib-
ited, as a minute instrument of mighty mischief which, instead of conveying
health and strength  to the diseased and enervated, is made to scatter widely
the seeds of  debility and  disease of the worst kind, among persons  of  every
age and condition."—Indig., p.  132.
   118. " There  is not, in the materia medica, another article which so immedi-
ately and permanently, and to so great a degree, debilitates the stomach and
bowels, as calomel:  yet this is the medicine which is'prescribed and sent for
on every occasion.   Its action on the nervous system is demonstrative of its
being an article in its nature  inimical to the human  constitution; since what
medicine besides, in frequent use, will excite feelings so horrible and inde-
scribable as  calomel and other preparations  of mercury?   An  excessively
peevish, irritable and despondent state of mind, is a well known consequent
of a single dose of this substance."—P. 134.
   119. " There  is a  circumstance, in the operation of mercury, which ought
to  engage the  serious and attentive cons.deration of the profession, as well
as all who are in the habit of taking it themselves, or of giving it to their
children—I mean the permanency of its deleterious effects.   An improper or
excessive use of the generality of medicines is recovered from without  [com-
parative] difficulty;  but it is not so when the same error is  committed with
the mercurial oxyds.  They affect the human constitution in a peculiar man-
ner, taking, so to speak, an iron grasp of all its systems, penetrating even to
the  bones, by which they not only change  the healthy action of its vessels
and general  structure, but greatly impair and  destroy its energies.  I have
seen persons to  whom it has been largely given for the  removal of different 
40
EXPOSITION.
  complaints, who, before they took it, knew what indigestion and nervous de-
  pression meant, only by the descriptions of others;  but thgy have  since be-
  come experimentally acquainted with both; for they now constantly com-
  plain of weakness  and irritability of the digestive organs, of frequent low-
  ness of spirits and impaired  strength ; of all which, it appears  to  me, they
  wiH ever be sensible.   Instances of this  description abound.   Many of  the
  victims of the practice are  aware of this origin of their permanent indis-
  position ; and many more, who are at present unconscious  of it, might here
  find, upon investigation, a sufficient cause for their sleepless nights and mis-
  erable days.  We have, often, every benevolent feeling of the mind called
  into painful exercise, upon viewing patients already exhausted by protracted
  illness, groaning under the accumulated miseries of  an active  course of mer-
  cury,  and,  by this, forever  deprived of  perfect  restoration.   A barbarous
 practice,  the  inconsistency,  folly, and injury  of which, no words  can suf-
 ficiently describe."—Pages 136-8.

   120. "I have seen the constitutions of such persons [who were supposed
 to have the liver complaint] irrecoverably ruined by active mercurial courses'-
 but in no instance did I ever witness a cure effected  by this  treatment   It is
 painful to recollect that, in disorganized livers, mercury, carried to the extent
 of salivation, is commonly regarded as the  sheet anchor, the fit and only
 remedy;  for I will venture to affirm, that  the  far greater  number  of such
 cases grow materially worse,  rather than better  by such use of it; and that
 this aggravation consists not  merely in an increase of the patient's weakness
 and morbid irritability, but that  the  existing disease in  the  liver becomes
 more extensive and inveterate."—lb., p. 172.

   121  "If the opinions here set forth with so  much force  be correct—and
 that they are so we  have  not  the  least doubt—what incalculable mischief
 must result from a practice founded upon the common notion of the absolute
 necessity of a mercurial salivation, for the cure of what may be pronerlv or
 improperly named  liver complaint!"  [Note by the American  Editor 1—lb
 p. 127.                                                          J     ''
   Abehnethy says:

   122. "Persons who are salivated, have, as  far as I have  remarked, the
 functions of thehver and the digestive organs constantly disturbed  by that
 process."—Surgical Observations, p. 77.                J            y
   Blackall says:

   123. " On the schirrus or tuberculated state of the liver, I have seldom seen
 mercury make any good] impression.  But I have seen  he in^wuriaTllwt
 superadded by contmua  salivation, and then the disorder become more Co^
 plicated and more speedily  fatal."—Dropsies, p. 70.      ut^ume more com-
   Farre says:
   124. "Patients suffering  under chronic enlarwmpn+s nf +1,^ v
 so far as I have observed, benefited  by the^onerS 5 L     ^ "? n°>
time that the most careful examination can  SnZsf them TlfJ  **' hj *%
the disease has been already so considerable  t?mt?hp ™    '• fe pr-°greSS  °f
only to exhaust  the  power* that  ^^^±1^^ ^tion tends
restore."—Morb. Anat. Liver, p. 21.       su&sequently, in vain  attempt to

  Hamilton says:

  125. "The ordinary mode of exhibiting mercury f™ +v         ,  ,
hepatitis, not unfitly hu™3 „ thl *£%&,<&&£££. 
EXPOSITION.
41
stitution, lays the foundation  for paralytic affections ;   and it may be truly
affirmed that it thus often shortens life."—Abuse of Mercury,  p. 79.
  Dr. Falconer, of Bath, in a paper where he  forcibly animadverts  on its
abuse, observes:
   126. "Among other ill effects, it tends  to produce tumors, paralysis,  and,
not unfrequently, incurable mania.  I have myself seen repeatedly, from this
cause, a kind of approximation to these maladies, that embittered life to such
a degree, with shocking depression  of spirits  and other nervous agitations
with which it was accompanied, as to make it more than probable that many
of the suicides which disgrace our country, were occasioned by the intoler-
able feelings which-result from such a state of the nervous system."—Trans.
Medical  Society, London, vol. i, p. 110.
   Dr. Hamilton says:
   127. " In a lady who had such small doses of  the blue pill combined with
opium, for three nights successively, that the whole quantity amounted to no
more than five grains of the mass, salivation  began on  the  fifth day;  and,
notwithstanding every attention, the tongue and gums became swelled to an
enormous degree; bleeding ulcers of the mouth and fauces took place, and
such excessive  irritability  and debility followed that, for nearly a whole
month, her life was in the utmost jeopardy."—Abuse of Mercury, p. 24.
   Dr. Alley says:
   128.  "I have seen the mercurial eruption appear over the entire body of a
boy about seven  years  old, for whom but three grains  of calomel had  been
prescribed effectually as a purgative."—Observations on Hydrargyria, p. 40.
   Graham says:
   129.  " Such instances  of the poisonous operation of mercury are  not of
rare occurrence; they are common, and only two out of a vast number that
have been and are  still daily  witnessed, many of which are on  record."—p.
 136.
           THE IMPOSSIBILITY  OF PREDICTING ITS MODUS  OPERANDI.
   130.  "Some patients are slow to show ptyalism, even under great and sus-
tained doses.  Others have their mouths touched,  perhaps severely, with but
a few grains.  Some suffer from pain and purging, in whatever form the
mercury is given, internally.   Some are actually poisoned by the mineral, the
condition termed erythismus being induced.   The  system may not suffer, but
the surface may—a very troublesome eruption occurring, the eczema  mcrcu-
riale.  Some systems evince their intolerance of the remedy by gradual loss
 of flesh, strength  and spirits, an asthenic  state,  approaching to hectic, be-
 coming established.  Violent  salivation  may be caused by  sudden exposure
 to cold during the  use of the  medicine, or it may depend upon an idiosyn-
 cracy of the system."—Practice of Surgery, by James Miller, p. 390-91.

   Dr. Bell states that he
    131. "Exhibited three grains of  blue mass to  a patient, which  caused
 copious salivation."—Bell & Stokes's Practice, vol. ii, p. 140.
    132. "It  is important to know that different persons admit of, or resist,
 the specific  agency of  mercury in very different degrees;  so that, in some
 patients, the remedy becomes  unmanageable and hazardous; while, in  others,
 it is inert and useless.  It is most  grieviously disappointing to watch a pa- 
42
EXPOSITION.
 tient laboring under inflammation which is likely to  spoil some important
 organ, and to find, after bleeding has been pushed as far as we dare push it|
 that no impression is  made  upon  his gums by the  freest use of mercury.
 Such cases are not uncommon;  and, unfortunately, they seem  most  apt to
 occur when  the  controlling agency of mercury is  most urgently required.
 On the other hand, there are  persons in whom very small quantities of mer-
 cury act as a violent poison, a single dose producing the severest salivation,
 and bringing the  patient's  existence into jeopardy.   This  history was told
 to Dr. Farre by a medical man, under whose notice it fell.   A lady whom he
 attended  said to  him, at his  first  professional visit to her, ' Now, without
 asking why or speculating upon it, never give me  mercury, for it poisons me.1
 Some time afterward she met  with the late Mr. Chevalier, and  spoke to him
 about her complaints ;  and he  prescribed for her as a purgative, once, two
 grains of calomel, with some  cathartic extract.  She took the dose, and the next
 morning showed the prescription to her ordinary medical attendant.  ' Why,'
 said he, 'you have done the very  thing you  were  so anxious to avoid—you
 have taken mercury.'   She  replied, ' I thought as much, from the  sensations
 I have in  my mouth.'  Furious  salivation  came on in a few hours, and  she
 died at the end of two years, worn out by the effects of mercury, and having
 lost portions of the jaw-bone by necrosis."—Watson's  Practice, p.  157.
   Dr. Joy says:
   133.  "We have  seen a person  salivated severely by four or five grains of
 blue pill, taken in divided doses."—Library Practical Medicine, vol. v, p. 410.
   134. " Mercury, in  any form, excites in some individuals,  and more partic-
 ularly in those in whom  salivation is not easily produced, a frightful degree of
 erethism, with most alarming depression of the vital powers.  We have seen a
 complete but  temporary loss of sight, accompanied by various  evidences  of
 undue determination of blood  to the head, supervene upon the occurrence of
 a violent salivation, induced by the application  of  camphorated  mercurial
 ointment, for a few days, to  an  enlarged testis."—lb., p.  411.
   Prof. J.  P.  Harrison, in  a lecture on Diseases  induced by Mercury, says:
   135. "Its vapors salivated a whole ship's  crew."—Medical Essays, p. 126.
   " Calomel has inflicted more mischief," &c.—lb., p. 128.
   " Calomel,  even in large doses,  has the effect of diminishing vascular  ac-
 tion."—Ib., p. 131.
   It  produces " sore, tumid, and at length  ulcerous gums, and  a swollen,
 loaded tongue."—Ib., p.  139.
   "Mercury sometimes produces fatal effects in very small quantities."__lb.,

   " Mercury is often a most potent engine of mischief."—Ib. 150.
   136. "An  inscrutable peculiarity of constitution renders it a matter  of
 great peril for some persons to take mercury in  any shape.  The smallest
 dose of blue pill or calomel  will, in such individuals  create  the most alarm-
 ing symptoms, and death will  sometimes result from  the taking  of a few
grains of either."—lb., p.    .

   137 "By its rapid, irritating impression on the gastric mucous tissue  or
upon the skin, it [mercury] may act as a poison."—lb. p 157
   " I have  seen another  case, in which the child took several" doses of calo-
mel, before the mouth became inflamed, and was saved with the loss of nearly
all the teeth of both jaws and a portion of one cheek."__lb.  p. 161. 
EXPOSITION.
43
  Another child, of six years, took six grains of calomel, and lost " the whole
left cheek," and " soon died."   Another " unfortunate victim of mercury lost
a part of his nose and most of the palate of his mouth, and died of phthisis
pulmonalis ! "—lb., p. 160.
  See the whole essay, in the face of which Prof. Harrison has the effrontery
to intimate that mercury in not a poison !


  "IMPOSSIBILITY OF CONTROLLING ITS ACTION WHEN IT GETS THE UPPER HAND."
  138.  The secondary effects  of the poison are  manifested in "caries  of the
skull;  ozena [ulceration of  the lining membrane of the nose];  noli me
langere [destructive ulcer of the face] ;  caries and necrosis of the lower jaw j
inflammation of the tongue."—Miller's Practice of Surgery, p. 64, 129, 130,
136,  158.
  139.  " Of the remote evil effects of mercury on the system, much  might
be said."—Ib., p.  391.
  " In all aggravated cases  of periostitis, mercury is usually much to blame.
No predisposing cause  of ostitis is  found more frequent or certain  in its-
operation than mercury.  The cachectic state induced by the mercurial  poi-
son seems  manifestly to favor the occurrence of fragilitas ossium."—Ib.,  p.
230, 232, 262.
  Dr. Bell, when referring to the treatment of mercurial salivation,  says]:
   140.  " Like all kinds of poisoning, of which  this is one, time  is required,
both  for an elimination of the deleterious agent from  the system and for ai
subsidence of the morbid phenomena, such as  depraved secretions and  per-
verted  innervation to which it gives rise."—Bell & Stokes's  Practice, vol. i,
p. 69.
   141.  "In producing  their effects, all the mercurial preparations are decom-
posed, and the mercury in the metallic form is either thrown out of the body
by the skin and lungs, or deposited in the glands and the bones."
  " In Hufeland's Journal, it is stated that a pelvis infiltrated with mercury
was taken from a young woman who died of  syphilis, and is preserved in the
Dublin Museum of Midwifery."—lb., Note.   [Dr. Blundell, of London, has
another.]  " In this place we can only contemplate mercury as a source  of
disease."—Good's St. Med., vol. i, p. 64.
   [It is often said that, if mercury does not salivate, it passes  out  of the
system and does no harm.  The pelves preserved, as mentioned above, show
the falsity of this declaration.
   We sometime  ago read  of a case (book and page not now recollected)  in
which, twenty years after its exhibition, mercury was brought into  action,
produced all the above dreadful effects, and destroyed the patient in spite of
all the  efforts of the faculty of  a Parisian hospital to prevent it.]
   N. Chapman, Professor of  Materia Medica in the University of Pennsyl-
vania, says:
   142. " If you could see, what I almost daily see in my private practice, per-
sons from the South in the very last stage of miserable existence, emaciated to a
skeleton, with both plates of the skull almost completely perforated in many
places, the nose  half  gone,  with rotten  jaws and ulcerated throats, with
breaths more pestiferous than the poisonous  Bohon Upas, with limbs  racked
with the pains of the Inquisition, minds as imbecile as  the puling babe—a 
44
EXPOSITION.
grievous burthen to themselves and a disgusting spectacle to the world, you
would exclaim, as I have  often  done, ' 0, the lamentable  ignorance which
dictates  the use  (as medicine) of that noxious  drug, calomel.'  It  is a dis-
graceful reproach to the profession  of  medicine—it  is  quackery—horrid,
unwarrantable, murderous  quackery.    What merit do  physicians flatter
themselves they possess, by being able to  salivate a patient?   Cannot the
veriest fool in Christendom give calomel  and salivate?  But I will  ask an-
other question, Who is there that can stop the career of calomel when once
it has taken the reins into its own possession ?  He who resigns the fate of
his patient to calomel, is a vile  enemy to  the sick, and if he has a tolerable
practice, will, in a single season, lay the foundation of a good business for
life;  for  he will ever afterward have enough to do to stop the mercurial
breaches in the constitution of his dilapidated  patients.   He  has thrown
himself in close contact with  death, and will have to  fight him at  arm's
length so long as one of his patients maintains a miserable existence "  (79).
  Prof. Harrison, after saying:
   143.  "Various explanations have been  given of the modus curandi of this
great anti-inflammatory alterant" [mercury], adds, "that  it cures we know,
but how it cures we know not " (192).  " The  mystery of its precise modus
agendi remains unexplored " (225).
  He has, however, explored it pretty thoroughly, and given us the effects
it produces, which sufficiently demonstrate its modus agendi.   He says:
  " It produces a rapid sinking of the vital  powers" (24).  " Very injurious
effects upon the  mouths of children—severe inflammation, sloughing and
death "  (46).  " Palsy, ulceration  and diseases of the bones " (294). " Irri-
tates the heart and arteries,  and invariably depresses the nerves " (228).  "A
most powerful^ subduer of the energies of life " (227). " It brings  on a  most
afflicting and incorrigible constitutional disease^ which often defies the  skill
of the most experienced and enlightened physician to cure " (187).  " Slough-
ing of the cheek has arisen from washes and ointments applied to the  head
and other parts of the body" (231).  "Disastrous  effects have sprung  from
these applications " (352). "Inflicts incalculable evil on the patient" (245).
" Produces cancrum  oris " (305) [dry salivation that rots  away the  mouth].
« The most revolting mutilation of the face, foul ulcers on the tongue, cheeks
and  fauces" (306).   "Demolishes  the very pillars of human health" (312).
"Eats off the  nose  and the bony palate  of the  mouth" (319).  "When we
produce a mercurial impression to  cure fever, we substitute the action of the
remedy for that of the disease " (157).  " Its action is not controllable under
the most judicious treatment"  (296).

  144.  Cases and Illustrations.—"We once saw  a little girl, four years old
with an attack of fever, who died from the  mercurial cancrum oris   Other
children we have seen, more advanced in years, who fell victims to the disease
or who were mutilated  by it, their countenances  being shockingly deformed'
by the sloughing and subsequently puckered cicatrization.   Upon  this topic
our thoughts have been much directed, from the melancholy termination of
cases of mercunalism in children, which we have witnessed in our own practice
We lost a case, from the ravages of mercury on the mouth, in a boy  of eieht
years old, who was apparently recovering  from hydrocephalus   It has  been
our  ot to see more cases in consultation than in  our own practice, in which
death or mutilation has occurred  from continuing the use of calomel too
long, or from giving  it in disproportionate doses  in attacks of sickness in 
EXPOSITION.
45
children.   One dose of eight grains brought on gangrenopsis in a hoy of ten
years of age, who had, several years anterior, been mercurialized.   Death,
under the most revolting  mutilations of the face, took place in three weeks
after he took the calomel" (305-6).

   In all these cases, the Doctor confesses that the disease produced by mer-
cury was far worse than the fever, hydrocephalus, hooping cough, and even
syphilis (236), for which it was given.
   Hiram Cox, M. D., a graduate of the Ohio Medical  College, and late Pro-
fessor of Surgery in the E. M. Institute of this city, says:
   145.  "Thousands yearly fill a premature grave, who are  literally and
legally murdered by the reckless  administration of  mercury; yet that same
routine species of murder is continued and the community sanction it.
   " I have been called  in hundreds of instances to  counteract cases of poi-
son produced by men,  to many of whose names, by some means or other, the
initials M. D. were attached," &c.  " Thousands have gone to the grave," &c.
" I could enumerate at least fifty cases of poison and death  by calomel, that
occurred in the  practice of physicians who were practicing in  the region  of
country in which I practiced  for seven  years, many of whom were sent  to
their graves, mutilated, disfigured and partially decomposed,  before death
released them from  their sufferings.   Suppose each physician  of the thou-
sands who are practicing in the United States, after  the  Old School routine
of giving calomel, were to hand in a list of deaths produced by  that mineral
poison that occurred within his knowledge and region of labor, what  a stu-
pendous amount of mortality it would make! "  " How revolting to human-
ity is this picture ! and yet how listlessly does this community move on and
permit this state of things to exist! "—W. M. Reformer.
    146. In the preceding numbers we have confined  our quotations  to the
three great, indispensable remedies of Allopathy, the lancet, opium  and mer-
cury, at once the indices to the,character of its materia medica and the most
efficient agents it embraces.   But we do not mean to intimate that these are
all the remedies  of that old, popular practice.  There are others used  in
conjunction with  these, or  as substitutes for them.   But "whatever differ-
ences" they may present  in other respects, " they all agree  in this—they
suddenly and  rapidly extinguish a  great proportion  of the vitality of the
system."   " Poisons are, in general, the best medicines," says  Hooper; and
" the greater the poison, the better the medicine," has long been counted  an
almost self-evident principle.
    Among the adjuncts to, or substitutes for, the lancet, opium and  mercury,
we find a great number and variety of agents, of  very dissimilar character
and  tendency, as antimony, arsenic, lead, zinc, niter, silver, copper, canthar-
ides, digitalis, hyosciamus, cicuta, strychnine and the most powerful narcotics,
all which are classed among the causes as well as among the  curers of disease.
For example, of one hundred  and thirty-four  forms of disease enumerated
by Eberle, he says that more than thirty are induced by the agents used  to
cure disease—as mercury, arsenic, lead, cantharides, stramonium, opium and
other "irritating substances;" also by injuries from malpractice. 
46
EXPOSITION.
   Prof.  Dunglison also gives us, as the eauses of more  than thirty malig-

 nant forms of disease, the same "great remedial agents,"  with blood-letting,

 tobacco,  spurred rye, opium, alcohol and other " acrid or  corrosive poisons."

   These forms of disease are, inflammation, acute  and chronic, of all or any

 of the organs, as the brain, the  tongue, the tonsils, the throat, the  stomach

 and the intestines,  the lungs,  the heart, the liver, the kidneys, the pleura, the

 pericardium, the peritoneum,  the joints, tendons and muscles, the degenera-

 tion and decay of all these and the very bones themselves.   The very worst

 forms of disease with which the human body has ever  been  afflicted are at-

 tributed to " the most effective weapons of  medical  aggression" that have

 ever been prescribed for them, and to  the manipulations of rashness in  par-

 turition.   Look at  an array of these conditions, causes and cures.
   First, from Eberle :
    Disease.
 Tonsilitis,
 Enteritis,
 Peritonitis,
 Hepatitis,
 Cerebutis,
 Nephritis,
 Cystitis,
 Hysteritis,
 Rheumatism,
 Gout,
 Ophthalmia,
 Eczema,
 Hematemesis,   &
 Hematuria,
 Paralysis,
 Chorea,
 Dementia,
 Delirium Tremens,
 Colica Pictonum,
 Jaundice,
 Diabetes,
 Dysuria,
 Hydrothorax,
 Ascites,
 Anasarca,


   In Dunglison the contrast is nearly the same as above,  with the addition
 of some  others.

   147. The reader must be forcibly impressed by the number and the invet-

 erate character of the several forms of disease above indicated, that were pro-

 duced by mercury.   The following note, by Prof. J. B. Flint, of  Louisville

 Kentucky, to his edition of Druitt's Surgery (p. 114), will explain the mystery.'

   148. "Genuine tuberculous serofula is less common in the valley of the
 Mississippi than  on the eastern  eoast of the Union.  But a verv We nor
 tion of what is regarded and treated as scrofulous disease,  in  this  part o/the
 country appears to me to be mere y the result of indiscreet mer^SjLition
 Under the prevalent idea that biliary  derangements either constitaWc^
 exist with every departure from health, some form of mercury is administer-
ed in almost every prescription, and the whole capillary system  of  persons
Cause.		Cure.	
Arsenic, Mercury,	Bleeding,	Calomel,	Opium.
Drastic purgatives,	Do	do	do
Injuries in parturition,	Do	do	do
Mercury,	Do	do	
Do.	Do	do	do
Cantharides,	Do	do	do
Do.	Do	do	do
Instrumental labor,	Do	do	
Mercury,	Do	do	do
Do.	Do	do	do
Do.	Do	do	do
Do.		do	do
Cantharides,	Do	do	do
Do.	Do	do	do
Lead, Mercury,	Do	do	
Mercury, Stramonium,	Do	do	do
Do.	Do	do	do
Opium,	Do	do	doD
Lead,	Do	do	do
Mercury,	Do	do	do
Do. Alcoholic Liquors,	Do	do	do
Cantharides,		do	do
Mercury,	Do	do	do
Do.	Do	do	do
Do.	Do	do	do
 
EXPOSITION.
47
who happen to be occasionally unwell, soon becomes impregnated and poi-
soned by this subtile mineral.
   149.  " So, too, if an alterative impression is desired, under any morbid con-
dition whatever, instead of employing regimen, diet and more harmless med-
icaments, it is common  to resort indiscriminately to mercurial agents.  The
consequences of such reckless  medication [more properly, wholesale  poison-
ing !] present  themselves  to the  physician in  dyspeptic affections, chronic
headaches, pains in the limbs, called rheumatism, &o;  and to the surgeon in
the  more striking forms of alveolar absorption  and  adhesions, inveterate
ulcerations of the fauces and nostrils, where no specific taint has been  sus-
pected,  and in various degenerations, malignant or semi-malignant, of gland-
ular organs.
   150.  "Moreover,  the evil does  not  stop with the  individual—for where
important elementary tissues are so deteriorated in  the parents, a constitu-
tional infirmity will  be  impressed on the offspring, which, if it may  not be
called scrofulous from birth, is the most favorable condition possible for the
development of the  phenomena of that diathesis, whenever co-operative  in-
fluences shall assail the unfortunate subject."
   151.  " The interests  of humanity, no less than the honor of medicine, de-
mand that those who observe and  understand  these  things should utter, on
all proper occasions, the most  unqualified protestations against such  abuses
of a medicinal agent whose timely and  judicious use is so important to the
healing art, and thus prevent it from becoming so detestable that its employ-
ment will not be tolerated at all."
   Some of my readers  have already asked why  I have quoted so extensively
from Allopathic authors.  I answer, I have done it for several reasons:
   1. To disabuse  the public of their arrogant and impudent claims to all the
medical science in the world, and to the right of the  obsequious  submission
of all patients to their dicta in practice.
   2. To furnish to those who dare dispute their pretended wisdom and their
arrogant authority, with ample and effective weapons for defense  and  abund-
ant reasons for adopting an independent course.
   3. I have  done it to  give ample proof to physicians, as well as their pa-
trons, that there is  neither  science nor consistency in their principles, nor
sense nor humanity  in their practice.
   These extracts,  from  the  most eminent of their professors  and authors,
demonstrate as clearly as human testimony and  example can do it, that they
have no faith in the  doctrines they teach, either general or particular; and
that, so far from having a  practice on which  they can confidently rely for
safety and efficiency, they consider their best remedies " the most potent en-
gines of mischief"—" two-edged swords," that have slain seven-fold more by
their abuse than they have cured by their judicious use, on the great scale of
their most scientific practice.
   They pronounce " the lancet the  indispensable sheet-anchor of their prac-
tice  in  inflammation;"  " mercury the  great  anti-inflammatory,  anti-febrile
alterant of their materia medica ;" and opium the " magnum Dei donum (the
great gift of  God) for the  relief of a great proportion of the  maladies of 
48                            EXPOSITION.
 man:" and yet they ascribe to each and every one of these the destruction
 of more  lives than can be attributed to the other three  great  curses  of hu-
 manity—the sword, pestilence and famine !
   Will not the reader turn in disgust from such a mortifying spectacle?
 Will not the advocate of Allopathy himself here discover the folly and  in-
 iquity of longer binding his living spirit to such a rotten carcass, and give me
 his attention, while I unfold the cause of all the errors in  theory and mischiefs
 in practice of which the countless hosts of eminent and benevolent men, some
 of whose statements  I have quoted here, complain ?  Can the most strenuous
 advocate of Allopathy longer doubt  that there is, at the very root of this
 system, some fatal canker worm that stints the growth and mars the beauty of
 its trunk, branches, leaves and flowers, and blast its long and earnestly antici-
 pated fruits ?  Must it not seem to every one passing strange, that medicine
 should " still be in its  infancy," if it ever possessed, within its lifeless shell,
 the elements of manhood ?  If it ever had a scientific basis, should we expect
 to see such men as Lieutaud, Broussais, Louis, Hahnemann, Brown, Donaldson,
 Henderson, Forbes,  Waterhouse, Jackson,  &c, surrendering  that  basis as
 worse than worthless—as chaining down the mind to an erroneous, destructive
 creed—and setting themselves diligently to work to " make new observations,
 out of which to form a sounder theory"?   Should we expect to  see "Ameri-
 can and other medical savans" assembling from year to year, and making it
 the burthen of their  business to strive to ascertain the reason why their once
 popular and venerated system is losing its authority and falling into silence and
 neglect, if not contempt and ridicule, while multitudes of other systems, with
 the title of reform, are rising up to crowd it out of fashion  and to  take  its
 place; if theirs, as they have made some thoughtless men believe, were "built
 on the solid foundation of everlasting truth, and had within  it the power of
 rising  to perfection"?   No, indeed!  Truth is  mighty, and will prevail
 wherever promulgated and applied.  That their system does  not answer the
 end of its adoption (5, 6, 16), is proof irrefragable that its fundamental doc-
 trines are not true^   But all the  authors I have quoted admit this charge,
 and the burthen  of their  efforts has been to ascertain and rectify the err*
 (9, 19).   But as yet, they have failed even in this.  Allopathy is no further
 advanced in is fundamental character than it was three  hundred years ago;
 and never will be further than it is now, till its present base is revoLioni'ed
 This glorious work for sctentific medicine, this desideratum  in its univer  1
 history, I shall clearly and  thoroughly perform in the next number of this


 u^r^z^zt^r^of the page and interrupt the  ™» 0f ^
 text, i shall make but few as I pass, assuring here  the reader  tW  t  ui
 say nothing that I cannot amply prove  and  that I will    i
ences to all parts of the wor/inVhe ^^C^IT^^T
 the most  useful.                        '       ney Wl11 be  fouri<l bj far 
CRITICISED  AND  CORRECTED.
49
  152.  Views of Fever and Inflammation obscure and contradictory.  Who-
ever has  carefully perused  the  preceding pages, must  have been forcibly
struck with the  confusion of ideas, and contradiction  of opinions, that pre-
vail among the most distinguished medical men, in relation to the nature and
tendency of fever and inflammation.
  While  they all declare that no  other  subject has  so  much  engaged the
attention of medical philosophers, teachers and practitioners, they also agree
that " no subject in the whole circle of medical science, still involves so many
disputed points" (34 to 38).  They are "so  obscure  as  to afford  but little
help in  determining the  plan of treatment"  (35,  ^[ 3d).   At one  stage,
they regard inflammation as the operation that does  all the work of healing
(42 to 45) ; at another they pronounce it and fever the  fruitful mothers of
all  mischief—" the two orders  of disease that make up the great amount of
human maladies, and form the grand outlets  of life " (41, 40).
   153.  The  Bases  of Pathology and Practice.   And yet  these  "obscure
pathologies,"  these  "disputed points," these "problematical"  conclusions
respecting fever, inflammation, and  irritation, "constitute, with great pro-
priety, the foundations of all  pathological reasoning" (28, 29, 35, 36, 41),
and are made  the bases of all Allopathic works on the theory and practice of
medicine and  surgery; and these works alone embody what is called " scientific
and legitimate medicine."
   154.  Denounce and persecute  all  who disbelieve  and  reject  them.   Any
man who presumes to dispute their doctrines, or  to practice  in  opposition to
the prescriptions based upon them, is denounced  as a quack and a murderer,
and visited with a malicious persecution, that " stops at nothing  short  of  his
destruction, root and branch."—Harvey.
   155.  Fundamental Doctrines false, and the practice mischievous.   Hence,
it is  strictly true, that " the very foundations on  which their systems of dis-
ease are  built, are and always were false, and baseless as the fabric of a vision,
(5);  and their practice has really been, what its advocates themselves describe
it (5, 6, 13, 21,  26, 27), a striking at a melee of friends and enemies in the
dark, a shooting  at random, at a bird whose  song  they  think they hear among
the branches  (27); a multiplication  of diseases,  and  an  increasing of their
mortality (26); a practice of " bleeding people to death" to prevent them from
living till natural death should remove them, or the  causes of disease should
destroy them  (56,  57, 70, 79);  a perpetration of more destruction of human
life than is  effected by  the sword of the warrior (58);  a production of seven
times as much mischief as good on the great scale of humanity (76); a whole-
sale destruction of constitution and life, by one of the  remedies the most con-
fidently relied upon for the saving of life (90 to 151).   In short, a system
of  " horrid, unwarrantable, murderous quackery" (142,  and 105 to 141) !
   156.   The " error of errors" of Allopathy.   The  considering  and treating
of  irritation, fever and inflammation  as disease,  has been the grand mother
error of Allopathists, ever since they adopted it:—the  source of all their
other errors in theory,  and mischiefs in practice.  It  is  the retention of the
same error by many well meaning Reformers, that has prevented them from
advancing but a few blind  steps out of the  old dark labyrinth of Allopathy,
to  be plunged directly back again  whenever the slightest obstacles oppose
their progress.
   157. J shall present irritation, fever  and  inflammation many times, in
varied forms  of speech,  and under various  circumstances,  so that  one  well
                                     4 
50
ALLOPATHY EXPOSED,
acquainted with the subject, or even '-apt to learn," may think I repeat the
same ideas  and principles, and exhibit  the  same facts and conditions, with
unnecessary frequency.  But, as the subject is  of  vital importance, and  no
Allopathic writer,  to my knowledge, has yet been able to explain it clearly to
others, or to understand it himself (Bartlett on  Fever,  p. 159, and  Rec, vol.
18, pp. 113, 129,  161, and vol. 19, pp. 1, 2), I  must be  excused for giving
line upon line, precept upon precept, and illustration upon illustration, till
it will not only be  understood, but so plainly presented, and in  so  many dif-
ferent views of it, that  it  can not be misunderstood.  Some  may think it
unnecessary to draw inferences from every fact or case.   But let them remem-
ber that, Allopathy has long had the facts before  her.  Why did she not draw
the inferences without any aid  from Reformers?  To all objectors  to  my
" repetitions," I would say, I do not ask them to study these any longer than
till they are thoroughly acquainted with the character  and tendency  of the
principles they involve;  while I assure  them that, when they  are  complete
masters of these principles, they will be able to correct all the errors of infant
Allopathy, and raise it to the dignity of  a full grown science.
  158. I will therefore now give the true character, nature and tendency of
irritation, fever and inflammation, in language, and by illustrations, so sim-
ple that the  common reader can not fail to understand them, avoiding as much
as convenient technical or learned words and phrases, for the very reason that
those who have used  them the most, have, by  this very means, " darkened
speech with  words without knowledge."
  159. Anatomy and Physiology.   The human frame is an organization con-
structad  by  the action  of a specific motive power, called the vital force,
through the  media of nerves and blood vessels, and with materials suited to the
wants of that force (Lectures on Medical Science).  This  body commences in
miniature, and  is developed and enlarged  by the circulation of  the  materials
to all parts of it, through the media of a series of  vessels called a heart and
arteries, and their dependents, called lacteals, lymphatics, glands, and  secer-
nents; and  diminished and purified by the removal  of the effete, worn out, or
morbific  matter, through  another  series of  dependent vessels, called  veins,
excernents, ducts,  emunctories, (capillaries of the surface,) follicles, &c.  For
a complete description  of the whole, see works on anatomy.
   160.  That this motive power, called the vital force, is peculiar, specific, the
generative cause of the  organism,  is  presumptively proved by the fact that
no other powers without it, are known to have ever produced an organization
from inorganic  matter, or  from even a seed  from which this power has been
expelled by heating or freezing.
   It  is demonstrated by the fact that, in constructing and maintaining the
organization, it  overcomes  and controls all the inorganic forces,  producing di-
gestion, vitalization and organization, when  they, uncontroled, would produce
fermentation, putrefaction  and decomposition, as is the case with vegetable
and animal  food.
   161.  The heart is a great double forcing pump,  constituting the centre of
this grand system of vessels of nutrition and depletion.  Its  form is that of
an inverted cone, suspended by its base  from the walls  of a cavity called the
pericardium, between the two great lobes of  the  lungs.
   It consists of strong, muscular walls, lining four large cavities, two auricles,
and two ventricles; the former a sort of porticos or ante-rooms to the latter
 and  separated from them  by valves, which permit  the  blood to flow through 
CRITICISED  AND  CORRECTED.                    51
them into the heart, but so close against  the sides of the ventricles as to pre-
vent it from flowing back again in the same direction.
  To understand  this well, go  to the  butcher and  get the heart, lungs and
trachea,  and a  portion  of the aorta,  of a  sheep,  hog, or  small  calf, and
examine well the internal structure of the blood vessels and cavities, and read
the description of them from books on anatomy.   Its use is to start the blood
to every part of the body.
  162.  The grand  trunk artery of the  human body,  called  the aorta, com-
mences at the fundus or upper portion of the left cavity of the heart.   In struc-
ture it resembles the bark of a tree, from which we will suppose the wood to
have  been withdrawn without  splitting or injuring  either  the trunk-bark, or
any of its branches.  Or we may suppose the wood  to  have been dissolved by
some chemical agent, and removed without affecting the bark.
  From the base of this trunk onward to its extremities, branches are divided
and subdivided, and extended to every part of the body, generally receiving the
name of the region or of the  organs to which they are directed, or on which
they are distributed; as, the cardiac (heart); cervical (neck); the brachial
  Srm);   the costal (ribs);  the mammary (breast); the celiac  (abdominal);
  e gastric (stomach) ;  the hepatic (liver);  the renal (kidney); the phrenic,
(diaphragmatic); the  splenic,  the mesenteric, the  hypogastric (under  the
stomach); the  iliac,  (pelvic);  the crural (leg), &c, &c,  through the whole
system.   The use of these arteries is to conduct the  blood to every part of the
body.
  163.  The pulmonary artery.  Like this  aortal  system in  structure and
arrangement, there is another  tree  of vessels, having  its  base at  the right
cavity or ventricle of the heart, and its twigs  in  the lungs, and is  thence
called the  pulmonary artery.   Its use is  to carry  the elements of nutrition in
the venous blood to the  lungs, for the last process of vitalization preparatory
to its distribution to every part of the body.
  The roots of those vascular arterial structures, prior to their connexion with
the heart, may be said to consist of two venae cava;, whose  use is to  carry
the venous blood into the right auricle of the heart,  and two pulmonary veins,
which carry the arterial  blood from the lungs to the left auricle  of the heart.
  164.  Internal  and external, upper and lower distributions.   Some  of the
arteries are distributed to internal organs, as the  heart, the brain, the  lungs,
the liver, the spleen, the kidneys, the pleura, the pericardium, the peritoneum,
the diaphragm, the stomach, the whole alvine canal,  &c.  And thus others are
extended  to the external surface, and  the subjacent  tissue.   So also, some
vessels are distributed to the head and arms;  others, their opposites or antago-
nists, to  the feet and legs.
  Nor must it  ever be  forgotten that the heart throws all  the blood into the
great aorta at the same time, for distribution to the  inner and the outer, and
the upper and  the lower organs; and that there are  no valves between this
great vessel and the  utmost  extremities of  its  ramifications  or branches;
consequently, the blood of each pulsation will be divided between the internal
and the external  vessels, and  the upper and  the lower, in exact proportion
to the resistance which  it meets from  the different degrees  of contractility
of the walls of these vessels, in different  locations.
  165.   Warmth and moisture. We all well know that the warmth and moist-
ure within the  body keep the arteries and their capillaries  of the internal ar-
rangement soft and relaxed, so that they will generally admit about  the same 
52
ALLOPATHY EXPOSED,
quantity of blood  while  the pressure on  them  is the  same.  But with  the
external vessels it is far different.   They are subject  to the  action  of very
different degrees  of  heat and moisture, and,  of course, are sometimes  so
warm, moist and  expanded,  (as  in a  hot atmosphere,  or  when  exercising
rapidly in hot weather),  that they will admit and even  invite from the aorta
a much larger quantity of blood than usual.
   166. Cold and dryness.  But  the surface may be so cold, dry and con-
tracted, that it will not  admit the quantity  absolutely necessary  to  keep it
warm.  It is evident that, in this case, the blood will flow to excess inwardly,
where it meets less resistance, while, in the former case, it will be invited from
the internal organs so as to leave them more free than usual from pressure.
   167. Equilibrium  of pressure, atmospheric changes.   When the surface is
only properly warm  and  active, the external vessels are properly distended,
and  there  is no undue  pressure  any where,  the circulation  is  equalized.
If this equilibrium is perfect, throughout  all the tissues, there may be high
excitement, (fever, inflammation,) but there can be no  injury or disease any
where, for, as I have just now shown, unless  the arterial  circulation in a
region is proportionately far too great, the absorbents are always able to take
it up and remove it as fast as it comes.  There may be  full and rapid  circula-
tion, but there can be no obstruction, and of course no disease.   But, since
the contractile  pressure  of'the vessels of the external surface varies with  the
atmosphere, being  sometimes below and  at others above the healthy standard,
it  is  evident that vicissitudes of atmospheric  temperature must  be  fruitful
sources of derangement of  the circulation,  and, of course, disease.
  168. The heart—valves, arteries, capillaries.  The heart is  constructed of
dastic, muscular fibres, arranged in such a manner that the contraction of one
series of them diminishes the cavity, and forces the blood out; and  that of the
other series enlarges the  cavity, and  invites it in.  Like the  gates of a canal,
the valves at the venous connexion  open inward,  and those at the arterial con-
nexion open outward, so  that the blood flows into it from veins, and out of it
through arteries.   But, unlike the locks of a canal, instead of the blood forcing
the valves open to make its  way through a cavity of constantly  the same di-
mensions, the cavity itself  is alternately diminished and enlarged, for the pur-
pose of moving the fluid onward.  In the  canal, the  moving power (gravita-
tion) is in the fluid  that  passes; in the heart, the moving power (the vital
force, 160), resides and acts in its walls.
  The arteries, through  their whole  extent,  are constructed with  a coat of
elastic fibres, circularly arranged outside of their inner, mucous coat, so as, by
their successive contractions, like  those  of the throat in swallowing,  to con-
tinue forcing the  blood  thrown into  them  by each contraction of  the heart,
along in its course, to and through  their minutely ramified extremities and
pores, called  capillaries.   They have each (the aorta and the pulmonary) a
tri-semi-lunar valve  at their  base (see anatomy), to prevent the return of
blood into  the  heart, when it expands.  They have no  more valves through-
out the entire system.                                                  6
  169. Absorbents—veins, lymphatics, ducts, lacteals.  Similar in structure to
the arteries, are other series of vessels called absorbents.   They consist of the
minute radicles of veins, lymphatics, ducts, and  lacteals; but  their mode of
action is directly the reverse  of that  of the  arteries.  Instead  of conducting
fluids from their bases to  their tips,  they  absorb them, as springs do water
into  their  minute  twigs called radicles  or capillaries, (which  commence 
CRITICISED  AND  OORill.CTED.
53
wherever arteries end), and carry them, as  springs do water, into  larger and
larger vessels, till the veins reach the heart or the liver;  and the ducts the
several places of their destination.
  Because all these take up their fluids by capillary attraction, they are called
absorbents.   But the different systems are for different purposes.
   The veins are to take up the dark and impaired, and  the lymphatics the
light and  still  good portions of the blood that have not been used in the
arterial distributions, and to carry them back to the heart, to be sent to the
lungs, revived, and  circulated again, " that nothing  be lost."  Some of the
veins, as I have  said, are continuous from the arteries, others open from the
parenchymatous substance,  and the  surfaces,* external and internal, of the
body.
   The veins enter by the venae cavae, into the right auricle of the  heart, and
the lymphatics enter into the subclavian veins (see anatomy).
   The lacteals commence in the  mucous membrane of the intestines, pass be-
tween the mesenteric fold of  the peritoneum, and cast their contents, with the
lymph from the lower body, into the receptaculum chyli, the large  cavity of
the thoracic duct, a vessel which commences in the abdomen, passes through
the chest and enters the left subclavian vein  near its junction with the jugular.
   The  ducts commence in  glands,  and carry their  peculiar fluids to  their
places of  use  (as  the hepatic,  the pancreatic);  or  of  elimination  (as the
nasal, the renal), or of both, as the lacrymal.  Their coats  are constructed like
those of the arteries, and they act in the  same  manner,  but in the reverse
direction, that  is, from twig  to  trunk.   The veins, like  the arteries (162),
are antagonistic in their distribution and action.
   170.  Balance of secrenents and absorbents.   From the above  description
of the structure of the absorbents,  it is  seen that they take in their fluids
chiefly  by the  simple  power of  capillary attraction,  only a portion of the
arteries being continuous into the veins, and none into any of  the  other ab-
sorbents.   It follows,  of course, that  the  egress  of  the  blood, out  of the
arteries,  which  is  aided  by the strong muscular power  of  the  heart,  will
be  more  easily  effected  than  the  absortion of  fluids  into  the  veins, &c,
which have  not the advantage of any heart power  to aid  them,  and that
some means should be devised  to keep up  a balance  beticeen secernents  and
absorbents.
  Since fluids can pass into a part more easily than they can pass out  of it;
and  since, under every extra excitement, more blood is  sent for a time  to that
part,  it  follows that the radicles of the absorbents should  be  much more nu-
merous  than the capillaries of the arteries and  secernents, in  order to insure,
at all times, a free circulation of the  fluids, and  a proper depuration of the
system.   This we find to be the case.
  171.  Excess  of absorbents  over  secernents.   The absorbents  are so much
larger and  more numerous than the  arterial capillaries, that no suddeh and
not long-continued inflammatory distension, can prevent the  absorbents from
removing the excessively  accumulated fluid soon after the  exciting causes
cease to act.   Hence, though all  extraordinary excitements accumulate, for a
time, an excess of blood in  the capillaries, it is soon dissipated by the superior
capability of absorption over arterial determination and secretion.
  172.  Destruction of this  equilibrium.  It is the destruction of this general
equilibrium  of  the  internal  and  external, upper and   lower circulations,
secretions  and  excretions,  that  causes all  the  disease connected with, or 
54
ALLOPATHY EXPOSED,
exciting irritations, fevers, inflammations, pains, headaches, coughs, sneezings,
vomitings, purgings,  &c, &c, and all the derangements of  secretions, that
poor human "flesh is heir to."
   173.  Antagonisms of  Veins.   As  with the arteries  (164), so  with the
veins, there is an inner and  outer and  an upper and lower antagonism in their
arrangement, of which  the  derangements also are antagonistic, and liable to
produce all the various forms of irritation, fever and  inflammation as sug-
gested in 172.
   174.  Balance of Circulation, health.   When the  body is under ordinary
excitement, and all the blood that is thrown by the arteries into  the system,
except what is used  for  nutrition or elimination  from surfaces,  secreted or
excreted from  glands, &c,  together with the effete or worn out material of
parts, is readily taken up by the absorbents, and  moved away,—this  is the
equilibrium of the  circulation, and  the  condition of  the  organs  which is
necessary  to maintain all these operations steadily, and in a proper manner, is
health.  Under immoderate excitement the blood flows  more freely  to and
through every  part that is  free from  obstruction or compression;  the heart
expands boldly and quickly; the pulse becomes full, soft and  gracefully flow-
ing; the whole tissue swells  with the accumulated  fluid, and all the  power of
all the absorbents is brought into action.  If the  current from the heart and
arteries  be not so  full nor  so long continued, as to expand  the capillaries to
such a degree  that they will compress the mouths of the absorbents so much
that they can not take up the  superabundant fluids presented,  all  is  still well,
and that state  of  the system  is still  called health; but  often uhigh health,"
or that degree of it at which we are said to be in danger of disease.
  175.  Obstructions to Absorption—consequences.   But,  when the pressure is
continued and increased till  the absorbents become too much collapsed to take
up and remove the fluids supplied, there is  an obstruction to  the circulation,
the power of secretion is greater than that of absorption; and, if  this  condi-
tion continues long, the capillaries of the arteries are fatigued and prostrated,
and deprived of their ability to recover their natural  and healthy dimensions
and actions; the blood being the natural stimulus of the arterial capillaries,
will excite still further their efforts to act, and  this excitement will generate
more heat.  This heat will  still further excite the nerves  and give pain, and
by  combining with the blood will sometimes expand and redden  the  part,
producing the  four circumstances, heat, redness, pain and swelling, some of
which attend  many of, but  not  all the cases of what  are called inflammation.
This inability of the arterial capillaries to contract and of the absorbents to
expand, is called  disease; though  both may be capable  of recovering  their
healthy  state, as soon as the surface is warmed, relaxed and expanded, so as
to recover its  proper share of blood, and relieve pressure to the distended
capillaries.
  176.  All irritations, fevers and inflammations, in whatever parts  of the
body, or by whatever means excited, consist essentially in vital manifestations,
excited  by excesses of nervous action, or derangements of the equilibrium of
the circulation.   Irritation is excess or derangement of  the  nervous actions;
for the'.nerves too have their corresponding  internal  and  external, upper and
lower distributions and antagonisms, and the same  equilibrium of vital action
when unobstructed: and  all  their "irritations" and "pains" "deliriums"
and  insanities, consist  in the vital results of simple  derangements  of the
equilibrium of  their action.
L 
                                                      I
CRITICISED  AM) rOURECTKD.                     55
  177.  Causes of Disease.—Disease itself.  Whatever can check the free flow
of blood through an artery or its capillaries,  or into the mouths of the ab-
sorbents;  as mechanical  pressure,  sitting or lying  long  in  one  position,
keeping  the  limbs bent, or wearing tight clothing; or whatever can,  from
within, either block up the  capillaries, as morbid secretions, or cause them to
contract, as do astringent and gaseous  poisons, may obstruct the circulation
or nervous  action, and  cause disease, the form of which will depend not on
the vital force, but the character of the obstructing cause.  The inability of
the tissues to recover their normal condition and action, is the sum and essence
of disease, no matter in what  organ  or in what condition of it,  that  inability
consists, whether in contraction  or relaxation, obstruction, paralysis or lesion.
   178.  The Nervous System.   In the human body, we discover also several
organic arrangements styled collectively the nervous  system.   They consist of
masses  of albuminous  and fibrous substances, of different  sizes, appearances
and textures;  located, some within the skull, others within the spinal column,
others outside of the spine  and between it and the pleura or the peritoneum,
others on  the  arteries, &c, taking their names much as do the arteries, and
connecting with each other  by cords  of  the same material, of different sizes;
and with other cords ramified into all parts of the body.   They are divided by
their properties  or offices,  into five  classes—the sensitive, the  motive, the
respiratory, the splanchnic  and the intellectual and affective.
   179.   The Sensitive  Nerves.   The sensitive nerves have for their origin, five
localities or places from which  they seem to commence the  performance of
their functions;  viz. the nose, the eyes, the mouth, the  ears and the general
dermoid (outer) surface.  From  these localities  are  extended solid  cords of
mucous or albuminous  matter,  into the cavity  of the skull, to the  head  of the
medulla oblongata, called  the centre of perception.   Their action  gives us
acquaintance with external objects.
   180.  The Motive (motor)  Nerves.   From  the  last  locality  are  returned
again other cords of like appearance, and to some extent enclosed in the same
membranes (neurilemma), to all parts of the muscular structures that perform
what are called voluntary motions.   These constitute the two anterior, and the
sensitive the  two posterior, pillars of the spinal  cord, and both together are
called the nerves of external relation, because they make us  acquainted with
external things, and enable us to move about among them,  and to act in rela-
tion to them.
   181.  The Respiratory Nerves.  Another series of nerves is  found, consti-
tuting primarily the middle and lateral pillars of the spinal column,  included
within  the neck  and  chest (cervix  and thorax), and extended to  all  those
muscles whose  action directly produces the expansion and  contraction of the
chest, and these are called respiratory nerves.
   182.  The  Sympathetic  Nerves.  Again,  there are  visible  in the  great
cavities  of the body—the chest  and  the abdomen—outside  of the pleura and
the peritoneum, and more  immediately connected with  the circulating  appa-
ratuses,  knots, plexuses, or ganglions of mucous matter, from which nervous
cords are  extended (at least in their influence) to the heart, arteries, glands,
veins, ducts, and surfaces,  wherever the circulation of fluids of  any kind  is
conducted.  This  system of nerves  is called  the vegetative  and the nutritive,
because  it presides over the growth and  nutrition of the body;  the  splanch-
nic, because it is  found prominent among the splanchnica or viscera of the
body, and the sympathetic, because it  is designed  to carry impressions  from 
56
ALLOPATHY  EXPOSED,
one  series of organs to another; and the fact that it does carry impressions
both from distant organs to the mind, and  from the mind to distant organs;
from the dermoid (skin) surface  to  the  mucous, and from the mucous (inner)
to the dermoid or outer, as manifested in the mental operations of love, and
of hatred  or disgust, in the relation  of chills and fever, of perspiration and
diarrhoea, is  proof that  this system, like that of external relation, is double,
or active and reactive.
   183. The Intellectual Nerves.   Lastly, there are large portions of nervous
matter above, before, behind,  beside, and  below the top of  the  spinal cord
called  the medulla oblongata, all lying  in convolutions within the compass of
the  skull.  These I call  intellectual nerves.  Their  use  is  to perform  the
operations of perception, reflection and judgment;  also of affection and all the
animal emotions.   For particular descriptions of all the systems of nervous
arrangements, see works on anatomy, physiology and phrenology;  also  my
Lectures on Medical Science.
   184. Sympathetic  Antagonisms.   From  this view of the nervous system,
we see that it has an  external distribution which is affected by external causes;
and  an internal, influenced by internal causes, including the vital  force.   We
also  perceive that its superior and  inferior distributions are opposed to each
other and, through the sympathetic, sympathize with each other.   These  are
its antagonisms.
   185. Healthy  State of Nerves.   When  all these  systems are in  perfect
order,  and their action is unobstructed, they are said to be  healthy or  in
health.   In this case, there is,  or may be, a perfect equilibrium of action, and
therefore  can be no such thing as nervous disease.   But,
   186. The  derangements of their  ability  to respond with equal facility  to
the action of the vital force,  are  the essence of all forms of " nervous dis-
ease,"  and the exciting causes of those derangements and the  states thus pro-
duced, are what the physiologist should ever carefully avoid, and the physician
as carefully remove.  But men who count irritation, fever and inflammation
disease, can never enter even the portico of the beautiful temple of Hygeia and
of scientific and successful  medication.
   187. The  object of these nervous centres or systems, is to constitute the
primary seats of  the  vital  force; and that of their connexions  and ramifica-
tions is to serve as conductors of that force to every part of the body, and  as
instruments through which it moves every part to normal or healthy action.
   188. The  vital force may be said to be fixed in every tissue, to an extent
and degree sufficient, under ordinary circumstances,  to preserve  that  tissue
from decomposition, and to enable it to perform the functions necessary to the
supply of its own wants.  It manifests  itself in the healthy condition of all
the tissues, in the ordinary circulation of the blood,  in the life sustaining
secretions throughout the system, and the respiration while asleep.
   189. Vital force,  cumulative by stimuli,  and available.   This  force  is
capable of being accumulated  by its  own action, and made available by the
will, as in thought, speaking, running, the exercise of  love or hatred;__or by
external  excitants, as electricity, caloric; or by  the  application  of material
substances—all which are  called stimuli.   Thus, if bruised mustard seed  or
a nettle, or a solution of pepper,  or any  acrid drug be  applied to a portion of
the external  surface, or taken  internally, the sensitive nerves are aroused  to
a higher action than before, causing pain which manifests  an  increase of the 
CRITICISED  AND CORRECTED.
57
vital force.   This increase  may be  propagated or extended to other tissues—
hence I call it available, or capable of being used for other purposes than the
mere sustenance of the tissue.
  190. How manifested—effects—disease.   This degree of vital force is mani-
fested in the exercise  of all the senses,  in every locomotion, in  thinking,
speaking, &c, for all which purposes it can be accumulated at will, and trans-
ferred ^from one point to another; as from limb to limb in walking; hand to
hand  in  gesticulation;  from  perception to reason and reason to  emotion in
argument: but, while it may be regulated at will, there is no objection to its
use.   It may also be accumulated against the will, as  in a burn, or a  blister,
but by whatever means excited, it  can not  long be  continued in some parts
without weakening in others, the power  to  preserve an equilibrium of action
in all.  Thus, a  severe  and long continued  concentration of the vital force
on the brain, so drains the power from  the muscular structures, that the limbs
are unable to perform their proper  offices, while it also over-works and pros-
trates the brain itself, and this inability of both parts of the system to perform
their proper functions, is disease.
  191.  The over excited action of  the organs of perception and intellect, by
whatever  means  aroused, is at  first called nervous or brain fever; if long
continued and intense,  it is called inflammation of the  brain or phrenitis.   It
is still, however, the same  action, and from  the  same cause (the vital  force)
as when  induced by study; and  is no  more disease in one  case than in
another.
   192.  The first great error of medical men consists in their considering  this
nervous and arterial excitement disease, and in making war against it.
   193.  The second  great error consists in supposing  that  the different mani-
festations of this vital  derangement, are  caused by differences in its nature,
instead  of mere  differences in  the  circumstances under which  it is excited.
Thus  they call grief, anger,  love-sickness &c, different diseases.
  194.  A third error  consists  in supposing that the organic locality of the
affection makes a difference in its essential  nature:  thus they have different
kinds of insanity;  instead  of including all cases of it  in the general category
of derangement of the equilibrium of nervous action.
  195.  A fourth error consists in their considering the derangement different
because it is found on tissues of different nervous endowment; thus, they count
phrenitis and sciatica and tetanus,  very different diseases, though they are all
simple derangements of nervous capability of action;  and are cured by equal-
izing their physiological capabilities.
  196.  A fifth error consists in their considering and treating derangements
of the circulation as something different  from those  of the nervous action;
when, in  fact, they  are  the same thing, essentially,  viz. derangement of the
equilibrium of the vital force, no matter on what organ or tissue  (194,  195)
it is observed.
  197.  A sixth great error consists in their considering fever and inflamma-
tion different and distinct  diseases; when in fact they  are different only in
stage  and extent, and no disease at all.
  198.  A seventh error, is, like the one of the nerves,  the  counting and treat-
ing of  inflammation of the  different  organs or tissues as distinct diseases,
instead  of the same.   Thus, inflammation of the ear, and gout, are by them 
58
ALLOPATHY  EXPOSED,
called different diseases, and treated differently, whereas  they are the same,
and removed by equalizing the circulation.
  199.  An eighth error, grows necessarily  out of the first, viz.  That  all
these  vital  manifestations being disease, must be treated with lancets  and
poisons, and other means and processes  that ruin  the constitution.   This is
the great error of errors of Allopathic  Therapeutics.
  200.  Health—disease.   Thus it  is perceived  that  the nerves  possess^ a
property, quality or capability, or disposition to act more promptly and vio-
lently than usual,  on the application of their proper stimuli.   To preserve this
capacity for equilibrium, is to preserve  health—to destroy it  is to produce
disease.
  201.  Each of the nervous arrangements is excited to action by its appro-
priate character of stimuli.   Thus, the general sense and  the taste, by gross
matter in massive form of irritating and sapid substances, or by materio-motive
powers,  as caloric  and  electricity; the smelling by matter in  its extremely
minute, elementary or proximate forms;  the  hearing by waves  of  the atmos-
phere ;  the  seeing  by light, and the intellectual,  the  motor, the  respiratory
and  the ^splanchnic, by the vital force alone (the latter through the medium
of the blood.)
  202.  All the nervous manifestations of vital action, save the  respiratory
and the nutritive, may be quiescent for considerable intervals of time, without
any injury to the organs.   So may some  of the functions of the  splanchnic, as
generation, gestation and  lactation, in which the available vital power only is
manifested.
  203.  Irritability and excitability  are  terms  used to represent the ability,
disposition or property of a tissue to respond to  the influence of its appropriate
stimulus.   It is most commonly applied to nerves,  muscles and blood-vessels,
though  properly speaking it  belongs to every tissue  save  the  mere earthy
matter of bone, and the nails and hair.
  Irritation, excitation and excitement, are used to signify both the  applica-
tion  of  a stimulus to a tissue, and the action of that tissue when so irritated.
  204.  The  means of irritation &c, may be any thing and everything that
can either invite action,  as good food or medicines, a good motive,  a good
feeling; or may provoke it, as poisonous  articles, ill  treatment &c, but by
whatever means aroused, whether the action be  high or low, regular or irregu-
lar, equally or unequally diffused over or through the body, it is always pro-
duced, by the same one cause,  the  vital  force; and is, therefore, always sus-
taining, conservative and  curative—never tending, except by  abuse, to  the
destruction of the body or any part of it.
  205.  Healthy State.   Though any nervous or other tissue may be excited
for a short time, to a very high degree of action, as the brain in thinking and
speaking,  the arms in climbing, or the feet in walking, yet, if this action  is
not continued till the tissue becomes  prostrated by it, or till other  tissues lose
their power to  receive and dispose of the excess thus  raised, the equilibrium
will  soon  be restored, on  removal of the cause of the local excitement that
invited  or  provoked the derangement; yet, if  every part of this nervous (or
other) structure is free to act to its full  measure, there  is  no permanently
excessive  action of any part of it, and, of course all is  considered healthy
action.   And this capable condition is the healthy  state. 
CRITICISED  AND CORRECTED.
59
  206.  Diseased State.   But, let some part of it be excited too severely and
too long, and  not only a derangement of  the  general action,  but  a loss of
power to act takes place.  For  example:  If we pursue  our studies so long
and so intensely that, when we cease, the cerebral excitement, pain in the head
and cold feet  and surface continue;  the  nerves of the brain have  lost their
ability to shake off the excitement, and those  of the extremities and the sur-
face have lost  theirs to  call it  off.   The equilibrium of ability is destroyed,
and the inability to restore it is disease.
  207.  The disease is not often  found altogether in the locality of the excite-
ment.  In  irritation of the  brain, for example, there is  a diminution of  the
excitability of  the nerves of the surface and lower extremities, because of  the
withdrawal of  the nervous force  from them to the brain.   Hence the pressure
of the blood from them, increases the inability of the organs of the brain to
rid themselves of its mechanical  influence, and its stimulating effects,  gene-
rating heat and still exciting them to more fruitless effort.  The disease  then,
is both in the brain and on the surface; and both need the aid of art for their
relief, because  both have lost their balance, the one by  excessive action, the
other by diminution of the ordinary quantity.
   208.  Counter-Irritation.  As the vital force stimulating the brain, sets and
keeps it in motion, so the same force can be sent, by ceasing to  study and
taking exercise, to the surface, muscles, viscera and  lower extremities, leaving
the  brain comparatively at rest.  The  equilibrium being  restored in both
localities, health is  preserved  and established.  The  same thing can be done
by the vapor bath, friction with stimulants, and taking  diffusives internally,
which last  much aid exercise.   This is called counter-irritation.
   It is an established law of the animal economy,  that, when any part of it is
over-excited, by whatever means, the  action from other  parts accumulates at
the  point of excitement, to  defend it against injury, as  a poison, or to aid it
in doing good, as in digesting  food; and  that, if the exciting cause  (even
the good food), be  not soon removed, this accumulated action over-works and
debilitates  the part on which  it is concentrated.   It can  be properly removed
only  by removing the excitant and inviting the action to other tissues.   This
restores to each equilibrium of action, which is healthy.   The ancients, ob-
serving the uniformity of the  first condition, laid it down as a maxim,

                           "Vbi irritatio ibi affluxus."

Wherever there is irritation there is a vital and fluid accumulation;  and they
might have added, " when  this afflux becomes troublesome, it can be called
away by irritating a counter part: and thus,  disease produced by local  irrita-
tion, may be cured by counter-irritation.
   209. Irritation in itself Physiological.   From  what has been  said  and
proved on  this subject, it is  very evident that irritation is not disease, but
 purely physiological action,  aroused  and  concentrated for the purpose of per-
forming some  extra duty; as intense thinking, feeling or speaking: or pro-
tecting the system from injury; as in the closing of  the  eye in a mid-day sun
to'enable it to bar the  light, the shaking of  the skin of a horse to keep off
fliC8 •—0r for removing  a cause of disease, an offending agent, as in the excite-
ment of the stomach or bowels to get rid  of poisonous drugs.
   210.  How treat Irritation.   Of course the object of the practitioner should
be to let it alone where both  the excitant and the  object are good, to equalize 
60
ALLOPATHY EXPOSED,
it when it is excessive or wrongly directed, and to remove the excitant if bad.
But in no case to paralyze  or destroy the power of  the  nervous  system to
produce this deranged and  accumulated excitement.
  211.  The false impressions of medical men, that this deranged and  over-
excited nervous action is disease, or as with many,  that the  organs or tissues
that produce it are diseased, and therefore should be deprived  of their power
to produce it, has led to the use in medication of  a class of most  destructive
agents called narcotics, which they confess have done a vast amount of injury
in the civilized world (71 to 79).  As these narcotics are known  to  be such
only by their power to depress nervous excitement; and, as nervous excitement
is  called  by  Allopathists disease,  they must,  of  course,  be counted  good
medicines.   But, since, in  actual experience they often kill, it is found neces-
sary to limit their supposed good, but really unchangeably mischievous quali-
ties, to  those  cases  in  which the vital force resists their  action, and expels
them from its domains; when their character becomes conditional, that of
" good medicines in skillful  hands," or when it cannot expel  them  they are
"treacherous  palliatives,"  "irretrievably" ruinous, "destructive narcotics,"
"dangerous sedatives," "deceptive as  the  serpent of  Eden and  equally
fatal" (76).
  212.  True Anodgnes and Nervines.   Since irritation is purely physiological
(178), the only rational relief for the  condition of the tissues  manifested by
a permanently deranged nervous excitement (181), consists in restoring equili-
brium to  the   nervous  action ; ceasing  to excite  the tissue where it  is too
active, and rousing it where it  is deficient.   And  this can be properly done
only by agents whose innate qualities supply the current demands of  the vital
force.  Thus if a part  be irritated, it requires a relaxing and soothing agent;
as water and relaxing aromatics.   Warm spear mint tea relaxes the tissues
and relieves tension and irritation, the nervous effort to remove which  is called
pain.  Lobelia is powerful to relax and  of course one of the best anodynes,
while it never narcotizes.  So the vapor  bath removes obstructions and hence
irritation and pain.
  213.  In common headache from too much study,  the vital  force excites the
nervous structure to  exalted  action, which all  agree is as healthy to the
brain as walking  is to the  limbs.   But, if it is continued too long  and too
severely, it overworks the  brain which then complains by aching,  as  the feet
do from too fast and  too long continued walking.  Is this irritation  disease ?
and  must we give narcotics to deprive the nerves of  the power to tell  us of it,
by aching ? or shall we call off the  motive power from the brain, by exciting
other parts of the  nervous  system to  action, so as to  let  the  brain rest
awhile ?   If the latter, can deadly narcotics that stop all nervous action do it?
or shall we use physiological  relaxants,  as rest, and  nervines to the aching
brain, and stimulate the muscular system to call off the vital force from the
efforts of the brain in study ?
  214.  The true test of remedies is their constant tendency in action to restore
directly the healthy  state.   Of course, not those that depress  nervous  activity,
but  those that restore  equilibrium to it, are the true anodynes.   Thus we  see
the truth of our doctrine (211), that it is  their erroneous opinion in relation to
the  nature and tendency of irritation, &c, that has both dictated the use of
poisonous  agents, and deprived medical  men of the power to determine with
any degree of  nearness  to a  certainty, what is  and what is not  narcotic or
poisonous;  and even induced them to pronounce  the best articles of food 
                       CRITICISED  AND  CORRECTED.                    61

poisonous when they excite the organs to a full performance of their physio-
logical functions,  as  the  nerves to  irritation,  and the mucous membrane to
vomiting and purging, or, in aromatic form, to coughing and sneezing.
  215.  The oppositions to nervous action are the destruction of the tissue by
chemical or mechanical means,  the former corroding or narcotizing, the latter
simply compressing;  as when a cord  is tied tightly around a nerve, or when
any part of the system is bent for some time  much out of its  natural shape;
as when the arms  or legs  have been long drawn up to  acute angles, or where
vessels are clogged by morhific matter.  It is  also sensibly exhibited  in  the
shape of corns on the feet, in which cases, the flesh over the joint or projecting
part of a bone  has been compressed so long that the fluids have been exuded,
the solids  have become dry and hard, and have adhered together.  Cellular
tissues, muscles, blood-vessels, lymphatics, nerves and skin, are all united in
one mass, and this ultimately in some cases to  the bone.  The circulation  and
nervous action  through it are impeded, the blood  accumulates before it,  and
stimulates  the  nerves to an extra  effort to  remove the obstacles and set  the
tissues free.  This effort being fruitless, the action returns upon the brain  and
produces a sense  of  uneasiness, which, if slight,  we  call irritation;  but if
severe, we  call it  pain, dull, heavy, acute, mild,  severe, lacerating, darting,
stellate, &c, according to its degree,  or mode of manifestation.  In a boil or
an ulcer, the impediment  is the pressure of the accumulated blood.
  216.  Pain, then, in all cases, is simply the notice or impression which the
nervous tissue conveys to  the brain that some part  of its structure  or arrange-
ments is enthralled and other parts  are over-excited.   Of course, if it is  not
itself disease, nor are the nerves  that manifest it, performing any other than
their physiological office of carrying impressions to the brain, it follows that
  217.  To cure pain, no agent or practice should be used that has a tendency
to deprive the nerves of the power to produce it;  but that we should remove
the cause of oppression and irritation  from the part that  is enthralled.   It is
just as philosophical  to give opium to stop the pain of a corn, and leave  the
hard, tight shoe still  obstructing vital action;  as it is to give it to relieve pain
in the head, the  heart or the bowels, without removing  the  exciting cause,
and cleansing the  system  of obstructions.
  218.  Having established in their minds  the erroneous notion that pain is
disease, or at least that the extraordinary physiological action that produces it
is " morbid," Allopathists have set  themselves to devising  and discovering
ways and means to depress and  destroy that action.
  219.  Action of Narcotics.   Experience and observation have taught them
that the whole tribe  of agents  they have called narcotics, of  which opium is
rhe prince, will, if they  give  enough, infallibly  do this work,  and  hence,
notwithstanding that same experience has fully  proved to them  that these
narcotics, though  given with  all their precaution  and skill, and  only  to  the
extent of producing  the  desired  effect, are often  " treacherous palliatives,"
and "dangerous sedatives," "deceptive" and "destructive as the serpent of
Eden," they still  pronounce them "good medicines in skillful hands"—the
magnum dei donum,—'1 the great gift  of God,  for  the  relief of suffering
humanity."—Harrison.   And persist in giving them to "produce pleasant
sensations," "allay irritation,"  "procure refreshing sleep," which  they do by
" deadening sensibility," "paralyzing nervous energy," &c, &c. (71 to 77).
  220.  Practice,  Allopathic and Physio-Medical,  compared.  In the dark-
ness of  such fundamental errors as this, that irritation is disease, how are  the 
62
ALLOPATHY EXPOSED,
wisest men ever to learn any thing of the true character of remedies as either
good  or bad ?   Under the influence  of uncommon sense, the monitor which
gives notice of the thraldom  of an organ, must be deprived, by deadly agents,
of the power to give that notice; but, under the guidance of our common
sense, the obstruction to the  free action of the nerve should be removed, when
the pain would cease of itself, because there would no longer be any occasion or
exciting cause for it.  Take  off the hard or tight shoe, soak the foot awhile in
hot water, pare off the dead part of the corn, and  wear a buckskin moccasin for
a month.  The waste will be built up, the circulation and nervous action  will
be free, and there will  be no occasion  for the use  of narcotics to " lull" or
" deaden the pain."

  221.  Irritation and  Pain are Blessings.  This physiological  impression
called irritation and pain, is the true "magnum Dei donum," the great  gift
of God to  man, to warn the violators of physiological  laws,  of  the  mischief
they are doing, even in the  slightest degree.  Let any one  take  any bodily
position in  which the nervous action is in the  least obstructed or  impeded, 'and
he will  soon feel "irritated" or uncomfortable, and inclined  to change that
position.  If he continues the violation much longer, the irritation  amounts
to pain.  If  he obeys this warning, changes  his  position, he  is soon  relieved.

  222.  Destruction of Nerves.  If he change  not his position, the obstructions
continue till  vitality is  lost, and chemical lesion takes place, as in the forma-
tion of an ulcer. Here the destruction of  a part of the  nerves, and the  thral-
dom of  the rest in the pressure  of the swelling arteries, and the irritation of
the accumulated blood, all combine to keep up the irritation, soreness, or pain,
till  the lesion  is healed and the circulation  becomes free and the nerves are
released again.
  223.  Effects of Narcotism.  Here  too it is evident that the use of a nar-
cotic to deaden the pain, that is, to deprive the nerve of  the power to produce
it, must, in the same degree deaden the power of the nutritive tissues (external
capillaries) to heal the  wound; and who can  tell how many  "old sores"
"fever sores,"  "felons,"  "calomel sores," "mercurial ulcers,"  &c, "refuse
to heal," spread wider  and  descend  deeper,  to  the destruction  of the  bones
and the  loss of the limbs, and even to  the death of the whole man, because
of the destructive action of the opium or other narcotics which were  given in
small doses " merely to  relieve pain and gain time" ?  It is true  that no scru-
tinizing eye can ever see,  or calculation estimate, the full amount of this mis-
chief; but  all intelligent and honest  medical  men agree that it has been
immense, ever since the first use of narcotics for the relief of pain (see Nor
71 to 79).                                                   V   K

  224.  Narcotizing Reformers.  Yet, notwithstanding all this evidence against
them, both from testimony and  from personal observation, even many physi- '
cians  who profess to be Reformers—to  use  only  a sanative  medication—are
continually administering narcotics to " relieve pain," while the other tissues
equally relieved by the  same remedy (?) of their power to perform  their
respective offices, arc expected to be very busy in curing the disease' or at
least  much refreshed and  prepared for this service 1
 _ Dr. J. R.  Buchanan  once  said that all true Reformers would finallv unite
on the total rejection of all articles of this kind (406); but,  because we rejected
them from  the first and he "progressed backward,  instead of  forwardfW)he
since  said that we were  as hunkerish as the old school." 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
63
  225.  It is not known whether the vital force is circulated through the nerves,
as electricity is through metalic wires, or simply excited in localities, by the
elastic action of the centers of nervous globules.   I was of the latter opinion;
but, finding, in fact, some strong objections which the former opinion re-
moves,  I  am now  inclined to think that the available  vital force,  circulates
through the nerves as  electricity does through the wires of the telegraph.
On the elastic supposition I could account for the excitement to action, in-
stantaneously, of all the power  of a single part; but I could not explain how
that part, as a hand or  a foot, should be  thus  enabled to exercise, for  a
moment, almost the whole strength of the body; or how inflammation of the
brain should deprive the whole  body of its usual muscular power.
  On the supposition  of the circulation of the  nervous fluid from part to
part, these facts, as well as all  others connected with the subject, are easily
explained.  The locomotion  of the vital force through the nerves is there-
fore most probably the true one.   It is  fortunate, however, that the settle-
ment of this  question  is not indispensable to  a full understanding of the
effects of irritation or of determination; nor to a successful treatment  of these
derangements,  any more than it is that we should know just how the  corn
grows to enable us to recognize that it does grow; or to  plant, cultivate and
harvest it.
  226.  In No. 161 to 176 I  spoke of the ramifications throughout the body
of a series of vessels, tubes, &c, denominated the circulating  system, to the
action of which and its  results I now devote more particular attention.
  Since, by  the circulation, the animal frame is formed from the embryo; puri-
fied and  supported in health, and restored from  the conditions of disease, it
follows that a thorough knowledge of its actions and tendencies is indispen-
sable to a scientific and successful sustenance of  life and health, and a safe
and speedy  restoration from disease.
  There is no subject to which the attention of any person in the world can
be directed, that can at all compare with  this in the value of the  benefits
which it is able to confer.  Of what use to any one are all the other blessings
of this earth, when the  body is  racked with pain or the reason dethroned?
  " Very well," says one, " but is it possible for any person to learn how to
prevent these?  "
  227.  As easily learn  it, I answer, as to learn how to prevent hunger, thirst,
cold, and poverty—aye, much easier than the latter, unless this  knowledge
should be first  obtained, for sickness is a very frequent cause of poverty.

  228.  Let  then, him who would obtain the priceless boon, study well what I
have already written, and still more thoroughly what  I  am about to write on
the  subject of the circulation; and, when he understands it, let him practice it
at once, and through all his future life.   Thus, unless his system has  been
already ruined  by disease  or  by mal-practice to cure it, or accident should
cut him off, health and long  life shall be his happy portion, and sorrow and
sighing shall constitute no portion of his heritage.

  229. Fever,  Inflammation,  Congestion. From the description I have given
of the  structure, arrangement and functions of the nerves and the blood-
vessels, it is evident that the vital force  and the blood  may be instantane-
ously accumulated in any tissue, in a quantity much greater than is needed
for  the  performance of the ordinary functions of that tissue.  Since the blood
is not, on the whole, very rapidly increased nor diminished, and it  is quite 
64                        ALLOPATHY EXPOSED,
 questionable whether the vital force is ever increased or diminished, it follows
 of course, that, if they concentrate  themselves temporarily in one locality,
 they must be  just to that degree absent from some other locality, and hence
 the constant alternate destruction and restoration of the equilibrium of blood,
 and action in the tissues.
  We are aware that this accumulation and extra  action  can  be commenced
 in many parts of the body, as the  brain, the tongue, the limbs, &c, by an
 effort of the will.   This I call a direct action.
  Or it may be commenced by forcing the blood from other parts to a tissue,
 as the accumulation of  blood and action in  the pleura, the peritoneum, the
 bronchi, in the alvine canal, <fec, is often produced by the pressure of them
 from the surface, caused by cold.   This I call indirect or passive accumula-
 tion, congestion, <fkc.    This accumulation and  action may be invited  to a
 part by the direct application of other stimuli than the  will or vital power;
 but,  by whatever means accumulated, as in pleurisy, from cold, or whether
 the blood, or  the vital force, as in study, act first, both being the natural
 stimulants of  the body, the result is soon the  accumulation  of heat, and a
 burning sensation.   Hence the word fever, from ferveo, to heat, all the cases
 of which may be said to consist in an accumulation of blood in an extensive
 portion of  the body, with an excited state of the arterial capillary tissues that
 contain that blood.   It may or may not be preceded, attended or succeeded by
 a degree of heat, redness, pain or swelling,  manifest  to the senses, though
 heat is generally and the others are less frequently manifested.   If this accu-
mulation and action are confined to a small locality, it is called inflammation.
  230. This excitement  is always  a vital action,  the same in  character as
 that which circulates the blood freely, and performs every other physiological
act in  a  state of health.  All the differences visible in connection with it,
arise from the different  structures  and conditions  of structure in which the
action  is observed.
  Loose,  spongy organs, as glands, mucous membranes, muscles, receive
much  blood and  become red and swollen,  but not often very painful, not
being much enthralled.   The serous membranes, the  tendinous tissues, and
 the external surface,  are more dense; and receive less blood, but compress
 the nerves more, and are, of course, less red and swollen, but  more painful.
  531. Any excitement above the ordinary degree, from whatever cause, as a
 blush,  will produce an accumulation of blood in a part beyond its immediate
 wants.  Anger will produce redness of the whole face and neck; and severe
 exercise or a vapor bath, and generally a cold shower bath, or  effete matter in
 the capillaries, will excite a general accumulation of blood on the surface, with
 swelling of the tissue.  But, if the cause be not  long active,  the  superior
 capacity of the absorbents, in number and caliber, over the secernents, will
 soon remove the surplus, and all  will be  right again.   It is  only when the
 secernents have lost,  by long distension, their recuperative  or contractile
 power, to recover when the pressure is removed;  and the absorbents  their
expansive force, or  capacity for absorption; or when some obstruction exists
 in the  vessels, as retained effete matter, or when a  strong pressure is directed
 from a closed surface, as in  colds,  &c,  that the  accumulation of blood and
action  becomes permanent, and is called fever,  (or inflammation, according
 to the  extent of its locality or the stage of its progress.)

  232. How subsides.   When the excitement, or the mechanical obstacles
which  occasioned the blood to accumulate in apart,  is removed, the absorbents 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
65
soon  recover  their advantage  over the  secernents; the excess of blood or
other fluids is removed, and the fever or inflammation subsides for want of
an error or an injury to be corrected by  it.   All that is necessary to accom-
plish  this, is to relax the whole system, invite the circulation freely to the sur-
face, cleanse the stomach and bowels by an emetic, and an enema, if necessary,
and promote perspiration by a free use of aromatic fluids.    This invariably
so far relieves the congested vessels, that absorption or resolution soon re-
lieves them wholly, and this depuration is the last process of what is properly
termed fever, by those  who suppose  fever and inflammation to be  distinct
affections; or  the first mode of relief by us who consider them only different
stages of the same process.
  It is called  a crisis, as the patient is immediately relieved of the irritation,
congestion and offending matter, and  the  circulation moves on again as
before.
  233. Condition of the tissues.  In  the early stage  of  fever there is an
increased action of the capillaries and flow of blood both to and through the
part in a given time ; and a fuller, stronger and quicker pulse.  In external
fever, the distension of the capillaries  admits a ju'edominance of  arterial
blood in the surface, a fullness and smoothness of the  skin, and an increase
of heat, which conditions exist in all cases, and are more or less manifest
where the obstructions are  not so great as much  to depress the vital opera-
tions.   In  the second stage, that is, where the  absorbents become so closed
by the  pressure of the arterial circulation,  or  by mechanical obstructions,
that they cannot  remove the fluids as fast as  they accumulate, the circulation
is impeded and after much  fruitless  effort the  pulse often becomes smaller
and weaker, and  even softer, though  sometimes more wiry and corded, than
natural, all depending  upon the different conditions of the tissues and their
ability to respond to the action of the vital force.
  234. Names of fever.  If the concentration is confined to a small organ
and the excitement  is severe,  it is called inflammatory fever.   Thus a local
fever  and a general inflammation, are the same; no one having  marked the
boundaries to which  either state  shall  extend,  or given signs by which the
one can be certainly distinguished from  the  other.  Brain fever and inflam-
mation of the  brain;  lung  fever,  and pneumonia;  puerperal fever  and
puerperal peretonitis, are respectively synonymous, or different names for
the same affections.
  If  the fever or  inflammation come on  suddenly and violently, it is called
acute, if gradually and  imperceptibly, chronic.   If invited  by irritation of
the part, it is  called active ; if  forced by sending the blood from some other
quarter, it is called passive.  The obstructed states of the system also  give
it names, as synochoid, typhoid; so the effects,  as eruptive, putrid, <fec.

  235. The cause of fever and inflammation, like  that of irritation, mental
and  muscular motion, and  every other  physiological act of the system is
always one  and  the  same, the  vital force (171,  180), which produces all
other  actions  in  the system  that are  not chemical,  in other words that may
not be produced in it after death,  by instituting the same chemical relations.

  236. Example—The eye.   In health, the sclerotic or outer white coat of
most persons'  eyes is of a bluish cast in consequence of the predominance of
venous blood in it.  Put into the eye a  little weak infusion of cayenne and
you stimulate  the neives, and these the blood vessels to action.  This action
                                   5 
i>6
ALLOI'A IIY ILXPOSKD,
generates heat; this heat uniting with the moisture of the blood, expands
the arterial capillaries which thus press more than  usually upon the venous
absorbents.   The  result is, the venous blood already in the absorbents, is
forced away ;  the arterial is accumulated till it predominates, when the eyes
are red, "bloodshot," and they smart with the pain  excited by the irritation,
first of the cayenne, secondly of the heat, and thirdly of the arterial blood.
This is inflammation.
   As the irritation subsides, the excited action subsides, the contractility of
the arterial  capillaries recover their tonic or natural and usual dimensions,
the absorbents, relieved of the pressure, expand,  take up the excess of  blood
and remove it, and the coat of the eye  becomes white again.  This is  called
resolution.  Any other  irritant than cayenne  in the eye excites the same
inflammatory  action, but not  every other  excitant allows  it so  readily to
subside and without injury, but  rather with  the benefit  of purifying  the
tissue of morbific  materials, and  restoring  its healthy action.   If lobelia be
added to the cayenne or used without  it, the vessels are expanded as well as
stimulated, and hence their purification by the more easy removal of morbific
matter, is more complete.
   If we wish  to check  this  inflammatory action, we  can apply to the  eye
moisture in the form of water or thin poultices, and it will aid in the process
of relaxation;  and, by absorbing the heat,  will check the irritation.  If cold,
the water absorbs  the heat more  rapidly, and, by thus preventing the irrita-
tion which its excess produces, it aids the contractility of the capillaries in
recovering their smaller dimensions, and thus gives space for the absorbents
which are laboring to expand, to recover their larger size, and to remove the
accumulated fluid.   If the water is cold when applied, it soon becomes warm
and loses its power to absorb the heat.   It then becomes relaxing instead of
tonic, till it is changed  for cold.    But, if  the cold  water contain  a solution
of some  powerful astringent, this  latter aids in  producing  contractility  and
retains its influence after it becomes warm, so as to prevent the accumulation
of blood  and the generation of more heat.   Every pure astringent is able to
aid distended arterial capillaries in recovering their  proper dimensions, while
no one can so  far contract the absorbents (against nature) as to prevent them
rrom  taking  up all the fluids which  the  arterial  capillaries in health can
supply them.   Therefore no pure  vegetable  astringent is poison—but all are
good in their place, or when tissues require their aid.
   The superficial  observer and  careless thinker may object that the cold
water or the astringent will contract the absorbents  as well as the secernants,
and  thus preserve the derangement.   That would be true if  nature were
doing  nothing in  the case.  But the vital force is striving to contract the
arterial  capillaries  and to expand  the absorbents.  The cold  water  and
astringents acting  in  direct  harmony with the  vital  force in the arterial
capillaries, is  kindly received  and allowed to exert its full force—the  two
united accomplish the object,  and this  is what is meant by medicines acting
in harmony with that force.   The cold and astringents  assay to contract the
absorbents also; but here they are resisted by the vital force.   If the water
is so cold or the astringents are  so strong as to completely or  nearly over-
come that expansive force, they would stop absorption and prove mischievous,
thus very cold water sometimes removes the skin.   But water of such a low
temperature, or astringents of so great  power should never be applied.   The
absorbents are so numerous and  large that an astringent force  amply capa-
ble of aiding  the vital force in reducing the contracting arterial  capillaries 
CRITICI-KD AND CORRECTED.
67
to their proper dimensions, may not be able to contract the more numerous
larger and expanding absorbents (as the arterial pressure is taken from them),
and prevent them from removing the accumulated blood, and restoring equili-
brium of the circulation ;  and, of course a healthy condition  to the tissue.
   Any  article in its nature tending to destroy the elastic force of the tissue,
is poison and should  be always discarded.  One that may overcome it only
by the degree of its power, is good and should not be abused;  that is, used
to excess, or when it is not wanted.  It is thus by observing the tendency
of substances to aid or  oppose vital action, that we  determine the  character
of external agents  as  medicines or poisons.

   a.  Inflammation.   This  term  has  been given,  time  immemorial, to
certain  actions  and  conditions of the animal  tissues, which no observing
person  can  fail to discover; but  which many  of  the  most  distinguished
medical men, in all ages and countries, have  attempted in vain to describe.
They confess that, notwithstanding their  careful and extended observation
(28 to 48), their diligent search, their establishment of fever hospitals (34),
and other praiseworthy efforts to "more certainly ascertain its true nature,"
they have accomplished nothing of their grand object; their conclusions are
"very unsatisfactory" (35), "altogether problematical" (36); and "afford
little help in determining  the plan of treatment" (35).

   237.  / consider it only a circumscribed fever, in  its  concentrated forms
and  later  stages—simply accumulation  of blood  and excitement  in the
arterial  capillaries  of  a tissue.
   238.  Discussion of it,  resolution.   It  is not generally customary, among
Allopathists, to pronounce accumulated action  inflammation, till the circu-
lation  has  become  so  completely arrested as  "to  change somewhat the
character of the blood  and of the secretions."—(Erichsen's Surgery, p. 36
to 44).   But this  can scarcely be  said of a blush which  Hunter calls " the
simplest form of  inflammation,"—"a simple act of the constitution,"—in
which the sudden  and powerful action of the heart and arteries, distends and
fills the capillaries of  the latter, so completely as to compress, for a moment,
the mouths  of  the absorbents  to  such a degree as  to prevent them from
taking  up the blood  as fast as it accumulates; the  result (in the face) is,
redness, fullness and slight  heat.   But, the cause soon  ceasing to act, the
arteries  also act less powerfully and press less upon  the absorbents which
now expand  more  freely, drink in  and remove the  obstructions, and restore
the equilibrium.   This  is  called resolution or the first termination of inflam-
mation, and nature herself effects it, when let alone generally;  when properly
assisted almost always.

   239.  Active exercise produces for a time the same  condition of the general
surface  that we see on the  cheek in a blush; and rest  from that exercise
gives relief  from arterial, diffusive pressure • when the  capillaries contract,
the absorbents expand, and  the equilibrium of circulation is restored.   So
far, medical men are not disposed to regard  this accumulation of excitement,
and of blood and heat in a part, as  anything unnatural or  improper.

   240.   But, if this  excess or accumulation of blood is confined to a small
region of the body, and the stasis is nearly complete and more permanent, it
is called inflammation, though in truth that  which is properly termed inflam-
mation (the action), is almost subdued. 
68
ALLOPATHY EXPOSED,
   If it extends over a large region, and the  arterial derangements are slight,
 the case is called fever.   Hence it is evident that there is no natural dividing
 line between fever and inflammation.  In their character they are the same.

   241. Erichsen, the distinguished Surgeon of  the London University Col-
 lege and Hospital, says:—
   "It is difficult to say, except by the persistence and intensity of the symp-
 toms,  that the physiological state has ended and the pathological one has com-
 menced."  Pray what  degree  of  "persistence and intensity of  the symp-
 toms," shall constitute the  dividing line between that increase simply in
 power and permanence and not in character ?
   As signs of  inflammation,  he gives,  "Alteration  in color, in size, in sen-
 sation, in temperature and function, of the part affected."   And adds (page
 40th), "Each  of these  conditions may separately occur, or'two or more be
 associated together without the existence of inflammation.   It is the peculiar
 grouping together of them all, that characterizes the presence of this patho-
 logical condition."

   242. Comments.  No signs to   distinguish  fever from inflammation, or
 irritation. _ Where, for example, is the change of color in phlegmasia dolens
 and synovitis? of color or size in neuralgia, (inflammation  of  the nerves,)
 of  sensation or  temperature (tangible) in carditis, splenitis and  hepatitis;
 and what of  function in the  blush ?  Any that can be so appreciated as to
 "afford  any help in  determining  the plan of treatment?" (35), or tell us
 "how it  will  terminate?"  (119).   Is  there  any  distinction  in  nature
 between fever and inflammation as vital acts,  other than what is made by the
 progress of one  act from circumference  to center and of  the otljer  from
 center to  circumference?   And  what changes  the conditions of  their
 approach to each other but the different  states of the systems in which they
 are manifested ?  And, if so, why  attempt  to make two things out of the one
 simple act ?   Why attempt to divide even these two  things which are but
 one, into a legion more ?   If different  constitutions or  states of  the  same,
 make differences, why not note these and  philosophise and  act according to
 their indications ?  How long will it be before  medical men will find out
 what disease is (6), so long as they consider the physiological acts, irritation,
 fever and inflammation the very sum and essence of disease, and "the founda-
 tion of all their pathological reasoning?" (35.)

  243. The Definition that covers every case of  inflammation is, accumula-
 tion  of blood and excitement in the arterial  capillaries of a tissue, as irritation
 is accumulation of vital force  and excitement  in the nerves of a tissue.   They
 may or may not  manifest  an appreciable  degree of heat, redness, pain  or
 swelling.   There may or  may not  be  changes  in  the  constitution  of the
 blood, suppuration,  granulation, or gangrene,  connected with inflammation.

  244.  But if there are, the obstruction and  the  swelling are mere mechani-
cal conditions; the suppuration is  chemical  so far  as lesion is concerned  and
vUal so far as casting off pus, and granulation  are concerned.  Granulation is
the   vital healing process, and the ultimate termination of inflammation
 Gangrene is chemical—death !                                   amiuAuvii.

  245. The confounding of all these vital,  mechanical  and chemical effects
under one  name  and treating  them all as vital,  sanative, "tilXpW
logical state  ends;" and, as  destructive after  it is merely "gue7se£' that 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
69
"the pathological state begins," are the sources of all the errors of Allopathy,
and all "its kindred systems and branches."

  246. Dr. H. Bachus, of Alabama, in  a pamphlet  on  fever and  inflam-
mation, says:—
  "If we take from fever and inflammation  the condition which they have
in common,—increased  action—nothing will remain  to which these terms
are applicable."  p. 23.
  Williams, in his Surgery,  says:  '' Excess of blood in a part with  motion
increased, is fever.   Excess of blood in a part with motion partly  increased
and  partly diminished,  is inflammation."  That is, while the blood flows on
freely, it  is called  fever; when obstruction  prevents  the  flow, it  is inflam-
mation.   But we find  these conditions reversed  in many cases of what are
called  fever and inflammation.
  Dr.  Clymer says : "Drs. Cullen and Brown affirmed that the  distinctions
which physicians  have made  about the  differences  of  fever,  are without
foundation—that they differ only in degree.   Dr. Rush called all  diseases a
unit, reduced  all fevers to one, differing only in  degree.   Maintaining that
every form and variety  of disease consists of irregular  action [irritation fever
and inflammation],  that this action is a proximate  cause of every  form and
modification of disease, and the  varieties owing to  the  differences in the
state or predisposition to disease and  in the force of  the exciting  or  acting
causes."—Abridged from  Clymer, p. 48.

  Remark.   What a prty that these men  had not gone one  step  further in
the discovery, and  seen that  all these fevers or excitements are not  disease at
all, but simple manifestations of the efforts of the system to remove  the causes
of disease/   Then would  they have revolutionized the whole practice to a
purely sanative medication.  They could  then very easily have learned both
"what is disease and what is a suitable remedy."   (6.)

  247. Inflammation Sanative.    In  Erichsen's  Surgery, page  33,  we are
told  that, "Increased  vascular action  lies at the  bottom of all surgical
[healing] processes ; no important surgical  action taking  place  without it.
No process  by which the  separation of dead parts is effected, or  by which
the repair of wounds or ulcers is carried out, can occur without an  increased
activity of the vessels concerned.   Every tissue is susceptible of it, and the
surgeon often excites it intentionally as one of the most efficient of  his thera-
peutic  means."   Hunter, John Thomson, Watson (44), and others,  say the
same thing.   So far as  authority is worth  anything, we have, from the most
eminent surgeons  of the University College and  Hospital in London, and
others elsewhere, a full  confirmation of the doctrine of the sanative tendency
of inflammation,  and of its absolute necessity to the healing process.   This
physiological act may be wrongly directed, or it may be entirely obstructed,
and  thus rendered powerless for good, or even  injurious to the  tissue on
which it is fruitlessly spent;  but no wrong direction or condition can  change
its character from physiological to pathological;  or justify any other treat-
ment of it  than  the removal from it of obstacles to  its free and  universal
action.
  This gives  us a clue to the true plan of practice, the  nature of the remedies
required,  and the effects of the remedies  on these conditions; and  the vital
indications of them, are the  only criteria  by which the characters of these
agents, as good or  bad,  can be  determined.  Hence the truth of our doctrine 
70
ALLOPATHY EXPOSED,
that the errors respecting inflammation, &c, are the sources of all the errors
and mischiefs of allopathic therapeutics.

  248.  Modes of Access.   There are two ways of exciting or developing irri-
tation or inflammation.  1st, Attraction, by the application to the organ to be
inflamed, of  some irritating substance; as when pepper is thrown into the
eyes or rubbed on the tender surfaces of the  body; or caloric  in  too  great
quantity attacks the external surface.  In all these cases,  the  foreign  body
invites or provokes excitement; this  excitement develops heat;   this heat
unites with  the  blood  to expand the vessels containing if;; this  expansion
gives room for more blood, which excites  the vessels still more, and develops
more heat,  which, with the blood, produces more expansion and develops yet
more heat,  till the vessels are  distended to  their utmost degree of extensi-
bility, and  the  blood and  caloric  become so abundant that no more can be
pressed  into or confined in the part.   The absorbents are now compressed to
such a degree that  they cannot carry off  the accumulated  blood,  unless the
excitement in the  locality, or  the pressure  toward it, or  both, be partially
removed.  The proper method of doing this is to absorb away the caloric by
water from the locality, and attract the blood to other parts, particularly the
whole surface,  by counter irritation,  as  the vapor  bath,  and friction  by
stimulants.
  249.  Determination.  The second method of inducing inflammation consists
in forcing the blood to central organs by means of the contraction  of the
surface, as often caused by the  evaporation  too suddenly of its natural heat
and moisture (a process called  taking  cold.)  The superficial vessels being
unable to receive their due quantity  of blood, an excess is thrown upon the
internal organs (162),  as the brain,  the lungs, the glands,  the  mucous and
the serous membranes, which are warm, relaxed and expanded, because not
exposed to  the action of the cold, drying and contracting action of the atmos-
phere,  and therefore offer less resistance to it than the external cold, con-
tracted vessels do.  There is not room  in  the  superficial vessels for the
quantity of blood necessary to maintain the proper distension and excitement,
the surface  contracts,  diminishes the  capacity of the external  vessels, and
compels  the heart and  arteries to send the portion of blood which they will
not admit,  to the internal, warmed, relaxed, and expanded vessels,  which
will therefore receive  it.  This  forcing  of the  blood  from  one  organ to
another,  as well  as the  inviting of it, is called deranging the equilibrium of
the circulation,  and the  consequences are,  irritation,  fever,  inflammation,
and congestion,  which are always produced in one  or the other of  these two
ways.
  If only the nervous system is much disturbed, as in study, it  is called
irritation.  If the general circulation is disturbed, it is called  fever.   If the
disturbance is local, it  is called inflammation.  If the accumulation of blood
is attended with excitement of  the capillaries, it is  called inflammation.  If
with little or no  perceptible excitement, congestion.   (See  164.)
  Now  it is evident, from what has  been  shown, that the organs  within,
which are the most irritable, will receive the strongest impressions from the
influx of blood—will promptly respond to those impressions, and  be,  conse-
quently, soon inflamed, while  those  that are the least impressible will least
readily respond to that impression, and be speedily overwhelmed with blood,
and deprived of the freedom necessary to  action, before their excitability is
much aroused.   The former of  these states, as just remarked, is accumulation 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
71
of blood,  with excitement,  in the  capillaries,  and  called inflammation ;
the latter is  accumulation of blood, without excitement, in  the  capillaries,
and is called congestion.   When  there is some excitement as well as accu-
mulation, it is called inflammatory congestion, congestive inflammation, <kc.
Thus it seems that, in all cases of inflammation there is some congestion, and
it is also clearly evident that, in all cases of congestion, there is, at first, some
inflammation.
  From  the  above it is  evident that any cause which  can excite a part to
high action,  can invite or provoke inflammation.  So any cause which can
prevent the blood from flowing freely to any considerable region of the body,
can force it to other parts, where it will produce either inflammation or con
gestion ; and that these again may be relieved by exciting other less active
parts,  and inviting the  blood  away to them.  The last  process is called
counter-irritation.
  250. The  conditions and actions of the  tissues  in all  cases characterized
by inflammation,  are very  well described  by Fletcher, as copied by Dud-
geon  (Lectures, page 35.)  The words in brackets are mine.
  Fletcher says :  " The first  effect of a direct stimulant, such as  heat, upon
the capillaries, causes them to contract.  This contraction represents increased
action in the capillaries themselves.   The application of a red-hot  iron to the
skin,  is observed to be followed at first by a deathly paleness of the part, and
the alteration in the ealibre of the capillaries has been observed, miscroscop-
ically, in the foot web of the  frog  and the  transparent omentum  of othei
animals, by Spallanzi, Thomson, Phillips,  Hastings, Burdach, Wedemeyer,
Koch, and. many others.  During this contraction, the motion of the fluid in
the  capillaries is quickened, as  noticed  by  the increased rapidity  of  the
passage of the globules [and as may be felt by the pulsations of the arteries],
After a time  [when the tissues  become  over-wrought,  fatigued, exhausted],
the capillaries [yielding to the pressure] become dilated  sometimes to double
their normal  state [thus pressing upon and closing the mouths of the absorb-
ents,  and  preventing them from taking up and,  removing the accumulated
blood  and secretions].  This dilatation indicates diminished action  in  the
capillaries, and is accompanied by accumulation, tardy circulation, and even
[finally] stagnation of the circulation of the fluids contained in the capillaries.
This constitutes inflammation."   [Rather this last is the cessation of inflam-
mation.]
  "We may suppose that the contraction and dilatation of the capillaries may
occur  within certain limits  [so far as they  can without compressing  the
absorbents to such a degree that they cannot take up  the fluids as fast as they
are  presented] without compromising health.  The primary paleness, fol-
lowed by the blush that attends certain emotions [or appears more distinctly
in fainting from fright], is a familiar instance of this."
  " But, if a stimulus of too great power be applied, it will contract, first,
inordinately,  and again expand to such a degree that it will be  incapable of
recovering its natural  calibre immediately, or perhaps at all, without  the
application of a fresh stimulus."
  251. The  relief of all these conditions  of  tissue, which, when unable to
correct themselves, constitute the essence of the disease, is easily effected by
simply equalizing the circulation, which is called  resolution.
  252. It is  called " simple inflammation," but it is all the inflammation that
can exist.   " Inflammation is a simple act  of  the  constitution," a "salutary 
72
ALLOPATHY EXPOSED,
operation."   It "consists of only one kind,- not being divisible"—"restora-
tive"—"produced  for  the restoration of  the  most  simple injury,"  <fcc.
(42,44,45.)
  253. All  that is connected with it, as the destruction of tissue in suppuration
and  gangrene,  must be attributed  to  chemical  affinity.    The formation of
morbid parts, as tumors, cancers, Avens, polypuses, &c, must be ascribed to
mechanical obstructions to healthy  circulation and depuration
  254. And hence the true practice, in  all cases, consists in keeping nature's
outlets open and  the circulation equalized,  for health ; and in removing  the
obstructions and in stimulating the tissues to a healthy action for the removal
of disease in all its forms.  There is  no demand,  in any case,  for depletion
and poisoning.
  255. Active Inflammation.  In all cases in which the inflammatory action
is induced by the application of the exciting cause to the point of its locality,
as the application of a caustic, a blister, or vaccination to the surface; or of
irritating  substances  to the stomach, bowels,  lungs, eyes,  nose, or other
mucous membranes ; or the severe application of the vital force  to the brain,
as in  study  ; the accumulation of  blood, with excitement, that follows such
applications is called active inflammation, though it is often less energetic than
the same  operation when the  blood is determined to  these organs by  the
heart and arteries, in consequence of its exclusion from other antagonistic
organs.   Thus the inflammation in pleurisy, enteritis, phrenitis, &c, is as
severe when excited by blood repelled from the surface by cold, as in cases
in which the irritation is first applied to the points  of its final locality.
  256. Passive Inflammation.  If  the external surface of the  body be  ex-
posed to a cold damp atmosphere, it becomes, soon or late, so deprived of its
proper degree of heat and expansion, that the capillaries contract so much as
to prevent the flowing into them of the blood necessary to keep them warm
and  expanded,  that is,  to  preserve an equilibrium of the  circulation  and
nervous action within  and without, between  the  internal and  the external
circulations.  Hence that balance of blood which the outer capillaries refuse
to admit\ must  be  determined or  forced to  those of the internal  organs or
tissues, giving to them, if uncommonly excitable, an excessive action (called
acute inflammation), or if not so excitable as usual, overcoming their feeble
action by pressure ; producing in both cases congestion—in the first inflam-
matory,  called  passive  inflammation,  to distinguish  it from  inflammation
invited by the  application of the exciting cause to the point of its locality,
which is  called  active  inflammation.  Both  forms of inflammation are of
necessity more  or less congestive, for they consist essentially in the accumu-
lation of blood  with more or less  excitement.  It is evident also that, unless
the obstacles be removed and the circulation be  relieved, the most active
inflammation will soon yield to simple  congestion, and this to suppuration or
gangrene.
  257. The Blood.  This fluid, as we find it in the arteries, consists of two
parts, red globules and white.   When drawn  and suffered  to  stand a short
time, the  former are condensed into a jelly like mass called  crassamentum.
The  latter remain  fluid  and are  called serum.   Press and wash the crassa-
mentum, and there remains a stringy substance  called fibrin.
  Besides these,  there is constantly flowing, 1st.  in  the  veins, toward  the
heart, and through it to the lungs, nutritive  material, from the lacteals  and 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
73
   lymphatics; and venous blood from all parts of the system ; and from, the
   abdominal viscera, through the portal vein to the liver, and thence to the
   heart, lungs, &c.
     2d. From the arteries to the kidneys, and the skin and mucous membranes,
   are sent the effete matter of the system and many extraneous substances, taken
   as  food,  drink or medicine ; as  salt,  alcohol,  turpentine,  garlic,  &c, as
   incapable of profitable use.
     3d. To facilitate the  movement through the  vessels, of these substances,
*   useful or pernicious, abundance of water is required.

     258.  Water in the blood.   If, with a needle, we draw a little blood from the
   finger when the subject is healthy and the surface is  moist, and put  it on
   glass and into a solar microscope, we shall see that there is much more water
   than  blood, as  the  former will occupy a much wider  space  in the field
   than both parts of  the latter, which  can be distinguished by their greater
   opacity.

     259. The object of this water in the blood, seems to be to prevent the con
   traction of the vessels  and consequent  friction of  the  blood* globules and
   foreign substances  against them; and to act as a medium to float along the
   contents of the vessels, whether blood or other matter.                    •

     260. Deficiency  of water,  results.  When,  from  excessive and too  long
   continued exercise, or  from  irritation  in  the vessels by means of offending
   matter, as alcohol or  spirits of turpentine, or by long abstinence from drinks,
   the  proportion of water  becomes greatly diminished  by evaporation, the
   globules of the  blood and the morbific irritants come into closer contact with
   the walls of the arteries and their capillaries, and excite them to a more rapid
   action.  This may be seen by confining the web of a young frog's foot in a
   solar microscope, and  irritating it with a solution of any  acrid  substance.
   This produces,  as before  described,  that phenomenon of the  circulation
   denominated fever.   If  the water be still further  exhausted, the globules of
   blood and other materials begin to adhere to the  sides of the capillary vessels,
   and thus  to  interrupt and (finally to  obstruct  altogether,  the  circulation
   through them.

     261. Hence we see the importance of keeping the system well supplied with
   water, internally and externally, to prevent and relieve  those  conditions of
   the tissues, which  are  indicated by the physiological acts, termed irritation,
   fever  and inflammation—how it is that water is  said  to cure these "affec-
   tions," and why it  is that water alone is often more effectual than the best medi-
   cines could be  without  it.   "Fever powders" may excite or quell a fever,
   according as they are stimulating or sedative;  but, without water, the best
   of them cannot cure the disease which "renders the fever  necessary," that
   is, supply the wants of  the system and remove  the irritation which  excites
   the fever.

     262. Thirst.   The first indication of  the want of water  is called thirst,
   then  follows  an irritated and  burning  sensation in the alvine canal, and
   through the whole body, and a dryness of the lungs and surface, all which is
   only an increase and diffusion of thirst.   These  should and may, if attended
   to in season, be prevented or relieved  by abundance of water, internally and
   externally applied.   But if much morbific  matter has accumulated within,
   medicine will greatly aid the  water. 
74
ALLOPATHY EXPOSED.
   263. If this water is  not  supplied when wanted, the blood becomes more
 dense, the globules adhere to the walls of the capillaries and soon arrest the
 circulation altogether.—Erichsen, pp. 36 to 39.
   If the obstructions become general over the limb, there will soon be less
 blood in it, the limb will wither  away, lose its  flexibility, its  mobility, and
 frequently its sensibility, and become  quite useless, as is seen in cases cured
 of white swelling, or after a  dislocation of a limb from its superior cavity, or
 in cases of paralysis from any cause.
   264. Delirium  and Insanity.  Whatever deranges  the   equilibrium  of
 nervous and arterial action, may produce  delirium or insanity.   Thus, if a
 person whose mind is highly excitable, takes a severe cold, the circulation is
 driven inward, (as in all cases of cold,) but the brain being very susceptible,
 and some portions of it more so than  others, the action will be the severest
 on the latter, and others  will be comparatively quiescent.   This irregularity
 of action constitutes delirium, which when firmly fixed and long continued,
 is called insanity.   The  permanent  restoration of equilibrium  is the cure of
 every case, and the only cure of any one.   The difficulty of effecting it, con-
 sists in the degree of tenacity of action on some organs and the non-impressi-
 bility of others; and the  unwillingness or  the  inability, of the patient to aid
 in the  operation, or  his ignorance, or  that of  the  practitioner of what is
 needed in the case, or in combinations of all these elements.   Delirium is as
 harmless  and as easily cured,  as almost  any form of  disease,  if  both the
 patient and practitioner understand its nature and indications.  But how can
 blood-letting and poisoning contribute to a cure which requires equilibrium,
 fulness and freedom  of the circulation?

  265.  Causes are said  to be of two kinds, procuring and  exciting, or gen-
 erating and  eliciting.  The first directly produces  an effect; the  second
 excites  the first to action.    For example, A provokes B, with saucy words;
 for  which B strikes A with a whip.   The  power of B's arm  is the  procuring
 cause of the blow, and the  saucy words of A are  the exciting cause.  Flood-
 wood fills up  the watercourse and the  water flows over the  meadows.  The
 floodwood is the exciting cause  and the gravitating course of the water is the
 procuring cause of the inundation.

  266.  Cause  of fever and  of disease.  So, obstructions to  the free action
 of the nerves and blood vessels, are the exciting causes of those derangements
 of vital action called irritation, fever and inflammation; but the procuring and
 only true cause of them, is the vital force.  It is evident that the exciting
 causes,  or, as I would  say, the occasions of these derangements, are  as
 numerous as the ways and means of preventing a free and full action of that
 force, in any or every organ and tissue of the  body.  Hence, we perceive
 that the causes of  disease are innumerable, and many of them, as in scarlet
 fever, measles, small  pox,  plague and  cholera, entirely beyond our present
 knowledge.   Each of many causes, as above, may give rise to many different
 manifestations of the vital actions, appearances and conditions of the tissues.
 The results of the action  of causes are called effects.

  267.  But they all  produce one  and  the  same efect on the tissue, that is,
an inability to  perform fully  its  natural functions, which and which alone!
 whether it consists in fixed relaxation,  contraction, or paralysis, constitutes
the sum and  essence of disease.   Lesion  is death,  not disease.   But  the
presence  and  activity of  the  vital  force  is necessary to  distribute  the 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
75
morbific agents about, and enable them to develop their peculiar characters.
Without this, vaccination would never produce a pustule, nor would mercury
produce salivation, nor strychnine a spasm, nor opium nor  brandy delirium
tremens.

   268.   One plan of cure.   Hence, as there is  but one disease, there can be
but one scientific or natural plan of cure, viz., remove obstructions to the
equilibrium  of  vital action, and  stimulate,  if  necessary, the tissues to the
performance of their healthy, specific functions.
   269.  The  excitants of increased vital  action,  in health or disease, may be
as numerous and various as  the wants,  wishes  or motions of man, and the
external agents that affect him for good or for evil.   They are any thing and
every thing that can derange the equilibrium of vital action.
   270.   Good agents may be abused, that  is, misapplied.   Almost  any, per-
haps every excitant may do this permanently by long and unremitting appli-
cation.   Thus, the vital force itself may excite  the organs to severe exercise,
as running, jumping, &c, and may finally weary and prostrate them till they
are no longer able to do their duty.  Thus also electricity,  caloric, cayenne
pepper,  ginger,  &c, all  innocent in kind, may, by excess of quantity and
constancy of application, do injury to the organs.
   271.  Poisons.   But there are other excitants which, in any quantity and
however seldom applied, have a direct tendency to deprive the organs of the
power to perform  their healthy functions; as corrosive sublimate,  arsenious
acid, opium, prussic acid, &c.  These are properly  termed poisons.
   272.   The procuring  cause of Animation.    Whatever may  excite or
arouse it, we must never  forget that  the sole producing cause of all  living
action,  that of nerves or blood-vessels, or their dependents, is the vital force.
   273.  Man cannot make a vital product.  All external things and agents
or motive powers, are the mere excitants of that force to action.   No  other
power  on earth is able to produce its action.   No  power but the vital can
form a globule  of blood, manufacture a  secretion  from it, or construct an
organ out of it, or produce inflammation, fever, or  the  slightest irritation.
All human  ingenuity in its untiring  efforts to this end, has failed either to
manufacture or to discover the manufacture elsewhere than under the do-
minion  of the vital force, of a single tissue, or the performance of any  other
vital function.
   274.  Heat.  All motion of material bodies produces a disturbance of the
equilibrium of caloric,  making it more or less manifest.  Thus the striking
of steel  against flint,  or a  horse-shoe  against  the   pavement,  or  a match
against a rough surface, manifests caloric ; while the melting of snow or ice
absorbs it and diminishes  its manifestation.   So a stimulating  medicine, as
cayenne ; or power, as electricity, applied to the human flesh ; or the friction
of flesh against flesh, as the hand to the body, manifests beat in that body.
   275.  Effects on  the  System.  Whenever excitants are applied to a  part,
they set its nerves and blood-vessels in motion, and this motion  develops
heat,  which, combined with  the moisture of  the  blood  (Lects.  M. S.),
warms,  relaxes, and expands the vessels  containing blood, and consequently,
by providing more room for it, invites the heart and arteries to send a larger
quantity to the special locality of the irritation.   The consequence, if the part
be very largely supplied with vessels, is  swelling, irritation, and more  heat. 
76
ALLOPATHY EXPOSED.
 If  these vessels are for red blood  in  large proportion (as in the muscles)—
 redness.   If the  part is abundantly  supplied with  sensitive nerves—pain.
 All these  are  illustrated in a sore from a splinter run into the  end of the
 finger, or in a common felon, or boil.

   276. Different tissues.    If the part to which the blood is invited, and in
 which it  is  accumulated or congested,  is composed chiefly or  wholly of
 serous tissue, as the cartilages, the ligaments, the  tendons, the serous mem-
 branes and muscular fascia, there will be heat and pain, but little or no red-
 ness  nor  swelling.   Such  cases are  called pleuritis, peritonitis,  synovitis,
 fasciitis, phrenitis, &c, the termination "itis" being made to the  end of the
 name of an organ  to signify inflammation of that organ.

   277. Few permanent signs.   If the  organ is not  supplied,  or but partially,
 with sensitive nerves, as  the  heart,  the liver,  the spleen, the kidneys, the
 lungs, the stomach, &c, there may be swelling, redness and heat, with little
 or  no pain; so that these signs or  symptoms, heat, redness, swelling and
 pain, may or may not, one, some, or all of  them be present in inflammation.
 But they cannot be relied upon as always indicating it.   The only true and
 constant indication is the fixed derangement of the equilibrium of the circula-
 tion or the nervous action, one of which  is always present at first, and very
 soon both appear,  in every case of  fever and inflammation, no matter where
 located, nor by what cause excited.

   278.  The action excited may be of a high or a low grade, or may occur in.
 and be modified by, constitutions affected by various morbific causes, as the
 scrofulous, the  tuberculous, the erysipelatous, the bilious, the mercurial, &c,
 <fcc. ("the unhealthy," 42), but its essential nature is always the same, viz.,
 accumulation of blood in a part, with excitement of the  arterial capillaries
 containing it, and  collapse or compression of the absorbents, either occasioned
 by  or finally  producing obstructions to absorption  by the  venous  and other
 radicles whose  natural office is to remove it.  And the procuring cause of all
 this action is one, the vital force.

  279.  Different  diseases.   How absurd, then,  to divide this  deranged
 action into parts, corresponding with  the appearance of the exciting cause,
 as scarlet, yellow,  spotted fever; with  the season,  as fall  and  winter fever;
 the country, as tropical  and northern, eastern,  western  and  southern ;  or
 the locality of  the body, as brain and  gastric  fever, &c, &c; to call  them
 so  many different diseases  (or  disease at  all), and prescribe for  the  dif-
 ferent cases different principles and means of treatment.    No Avonder that
 they who  have considered fever and  inflammation  legion in number  and
 chameleon in character, should never have learned anything certain respecting
 its nature, or agreed upon any judicious and efficient plan for its treatment.
 (34, 35, 36.)

  280.  Sicpptiration.  In the cases in  which resolution can  not be  effected,
 the stasis  of  blood becomes nearly or  quite complete, and then the tissues,
 unsupported by circulation, become a  prey to the  chemical  affinities among
 them, are  reduced to a thick, yellowish white fluid called pus, with which
coagulable lymph,  secreted from the still vital parts,  is commingled  and
accumulated, constituting the various kinds of ulcers, boils, &c. The casting
off of this compound fluid, this mixture of the debris of the tissues and the
healthy secretion, is called  suppuration. 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
77
  281.   Granulation.  When the injury is  thus cleansed, or nearly so, the
capillaries and coats of the arteries furnish from the blood proximate princi-
ples of material called granules, with which, by uniting them to the broken
tissue, it builds up  the  Avastes, and this process  is called granulation or
healing.

  282.  Ulcers,  Tumors, &c.   If the local circulation be only partially im-
peded, and the material deposited by it be not escharotic, but only mechan-
ically obstructive, its accumulations form tumors,  hard cancers, &c.   But
if it be very corrosive, even though  not wholly obstructing the circulation.
it produces lesion of tissue, suppuration, <kc, as in bronchitis and dysentery.
If the fullness of the blush could be confined on the  cheek, or the presence
of arterial circulation could be retained in the feet, till the arterial capillaries
should lose their tone, and the absorbents, for want  of nutrition, should lose
their vitality,  or capability of responding to the action of the vital force, they
would be left  to the sole dominion of chemical affinity, which would decom-
pose  them  and destroy  the tissue,  the debris, or  partially disorganized
elements  of which, noAv called pus, become obstacles to the circulation,
accumulate  in the cavity formed  by the  lesion, and  constitute  the various
kinds of ulcers, boils, &c.

  283.  Suppuration, Healing.   Let a soft part, through which lie nerves,
blood-vessels, muscular fibres,  &c, be bruised under the skin, by the severe
application of some very rough substance, as an irregularly broken stone, the
result is, that the  parts of the  tissue which are  broken will be deprived of
the conservative power of the vital force,  and hence chemical affinity having
full sway over them, will  reduce them  to proximate  principles called pus,
which will accumulate in the space that had  been occupied by the tissue of
which they are  the debris or wreck, until  a passage is effected for its egress
from the body.  Added to this pus, there is immediately cast into the cavity,
from the uninjured parts, a healthy secretion termed coagulable lymph, of a
character apparently much like the pus  (except that  the  latter has lost its
vegetative degree of  vitality) for the purpose  of  building  up the broken
tissue.   The  discharge of this pus  from the places  of its accumulation is
called suppuration.   If the pus has been discharged through an outlet formed
accidentally by  the injury, or  artificially  by  the  lancet,  so that it does not
press upon and  into and chemically decompose the  surrounding vital tissue,
and increase the extent of its destruction, the coagulable lymph is, by the
vital force, formed into granules, or elements of tissue;  these are attached to
the broken tissue,  one after  another, in nearly organic order (42) (some-
times that of an eschar) till the whole breach is mended up, and the circula-
tion becomes  free and nearly equal; and this is termed the process of healing,
which is the last termination of inflammation.

   284.   Gangrene or Mortification.   In cases in which the  circulation  is at
once totally suppressed, as  by ligature,  or the complete destruction of the
arteries that  nourish it, by whatever means  produced, the tissues to which
the blood should circulate,  not being nourished nor defended by that fluid,
chemical affinity (always resident in every particle  of matter connected with
the organization, as well as out of it) asserts its claims, at the same time, to
every atom of the organized substance, and destroys it all together.  This is
gangrene or mortification, and is called by pathologists " the last stage of in-
flammation"—pathologists Avho  declare  that "inflammation  is a simple act 
78
ALLOPATHY  EXPOSED,
 of the constitution," &c. (42)—"purely physiological" (45)—designed to
 "close wounds and repair  fractures" (44);  "without Avhich  no important
 curative action can take place !"   (Erichsen's Surgery, page 33.)
   It has been  clearly shown, however,  that gangrene or  mortification and
 the lesion of suppuration are the work of chemical affinity only, in opposition
 to the vital force that produces fever and inflammation, and are, therefore,
 no part or parcel of this process, nor consequence of it.

   285. The error and folly  of the Faculty—and yet medical men have com-
 mitted the great error and folly of including them all in the same category,
 and calling them fever or inflammation in  their different stages.  When the
 vital force, having predominant control, has absorbed away offending matter
 and freed and equalized  the circulation,  Avithout suffering  chemical affinity
 to produce  lesion,  or destruction of tissue, they  have called the process
 resolution or dispersion, and pronounced  it healthy.  When chemical affinity
 having dominion over some tissues, involved  among  other tissues, destroys
 those over which it has  control, and the vital  force,  having predominating
 power over the rest of the  tissue, preserves that from injury,  casts off the
 products of chemical decomposition  in the shape of pus, throws out a  vital
 product  termed  coagulable  lymph, or  proximate  principle of tissue,  and
 mends up the breach made by its adversary, the doctors, not perceiving that
 one series of the phenomena is the result of the action of the vital force, and
 the other series that of the action of the chemical force, link all these actions
 together, and term them, resolution, inflammation, suppuration and gangrene,
 all different results of inflammation.

  286.  Absurd conclusions.   Hence, when the vital force prevails they term
 the inflammation healthy and sanative  (Erichsen, p. 33); but, when  the
 chemical  force prevails  they term it  unhealthy  and  destructive.   And
 because, from disproportion of constitution or  of circumstantial relations of
 the vital to the chemical force.(there being more power in some constitutions
 than in others; and in the same constitutions at some times and under some
 circumstances than at other times and in other circumstances), the vital force
 sometimes prevails to save; and at others  the chemical force predominates to
 kill; they pronouncing, in the former cases, the inflammation, a process  that
 " takes its rise in purely physiological conditions, and holds its progress and
 decline under the same great natural [that is, physiological] laws of the con-
 stitution."   But, when they see chemical affinity prevail in the  process of
 suppuration, slow and molecular, or of gangrene, all in a mass, they call  that
also  inflammation, and pronounce it, in its several stages  and successions,
 fever and inflammation—"the two  orders of  disease which make up  the
great amount of human maladies, and form the  grand outlets of life." (41.)
  When they observe  that  no injury can be  healed  without inflammation
 (44), they excite it, producing adhesions of tissues to prevent dropsical affu-
sions between them (42,  44, Erichsen, p.  33).   But if they see the system
in other cases doing  the very same thing  without their aid, when they think
it should not be done, they administer  the  deadly mercury to  prevent it
(81).  With one breath they pronounce it the great generator of all the  dis-
eases  of  the body;  and with  the  next they  utter  the ridiculous solecism,
that " inflammation  is  the only disease which the surgeon can excite at his
pleasure" (Watson), to  accomplish the  physiological process  of healing a
wound !  (44 Erichsen, p. 34). 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
79
   287. Mal-practke.  It is easy to  see  how  these  false estimates  of  the
several processes  and results involved in different cases of disease,  should
lead them always to a most absurd,  and often to a most pernicious practice.
In the first place,  observing that, in cases in Avhich fever  is Avhat they call
high (frequently Ioav), or unsuccessful,  the  patient often dies, and, having
pronounced all the extra phenomena and  their results fever or inflammation,
they conclude  that it is  dangerous, in any case, to let the fever "run  too
high," though they often see it "producing a crisis," (that is, removing  ob-
structions, and making a  cure), AVithout scientific  or artificial  assistance
(44).  Having, without knoAving why or Avherefore, attributed to these phys-
iological operations the destruction  of eight-ninths of all the human race
(38), they have set themselves diligently to Avork to discover or devise some
artificial means and processes by which, when their ignorance  pronounces it
disease,  they may  most effectually control it.  Notwithstanding  they have
never settled any question concerning it (35), they have all agreed to call it
disease (33,  34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 41); have  divided it out into  classes and
orders,  genera and species,  and made it the basis  of all the false systems of
practice on the sick (28, 33, 41) (see their Avorks on theory and practice)—
and the source of all the confusion in doctrines of health and disease, and
the character and modus operandi (action) of medicines, of all the medical
men who haA'e found medicine to be a  "science  of uncertainty," and its
practice "an art of conjecture" (1,  19).

   288.  Objections.   Medical men will say—If  inflammation  presses on  the
mouths  of the absorbents, and stops circulation,  so that suppuration and
gangrene (partial or total death) follow, then these must be,  as we say,
"terminations of inflammation."

   289.  Answer.   I have shown that inflammation  is a result  of  vital action,
and that these  are results of chemical destruction of tissue or its  vital ability
to act.  If it is caused by the one it is not by the other.  No suppuration nor
gangrene is seen when the circulation is free  and full in every tissue of  the
body;  so no inflammatory action is  ever  discovered in a  dead body.   In-
flammation and lesion must therefore be residts or  terminations, of the action
of opposite causes.

  290.  Depletion.   They will say that by "cupping  and leeching external
parts they remove accumulation from a part," and by Aenesection they check
determination to the internal organs  ;  and that,  if I strive,  by counter relax-
ation and stimulation,  as with a bath,  friction,  stimulating  liniments and
enemas, to do the same,  I prove that I, as avcII as  they,  consider  inflamma-
tion the disease to be removed.

   291.  Answer.   By removing  the blood from the  body, they do not alter or
correct the derangement of equilibrium; but they do so debilitate  the  whole,
that the equilibrium is seldom aftenvard restored.

   292.  By equalizing its distribution in the body, I both correct the derange-
ment and restore equilibrium and health to every part, and retain  the power
to maintain them in the future.   They relieve the  inflammation by destroy-
ing the power to produce  it.  I relieve it  by  removing the obstacles to a free
circulation.   In other words, they kill the fever, which is  contending with
obstructions; / remove the disease,  of  which the  fever  gives me  the .
knowledge. 
80
ALLOPATHY EXPOSED,
   293.  Objections.   Changes in Blood.  "But," it will be objected, "there
are changes in the constitution of the blood in inflammation, and these can
not be considered healthy actions."  Answer, that depends on the cause and
character of those changes.  If they are vital, they consist in the formation
of coao-ulable  lymph to  produce "adhesive inflammation," "glue  parts to-
gether/' "close wounds," &c, (42, 44).  But,  if the changes  are  the re-
duction of  blood to its original elements, they are chemical, and  not only no
part of inflammation, but directly opposed to it.

   294.  But, again it is  said, "Inflammation  continues in and about lesions,
until the destruction of the part is completed."   Very true, and that is proof
that it is a  vital, conservative and healing operation, designed and intended
to mend up the depredation;  and faithful in its efforts to accomplish its mis-
sion, as long as it can do any good.  It never entirely surrenders a part, till
chemical affinity obtains  complete dominion.  Nor can the part  wholly die,
so long as the  inflammation in it is general and active.

   295.  Difficulties.  The student, amateur, or professional man who  will
take the trouble to bring all the "difficulties of inflammation," to the test of
my descriptions of the conditions in which it is observed, will find them
readily and philosophically solved on the vital or the chemical principle.

   296.  Explanations of Difficulties.   Velocity of  circulation through inflamed
parts.  The above views of the vital processes and conditions termed  inflam-
mation, and of suppuration and gangrene, explain all the facts witnessed
in all the cases, and, of course, may be relied upon as essentially true.   For
example:  It is said that in some cases the  blood flows more  freely through
an  inflamed part than one that is not  inflamed ; and that in others it Aoavs
slower or is impeded.  The first of these statements is true in all cases  that
"cure themselves," that is, cases in which the determination of blood to the
part does  not  exceed the poAver of the absorbents to remove it more  rapidly
than it ordinarily flows in,  but not so rapidly as it flows in at the time.   In
other words, in all cases in  which  the pressure of the distended  arterial
capillaries on the  absorbent radicles, does not reduce their excess of absorb-
ent power so Ioav as to prevent them from absorbing  more than the quantity
ordinarily throAvn to the part, and soon relieving when the pressure is removed.
   The second  (the stasis  of  circulation), occurs in all those cases in which
a tumor or an  ulcer is formed, or a lesion and suppuration are produced.   For
it is evident that the blood does not circulate freely  through a cancer, a boil
or  a  bruised  part.   But even in these cases, the  inflammation extending
around the part obstructed by anastomoses,  (the  connections of arteries with
each other) the circulation through the limb, on the whole,  will be greater
than usual, till the obstruction extends so far as to overbalance this conserva-
tive power over the  whole, when less blood than  usual will pass  through
the whole limb, and it will Avither and decay, or mortify and slough.
   297.  Localities of  inflammation.  Not being  able  to  draw any definite
physiological nor pathological lines between the different cases of inflamma-
tion,  medical  men have  attempted to name  it  according to its localities;
general, as ossitis, enteritis, bronchitis, fascial, tendonous, <fec; and particu-
lar, as  dental, maxillary,  cranial;  duo-denitis,   ileitis,  jejunitis, colleitis,
rectitis, pharyngitis, laryngitis,  tracheitis,  bronchitis, &c,  through every
tissue and  organ of the body.  (See Dr. Gallup's Institutes,  as good as any
system, and based  entirely on  this principle.) Thus he calls every case of 
CRITCISED AND CORRECTED.
81
inflammation,  disease, and  fastens it  first on the fibrous, the  serous, the
mucous, the muscular, the nervous, the  glandular, and the osseous tissues.
Then he divided those above into every small locality, and the inflammation
of each is called a special disease.
   But it is evident to the most careless thinker, that  inflammation  no more
changes it character by change of locality in the body, than a man does his
by traveling through the country, and resting a short time in the  different
cities of the land.  Indeed, I have thought that fever and inflammation are
well represented by a man now traveling OArer the country, and then confined
to the city.   In the former, he breathes and moves more freely, and is:com-
paratively at ease; in the latter, he is incarcerated, and must step and breathe
short and quick,  or he Avill be overrun and demolished by extraneous forces.
   Inflammation usually commences in some one of  the prominent circulating
tissues; but in most cases, it soon spreads into others, and involves extensive
regions. The modus operandi of its diffusion  is this:  As one  capillary is
filled and distended, its neighbor is  compressed, and  the  circulation in that
is impeded.   It swells,  and in the same way annoys its neighbor, and so on
As the obstruction becomes more general, the blood is  forced in greater quan ■
tities to even distant tissues, and excites them to inordinate action,  and thus
the "local inflammation" is soon "attended by general fever," and this fever
is said to be "sympathetic Avith the inflammation."  Presently this fever con-
centrates on some irritable organ, whose  high  action  invites the blood  from
the first, and thus the inflammation is said to be "translated," and the change
is called metastasis.   Each tissue manifests the action according to its own
structure and plan of operations, yet that action  is  constantly the same in
nature  and design, all  the  differences being explained by reference to the
structure and functions of the tissue and  the character, action and tend-
ency of the exciting cause.   I give  illustrations.

   298.  Cases.  Immersing the feet, hands, <&c.   Place your hands  and  your
feet in  water as warm  as you can comfortably bear  it, wash and rub them
there till they become hot, red and swollen.   Take them out and rub them
dry with a towel, and your feet will feel quite tender if not even sore.  So
would  your  hands  if they were not  more accustomed to resist the heat.
Now look at your feet and you see no venous  blood.   It is all forced away
from the surface by the inordinate  action of the vessels stimulated by heat,
while the  expansion by heat  and moisture of the  arterial capillaries, has
given place to  an unusual quantity of arterial blood, causing SAvelling;  and
the two processes, rapid absorption and rapid circulation, combine to change
the external or chiefly venous blood, to a greater arterial predominancy, and.
of course, a  brighter red than  usual, and the  stimulus given by the fresh
arterial blood to the nerves excites soreness.   These results will be more
strikingly manifested, when you immerse in warm water hands or  feet  that
have become cold, blue and numb.
   This accumulation in a part of arterial blood, with excitement, usually mani-
fested by some or all of the symptoms,  heat, redness, swelling and tender-
ness, soreness or pain—three degrees of  nervous manifestation—are collect
ively called inflammation.
   If the feet,  &c, have not been  very long kept  in the water,  so as to
deprive in a measure the arterial capillaries  of their power to contract to
their proper dimensions, they will contract, and the  venous absorbents soon
remove the  surplus accumulation.   When  the  equilibrium  is  restored.
                                     6 
82
ALLOPATHY  EXPOSED,
 the swelling  subsides, the  heat  escapes, the surface becomes paler and the
 tenderness or soreness vanishes.  This is called resolution of the inflammation;
 and it always takes place in all cases in which the excessive stimulus is not
 continued, and there is no internal obstruction to the circulation.   It is as I
 have already said, only when the  arterial pressure to a part, and consequently
 excessiA^e stimulus of  the tissues of that part or the pressure of the circula-
 tion from other parts toward it, are continued till the arterial capillaries are
 so overwrought as to lose the power to contract to any thing like their proper
 dimensions, that  the power of resolution is destroyed, and the inflammation
 becomes permanent, and fruitless in its efforts to recover equilibrium.

   299. In  the case of a Blush, the arterial capillary excitement, heat and
 expansion produce the fullness and redness; but, the action  of the exciting
 cause being momentary, the restoration of the equilibrium is also momentary.
 In  the case of the bathed feet,  the  action  is longer continued, more  heat,
 SAvelling and a keener nervous  sensibility are  induced, the  prostration  of
 tissue becomes greater, and, of course, the resolution is slower.

   300. The external surface.  Treatment.   Inflammation  of the  surface is
 excited by many  causes; but the  disease  consists  in a closed condition of the
 emunctories and  of the arterio-venous capillaries, checking perspiratory de-
 puration, and generating and  confining caloric.   In this  case, the applica-
 tions to the surface should be  cool and moist, to absorb the  caloric  and re-
 lax  the tissue, that the  depuration  may be effected and  the  circulation
 relieved ; and bland drinks should be  administered  to supply the water that
 has been removed by the previous excitement.  All this is effected by simply
 equalizing  the condition of the secernent and the absorbent tissues, which
^neither blood-letting  nor poisons ever accomplish;  and hence, the patient
 wholly recovers under the influence of  the  former  practice ;  but never does
 while the latter  is continued.   Blood-letting, cupping,  leeching, scarifying,
 ailomelizing, narcotizing,  blistering, freezing and starving, which make the
 case  the more dangerous the  longer and more vigorously they are applied,
 must all be stopped, long before the patient can recover from disease,  or  their
 pernicious  effects; but lobelia,  cayenne, vapor  baths, any  innocent tonics
 and stimulants, may be used  as needed, till the  patient  is  perfectly  well.
 This fact alone shows which practice is what nature demands, and which is
 ■destructive, and also shows that nervous  and arterial excitement  is not the
 disease to be subdued.

   301. In Erysipelas,  the exciting  cause of  the  inflammation  is a  very
 irritating agent (no matter what, but always of  the  same character), which
 keeps up a constant excitement,    This causes a burning  pain, much  heat,
 and,  finally,  debility, whence follow stasis,  suppuration, <fec, mechanical
 and chemical effects.

   302. In Scarlatina,  either a similar irritant,  but not the same in all
 respects, or perhaps  the same  irritant, under  different  conditions  of the
 tissues, provokes the  vital efforts to the  production of  different symptoms,
 and gives  to chemical affinity an opportunity to produce  different patholo-
 gical results.  And similar causes,  all extraneous to  the vital force, produce
 the  different  manifestations  of tissue and its destruction, in measles,  rash,
 small-pox,  and all inflammatory and painful  cutaneous derangements. 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
83
  303.  Mucous Membrane.   Inflammation of this membrane, wherever situ-
ated, is excited by various causes; but the disease consists essentially in the
too great relaxation and  excitement of the secernents, and the  consequent
contraction of the absorbents;  so that, instead of discharging mere mucus,
as in health, it discharges coagulable lymph with the mucus, and  this is
called muco-purulent matter.   In the eye this can be seen forming abnormal
blood-vessels, and  supporting a semi-vital  membrane that covers the sclerotic
coat of  the inner canthus  to the iris, and sometimes extends entirely over the
pupil, producing blindness.   In these cases, the indication is to equalize the
circulation over the whole system, by means of a vapor bath and anti-spas-
modic   and  soothing drinks,  and to check  the determination to the part
affected, by the use directly of cold water and  astringent lotions, constantly
applied.  A  strong astringent to this parasitic tissue, applied for  some days,
while the surface is kept freely open and the  bowels healthy, will so close it
as to obliterate the false vessels, stop the  exudation  into them  of  blood and
coagulable lymph, when,  having lost their vital support, they will decompose,
and  may be wiped away with a silk handkerchief.   In the inflammation of
the alvine canal, aromatics and mild astringents should  be used, as drinks
and  enemas,  in connection with the bath.   In the lungs,  inhalation of
astringent aromatics, as witch-hazel.  While these astringents are  given, care
must be taken to warm and  relax the surface, and invite away the circulation
from within.   If  tormina or pain within occur, the astringents  should be
omitted, and baths, aromatics and nervines used, till the astringents give no
uneasiness, when they may  be repeated.

   304.  Bronchitis.   This is inflammation of  the  lining membrane  of the
bronchial tubes.  Here we have access to the part  affected; but what treat-
ment does it need?   The  abstraction of blood, not from the body, but from
that tissue;  and this is effected by exciting other tissues to high action, espe-
cially the external surface.   Meanwhile, care should be taken  to  soothe the
irritated membrane by inhaling relaxing  and aromatic vapors or  gases, and
taking these and mucilaginous substances  internally.

   304 a.  Enteritis is a name given to an inflamed condition of the mucous
membrane of the intestines.   It will do for the whole alvine canal.  In this
case,  the blood is accumulated beyond  the necessary-, healthful measure,
in the internal canal.   If  morbific agents within have excited and called it
forth, they should be removed by emetics and enemata.  If  the irritation
was without, as in a cold, and the blood  forced to  the center, it is likely to
be of the congestive order; but if it commenced by irritation of the internal
canal direct,  it is more likely to be of the active kind.   Both cases require
the same character of treatment, viz., the relaxation and stimulation of the
surface and the soothing  and cooling of the alvine canal, and  astringing it,
if necessary.

   305.  Serous  Membranes.   In inflammation  of  the serous membranes,
having  no access to them, we must be  content to depend wholly on the
general equalization of the circulation, without any local applications; and
we find that the All-Wise " Former of our bodies, and Father of our spirits"
was  aware of this, and so  constructed those membranes, and gave them a
recuperative  power so great, that if we do all we can, where we can, they will
need none.   Thus we find it quite as easy to cure  pleurisy or peritonitis, as
bronchitis and enteritis;  or erysipelas and scarlatina; and, while Allopathy 
84
ALLOPATHY EXPOSED.
acknowleges that her depleting and antiphlogistic  treatment  often tails, and
sometimes kills,  the Physio-Medical treatment, faithfully applied, never fails
in cases of a good constitution, taken  at the access.   In over twenty years
extensive practice, we have never lost a case of  pleurisy, peritonitis, phren-
itis, bronchitis,  enteritis,  erysipelas, scarlatina,  rubeola,  nor A^anola,  when
we were the only physician in the cases, and only tAvo or three of them all
when we had "any part or lot" in the treatment.

   306.  Pericarditis, Pleuritis and Peritonitis are names used to indicate
the state called inflammation of the smooth membrane that lines the cavities
containing the heart, lungs,   stomach,  and bowels—viz., accumulation of
blood, Avith excitement in that membrane.
   It is caused by abstracting, too  suddenly, and in too great quantity, the
heat from the external surface (and sometimes the lungs, by breathing  chilly
air, and even the alvine membrane, by eating ice  and drinking ice water),
and thus contracting the caliber of the external  and the mucous capillaries,
so as  to make  them refuse admission  to the blood, and compel the heart to
send it to the internal serous membranes.
   Here it is evident that  no  direct application  can  be made, as in the case
of the mucous  surfaces.   The treatment must be  directed  wholly to the
equalizing  of the circulation, by the  relaxation of the external and the
mucous surface.
   Blood-letting reduces the quantity of the blood, but does  not equalize its
distribution.   It also reduces the power of the tissues to recover their equi-
librium of  action, and therefore does  much harm and  no good.  Many die
because of it, who would recover without it.

   307.  Arachnitis.  In arachnitis,  inflammation  of the arachnoid membrane,
that which divides the cavity of the  cranium,  so as to present one surface
toward  the  dura-mater, or  lining membrane of  the  skull,  and  the  other
toward  the  pia-mater, which  covers the surface and the convolutions of the
brain, and involves between its plates  nearly all the blood-vessels that sup-
port   and  those  that purify the brain,  we have a locality of inflammation
entirely beyond the reach of  any external application.   Blood-letting,  to the
utmost extent to which the  power of  life would permit, would reduce  the
strength and fullness of the  pulse, but would not restore the equilibrium,
which is the only cure.   It may be said that many have recovered under it.
So they have, but in spite of  it.  The recovery was effected  by keeping the
surface and lower extremities warm, and giving diffusive stimulants, which
would have done it much better before the blood was extracted,  and saved
the health and strength of the patient  in  the cases that recovered, and the
lives  of thousands that have been wholly sacrificed to this barbarous practice.

   308.  In Scrofula and  Cancer, the morbific cases are not so irritating to
the nerves, as those of ulcers and boils, and hence we have the swellings and
chemical  suppurations, and  sometimes gangrene, without much  heat and
pain.   In scrofula  the morbid cause is somewhat corrosive, and hence avc
have  often open  ulcers and suppuration.   In cancer, the morbific cause is not
corrosive ; it accumulates and remains a long time without  producing any
great disturbance, till it finally checks altogether circulation in the tissues hi
which it is imbedded, when chemical, having the  advantage over vital action
destroys the tissue.  Hence,  too,  the open cancer often remains  for a long
time  about at a stand, the battle between life and death being nearly  equal. 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
85
But, in all these cases,  the  inflammatory act is  the  same.  In scrofulous
tumors the abscess lancet will  open them, and nature will cast out all the
matter ; in cancers, it is  necessary to use  some severe escharotic or astrin-
gent to remove that which clings so tenaciously to its location, that unassisted
nature cannot disengage  it.   Hence the cancer plasters, till the morbific
matter  is removed, and  the poultices to cleanse, and the salves to heal the
wound,—that is, to  protect  it  from injury and keep it  soft and moist till
nature heals it.

  309. Cancers.  When the morbific matter is not corroding to the living,
healthy and freely acting tissue, it obstructs  only mechanically and  forms a
tumor which may exist a long time in the tissue, without producing lesion.
This is called the cancer.   Little inflammation is manifest, till lesion is pro-
duced by  artificial means, or the  pressure becomes so great as to entirely
prevent circulation,  when suppuration  will  commence as in  case  of the
splinter, and will continue with inflammatory action, till all the obstructing
material is  removed, when  it  will heal as  kindly as  the same constitution
would, if a  splinter  had  been thrust there and withdrawn.  But all these
distinctions are to be ascribed to the different characters of the exciting causes,
and the different states of the system in which they are excited.  All that
can be called inflammation in any of these cases, is the accumulation of blood
with excitement in the tissues,  and whatever of granulation is produced, is
the result of the conservative action of the vital force, designed, as Hunter
says,  to bring about a reinstatement of the parts to nearly their healthy con-
dition (42).

  310. Ulcers, Boils.   In cases in which the circulation  is so obstructed by
internal morbific matter, as to induce suppuration without the aid of a bruise,
&c, the matter so accumulated is sometimes very corrosive, decomposing
promptly, all  the  tissues, even  the bones  (142, 143, 148 to 151) and pro-
ducing that species of complete  destruction called an abscess—an ulcer.   If
the material is not quite  so destructive, it  may remove the muscular tissue
first, and afterward the fibrous,  in the shape of what is called a core, as seen
in boils.
  If inflammation and suppuration  occur in  some conditions of the system,
they are called  scrofulous; if in  others erysipelatous ;  in some  cases  the
inflammation is  called acute, in others chronic, but the action is always the
same.   Thus  the  Allopathic  faculty call that which is permanent, one, in-
divisible, always the same under all circumstances, by different  names, and
give it different characters  and treatment according to its circumstances,
instead of calling it  always by the same name, and treating it always in the
same  manner, and removing every obstacle to its free and universal diffusion.

  311. Let a splinter of wood be  thrust into the flesh:  the circulation
through that point is impeded, the blood accumulates in the arteries  broken,
and excites the  tissues  surrounding the injury to an inordinate degree of
action.   The blood rushes by the impediment through anastomoses into other
arteries with still greater velocity,  producing great excitement and heat.
This heat,  combined with the moisture of the  blood, relaxes and  distends the
part, and produces the redness and swelling and often the pain, which is only
a notice given to the general  system that such a department is injured; and
all which  combined, are  what are called the  most prominent symptoms of
inflammation.   Thus the  circulation through the locality of the splinter is 
86                       ALLOPATH">  K.vl'w..-,.
arrested, while that round about it is increased, until  the arterial capillaries
are so distended as to close the absorbents by pressure, Avhen the circulation
there also is  impeded ;  but the irritation remains, and, of course,  the heat,
soreness and  pain continue.   Those  parts of the tissue that are thus deprived
of the support which a free circulation gives them before  the introduction of
the obstructing body, now become the  easy prey  of the chemical  affinity
always  resident in their elements, and  they decompose and  turn  to pus.
This loosens  the splinter which, if one end be through the surface, the pres-
sure of the tissues on it forces out.   If deep seated, the destruction continues,
and the pus accumulates, till either  it corrodes its Avay out or is removed by
artificial means.  This destruction of living tissues, and removal of the debris
or its elements, is effected, the first by chemical  action,  and the second by
vital, and is  called suppuration.   As soon as the splinter  is  removed, the
arterial  capillaries  throw into the  vacancy coagulable  lymph and blood
globules or proximate  principles  of tissue, which  are arranged in  organic
order, and the tissue wasted is rebuilt.

   312.  Fever and Inflammation.   We are now able to describe in a nutshell,
what is properly indicated by these words.  It consists essentially in the accu-
mulation of blood with excitement in a tissue.  Its usual symptoms are heat,
redness, pain and swelling ; one or more,  in many cases, imperceptible.   Its
terminations  are only  resolution;  the  casting  away of effete matter in
the course of  suppuration; and  the granulation and adhesion which are
called the healing process.
   Therefore,  inflammation is not disease, but nature's efforts to prevent and
cure disease,  and should not be subdued but aided in our practice.
   Suppuration and gangrene often improperly attributed to inflammation, are
the results of chemical action (280,  284).
   Hence it is not wonderful that they who call  it disease and  strive to sub-
due  it in practice, should never learn what it is, nor what is  " disease, nor
what is a suitable retpedy" (Rush 6).
   313.  Fulfillment of my promise.  "Fallacies of the Faculty."   Quackery.
I think  I  have noAv written enough (though under very unfavorable circum-
stances, with a jaded intellect  and in odds and ends  of time chiefly occupied
with other subjects of thought and action, as business and professional avo-
cations) to convince  all the thoughtful  and candid of my  readers that the
great "Error of Errors," the  fatal "fallacy of the  faculties" of Allopathy,
has ever been the  adoption  in  practice of the doctrine that  irritation, fever
and inflammation are  essentially different from each  other, and all entitled to
the appellation of disease, and treated  according to this doctrine.   I have
shown  clearly enough, that  the  reason  why they cannot comprehend  its
nature (35) nor its tendency (19) ;  nor the character and tendency (20 and
78 to 151) of the remedies used to  cure  it, is because they refuse to recog-
nize and treat it as "a salutary operation,"  "for the restoration of injuries,"
"an effort of nature,"  "of only one kind," "curative," &c.  (42).  But,
condemning  it as constituting the  " orders of disease that make up the great
amount of human maladies and form the grand outlets of life !" (41), they
must, of course,  contend against its action, with  means and "measures"
which their  experience informs them are the most effectual to  subdue it.
Hence the deadly narcotics for the nerves; the lancet for the  circulation, and
mercury to " regulate the secretions," and "control  adhesive inflammation."
have ever been their trinity of remedies for this tri-headed monster—this 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED,,
87
 " irritatio-febrile inflammation,"  (all exhibited at once in phrenitis) called
 disease.   Hence,  too, the united warfare of Allopathy and  all her dutiful
 children, against giving to a sick patient any thing  that will  excite " this
 disease," such as cayenne, ginger, or other spices ;  or even the most pleasant
 drinks, or other nutritious aliment.   Hence their warfare against vapor baths,
 exercise, and even cheerful company—which all "excite that  terrible hydra-
 headed dragon, fever, whose " nature," character, " course and termination,"
 are " still problems in" their " medical science" (28 to 38).
   Here,  it seems to me that I might, with a good grace, bid Allopathy fare-
 well ;  but I am met with an answer in the shape of an  alternative with which
 I  shall yet have  much to do, and therefore I  may as well attack it at once,
 and break the  force of its future opposition.   The alternative to which 1
 allude, is the one to which all sensible  and scientific men repair, when they
 have no  true principles to guide them—I mean the final resort:—

   314.  Experience.   By experience is meant that  information  or those
 conclusions, habits or feelings which we derive from observation and demon-
 stration.   These are, indeed, the only means  we possess of making sure to us
 the knowledge of any thing ; and, if conducted on right principles, and in a
 natural or scientific manner, they are infallible.  When perfect in character,
 and sufficient in extent to grasp examples that illustrate all its doctrines, they
 soon make manifest and certain to the experimenter, the true  principles that
 constitute the science.  If therefore, the Doctors have no science  (1 to 18),
 it must be because their experience is false (19), having been conducted with
 one end in view,  by the aid of means that  tend to another.   They have
 labored to cure disease with means that tend to make it, and to kill. How long
 must they experiment in this way,  to learn the science of life, and the art
 of  healing?   How long before they can say  any thing else than, "fallax
 experienlia /"  (19).   How long before they learn any thing of " the action of
 external  agents on the body" (20) ; whether they are killing or  curing their
 patient (20, 27); whether they are  or  are  not " multiplying diseases and
 increasing their mortality ?"  (26).
   But let ms not be  satisfied  with  asking such  "hard  questions."    Let  us
 give the  answer in the one short word—never/ and proceed  to show them
 Avhat they are slow to learn—the character and  tendency of their chief
 "remedial agents," and the consequent evil influence of their  "Experience."
   Having no science  (4)  or demonstrated principles  (5), Allopathists "go
 for experience," (Prof. Harrison, Rec. vol. x, p.  10.) and yet,  notwith-
 standing their experience has taught them that opium, lancets and mercury
 will surely kill a well man, if they give them  freely,  they still  call it false
 (19).  Hippocrates said "Fallax experientia."   And Abercrombie and Jack-
 son repeat the slander (19).   On the other hand, they declare that even the
 most nutritious food and pleasantest  drinks may become poison Avhen given
 to a sick person  (Dr. Locke on Toxicology).
   Even my excellent friend, and, in many respects colaborer in  medical re-
 form, Avho has learned, by experience, most surely, that antimony, opium and
 calomel,  "are absolutely poisons," and that  water and coarse bread, rasp-
 berries and cranberries are absolutely nutritious and  remedial, not having
 got rid of the erroneous idea that  "fever is  both  a disease and a sanative
 effort," &c, (Discus) joins them in the condemnation  of the very means by
 which he acquired all the  knowledge he possesses as a guide  to  the  true
character and action of any thing between opium  and calomel, and "grits" 
88
ALLOPATHY  EXPOSED,
and cranberries!   Experience,  he thinks, has nothing to do with  settling
such questions.  It is purely "a question of science"  or knowledge.  Pray
what are any sciences but the fruits of discovery and experiments?
   Let us therefore learn from observation and the experiments of somebody,
if not ourselves, what are the character and tendency of the remedial agents
of Allopathy.   But let us not, like others, be deceived by a wrong interpre-
tation of the facts  of experience.

   315.  The cliaracter and action  of remedial agents.   We here see clearly
the reason why medical men of the Allopathic school,  have never been able
to determine the character of agents (20), or their modus operandi on the
system (20, 85 to  89) ; Avhether they should call them food or medicines or
poisons  (98); whether sometimes  one and sometimes the other (96).   Com-
pare 49 to 54, Avith 55 to 70, also 71 to 73 with  74 to 79.   Lastly, 78  to 84
with 85 to 151, and it will be seen that the greatest confusion of ideas, and
uncertainty of knowledge, even of matters that can be  observed by every
body, prevail among medical men of  the highest distinction in regard to the
above subjects.
   As all irritants  may excite that accumulation of blood and action which
constitutes fever, if any are administered,  in   moderate  quantities, when
there is power in the system to defend itself against their mischievous action,
and get rid of them, they are called "good remedies;"  but, if the system is
feeble and yields to their  deadly grasp, the same agents are called poisonous,
mischievous, destructive.

   316. Remedies the cause of disease.   Of 135 forms of disease described by
Prof. Eberle in his "Theory and Practice," he gives, among the causes of forty-
two, some of the very remedies he reeoinmends to cure these and others.
   Dr. Dunglison,  in his Theory  and Practice, gives to  a few of the  Sam
sons of Allopathy, Ariz:  Mercury, Lead,  Arsenic,  Tobacco, Blood-letting,
Rye-spur (secale cornutum), Copper, Antimony, Cantharides, Opium, Nux
Vomica, Strychnia, Brucia, Alcohol and Acupuncturation, the credit of pro-
ducing thirty of the vvorst forms  of disease with which the human  body is
afflicted, and yet  he Avas far too  cautious of the reputation of poisons, and
too ignorant of  their real character and action, to do  half justice to the sub-
ject.  They are the chief causes of many other forms of disease, as dyspep-
sia, diarrhea, dysentery,  scrofula, apoplexy, herpes,  phthisis, and a host of
other forms  of disease not named among their evil effects by either him or
Dr. Eberle, though each of these gentlemen  enumerates some that the  other
does not, and omits some that the  other names as caused by the "remedies."
   How valuable  must be the remedies  that produce such a list of  terrible
forms of disease, especially as many of them  are never seen in persons who
have not had the honor to have  been treated by the Allopathic faculty!
   Hoav can  they ever learn what  are  "suitable medicines" (6), while they
persist in treating every form of disease Avith deadly poisons and destructive
instruments ?

   317.  Blood-letting.  As a remedy in fever and inflammation, in the legiti-
mate Allopathic practice, "blood-letting ranks pre-eminently the first" (Mar-
shall Hall (50).  "The  best because the most effective"  (Clutterbuck 51).
"The most proper  mode  of  depletion"  (Paine 52).   "The  sheet anchor of
hope" (Paine 54).   "No substitute can be found or desired for it"  (More-
head 53).                                                        v 
CRITICISED AND  CORRECTED.
89
  Can any remedy have higher recommendations?  Would not the Allopathic
practitioner who  neglected to bleed a case of fever or inflammation, deserve
severe censure from  the faculty, whether he lost it or not?  Is it right in
any case to trifle with  uncertain means when we have a remedy for which
"no substitute can be found or  desired?"   Thank God, many Allopathic
doctors have, from their observation  and experience of its  deadly results,
ventured to reject it altogether, and to resort to means that are  suitable and
effective.
  But, as this is not Allopathy, we will examine carefully the therapeutic
operation  of blood-letting, and see how far it merits our attention.
  In  the  first place, in fever and general inflammation, the  digestion and
nutrition  are usually suspended, while the  wear and tear of  the system are
increased.   It  is therefore important that the tissues should have the benefit
of all the  nutritious matter already  in the blood, till the  equilibrium is
restored.
  But blood-letting takes away a portion of this nutritious  matter, and thus
becomes, as Hunter says, " one of the greatest weakeners "  (55), for which,
as Professor  Morehead  says, " no remedy remains  for  counteracting or
removing the injuries which  it has inflicted" (60).
  Secondly.   The removal of blood  permits the capillaries of the arteries to
contract  still  more, and this contraction is the  greatest where the vessels
are the least debilitated by too long excitement; hence the  irregularity of
the circulation is still the same if not greater, certainly no less ;  and from
this contraction of  the vessels " to adapt  themselves to the measure of blood
that  remains," there arise a " nervous irritation," a " palpitation  of  the
heart, a pulsation of the arteries," that "add as largely to the exhaustion as
the depletion  that produced them" (67), till, by being bled "again and
again," by the ignorant, reckless operator, the patient expires, a victim "to
the treatment  instead of the  disease" (J. M. Good, 67).
  Thirdly.  As the capillaries are diminished by the removal of the pressure
of the blood  from their elastic coats, the  globules adhere  to those coats
and to each other, and  soon block up these vessels, and produce the very
stagnation which the  blood-letting is perpetrated with intention to prevent.
  Fourthly.   Immediately on the stagnation of the blood, a change in  its
composition commences ; and, because of this well known fact, blood-letting
is recommended to prevent this stagnation  and keep  it pure and healthy  !
It is practiced  to prevent or relieve plethora in pregnant  women, and men
disposed to apoplexy.   But  I have shown  that it tends, by its weakening
influence, to produce  stasis, and  of  course deterioration, as  any one  can
observe in the  cases of persons who are thus  bled, or of those who suffer
often from spontaneous hemorrhage from the mucous tissues.
  Fiftldy.  By reducing the quantum of that fluid, blood-letting both dimin-
ishes and depraves all the secretions of the system.   In whatever light we
view  it, then, blood-letting  tends  directly to  the destruction of some  im-
portant sustenance or function, consequently to death rather than to life.

  318. Mercurializing.   Inflammation is indispensable to the healing of a
wound (42 to 44); but mercury prevents this healing process by  "stopping
the effusion of coagulable lymph," the only means of healing wounds (92);
"controlling  adhesive  inflammation" (81).  It "limits or removes affu-
sions" (84).  " Deranges the vital forces" (93).   Takes the place of the dis-
ease (U. S. Dispensatory, 94.).  It  "promotes scrofula and glandular diseases 
90
ALLOPATHY  EXPOSED,
and hastens decomposition"  (95).   " It is a powerful  depressor  of the
energies of life, and demolishes the  very pillars of human health" (96).  "A
Samson to do evil'' (McLellan's Surgery, 105).   "It produces  delirium,   #
palsy and epilepsy" (Bell, 99).   "Destroys the red blood,  pulls down parts
of the building" (Watson, 109).  Destroys the  glands (124) and  the bones
  100,  141),  and "for ever deprives the patient of a perfect restoration"
  Good,  119).   See Nos.  78 to 151,  particularly  146 and 148 to 151.
   If  mercury produces such effects as these,  it may well be pronounced
"the great anti-febrile,  anti-inflammatory alterant of the  materia medica"
(78), since all its alterations tend to death, and destruction of even the bones,
which the very grave will spare and preserve, if it receives them before they
are decomposed  by mercury.  If it is anti-febrile and anti-inflammatory, it
must be so because fever and inflammation tend to health. Be that as it may,
it would seem scarcely  probable that any man with his  eyes open  to  the
above effects of this "greatest and best remedy divine goodness ever revealed
in answer to the diligent search of man" (78), would desire to enjoy these
effects, as "substitutes" for  the fever and inflammation (93, 143).

   318 a. Of the aids to mercury, in its great work of " controlling inflam-
mation," I need only say of antimony, digitalis, &c, that they are merely
humble followers in the same great labor of " demolishing the very pillars of
human health."   They work after the same  manner, and to the same end,
as their great predecessor, in the battle of disease  and death against  the
powers of health and life.
   319.  Narcotizing—Opium.   But, let us now take notice  of that  other
"magnum Dei donum (great gift of God), for the relief of human  suffering"
(Harrison),  " more extensively employed than any other single article of the
materia  medica" (71) 'ifor the  relief of nervous  irritation in its various
forms"—this  "foreign  substance," which is "contrary  to  nature,"  and
"makes inflammation of  the brain  and of the stomach and bowels worse,"
perhaps incurable" (74); "never  to  be  got rid of perhaps through life"
(74);  a means  by which "innumerable  infants  have  been  irretrievably
ruined" (Eberle,  76); a  remedy (?) by which  seven times as much mis-
chief as good has been  done  on the  great theater of its  use  (76 b); that
" dangerous sedative,  as deceptive as the serpent of Eden, and its effects  too
often equally fatal" (76 c).
   Now, as "irritation" is considered a dangerous "disease," calculated to
"exhaust the  vital powers," as much as blood-letting  does (67/), it seems
rather strange that a drug so mischievously exhausting as opium and its like
are described to be, should be recommended to keep up vital action and restore
health.  If opium  deadens the nervous system, and checks, through it,  the
circulation, including the secretions and  excretions,  and therefore  prevents
the healthy purification of the body,  retaining the morbific  and  ingested
agents within it, and the  blood to stagnate, and all to be decomposed, and
thus in  their  elementary  state  to  become  corrosive  agents, engines of mis-
chief to the system, can  it be  desirable  to procure a temporary relief  from
suffering, by  the substitution of the sedation of narcotics for the "irritation"
of the nerves, by which  alone they and all the  rest of the system are pre-
served from destruction?   Yet such is  the uniform—the unavoidable effect,
whenever  opium is given to allay irritation!   Being "contrary to  nature"
(74 b),  it can not reasonably be expected to aid nature  in the removal of
disease.
 
OKi'llCISED AND CORRECTED.
91
  Here, then, it is manifest, both  from the testimony and the experiments
of its best friends,  that opium is indeed "as deceptive as  the serpent of
Eden,  and too often equally fatal" (76 c).  Other narcotics are similar in
nature, and, of course, produce the same effects!
  320.  Of the minor operations of Allopathy, such as cupping,  leeching and
blistering,  I  need say but little,  except that they are considered by their
advocates, hand-maids and helps-meet, to the cardinal practice of depleting,
mercurializing and narcotizing.  Except leeching,  they are  based  on the
correct principle  of  counter-irritation, and Avould  be good but for the fact
that they are  so  circumscribed, and effected by such means,  that they do
more mischief than they relieve.    Cupping, leeching  and blistering  destroy
texture, and leeching and blistering inflict on the body poisonous effects as
well as wounds which it is often difficult to eradicate.  Phlebitis and stran-
gury are  among  the very pleasant effects  of leeching and  blistering, and
gangrene and death have many a time succeeded both.

   321.  Good food and medicines rejected.  As good food always excites the
action of  the tissues of  digestion,  it increases a fever; of course  they who
believe fever to be disease,  will condemn good food as poison.   Dr. Locke,
in his Lecture on Toxicology, says that even our most approved articles of
food, may become poisonous  by  concentration  or  injudicious use.    As a
chemist he ought to know that their character can  never be altered  while
they retain the same constitution, whatever may be the conditions of the
system to which they are administered.  And as a physiologist and a physi-
cian, he ought to know that, to make them act in a proper manner, that is,
according to their nature, he should remove the wrong conditions of the
system.   Good medicines are condemned for the same reason.
   322.  The great error of Allopathists in deciding  on  the  character of a
remedy as sanative or destructive, physiological or  pathogenetic, consists in
their not ascertaining whether the  remedy invites and aids irritation, inflam-
mation and fever, or provokes them to make efforts to expel it.   The former
are sanative,   "curative;"   the  latter  are  pathogenetic, "destructive"—
"poisonous," not so by quantity and injudicious use, but by nature and
tendency,  in any quantity and by any use.
   And all systems that involve the same errors in regard to these vital mani-
festations, involved  the same  error,  however circumscribed their  action on
the  system.   We  here learn that  all the reform there is in the systems
that involve any violence or poisons, consists merely in the more limited appli-
cation of them, but not  in the correction of the principle, and of course, are
liable at all times to  fall back  to the old extreme.   These are  not radical and
permanent reforms.
   323.  Medical Reasoning.   Professor J. P.  Harrison said, "We do not
 reason on medicine as we do  on other subjects."   "Disease  is an unnatural
condition, and must  be met Avith an unnatural remedy."   (Vol. X  Recorder,
No. 1).
   It is even so.  Hemorrhage must be stopped by blood-letting, diarrhea by
physic, salivation by mercury, and stupidity must be roused by opium ! !
But all these "doctrines" and practices arise from their ignorance  of or dis-
obedience to  physiological  laAvs, and the character and action of these their
favorite "remedies !"  And all this false or unique  "reasoning," arises from
the one fundamental error inserted as a postulate in their medical syllogism. 
92
ALLOPATHY EXPOSED,
viz., "irritation, fever and inflammation are disease"—"the three orders
of it that make up the great amount of human maladies and  form the grand
outlets of life" (41).                                               .
  They reason thus:  "Diseases should be  cured [very true].   Irritation,
fever, and inflammation are diseases [false].   Therefore these must be cured"
[false].
  If the second postulate were true, the  third would be legitimate, and the
practice of depleting and narcotizing, mercurializing, freezing and  starving
Avould  be scientific and successful.
  I have proved that these are not the disease, and of course, not the affections
to be cured.   But they admit the error without proof, or rather against their
own positive declarations (42, 43,  45) and  their  conclusive demonstrations
(44, 206 b).  Yet they go on—"progress !"  "If disease, fever, irritation,
&c, must be cured, it must be cured with something that  will cure it" (not
with that which will excite and increase it.  Having no positive science (4),
they go in for experience, which is no better (19).   "All experience shows
that opium and other narcotics will allay and check irritation (71, 73); and
that the lancet and sedative poisons, as digitalis, antimony and mercury, will
reduce fever and inflammation (53, 54, 78 to 84), and that  ice  and starva-
tion will complete the business of subduing what we  dare not effect by
depletion.   Therefore,
  "These are our remedies for irritation, fever and inflammation!"
  Again,
  "Vapor baths, air, food, stimulants, as cayenne, ginger,  spices, &c, in-
crease  irritation, fever and inflammation  (which are disease), therefore these
are  proscribed !"
  But, lastly,
  "We find that sometimes disease (irritation, fever and inflammation) cures
itself, or is cured  by the very stimulants above  proscribed !   Therefore, we
believe that they are sometimes sanative (44) and sometimes  destructive"
(38, 40, 41), and that, of course,  lancets and  cayenne,  lobelia and calomel,
asarum and opium, hot water  and ice, feeding and starvation, are, like  the
particles,  very, large, long, and short, in language, destitute  of  any qualities
of  their own, but dependent  on their relations to other things !  They are
all poisons or good medicines, according to the injudicious or judicious use
made of them ! that is, as the patient dies or lives, "post hoc" (after their
administration)!   " They are all good medicines in skillful hands;"  that is,
the hands that have never learned whether they are, in their nature, poison-
ous or destructive, sanative or healing !  But the  most innocent of them are
rendered very dangerous and destructive by the simple rejection, by the ad-
ministrator, of the doctrine that irritation, fever and inflammation are disease,
and the using of them according  to the notion that  these  affections are
" physiology  deranged."   Such is the " reasoning" of Allopathy !  and well
did Prof. Harrison say it is " not as on other subjects."
   It can  scarcely excite  surprise  in any reflecting mind that has  perused
carefully the preceding pages, that from such premises and such a course of
reasoning, medical men should have come to the conclusion that " Allopathic
medicine is not a  science for a methodical mind,  but a shapeless assemblage
of  inaccurate ideas and deceptive  remedies," &c. (4), and that, owing to
their "ignorance  of disease and of a suitable remedy" (6), their  practice
being a dangerous speculation (24), should generally " multiply diseases and
increase their mortality" (26). 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
93
  324.  Quackery.  Before  I  dismiss this part of my subject, I  will most
cheerfully admit that some of the clinical practice of many Allopathic physi-
cians not only does  not  deserve the  above condemnation, but  merits  the
cordial approbation and support of evow philanthropist, being attended with
uniformly good results.  I  have seen such;  but, when I examined its char-
acter, I found it to consist of the judicious application of innocent remedies,
which wrought according to  their nature, whatever might be  the notions of the
doctor who had adopted their use because he had observed that they produced
a better effect than the " legitimate" means and processes of the Allopathic
system, which are depletion and sedation, or stimulation with deadly agents,
as narcotics.  But this, in them, is quackery, not  being in  accordance with
the doctrines  of their science !

   324 a.  As  to the Allopathists' using anti-poison remedies, such a course
does not  prove any  thing for Allopathy, because they,  not  being "anti-
inflammatory" agents, can not cure according to the "regular" logic  (323).
If fevers sometimes cure themselves, it  is because  they remove the obstacles
to their free action, and if good medicines sometimes cure them, it is because
they remove the obstructions "which render the fever necessary"  (Hunter).
If poisons seem to cure, it is  because the system cures itself by its efforts to
expel them !   A pure Allopathy can  not use an agent innocent in character,
because such  agents aid fever instead of opposing it.
   Did I believe  its  doctrines  concerning irritation  and  inflammation,  I
should not, in any case,  use  the remedies I  now do.  I  should call that
quackery.   I should  obey Dr.  Dewees's direction in the treatment of puer-
peral fever.   I should bleed till " the disease" was " subdued, or the  patient
expired"—both which, admitting the fever to be disease, would occur at the
same time and from the same cause !

   325.  Reform in Allopathy.    Although many Allopathic  physicians reject
blood-letting in part,  and  not a feAV  almost, and some  quite alvfays; though
some reject mercury almost entirely, and others use far less than they did,
though even  opium is not  used so  freely as it once was, yet  such reforms
have often been made and  abandoned,  while the doctrine has  remained the
same; yet I am still constrained to believe, with the distinguished Dr. Forbes
of London, and Professor Henderson of Edinburg, that Allopathic medicine,
as now practiced throughout the civilized world, and especially in the United
States, does far more mischief  than good.  Some persons  have taken 250
grains of calomel and lived, others have taken three grains and died of mer-
curialis;  while yet others innumerable, have been ruined for  life by taking
the  commonly authorized doses; and  the same is true  of the  lancet and
opium;  so that, on the whole, no consideration would  induce me, when sick,
to submit my  case to the care of a consultation of a dozen of the most learned
Allopathic doctors in any city  of this country.   I look upon the whole Allo-
pathic practice as a source of  misery and premature death, that has n<3t a
parallel in the sword, the  pestilence  and intemperance  united.   It slays alike
all classes  of  society, young and old, and fills the  land  with chronic and
incurable misery.

   326. The modus operandi of remedies not discovered.  A most  deplorable
defect in all medical " proceedings," is, that their authors have failed, in their
own estimation, to learn  the modus operandi of their remedies  (20, 4, 60,
62, 64, 68, 70, 74,75, 76, 85 to 89). 
94
ALLOPATHY  EXPOSED,
  326 a.  Thus blood-letting is pronounced " emphatically the remedy (53),
and yet the same author, Morehead says (60),  " alway, serious,  not unfre-
quently fatal  effects  but too surely follow its misapplication ;" then " no
remedy  remains  for counteracting aad  removing  the  injuries  Avhich it has
inflicted"—and,  consequently,  " it deserves to be viewed Avith somewhat
of the abhorrence that  attaches to the knife of  the  murderer ;" and yet
Professor  Thacher tells us "we have no infallible index to direct us" in the
use of it.
  326 b.  Opium is said to be " treacherous"  (76) and  "deceptive" (78),
and about the modus operandi of mercury there is "an  inscrutable mystery"
(130 to 143).

  326 c. Mercury. " Of the modus operandi of mercury, we knoAv nothing,"
cfcc. (93, 94, 95,  96).

  327.  The modus operandi explained.   Noav  Avith all due deference to the
careful observation and far reaching powers of the constituted guardians of
the public health, I must beg leave to express my honest  conviction, that
they  do themselves  and the sciences  of  chemistry and physiology great
injustice here.   I think they have learned most clearly the modus operandi
of their medicines.  They have  shown that  the direct tendency of blood-
letting is to " take away not only an organ of life, but a portion of life itself"
(56), for  which  "injury" no " remedy remains" (60).   That it both kills
by  taking away   " the blood thereof, which is the life  thereof;" and injures
the constitutions of those that escape Avith life, by so weakening the force of
life in the remnant of the circulation,  that the  balance,  not able to overcome
the chemical affinity resident in its elements, yields to that affinity and is so
nearly overcome  by it as to be unable  to  perform its duty fully, of keeping
up  a  proper action, heat and distention of the  superficial capillaries which
have " contracted to adapt themselves to the measure of blood that remains"
(67), till they become so firmly condensed that this "measure (venesection)
is never able to restore the balance of free circulation ; and the patient finally,
sometimes after many years,  "gives up the ghost to the treatment instead of
the  disease" (67).
  I knew an excellent man,  a physician of the Allopathic school, who Avas
treated in 1822, Avith blood-letting, opium, &c, for phrenitis, or inflammation of
the brain.  The evil results of the blood-letting continued Avith him till 1844,
22  years,  when  he left them in  the grave !  Whenever  his general health
began to improve, the blood sought access to the superficial capillaries ; but
they, being permanently contracted below the proper caliber, resisted it.  Of
course it  was directed  to the soft and relaxed mucous  membrane of the
bowels which, being paralyzed by opium and rotted by calomel, gave way to the
pressure, and to dysentery and flux, and finally gangrene and death !  /These
were the results of the modus operandi of these three agents combined!
  Mercury acts  by  decomposing chemically  the  tissue, as in  rotting "the
gums, the glands and the  bones," and "demolishing the very pillars of
health."  It poisons to death the blood, and thus " prevents  adhesive in-
flammation ;'.' and when it can not kill outright, it so checks vital action as to
"produce rheumatism"  and "incurable paralysis."
   They have shoAvn that opium is "contrary to nature," "a hurtful sub-
stance" which produces, in infants, an ill-conditioned state of the nervous
system that never, through all subsequent life, is entirely got rid of" (74) • 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
95
but " irretrievably ruins" them, and that it does seven mischiefs where it does
one good ;  being too often as fatal to the body as sin to the soul (76).
  But perhaps some will say " this is what it does, but not the how it acts."
Suppose the objection were true, must  they, after  they  have learned that
lancets, opium and mercury positively kill when they give enough of them,
and that this enough is often but a very inconsiderable portion of what they
often  do give, and recommend.   After all this, I ask, must  they know how
they kill before  they cease to use them for that purpose ?  If so,  let  them
consult the articles on the  subject in this work—blood-letting, opium, mer-
cury, and they will learn how they act, as well as that they do act.
  It is easy to see that " ignorance of disease"  must lead directly to " ignor
ance of a suitable remedy."  While medical men count fever disease, they
must seek for it " a suitable  remedy" (6).  As  fever tends to life and health,
the suitable remedies for it, must  tend to disease and death.  Hence "all
their best remedies are" and must be " virulent poisons" (Hooper, Die.) is a
logical deduction from their premises that fever is disease, and fever must
be cured (323).   Lancets and poisons are the only scientific Allopathic reme-
dies ; all others are both empyrical and  improper, in the hands of a believer
in the  fever-disease doctrine, no matter to what denomination of medical
men he may belong.   So long, then, as  men regard the vital manifestations
termed irritation, inflammation and fever, as disease, so long they will  be
" ignorant of a  suitable  remedy" for disease, or a  means of removing  the
necessity for  fever—that is, of  obeying its commands—satisfying its  moni-
tions  to remove  the causes  that excite it.  A pure Allopathist can not use a
single innocent stimulant in fever.
   Let them once adopt our definition of  those  vital  manifestations, and treat
them as we do in practice, and they will no longer be guilty of the absurdity
of calling an  agent a food,  a poison or a medicine, merely because they find
it under different circumstances,  and consequently differently wrought upon.
They will  settle in their minds at once  the principle, that food is whatever
is adapted to supply the wastes  of the organism ; that poisons are whatever
possess an  inherent tendency to  paralyze or destroy a tissue, or  impede its
action, and that remedies are  all those  agents whose nature is to directly
excite the organs to the  due performance of their protective, their defensive
or their health-preserving offices.
   They would test all these  agents on the healthy state, and mark their char-
acter in accordance with their direct  tendencies.   They would discover no
"secondary action" to any "simple remedy."   That  which  purely sustains
the body, they would always call food.   That which has a native tendency to
paralyze or destroy tissue, they would always call a poison.   And that which
simply aids the vital  force in  the  performance of  exalted  action, or in re-
covering its disturbed equilibrium by promoting relaxation or lubrication, or
by removing or neutralizing foreign and injurious irritants, and "leaves no
sting behind," they would call " a medicine;" and they would neither forget
 these conclusions,  nor change their minds  concerning  them.  The things
they  would strive to alter,  would be the circumstances  which give rise to
Avhat they now  suppose to be the varied effects of those remedies, as primary
or secondary, good or bad,  as they are well or ill, timely, or untimely admin-
 istered.

   328.  What the Faculty  have  done.   The attentive reader will  perceive
 that, notwithstanding the declarations of medical men that they have learned 
96
ALLOl'AIIIY EXPOSED.
and  established nothing reliable  in relation to inflammation  or fever, they
really have carefully observed and accurately described, all its essential charac-
teristics, concomitants, modes of action and results ; also the consequences to
the system when it fails to accomplish its objects.
   As its characteristics, they have given us irritation, contraction, accumulation
of blood and heat in, and expansion and debility of, the arterial capillaries;
collapse or compression of  the venous and other absorbents, and consequent
check to absorption  and secretion  ; first excessive and then diminished flow
of blood through a part, with sometimes redness and pain; resolution, the
effusion of coagulable lymph and finally granulation or healing.
   As concomitants,  they have given the various constitutional or accidental
manifestations of  the results of its action, as the scrofulous, the tubercular,
the bilious, the erysipelatous, the scarlet,  the spotted, the yellow, the vario-
lar, rubeolar, &c, &c,  and, as results to the system, when inflammation fails
of its object, they have carefully described chemical lesion,  in the shape of
suppuration and gangrene.
   They have even regarded inflammation  in its true light, as " a reaction of
the  vital power," for the defense of the  system against the  depredations
of the causes of disease, "an act  of the constitution,"  "a sanative effort,"
"not to be called disease," but  as  "a salutary effort  of  the constitution
consequent upon some disease."   They speak of it  as essentially "a unit,"
and  declare that its object is the protection of the system against injury
threatened, and to mend up the  wounds already.inflicted (42-44) ; and this
they affirm that it always actually does, unless  prevented by the  action or
opposition of some  superior extraneous  cause.
   They pronounce it the only remedy Avith which a surgeon can ever heal a
wound (Watson,  p.  95), or a physician can ever cure a cold  or any  other
malcondition of  the system, as  there is no restoration  from prostration
without the aid of that  " reaction  " which they call fever and inflammation.
   The foregoing  quotations prove every one of these positions, to all which
[ am happy to say,  I most cheerfully subscribe.

   328 a.  What then is  the error of the faculty?   Why have they declared
that they know not  the nature of fever, and that  inflammation is  still a
problem in medical science ?
   I answer, again and again, they have summed up  all these characteristics,
concomitants and results of fever or inflammation ; and the  consequences to
the system from chemical and mechanical causes when it fails  of its object,
and given to the mass a  single name.  When the inflammation prevails, they
pronounce it defensive, sanative,  good ; when it fails, and extraneous powei
prevails, they pronounce it  "the great  mother of human maladies and  the
grand  outlet  of life."  When they guess  that  inflammation or  fever will
succeed, they encourage it; when they  fear it  will  not, they destroy  the
power of the system to produce it, and then attribute to the fever the evil of
their own doings /   How  can men ever learn the true nature and use of any
thing by constantly  violating its nature  in  their experiments upon it ?

   328 b. In short, the Allopathic faculties have believed  and taught all sorts
of doctrines, true and false ; they have tried all sorts of practices, and used
all sorts of agents, good and bad,  and have come to  the conclusion that they
have established no principle on Avhich  they can  rely (5) and  found no
remedy that  is uniformly good in  its action (20), and, that their practice is 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.                   97
no better now than it was fifty years ago (24).  They have devised the use
of the lancet, which, "for a hundred years, destroyed more lives than all that
in the same period perished by war" (58); of mercury, which "powerfully
depresses the energies of life," and "demolishes the very pillars of health
(96);  which enters the  brain and the nerves (109), and  sloughs off the
gums and cheeks (113, 108, 107), destroying "the glands and the  bones,"
and  finally produces death  under the  most revolting circumstances"  (115,
142), and of opium, which slays seven where it saves one, and continually ruins
"innumerable infants," that it does not slay outright (76).  Thus they have
"multiplied diseases and increased their mortality" (26).

   329 a.  What  the  Faculty have not done.—They have not  learned any
method of determining whether a  principle or doctrine is true or false (1,
2, 5, 8); they have learned nothing certain of the nature of disease (6), nor
of the nature of remedies (20); nor have they gathered any practical expe-
rience from the past, that is worth a rush for the future (19, 20, 21);  and,
consequently, they have  not done any thing in the way of medication that
has, on the whole, detracted one iota from the  great amount of human suf-
fering (16, 17, 18).   They are not so good practitioners as were Hippocrates
and  Galen.   They are no more scientific (in the healing art) than was Para-
celsus, nor so good Eclectics as was Boerhaave.   They are not half so suc-
cessful in practice as the  "herbalist," "root," "Indian "and "old woman"
doctors, Avhom they affect so much to  despise.  In short, they have not, in
" the healing art," come up within "four thousand years" of the spirit and
improvements of the age in which they live !   If they dispute this, let the
community challenge them  to compare notes  publicly with the " irregular
practitioners" alluded to.
   329 b. What the faculty should do, and the consequences.  They should sepa-
rate the vital force and its effects from  the mechanical  and chemical forces
and  their effects; that is, separate  irritation, fever and inflammation  from
obstruction, lesion, and mortification.   They should seek to aid those and
oppose these, and  then they would soon learn to a demonstration  Avhat is
irritation, fever, and inflammation, and what are its antagonists ; what is dis-
ease, and what are suitable remedies.  Then the doctrines of medicine would
cease to be an "incoherent assemblage  of incoherent ideas " (4), and would
become as intelligible and  "demonstrable as  those of any other natural
science" (Jackson), and its remedies, and their character and action, would
no longer be " fraught with the highest degree of uncertainty" (20), but fixed
on a basis that would " stand a tower of strength amidst the rude shock of
opposition's bursting wave through all  succeeding time"  (Whiting).   The
lancet and  poisons would be abandoned at once, and for ever, and the pro-
cesses of cure would  be conducted with means tending only to health, and
the results of their practice would be as sure as their best ordered chemical
experiments are now.   They would cure  disease whenever they had a good
constitution to work on, suitable remedies for the case, and knowledge, skill
and energy in the application; and would become indeed, what they have so
long most unjustly claimed to be,  " guardians of the public health," and the
elements of "an  honorable and benevolent profession"—men  to whom the
miserable sufferer, writhing in pain, might look Avith some good grounds of
confidence for relief from  his wretched condition!—and last, but not to be
wholly overlooked—then would " ignoramuses, quacks,  nostrums, pills and
powders" all be laid aside—rooters, herbalists, and "old women" would be
                                 7 
98
ALLOPATHY EXPOSED,
rejected, and all the business, honor and profits of the healing art would be
returned to the "legitimate" custody of those who Avould then Avell deserve
to be styled,  "the regular medical faculty!'-'   Is  not this "a consummation
devoutly to be wished?"

   330.  What I have done.   In early life, Avith most others of that day, /
siqjposed that the  Allopathic, system of  medicine involved all the science, and
the most judicious practice,  of tohich the subject ivould admit;  but,  seeing in
practice  Avhat appeared to be not only signal failures, but evidently destruc-
tive effects, I  determined to give the system a most  thorough and extensive
study, though with the  full  expectation that,  on  the whole, it would prove
itself good,  however individuals  might,  from  ignorance or  carelessness,
abuse it.
   But, taught by the  "absurdities,  contradictions and falsehoods (7) of
"the doctrines of the  schools" (6), and  the "horrid, unwarrantable and
murderous quackery" of the practitioners (142), I formed, thirty-five  years
ago, the resolution never to suffer it to be practiced upon me.   For ten years I
suffered much for the want  of a true medical  practice, till at last, in  1832,
through  Doctor Samuel Thomson, my mind  Avas brought  to  recognize the
mother error  of all medical mischief.   I made at once the proper distinction
between  fever and its opponents, and entered the battle on the side of the
former and against the latter.   I have ever found this doctrine of the  sana-
tive nature and tendency of  irritation and inflammation, a sure detector  of all
the errors of every system, both in theory and practice ; and a true test  of all
the agents of the  materia medica.
   I now  feel  the  same assurance in the truth of medical principles and the
prospective  results of remedial efforts, that I do in the principles of chemistry
and the results of its experiments.  In each  case, where the proper conditions
exist, I  am alike sure, by conducting the experiments on, to me, fixed and
well known principles, to produce the desired results;—that is, if, in the
treatment of  disease, I  have a constitution capable  of recovering,  and my
well selected  means at command, I am  as  sure of the  cure as I am of the
success of a  well-directed chemical experiment.   Indeed,  I  have actually
failed far more frequently in the latter  than in the former.   See  " Ihysio
Medical Practice."
   In 1832, I entered the medical  service, as aid-de-camp to General Fever.
With his implements of Avarfare, in the shape  of innocent relaxants, stimu-
lants, astringents, emollients, tonics, anti-septics, &c, &c, propelled by the
vital force, by electricity, by caloric, &c, I am  happy to say that  Ave  have
almost ahvays been able, in the light  of his  glorious torches, to see clearly
the opposing  combatants, and their positions and relations, and to aim a sure
and deadly shot at our enemies, Avithout injuring our friends.
   Our  Allopathic  friends  (for, as men of talents,  amiability and general
scholarship, we esteem  many of them  most  highly) appear to us  like the
Hessians of the English army of our Revolution, "surrounded by the fogs"
of mental blindness, shooting  at  random  their deadly " blue" metal (27),
thrusting forth their pointed steel blades (60), and paralyzing with  their
narcotic  arrows (76) as many of their friends as of their enemies  (patients
as well as diseases).  From our soul we pity them ;  but can scarcely forgive
them; for,  if they would study our science as  carefully, honestly, and  thor-
oughly as we do their " incoherent assemblage of incoherent ideas"(4), their
"absurdity,  contradiction,  and  falsehood" (7),  and  their   "horrid, 
CRITCISED AND CORRECTED.
99
unwarranatble, murderous quackery" (142), they would "know what they
do," and " what they ought  to do."   They would "cease to do evil  and
learn to do well," and become a blessing instead of a curse to suffering
humanity.

  331.  Before leaving the subject of  Allopathy, it is  but  just to its advo-
cates, to say that many of them—very many, in all ages, have not only dis-
covered its defects, errors and injurious tendencies and results, but have set
themselves most diligently and praiseworthily to work  to reform the system,
to supply its defects and  correct its errors and abuses.   A  place for all the
names of these would require a large volume.
  Of those who have remained among the faculty, we may name Hippocrates,
Galen,  Celsus, Boerhaave,  Lieutaud,  Broussais,  Louis,  Alibert, Bichat,
Andral,  Velpeau,  Cullen,  Brown,  Graham, Abercrombie, Hunter,  Good,
Bell,  Blundell,  Clarke,   Elliotson,  Hall, and  hosts of others in  Europe;
Thacher,  Waterhouse, Mitchell, Hosack, Paine,  Carnochan, Gallup,  Tully,
Rush,   Jackson,  Eberle, Caldwell,  Drake, and  hundreds  of  others  in
America, who have striven to reform medicine more or less extensively.
  Of those who have endeavored to revolutionize or wholly supplant it, we
may name, as the one who did it the greatest injury, the famous  Paracelsus,
the true Father of Allopathy  as it now is.   Of those who have rejected this
system in part, are Brown, Hahnemann, Graham, Lieutaud, Broussais,  Louis,
and Dixon, who adopted new plans and published new systems of medicine
differing more or less widely from Allopathy.  All these have professed to
be, to some extent Eclectic, gathering from every source what they believed
to be the best.   A writer in a late medical  journal of Philadelphia says that
two-thirds of the profession  in America have shaken off  the trammels of
authority, and "become essentially Eclectic" (Am. Jour, of the Med. Sci-
ences).   Donaldson (16), Bichat (4), Forbes (18), Hahnemann, Lieutaud,
Louis (11), Waterhouse  (13), and very many other medical men of the  first
eminence, have rejected the whole  system as  nothing, whether a substitute
be found or not (18).  Such was my course before I decided that any other
system was any better.  Allopathy is itself the strongest evidence of its own
demerits and of the justice of its condemnation.   Out of its own mouth it is
justly judged, and it is its own severest executioner. 
MEDICAL   REFORM.
  332. Mo&t nearly allied to Allopathy, (E.  M. J., Vol.  1, pp. 178 to 83),
is a practice whose advocates declare that they are '' trammeled by no dog-
ma" (principle), nor " precedent" (example) ; that they select from all other
systems what they please, adding  "the  astounding discoveries" made by
themselves ; that they are bound by no authority and responsible to none for
their faith or their acts.  (See 397, 418, 421, also circulars and  addresses
"to the public," of the Cincinnati E. M. Institute).
  They claim that this practice commenced with Dr. Wooster Beach  of NeAv
York, and progressed through Drs. T. V. Morrow, I. G.  Jones, A. H. Bal-
dridge, L. E. Jones, J. H. Oliver, H. Cox, B. L. Hill, H. P. Gatchell, John
King, G. W. Bickley, R. S. Newton  and other minor lights, for the last eight
years under the special tutelage of  the superior "literacy," " science" and
" respectability," of J. R. Buchanan, Professor of the Institutes of Medicine
in the E. M. Institute of Cincinnati—the "leading school" of that practice,
and he the leading  writer for that school!  (397).

  332 a. Having selected, from various  practices, the  remedies which  his
observation  and experience had induced  him to believe were the most effi-
cient, and  the  least  objectionable  in the  treatment of disease,  Dr. Beach
commenced in the  city of New York about the year 1829, (W. M. Ref., vol.
1 p. 5), the instruction of young men in the curative art, according to his
practice, as exhibited in his office and infirmary, and generally in that city.
  In the course of time,  the doctor gathered materials from his own expe-
rience  and that of others, in  quantity sufficient to make a book, which first
appeared in 1831,  entitled "Beach's American Practice," in 3 vol. 8vo—
W. M. Ref, vol. 1, p.  42, and vol 5, p. 119.
  This work, making great pretensions to  scientific and practical reform, in
the latter particular not without some good  degree of merit, was pretty exten-
sively  distributed  among reformers of every class, and among many of the
old school who, sick of the arrogance, quackery and mischiefs of Allopathy,
were disposed to look into any thing that promised better for the profession.
The work was afterwards abridged and published with the title of " Beach's
Family Physician."
  From this work we gather the following, as the principles that constituted
his system of reform, and governed his practice in it.

  333.  In his  seventh edition (Intro, p. xi),  Dr. Beach  says :  " The  Re-
formed or American  Practice,  combines  every  thing useful of every other
system, and  maintains that the physician is to act as the servant of nature."
  I like much this declaration;  but, on reviewing his practice, I find that
he rejects the best portions of some practices, and selects some of the worst
          (100) 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
101
of others.   For example, he rejects the transcendently "useful" course of
medicine which constitutes the greatest excellence of the Thomsonian Prac*
tice, and selects the most deadly narcotic poisons of Allopathy.  I like the
principle of " aiding nature," but am sorry to see that it is often to be main-
tained by blistering and poisoning, as I proceed to show.

   334. On page 201, he says, "The wide, the radical, the irreconcilable
difference" between his  system and  Allopathy, "consists in the various
means made use of to fulfill the indications of  cure," which we find to  be
"cupping,"  "leeching,"  "blistering," <fec, and on page 710, he says that
mercury in an ointment "for sore eyes and eruptions generally, is superior to
all others."  It is also to be applied to other parts, " swelled and inflamed,"
in an  elm poultice  (p.  549).   Will  mercury  be absorbed in such cases
(115, 101), and if so, is it not  given "internally"?
   Has it not often salivated when applied to the  head to destroy vermin, and
to ulcers to catise them to heal? (81, 92, 102,  109, 111).
   It is true that there is a wide difference between recommending mercury
for "almost every  disease" (83) and recommending  it but  very seldom,
as Dr. Beach does (710, 549);  but it is not "irreconcilable," for the prin-
ciple is the same, whether little or  much is used, and Dr. B.'s recommen-
dation of some (p. 710, 549) has been and is, and may properly be, by his
followers, taken as authority for using  as much as they may think proper.
   Many allopathists have discarded it in  toto,  but that has  not  reformed
Allopathy.
   The same is true of blood-letting (55 to 70).
   Lastly, the old school use  narcotics freely, but not more freely, nor recom-
mend them more highly, than does Dr. B., (see pages 440 and  441), where
" ten grains were prescribed every hour, till forty grains were given."  Even
the quantity  here, as  well  as the means  (the article)  is scarcely "irrecon-
cilable" with Allopathy.  Opium is recommended as successful "when all
other means fail" (p. 427).   Is it not the magnum Dei Donum, of Beachism
as well as Allopathy?  " Irreconcilable"—" radical difference," indeed !
   But then there is the Spanish fly (711) recommended—also cicuta and
deadly nightshade  (p.710); croton  oil (715, 440 and 441);  digitalis (366,
370); hyosciamus (344); tobacco  (706); niter (724); white vitrol  for eye
water (702); red lead (721), and mercury (710), in salves ; corrosive subli-
mate  in yellow Avash (730).   What an  "irreconcilable difference" there
must  be between the use of all these and other deadly poisons  by the faculty,
and by Dr. Beach, when he recommends them as freely and in as large doses
as they do!

   335. Health.   " When all the functions of the system are duly performed,
a person may be said to be in health "  (p. 206).
   It is very true that a person is then  in pretty good health, generally, but
not always.   A very sick person  may take lobelia, warm  teas and a vapor
bath,  after  which,  often  for hours  "all  the  functions will be duly per-
formed:"  but, when the medication is  spent, the functions will cease to  be
duly performed.  These functions also may cease to be duly performed, and
a person continue in health, not perceptibly impaired.   Are all the functions
duly performed in the chest and abdomen  of the laced lady? or in  the  foot-
joints of the tight-booted gentleman ? or the stomachs of those who have
eaten  nothing for six  hours ?—yet are they all sick ?   Health is not the due 
102
MEDICAL REFORM — BEACH
performance of the functions, for-this is interrupted at every motion;  but it
is the capability of those organs to perform their healthy functions, that consti-
tutes health.  They may or may not be active.   The nerves of the brain and
the muscles of  locomotion are inactive during sleep; but they are in health,
because they are capable of  action.

  336.  Disease.  Says  Dr. Beach:  "Any alteration from this state,  or
when any part ceases to perform its office or function, disease is the conse-
quence (a).  It is a salutury effort of nature to repair an injury to the system,
or re-establish health (b).   What is termed disease, appears, in reality, to  be
nothing more than an inherent principle in the system to restore healthy action,
or to resist offending causes (c).   Pain or disease (d) is like fever, a healthy
or conservative power of nature to expel noxious agents, or restore health" (e).
"Is it  irrational or unphilosophical to  consider disease a unit? (/)  all  its
innumerable  forms or symptoms  being derived from one cause,  acting upon
different organs or tissues of the body?" (g) page 206.      »

  336.  Remarks,  a.  I have just shown the incorrectness of this position.
Disease must be the opposite of health; of course  it is the inability of an organ
or tissue to perform duly its function.

  336 b.  How can this effort be  made, when  the organs cease to perform
duly their functions ?  Is it  not one of the proper functions of the organs to
repel or remove disease, or its cause ?

  336 c. Then it seems that the vital force is disease, for this is the "inher-
ent principle" of all vitality, or living motion.

  336 d. Pain is the notice that the nerves give  to the consciousness that
there  is, somewhere, an impediment to their healthy action.

  336 e. How can a symptom of suffering be a power to relieve it?  Fever is not
a power of nature, but an effect of the action of that power (the vital force).

  336/. Yes, if deficient functional actions, fever and pain, are disease, and
especially, if it is  both an effort of nature to remove a thing, and the thing
to be  removed,  it is very unphilosophical to consider it a unit.

  336 g. So, then, all disease is  constituted of the different symptoms oi
effects produced by disease,  in its efforts to remove disease!! or those  efforts
themselves! (g).   Is not all this "clear as mud ?"
  On page 268, he rightly says :  "Fever is a  remedy, not a disease, and
ought to be promoted as a friend to destroy an enemy, when itself will dis-
appear.   It is nature's restorative," (very good).
  Thus we see, the Dr., that he may be true to his plan of "selecting from
all systems," takes from the old school the fever disease doctrine (b, c, d, e),
and from Dr. Samuel Thomson the true doctrine, that "fever is a friend, and
not an enemy."  He that takes all sides of a question, must, sometimes, be
right; but  he has not, above, settled for  us the question which of his,  "use-
ful  from every other system," is the true and good.
  337.  Dr. Beach's statements of facts and his Practice, are as  contradictory
as his principles.   On page  IX of the introduction, he quotes from W. M. R.,
that "his  system originated before Dr. Thomson was  known,"  and  " was. 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
103
improved and developed without the least reference to his (Dr. T.'s) system.
Yet  Dr. B's  book contains not only the  above doctrine  from Dr. T., but
copies the treatment of congestive fever (234) from Dr. J. R.  Canon, and of
milk sickness (426) from Dr. Levi Houston, both Thomsonians / and he took.
their reports from the Thomsonian Recorder!  (See Rec. vol 9, p. 309).
  On page 195 he says:  "Non-professional readers may imagine that in-
formation in  regard to depletion  and sweating,  is annually taught in our
medical schools.  Such is not the fact."   Yet on  page 58, he had said: "the
vapor or steam bath may be applied with advantage in every case which is
attended with a torpid state of  the vessels of the  surface and extremities of
the body."
  This  is true, and he took it from the Dr. Samuel Thomson of whom he
professed to  know nothing.  He  also recommends such a bath for  every
family;  and on page 60, commends it in language so nearly like  what may
be found in our lecture in  Baltimore, published in the Medical Discussions,
as to leave no doubt of the source whence he obtained it.   (See also  p.  555.)
  On page 554 Dr. B. complains of the  malpractice of giving brandy and
opium in a case of irritation of the eyes.   But he gave stramonium and opium
to cure  it.  What an "irreconcilable difference!"
  On page  556, he recommends  Dupuytren's powder  for " specs on the
cornea," viz : " oxide of zinc, calomel and loaf sugar."   On the same page
he condemns  the use of mercury in the case;  and  on 547, he says "mercury
is frequently itself a source of cutaneous diseases, soar throats, and symptoms
which, without its baneful  influence, would never have occurred."
  Dr. Beach devotes  a large  portion of his work to denunciations of the
course of Allopathists,  and the  means  they use; but, when he presents  his
practice, he uses the same course, except blood-letting, and so many surgical
operations, (though, like theirs, his rule is to operate where he can  not cure
without), and he uses the same  "means" that they use, except, perhaps, anti-
mony and arsenic, and mercury very sparingly.  He rails against poisons when
used by  Allopathists, but recommends them himself as superior to all  others
(710).  Thus, his "anodyne"  pills and powders,  composed largely of opium
(721, 719), " afford relief  when all other means prove unaA'ailing."  His
healing  salve, with red lead (721), and  his  brown ointment, with mer-
cury (710), are "superior to all others."   No caution seems necessary, even
when the deadly poison is recommended alone, and in large doses (441).   The
old school tell us that four  grains of  opium is a deadly dose; but Dr. Beach,
who  is death  on poisons, can recommend "three grains every hour, or  six if
necessary" (715),  and even ten grains at a dose (441).
  " Tobacco  is a-virulent poison"  on page 68,  but he can recommend it  as
an injection for incarcerated hernia (706), though the lobelia he selected from
Dr. Thomson is far better (570, 307).
  On page IX. Intro., he is out upon Dr. Thomson's course of Medicine; but
on page 636,  he gives a miserable mutilation and dilution of the same course,
as his own.
  On page IX.  of the F. P., the Doctor says: "Dr. Thomson's principal treat-
ment is all good, if properly used ;" but abuses  Thomson as too " illiterate,"
" conceited," &c, to use it properly.  Yet, on  page 558, he reports a  cure,
by himself, on  Dr. T.'s plan, and says, the cayenne pepper  " operated  like a
charm," " but of the manner in  which this article acts, affording relief in such
cases, is not  easy to determine."   Very "literary and scientific," is it not ?
and  "properly understood." 
104
MEDICAL REFORM--MORROW
  Query : Who is the most likely to use it " properly," the man who devised
it, and suitable ways and means to use it, and, from forty years' experience,
pointed out the cases in which its use is indicated, and gave all the necessary
directions and cautions;  or  he who  seldom uses it,  and objects to its use,
merely because he Avas not the first to recommend it?

  338. Dr. Beach and his System.   Dr. Beach is a man of very ordinary
talent, and very little literary or scientific attainment.   The most of his works
have been "selected," or written by others at his suggestion, as  any one may
be assured by comparing their different  parts with each other, and the most
of them Avith his  miserable letters and advertisements.
  He was,  however, devoted to the practice of  medicine, for  which the mod-
erate talents he had seemed the best adapted.   He made no scruple to appro-
priate  the  ideas  of  others, or even  their language,  to himself and his use,
without giving any credit for them, or even a quotation.   But he was ambi-
tious and active, and hence he practiced  much, from which he acquired some
skill and much useful knowledge.  I have shown that he lacked  that discrim-
ination which  is indispensable to the separation of truth from error, and that
memory and judgment which were necessary to his  consistency.  That, for
want of correct principles, he was often guilty of glaring inconsistencies and
absurdities.  Yet  he is as honest in his intentions as most men, and did much
for the cause of reform.
  As it was for a long time the only Eclectic work in the market, his Family
Practice has been extensively circulated, and, were it stripped of the  errors
and contradictions in principle which I have pointed  out, and purified of the
follies  and poisons recommended in practice,  it would be a very good book;
better far than any that has since  appeared from that class of reformers.
  Though  I have not given all  the  latest works a  thorough perusal, yet I
know,  from other sources, and from reading  some parts of them,  that the
sentiments of  their authors are more erroneous than his are.   Their books
maybe more  "literary and  scientific," but their practice  is  little  if any
better,  in any  case, and in many cases not so good.   But, as this system of
" science is progressive," we  will  next trace it  through Dr. B.'s most distin-
guished pupil, Dr. Morrow.

  339.  Dr. Morrow.  Among the early pupils of Dr. Beach in New York,
was Dr.  Thomas  Vaughan Morrow, a native of Kentucky.  That Dr. Mor-
row highly appreciated the instructions of Dr. Beach, and  ATery closely ad-
hered to  them to  nearly the termination  of his life, is evident from  the  fol-
lowing declaration quoted from his address to a Cincinnati audience, on the
introduction of Dr. Beach to them, in December, 1845.  See W. M. R., vol.
4, pp.  118, 119.   Dr. Morrow said:
   " Nearly twenty years ago, I  had  the  satisfaction of attending two  full
courses of lectures on each of the departments of Medical Science, delivered
by my present friend," <kc,  " from which I unhesitatingly acknowledge, I
derived more substantial  benefit and  real advantage, in the treatment of dis-
ease, than from any and all other  sources."

   340. Worthivgton College.   In  1830 (W. M.  R.,  v.  1, p. 97), the Trus-
tees of a dormant literary institution in  Worthington, 0., established a Med-
ical Department,  and appointed Dr. Steele President.   But, soon after, Dr.
Morrow succeeded him, and he and others commenced lecturing, under the
title of Professors  of  the Reformed Medical College of  Ohio, to  which 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
105
resorted, for several years, a considerable number of students.  Some of these
were graduated, and sent out as members of "the Reformed Medical Society
of the United States," established in New York in 1829 (ib., pp. 5 and 63).
   From the year 1836, when the college had four professors, the number of
students gradually declined, till the spring of 1841, when only about a dozen
were present.   Circumstances having caused the abandonment of  the col-
lege, Dr. Morrow proposed to unite Avith  the Botanico-Medical College in
Cincinnati.   But, as he refused to give up his liberty to use lancets, leeches,
cups, blisters,  opium, &c,  we could not harmonize.

   341. In 1842-3,  he commenced, in Cincinnati, efforts to establish another
College, and,  in  1846, by the aid of others, obtained the charter of the
"Eclectic Medical Instihite of Cincinnati," (W. M.  R., v. 5, p. 118; or, E.
M. J., vol. 1), of which he was the main support, and the most generally and
perhaps deservedly approved exponent,  to the day of  his death,  in 1850.

   342.  Other Eclectic Colleges have since been established in different  parts
of the United States, but they were mostly conducted by men who had been
in some way connected with this, or who at  least  acknowledged this as the
best authority of  that practice, though they have had a  few able men in their
Faculties.  Not more than two or three  of them being now in existence, and
they being  secondary to this in reputation, / shall select my authority on
Eclecticism from the Professors of " The Eclectic Medical Institute of Cin-
cinnati."

   343.  Non-committalism.  And now, as I have a difficult task to perform,
viz :  to  present the principles and practices of a class  of medical  men, who
reject  all systems of principles,  and individually select what  remedies they
choose, and practice as they please, acknowledging no authority and holding
no man responsible, but constantly progressing from one principle and  prac-
tice to another (E.  M. J.,  1845,  pp. 359-63, and their circular for 1855-6).

   344.  I will just say, at once, that / shall most faithfully select from
these published sayings and doings, that which I think will present them to the
reader in the truest light; and, if they complain that I do them  injustice,  I
shall cast back on them the blame of it, for withholding from me and the rest
of mankind the means to enable  us to represent them fairly.  I wish it dis-
tinctly understood, that I have no prejudice against the  name Eclecticism, nor
the men Eclectics.   My judgment is founded upon what I know to be their true
character and merits.

   345.  Dr. Morrow's Medical Reform.  For this I refer, first, to his pub-
lished  declarations, the first  of  which  that I know of, are found  in  "the
Western Medical Reformer,"  a monthly journal commenced by him in Worth-
ington, 0., January, 1836.   Page 3d, the Doctor says,  he  has "become thor-
oughly convinced of the fact  that mercury, antimony and  arsenic ought to be
totally discarded from  the Materia Medica" •[[ 2.  " That the remedial agents
we employ are chiefly derived from the vegetable kingdom," ^[ 6.

   346.  Page 5.  That "Scientific Medical Reform is not  identical, nor inti-
mately connected with, nor fundamentally depending upon, the Thomsonian
or steam system," ^[ 4 and p. 100.   " We believe that a physician ought to 
106
MEDICAL REFORM--MORROW
 be intimately acquainted with everything belonging to his profession—that
 he ought to be a scientific man," *§ 6.  (Ah ?)  Who does not believe this?
 How characteristic of  a sect!

   347. Russelville Lecture.   The next article, from which we have a right
 to derive positive information, is "A lecture delivered by Dr.  T. V. Morrow,
 in the Court House at Russelville, Ky., on the 20th July, 1835, on the sub-
 ject of Reform in Medicine," page  65, W. M. Ref.

   348. In this, he says of his Reform, " It is due to the dignity and impor-
 tance of the enterprise, to the public," &c, " that at least a brief outline of
 its fundamental principles, and some of the main points of difference  [from
 Allopathy]  should be distinctly and clearly set forth," p. 55.   "A full, fair
 and candid avowal of the principles by which we are governed, and the motives
 which actuate  us * * * * will, as a matter of consequence,  be demanded."
 1[2,3.

   349. He premises, and gives ample evidence to prove, that " there is an
 imperious necessity for a reformation, based  on scientific and enlightened
 principles, more especially so far as remedial agents are concerned," p. 67.
   After  deploring  the degraded condition  of medical science and practice,
 he asks,  " What is the remedy for the various  morbid actions  of medical sci-
 ence?" and  answers, "Scientific Medical Reform" (p. 81, ^[ 1, 2), viz:

   350. " To dismiss from the catalogue of remedial agents all those which,
 under the ordinary circumstances of their administration, are  liable to injure
 the stamina  of the constitution   *   *  and to substitute in their places arti-
 cles derived from the vegetable kingdom, which are not only  as powerful in
 their operation, but infinitely safer and more salutary in their immediate and
 ultimate effects on the human system."  P. 82, ^]~ 2.
   " It is further proposed to dispense, in a great  measure, if not entirely,
 with general blood-letting,   *    *  and  to substitute a system of  evacuating
through nature's grand outlets."   ^[  6.
   " It proposes, also,  a reformation in surgical practice, the leading measure
of which is to supersede the necessity of performing so many surgical opera-
tions;  and lastly, to heal all diseases in a manner more safe and successful,
 so that the constitution shall escape unimpaired  by the means employed."

  351. The great rule of Scientific  Medical Reform.   "I now  ask  in all
candor and honesty, is there, under any circumstances and at any stage of the
treatment of any disease to which the human body  is subject, any necessity
to make use of  means  which have a tendency to injure, either immediately
or ultimately, the permanent health of  any individual who  may submit to a
course of treatment while laboring  under the influence of disease of any
description?"
   "Searching  and comprehensive as this question is, I, for  one, am com-
pelled, bythe irresistible force of the evidences derived from a very exten-
sive experience, to answer this question in the negative."   P.  83,  ^[ 5, 6.
  To the above, though indefinite, we said, most  cordially,  " Amen !" But,
when we looked at the practice,  we exclaimed, alas  for consistency!

  352. In accounting for the superior success of the Reformed over the Allo-
pathic practice, he  says, p. 84, ^[ 3 (see  also p. 102 and  103): " The oidy 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
107
 difference being in the nature of  the means used, and the manner of using
 them, as well as in the difference of principle involved in their use."  (See
 also vol. 3, p.  43, and Dr. Beach just noticed).

   353. Though the above differed in nothing essential from the reforms pro-
 posed by John Jacob Hansel, Boerhaave, Salmon, &c, of past centuries, and
 hundreds of Allopathic practitioners of  the present day, / was pleased with
 even these, and sought, in 1835, further information respecting the doctrines
 of this school, that I might add my mite to its prosperity and usefulness.
   In an Extra to the  Ohio State Journal, published November  19th, 1833,
 which fell into my hands about October, 1835, (T. Rec, vol. 4, p.  28), I
 hoped to find at least a synopsis of the positive and fixed principles of "Sa7ia-
 tive medical reform."   But here again I was  told, first, that
   " There is not, there never was, and  there never can exist, any connection
 between   *   *   the  Reformed  System of Medical Practice and those of
 Thomson and Howard," though " it is very true that most of the articles, if
 not all, used by Thomson and Howard, as medicines, are also used by us !"
 (W. M. R., p. 100).
   4. "We believe the present deplorable state of the  science is, in a great
 measure, owing to the nature of the means employed in the treatment of dis-
 ease."  (P.  101,  ^ 2 and 102,  103).
   "Another  objection, in my mind, to the present practice of medicine,  is
 that it inculcates the too frequent use of the knife and the lancet.   I would
 not, however, be understood as insisting on their universal proscription under
 all possible circumstances  and modifications  of  disease and  accident, for, I
 have no doubt they  ac# occasionally necessary, and  in some  cases indispen-
 sable, in the present state of medical science.  It is  against their very fre-
 quent and  almost indiscriminate  use,   so much advised  by many of the
 authorities of the present day,  that I desire to enter  my protest."  (P. 103,
 ^[ 2).   "It is more particularly against the frequent use  of the lancet in the
 treatment of fevers and diseases of an  inflammatory character that I should
 wish to bear my decided testimony."  *   *   " There cannot exist a doubt
 that in nineteen cases in twenty in which we are directed to call to our aid the
 lancet, in the reduction of febrile or inflammatory excitement, this desirable
 object may be accomplished without the adoption of that  measure, which so
 invariably  injures  the stamina of the constitution."  (P.  103,  ^[ 3).

   354. Blood-letting,  principle of.  So it seems that, in  one case in twenty,
 Prof. Morrow  was then willing to concede the  necessity of " injuring the
 stamina  of the constitution" by a pernicious practice.   I think that  few
 Allopathists  would  agree to more than this.   He  says, as do  most Allo-
 pathists:
   " It would seem to me more in consonance with nature's method of reliev-
 ing  herself,  to  evacuate the system of its morbid contents by the  use  of
 emetics, cathartics, sudorifics, diuretics,  dec."   (P. 104, *fl~  1).
   3J5. Mercury.   He also, in said circular,  question  7th,  as elsewhere, (p.
 114), objects to the  "internal use  of calomel or  other  form of mercury, or
 any preparation of arsenic or  antimony."   Does he  mean to sanction the
 external use?   If not, Avhy use the word  "internal?"
  Again,  I  should, from  the aboAre  negatives, have supposed  that Dr.
Morrow's practice was at  least innocent,  but  for  the frequent occurrence in
his prescriptions of such of the following from the W. M.  Ref., vol. 3, p. 26. 
108
MEDICAL REFORM — M ()RROW
   356.  "A Remedy.   Capsicum  5 grs., Ipecac 1  gr., Opium  half gr., all
powdered and mixed.  Experience  has satisfied us  that this powder  is one
of the best internal  remedies in passive  hemorrhages  of  every description
furnished by the materia medica.   In active  hemorrhage Ave never think of
any other internal remedy if this be in  our  pocket, and we feel almost as
certain of its having  the effect desired, as though it Avere an  absolute specific.
It; may  be repeated  every twenty minutes, half-hour, hour, or two  or three
hours, according to the  urgencies  of the case.   If repeated often the quan-
tity of opium should  be diminished."
   Did Dr. M.  suppose that opium " has no tendency to injure, either  imme-
diately or ultimately, the permanent health of an individual ?"  (76, 79.)
   357.  Scarifying and  Cupping.  " The treatment of this case was com-
menced by applying  the scarificator  and cups, both  above and  below the
knee joint, as often as once in two  days, and sometimes oftener," &c.  W.
M. R., vol. 3,  p. 59, where he gives other cases similar.
   Again, W.  M. Ref, vol. 3, p. 41,  I find  this same Dr. Morrow "Deter-
mined to try the effects of a large blister plaster; accordingly, one sufficiently
large  to cover one-half of the chest from the  spine to the sternum, and from
the clavicle to the lumbar region, was prepared; and the right lung being most
affected, this plaster was applied over it."   "Small abscesses over the  whole
extent of this  surface,"  appeared and  "proceeded regularly to suppuration,
and when opened, discharged large quantities of purulent matter."
   Wonder if this  "  did not  tend  immediately  nor  ultimately to  injure the
permanent health  of the individual?" &c.   I  once saw a Mr. Poore, on
whom he had placed a blister from side to  side and from sternum to pubis, and
then told  him to settle his affairs for he must die !   The whole  surface was
not only denuded but deeply  corroded, some of the very muscle having sup-
purated away/  Was no  "injury"  done here?   I cured him  with "the
steam practice," which he, Dr. M., said  "must fail in  such cases."
   358.  Dr. Morrow's Practice.   I have shown that  Dr. Morrow admitted
that one lancet might be proper in  twenty cases of  general  fever, and eight
might be in every case of " incipient white swelling."  As he recommended and
used opium and cantharides,  capsicum and lobelia,  dec, and as in pathology
he agreed with the old faculty (353), Dr. M. must have been "all sorts of  a
doctor;" the only difference between him and others,  being his superior liberty
to bleed,  blister and poison, or to  "steam, pepper, and lobeliaize"  when he
pleased; and in a superior wisdom, peculiar  to himself, by  which he  could
determine in each case,  whether to act the Allopathist  or the Steam Doctor,
or to  give a dose of that peculiar and all-potent compound,  " Scientific Med-
ical Reform."    W. M. R., vol.  1, p. 81,  ^[ 2.
   359.  Principles.   "As  the practice  taught and  recommended  in the
Worthington  school,  differs from that taught  in other medical schools in the
United  States, chiefly in the means made use of in the removal of disease,
rather than in  any new  pathological views, the  term Reformed  Practice has
been  very appropriately  applied to it."   " The  tendency of the Thomsonian
system is a total subversion of all medical science,"  &c,  [rather systems].
" The title of Medical Revolutionists, assumed by some of the most prominent
individuals of that fraternity, is very appropriate   *    *   to the advocates
of the steam and pepper system.  'For such individuals to  be styled Medical
Reformers, is  slanderous, and calculated  grossly to deceive the public mind."
W. M. R., vol. 3, p.  43. 
CRITICISED AND  CORRECTED.
109
   360. Non-committalism.  In  1845, some one made of Dr. Morrow  the
 following inquiries.   In what does your reform consist?   What objects do
 you .propose to accomplish?  What changes do you desire to see effected in
 the condition of the healing art?

   361. Dr. Morrow answers  (W. M. R., vol. 3, p.  22); also vol. 7, p. 296.
 "In the first place we  wish it very distinctly understood that the scientific
 medical reformers of this, as well as of every other country, advocate a reform
 and not a revolution in the existing state of  what is called medical science."
 (a) (page 23).
   "In the proscribed portions [of the Practice], may be included all  those
 means and measures which, * in the treatment of disease, are liable to produce
 injurious effects on the constitution of patients, both immediate and remote,"
 &c. b. *  "We desire to  effect such  changes in the * healing art, that one
 half or one third of  the present number of  physicians * will be altogether
 sufficient to attend to all the medical practice  of  the country, and above
 all, we most ardently desire to see the healing art practiced in such a manner
 as  will render it no  longer  obnoxious to the shameful, but just  charge of
 being  instrumental in  hurrying any of  our fellow citizens  to a premature
 grave, or in any manner inflicting the slightest injury on their constitutions,
 or their future health."

   361 a.  Here it is distinctly admitted that the main doctrines of Allopathy
 are correct.   These I have shown to be "the doctrines of fever and inflam-
 mation" (30).  Of course Dr.  Morrow's Reform was not radical and perma-
 nent.

   361 b.  What objection  could  the most ardent advocate of sanative medi-
 cation make to this ?   Is  it not most scientifically  definite, and clear as
 crystal?
   We certainly did not  charge it with mischief till we saw in  the practice of *
 that same "distinguished  teacher," and just about  that time, a  patient that
 had had a diarrhea, whose Avhole abdomen from pubis to sternum,  and  from
 right to left  side,  as  far  as the bed  would permit, not only denuded, but
 corroded  almost to the  peritoneum, by a blister from the hand of Dr.  Mor-
 row ! and a vial of laudanum on the mantel-piece to  ease the pain!  We had
 never  seen but one Allopathic blister that could at all compare with it for
 length, breadth or depth.

   362. Union College.   In the spring of  1841,  after the  disbanding of the
 Worthington  College, Dr. Morrow made propositions to the faculty of the
 B. M. College, to unite with us in establishing a Union College in Cincinnati.
 With this we expressed our Avillingness,  provided he would adhere strictly,
 in teaching and practice, to the doctrine of his Russelville lecture (347), as
 we understood it to exclude lancets,  scarificators, leeches, blisters, animal
 and mineral poisons, and  all  narcotics, <fec, sign our platform (B. M. Re-
 corder vol. 9, p. 346), and go with us in good  faith.  We were willing to
 forget all  personal matters  for the sake of union  in doing good.  He "con-
 curred so far as  he could  then  determine" (p.  351).  He lectured to our
 students in  1841-2, on anatomy and surgery; but, not being pleased with his
 course, we obtained, in the  fall, Dr. Hill in his  stead, and he commenced
again, what he and his successors afterwards called  "a one-horse concern,"
on his own strength and responsibility. 
110
MEDICAL REFORM--  Vi Kl:i,\v
    363. In June,  1844,  he resumed  the  publication of the Reformer;  pro-
  fessing to " discuss freely and fearlessly, and expose without stint, the errors,
  abuses and  defects of the prevailing systems, and,  to commend whatever is
  true and of substantial value  in each and all of them," &c, vol. 4, p. 2—
  "All right," but

    364.  On page  21 of this  volume,  we find him  reporting his Allopathic
  application of "the scarificator and cups to the shaved scalp of a young lady
  thoroughly once or twice, and immediately thereafter applying the irritating
  plaster, and renewing  it each day, with a view of  exciting as  speedily as
  possible, a free and copious discharge of purulent matter, which should be
  continued as long as the  pains [neuralgia fascia,]  manifest any  tendency  to
  return;" which they ceased to do, "after a  course  of the treatment which
  continued from six to eight weeks;" and he says he pursued " a similar course
  in several other cases, which resulted in a like success!"
    All this I suppose was in strict accordance with the doctrine of the Russelville
  Lecture (351).   Can it be  possible that a suppurating ulcer  over the whole
  head or face, can be produced and sustained for "six or eight weeks,"with-
  out injuring either immediately or ultimately the permanent  health of any
  individual who may submit to it?  (351).   These surely can  not be classed
  among the " average cases  of  which not more than one or two in ten would
 ever require more than one or two visits at most," certainly not of those  who
  "would not require to be  visited at all," (W.  M. R., vol. v., p. 140, •[[ 3).

    365.  Principles  and practice.   In his College circular, Dr. Morrow says :
  "the course of  instruction in each of the departments, will be full and com-
 plete,  embracing every thing  of any  value, known  and taught  in the old
 regular medical  colleges;  as well as in all the  Reformed or Botanical Schools
 of medicine," W. M. R.,  vol. 5, p. 65.
*   To this end, he recommends as  text books  the regular Allopathic works,
 including, Beach and Eberle on Theory and Practice of Medicine; Meigs on
 Midwifery; Beach,  Eberle and U. S. Dispensary on Meteria Medica, as  well
 as other standard works.

    366.  "Dr. Morrow disapproved of the use of chloroform, because he was
 opposed to the use  of any article, which, under its ordinary use, was liable to
 produce any bad effects," E. M. J., 1850, p. 292.
    This is every where set forth as one of "the  great principles of the Eclectic
 School" (390) and  Ave certainly admire it "in the abstract."  But when they
 tell us that they have not  discarded the " cupping, leeching, and blistering,"
 (E. M. J., 1849, p. 18), that opium, digitalis, belladonna,  prussiate of iron,
 acitate  of  lead,  &c, are among their best remedies,  we respectfully suggest
 that their conduct does not harmonize  with their professions.

    367.  Blood-letting.   Dr.  Morrow objects to the too frequent use of the
 lancet (350), and  his  colleague,  Dr. Cox,  quotes  from Dr.  Lawson "the
 remarkable fact  that out of 792 cases treated in the London fever hospital,
 during the last  year, general  blood-letting was  not employed in a single
 instance, and local bleeding  (to which  Dr. Morrow does not object) was
 seldom resorted  to," W. M.  R., vol. 5, p. 69.
   The old school of London then, were much further advanced in the reform
 of blood-letting  than Dr. Morrow was.  See W. M. R., vol. 4,  p.  103, where
 he says, "every physician  of  common sense would use it to prevent the 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
Ill
immediate dissolution of the patient, before other agents could be brought to
bear on the case."
  I do  not  mean to be understood to say that Dr. M. would have used the
lancet often or seldom.   I object to the admission that blood-letting is good at
all—that it will prevent the dissolution of the patient in any case that would
live without it.  One admission of this proposition as true and good, may be
the means of its application to hundreds of cases which would directly sink
under it.  I object also to his claim to more reform than Dr. Lawson exhibits
in the Allopathic ranks.

  368.  "Posthumous works of Dr. Morrow."  In the first volume of a work
entitled "The American Eclectic Practice of Medicine, by I. G. Jones and
T. V. Morrow," 1853, are 178 pages of matter, entitled "Posthumous Writings
of the late T. V. Morrow on the Theory and Practice of  Medicine."  Here
I hoped to find some synopsis, at least, of the  "distinctive doctrines of Scien-
tific Medical Reform."  But he gives us no description of disease nor the laws
of life and health; of the nature of  symptoms, as vital,  mechanical or chem-
ical; nor  any other display from which his  ideas on  these subjects can be
gathered.   He commences,  page 603:

  369.  Febris intermittens, &c.  "This is a form of disease  of great frequency
of occurrence, and  is  characterized by  a succession of regularly recurring
paroxysms, each of which is folloAved by a distinct intermission," &c. *J[ 3d,
he says, "like other forms of fever," &c.

   370.  Page 613. Remitting  fever.  Here  he says:   "There seems to be
quite a striking similarity between this and the intermitting;  they are doubt-
less the result of  the same cause,"  <fec.   At p. 618-19 he  says  that all
intelligent medical  men agree as to the indications of  the disease, but differ
Avidely in the modes and means of  fulfilling them.  He recommends for an
emetic a vinegar tincture of lobelia and sanguinaria, an ounce of each to a
quart of vinegar, [vinegar retards vomiting].

   371.  Page 626,  "Continued fever  is a term applied  to  those forms of
fever," &c;  page 628, "This form of fever,"  &c; page 646,  he  calls the
yellow fever  a "form of fever;" page 651,  "Phrenitis is a disease," <fec;
page 658, meningitis  is called a "form of disease."

   372.  Disease.   From the above, and similar, one would suppose that Dr.
Morrow believed in the unity of disease, and in fever and inflammation as the
essence of that unity.   But, on page 662, he calls otitis " one of the phleg-
masial diseases;" and 665, he  says :  " Glossitis is by no means a frequent
disease."   " This inflammation," <fec, page 669, he calls  "quinsy a form of
disease;"  and page 675, croup "a disease;" page 682, mumps is " one of
the inflammatory diseases;"  page 685, peritonitis "is a disease;" page 689,
bronchitis is "a very frequent  disease;"  page 693, laryngitis " is pretty well
understood as a distinct disease;" page 697,  phrenitis  is  "an  inflammatory
disease," <fcc; page 704,  "pneumonia is a  disease;"  page 711, "pneumo-
nia  biliosa is a form  of disease;"  page 718, gastritis is "a disease;" page
726, can't distinguish the acute from the chronic; page 732, enteritis is "a dis-
ease," covering all, or a part, of the intestinal  canal;  page 732, " more fre-
quent than we are in the habit of suspecting;"  page 742, acute bronchitis is 
112
MEDICAL REFORM —MORROW
"a disease of remarkably frequent occurrence;" page 748, "dysentery," or
"inflammation of the mucous membrane," is called "disease," "marked by
small bloody and mucous stools, griping tenesmus, pain, fever;" 750, "acute
hepatitis is  a disease," Avhich  Ave occasionally encounter;  and,  page 762,
"chronic hepatitis  is  a disease  of  remarkably frequent occurrence;" page
769, nephritis is "a disease;" page 773, cystitis is " a disease;" page 776,
mercurial fever is a " horrible malady," &c.

  373.  All these "diseases" and "forms of disease" being "characterized"
by given "symptoms," we are shut up to the conclusion that Dr. Morrow
believed that  some fevers and inflammations are distinct diseases,  and others
are  forms or varieties of fevers or inflammations;  but that all fevers and in-
flammations, and forms of fever and inflammation, are  the  essence of dis-
ease, rather than its symptoms.   For, he gives these as the diseases, and  the
circumstances and conditions of the system as the  signs or symptoms of dis-
ease;  and he advises a specific treatment for these various "diseases."

  374.  All this agrees with a report once made to me, of an answer he gave
to the question—"What is the difference between your system of practice
and that of Dr. Curtis?"   "Why, Dr.  C. believes that disease  is  a unit,
exhibiting various forms  according  to  its causes, and  the conditions and
circumstances of  the patient, &c,  and he treats them all on general princi-
ples.   I believe diseases  to  be  many, and specific, and  I treat them with
specific remedies appropriate  to each case."

  375.  Conclusion from Dr. Morrow's  published  sentiments.  I  may now
be asked why I have quoted from Dr. Morrow so much on various subjects,
and so  little that throws any light  on the important  questions—What is
health?   What disease?  What are the true characters of remedies?   What
is irritation,  fever,  inflammation?    What are  suppuration  and gangrene ?
What are poisons ?   What are medicines?  &c.
  I answer :  Because, so far as I have ever been able to learn, he was stu-
diously non-committal on all  these  subjects.  I have done the  best I  could,
that is,  gathered from his  remarks  every thing I could find that  seemed to
savor of a principle in medicine, and from his practice that which seems to
give a meaning to his panacean " remedy for the removal of the Ararious mor-
bid actions of medical science," viz :  "Scientific Medical Reform."  W. M.
R.,  vol. 1, p. 61.
  Even his great rule (351), so often repeated,  is one to which the most
ultra  Sangrado and  Paracelsus  might conscientiously subscribe.   No Allo-
pathist believes that his remedies "are liable, in the judicious application of
them,  to produce any permanent injury to the constitution."

  376.  The great test of Scientific Medical Reform.  On a certain occasion
(1849)? the Eclectics sought, through Dr. Kost, a union Avith the Botanico-
Medicals.  Always ready for  a union on correct principles, the Professors of
the latter school cheerfully met those of the former in consultation.
  Clearly perceiving that  the object was, first, to charm us, then swallow us,
then  " spew us out," Ave proposed  that the  recommending or giving of
poisons as medicine should forever exclude any man from a professorship in
the Union College.   To this  Dr. M.  would agree;  but how should we know 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
113
what is, and what is not poison?  We answered—" Whatever is calculated
directly to destroy irritation, fever, or inflammation!"
   " But that was just what the practice of medicine ought to do!"
   Here we caught him on the false foundation in principle—the doctrine that
these modes of vital manifestation, are  "the orders of  disease," <fec. (41).
We next proposed, that, "if any Professor in the contemplated Union College
should recommend in his teachings, or use in his practice, any agent that has
been to him certainly known, in authorized medicinal doses or degrees, to have
directly destroyed human life, he should be, by that act,  forever deprived of
his professorship."  This was the very " Sword of the Spirit."   It "divided
asunder the soul and body, joints and marrow," of Dr. Morrow's "Scien-
tific  Medical Reform."  It cut  away,  at once,  all his favorite cupping,
leeching, blistering and narcotizing, and left him almost as  badly off as  the
old school would have been without the  lancet and  mercury!  Thus ended
the  conference, and thus were discovered the "glorious principles"  of the
great champion  of  "Scientific  Medical Reform."   They were  essentially
the  same as the Allopathic, but not quite so severely  and boldly carried out in
practice.
   An incident here is worthy of preservation, as it illustrates the  "cardinal
Eclectic principle"  called "policy."   In the  Eclectic selection of Profess-
ors  for the Union College, four were to be taken from each school.  Our Prof.
Hill, the ablest anatomist of  the West, must have that chair.  Curtis must
be admitted, or the B. M. College might sprout again as soon as the "policy"
should be discovered.   Kost having been the catspaw of their  negotiation,
ought to be paid; but where  to put him, was the  question.   He must not
supplant L. E. Jones, for he was "one of the ablest teachers  of materia
medica in this or any other country!"  and could not be released.
   We then strongly suspected that this ability consisted,  in their  estimation,
in a money interest in the college that could not be dispensed with, and that
the ingenious transfer of this interest to great professional ability was a mas-
terly stroke of  Eclectic Policy.  See Buchanan's and  Dolley's Principles
(411 and 435).
   Be this as it may, the poison "test" we offered, most happily relieved them
from the sad dilemma;  and Buchanan's  more modern  description  of  the
literary, scientific and professional  abilities, and personal character of Dr.
J. and others, has clearly unfolded the "disorganizing machinations" of the
"selfish and unprincipled"  "platform"  schemer in that negotiation, which
was doubtless to  sAvallow the B. M.  College  alive, and, when poisoned to
death in their stomachs, to "spew it out of their mouths."

   376.  Remarks.   Dr. Morrow and his Practice.   Dr.  Morrow Avas a man
of mediocral talent, but of indomitable energy and perseverance.  He acquired
a considerable amount of Avhat is called medical knowledge and experience;
but he either did not possess  the qualifications necessary  to constitute  him a
good critic, or he wanted the moral honesty to  exhibit them.  He was very
"ambitious," and, though apparently benevolent, he always intended that
his charity should bring home more than it carried away.  On the supposi-
tion that he desired to do "equal and exact justice to all," it is difficult to
issign his motives for his conduct toward those  who differed from him in
policy and practice.    His writings against Dr.  Terry, and those against
others that might have been referred to, show a bitterness  of spirit and a
revengefulness of conduct entirely unbecoming  such a man  and such a-
                                   8 
114
MEDICAL REFORM--1. Q. JONES
 subject, and did himself and his cause much more harm than good, in the eyes
 of candid and reflecting men.
   His practice was, as he declares, " untrammeled " by theory or precedent.
 It was just what Dr. Morrow chose to do, without being called on for a rea-
 son for his course.   Having no principles to give, he did not feel bound  to
 give any; hence our inability to find any among his writings.   He used  to
 tell his students,  who questioned him as to the modus operandi of his reme-
 dies,  "I've  tried it, and found it so; you  try  it, and you will find it so.
 We do not know  how they operate—we go for the facts."   How easy it is
 to see that these apparent facts would greatly vary in different cases (19, 20),
 and therefore afford no light to guide the practice in the future;  and  hence
 the reason why Eclectics  are  constantly changing their notions and their
 practices.
   Still, the agents Dr. M. used were mostly more mild than  those of Allo-
 pathy, and generally more suitably applied.   I do not believe  that he used,
 for several of his last years, "general blood-letting," nor mercury in any
 form, nor, so freely as his associates, opium and some other narcotics; though
 I know that he used them frequently, for I found them among his prescriptions.
 He was devoted to his practice, and was, I think it probable,  the best prac-
 titioner of the Institute.   He surely ought not to have died of dysentery —
 for he had "specifics for that disease."
   Though by  no  means a fluent, an interesting, or even  an instructive  lec-
 turer, he was  always prompt at his  post, and  labored  hard to do what he
 could; and hence was the wannest friend and firmest supporter of the E. M.
 Institute.

   377. Professor I. G. Jones, of Columbus, was a colleague  of Professoi
 Morrow in Worthington, a partner with  him in practice, well acquainted
 with his principles, and, in 1850, succeeded him in the Chair  of Theory and
 Practice, in the Eclectic Medical  Institute of Cincinnati.   His course of
 Lectures has been published.

   378. In the preface, he says  his object was  "to embody at once the  gene-
 ral principles  and the modern  improA-ements in practice advocated by the
 Eclectic School," page V.

   379. He says:  "Dr.  Morrow, the  moving spirit  of the Eclectic  Medi-
 cal Institute at the time of his death, had  contemplated preparing  such
 a work, but had written  only his treatment of a few important diseases, with-
 out any separate discussion of the pathological phenomena or  general princi-
 ples, indispensably necessary in a work proposing great changes in the theory
 and practice of medicine" (373).  But that, "in every other respect than
 in malarious diseases, their vioAvs  of  treatment were essentially the same,"
 VI.   Here,  then, we thought we should surely find the Eclectic Platform.

   380. In the first lecture on the "Principles of Medicine,"  we are told, as
 by Allopathists, that the doctrines  of fevrer are of paramount importance.
 So they undoubtedly are; but what are those of Dr. Jones, that "constitute
 the great changes in the theory " (379)?

  381. "Fever is a disease."   What a startling change in the theory of Al-
 lopathy!  But the  next is something new, to Allopathy in general, though some
.Allopathists have suggested a part of it! 
                      CRITCISKD  AND CORRECTED.                   115

  382.  Causes of fever.   The causes of  fever are infusoria! from decompos-
ing vegetable and animal substances.  "I recognize but two causes of fevers,
the vegetable malaria, or  koino-miasmata, and the animal malaria, or  idio-
miasmata;  the first producing intermittents, the second typhoid"  (36).
"All forms of fever may be safely referred to one of these as their primary
cause"  (39).

  383.  Eclectic reform imaginary.  We have  often said that the Eclectics
were, in principle, just one remove from  Allopathy toward the physio-medi-
cal system; and here Dr. Jones proves it.  Allopathy ascribes fever to inani-
mate  causes; we, to the vital force, and  Dr. Jones to animalculae, so  little
removed from  inanimate  matter, that he confesses he is not able to detect
them.   He only supposes their existence!

  384.  Periodicity of fever—Ignorance of the cause.   "I must acknowledge
almost total ignorance  of the laws that operate in producing the  regular pe-
riodical return of the paroxysms  in this  form of disease"  p. 50.  Well  he
may " regard this science as yet in its infancy—just emerging from the dark
ages," p.  53.  But then he,does account for it thus:

  385.  "Periodical change is a peculiarity of animal Life."   " It must have
its rise, progress and decline."  As "animalculae produce intermittents, they
must have periods of  labor and rest," 57.

  386.  A great discovery.   "Intermittent may be  associated  with almost
every other form of disease to which humanity is subject," ib., 53.   "May
surprise you, indeed!"

  387.  Practice.   "As soon as the intermission comes on, administer reme-
dies  to prevent another paroxysm," 54, see Dickson.

  388.  " In  a debilitated condition, there is not so much resisting force cal-
culated  to throw off disease  as  in a vigorous  constitution," 57.  Then  it
must be very unscientific to use  debilitating agents  during  the period  of
lassitude.

  389.  " The more severe the symptoms and complicated the disease,  [fever],
the greater  the  necessity for promptitude  and efficiency in your efforts to
arrest it," 58 [with sedatives]!

   390.  "In the cold stage," "simply make the patient as  comfortable as
possible."  "For pains in the back and  very hot head, sinapisms the whole
length of  the spine," &c. [very mild].

  391.  The  hot stage  requires little treatment [need not "assist nature"].
For  " vomiting and purging," "neutralizing physic;" if that does not re-
lieve, one-half  to one-eighth grain morphine, 59.   If this does not answer,
give stronger "opiates," 60 ["assist nature"]!

  392.  To prevent determination to the  brain, ligatures round  the  limbs,"
61 [stop the blood  from flowing elsewhere].  Quinine and whisky, 62.
  Practice.   Sulph. quin. and prussiate of iron, <fec. 
116
MEDICAL REFORM—I. G. JONES.
  393. Remarks. We here find Professor Jones with the Allopathists as to
the nature of fever (disease), its causes (an unknown something) and the
plan of treatment (reducing it by sedatives), differing from them only in re-
jecting the lancet and mercury, and using with quinine and opium, prussiate
of iron; very feAv Allopathists noAV bleed "in this disease."
  Strange that  he  should be so ignorant (384) of  the  cause of periodicity,
when he knows (385) that all animals must have their periods of labor and
rest!  How could he  expect those infinitessimals to be always wide  aA\rake,
up and doing?  They want sleep sometimes, as well as the animal on Avhom
they operate!  Doubtless the  anticipated agues are  to be  attributed to  their
having some restless leaders among them Avho Avake  them  up too eariy!
and then,  the postponements may be consequent  on  their prostration and
droAVsiness, caused by their dissipation and carousals during the  severity of
the paroxysms,  and their sitting up too late o' nights preceding!  Again, the
Doctor says:  "There should  be no  difficulty in referring all fevers  to this
one cause  (infusoriae), as the difference in the symptoms may arise from idio-
syncrasy,  predisposition, <fcc, and the temporary circumstances of the pa-
tient."  0, yes, we can readily understand that.   The little fairies will not.
of course, find  it convenient  to enact the same farces, cut the same  capers,
and make  the same number and character of windings and countermarches
in large houses and small, well and ill arranged, and they will be much more
likely to keep themselves mostly  "in doors" in cold weather than in warm.
  They may not, either, walk so willingly out at the invitation of a cold
bath as a warm one, and they may even be less annoyed by a sedative drug
than by cayenne.  Who knows but that's the reason why cayenne rouses a
fever and the vrapor bath disperses it!—and hence the different kinds of medi-
cal practice excite very different symptoms in the progress of a fever;  some
medicines (stimulants) chasing the little vermin out speedily—kicking, biting,
and scratching  as they go—while others (narcotic) put them quietly  to sleep
within, to rise,  when refreshed, to fight the battles with the doctor  and his
patient yet again!  And this may cause the relapses and the changes of diag-
nosis and prognosis!  But, jesting  apart, the  Doctor has really approached
the true theory of the cause of fever.  He attributes it to vital force His error
is, that he attributes it to the vital forces of animalculae that may or may not
exist as exciting causes, instead of the vital  force of the patient, which alone
produces fever in all its manifestations.

   394.  It is singular that, to a mind as well trained to thinking as Professor
Jones' certainly is, two of his own facts do not upset his Avhole theory: 1st,
that all fevers are caused by animalculae arising from  decomposition (382).
2d.  Decomposition cannot take place at a temperature below 60 degrees, and
even the animalculae generated, are killed by the first  frost!   Now,  Doctor,
what produces the "fevers "  that occur in the heart of winter along the beau-
tiful Scioto, where, you  are  aware, they are frequently  Aery  prevalent and
obstinate?

   395. Again: his practice is not consistent Avith his theory.  If the par-
oxysm is caused by the carousing of the young invisibles, that would be the
lucky moment to scatter among them "fire brands, arroAvs and death," in the
shape  of  opium and prussiate  of iron!   But perhaps  tbe  Doctor counts
them bees with stings, and therefore makes his onslaught as we do on honey
bees—while napping! 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
117
  Again, he says (388) the debilitated condition is non-resisting to the Lil-
liputian army, yet he recommends using, in that state, the  most debilitating
remedies  to  prevent  "the resisting force  from throAving  off the disease"
(the fever)?

  396.  The doctor may object that Ave do not understand his philosophy, but
we  think we do as well  as  he does  (384).  We say not what we do,  to
wound his feelings.   We  respect the man  who Avorks  so hard and long  in
search of truth, even though  he comes no nearer to it than is an animalcule
to a man.  We would only jostle him from his wrong positions, that he may
be ready to listen to us when  we "lead him into all the truth."
  We now leave Prof. Jones, and pass on to the selection of the doctrines and
practices of Eclecticism, as developed  by its present  self-styled  "leading"
"literary, scientific and respectable" "organ," J. R. Buchanan.

  397.  In "An Address  to the Public" (E. M. J. for 1853, p. 139), Prof.
J. R. Buchanan says:
  "From the time [1846] of my first connection with this school   *    *
its claims and character were  fully set forth; the influence of the press was
enlisted in its behalf, and  its  slanderous opponents publicly met and refuted,
Avhenever they, dared to assail  its reputation.  Whatever appertained to the
relations of the school to the public, or required the exercise of literary capa-
city,  devolved  upon  myself."   The  trustees  of the  college  shamefully
acknowledge these arrogant  and insulting claims  of their "Big man me,
Joe," in their College announcements.
  398.  Knowing Dr. B. to be very fond of theorizing, we looked, with inter-
est, for the  claims  of that school to  public patronage, in the  shape  of a
synopsis  of  the principles it  taught.   While Dr. Morrow lived, opposed
"theorizing," and  put forth the  apparently plausible doctrine  of sanative
medication  (351).  Dr. B. seemed restrained from  magnifying much his
office of  putting forth whatever appertained to the relations of the  school
to the  public.   Itching, hoAvever, to render himself  notorious,  and yet
not permitted to condemn, altogether, the poisons used by his colleagues, we
find him, in 1849, coming forth as follows, (E. M. J., p. 178—R. 17, p. 68):
  399.   1.  "He believed that  a  perfect  system of medical science, never
allows disease to exist at all,  but prevents it, by proper diet and modes  of
life."
  This  is not medical science, but  physiological.
  2.  "  The next best system promptly meets disease by the use of agents  in
perfect  harmony  with "the laws of health, physiological in their action;  as
Avater, air, hot and cold baths and frictions, magnetic manipulations, mechan-
ical  remedies, food, drink, ptisans, and other articles which are not usually
regarded as either medicines or poisons."—Part of the true Medical System.

  400.  3. '• We belieA-e that the next system goes beyond the materia alimen-
taria, and uses only those  articles which most nearly approximate the char-
acter  of food; such as stimulants, tonics, nervines,  laxatives,  demulcents,
diaphoretics, anodynes, aromatics,  acids, alkalies, salines,  saccharines, anti-
septics,  rubefacients,  stomachics, diuretics,  emetics,  hemostatics, expector-
ants,  sorbefacients, alteratives, cholagogues, emenagogues,  fomentations,
embrocations, antiperiodics ; but aims, in all these measures, to select for use
those which experience has proved to be  the most congenial to the human 
118
ECLECTICISM--BUCHANAN
constitution, and  least liable to the production  of  any injury"  (p.  180,
abridged).
  Here is the balance of the Physio-Medical practice : relaxants, stimulants,
tonics, anti-septics, and lubricants.
  401.  4.  The fourth system is "that which  not only sheds the  blood of
the patient,  but employs  all substances indiscriminately, no matter hoAV
dangerous their  properties or tendencies; and thus frequently either destroys
life, or permanently poisons the constitution, no matter how  judicious the
practitioner."  E. M. J., 180-1, vol. 3, p. 543.   [A combination of 3  and
4 constitutes the Eclectic practice].
  402.  As, in the above, the doctor had expressed himself rather too clearly
for "the policy" of Eclectic non-committalism, he found himself obliged to
mystify a little, and open a door to back out through.   He adds :

  403.  " Our aim is to depart, as far as practicable, from the debilitating, or
pathogenetic practice, and  to approach, as near as possible, to the hygienic
or sanative practice.  The question naturally arises, whether  disease can be
safely treated without disease-creating agents?   We think it  can.   We do
not believe that we  can, as  yet, dispense  with medicines; but we  are  un-
doubtedly able to dispense with  deleterious agencies," k,c.

  404.  "Our doctrine is, that whenever any medicine manifests a tendency
to act as a  poison, in its ordinary administration, we should look upon it with
a jealousy proportioned to the probability that it would so act," &c.

  405.  " Our practice keeps pace with our knowledge."  "We  have  no
attachment to any remedy which experience shoAvs unsafe; but, on the con-
trary, we rejoice in the  success of every attempt to  substitute sanative for
pathogenetic medicines," &c.
  406.  " Whatever be their errors at present, we are satisfied that reformer-
will ultimately meet on a common platform—the true  sanative system."   E.
M. J., p. 181-3.
  407.  To these doctrines  of therapeutics,  Ave  felt that we could  most cor-
dially subscribe; but, as though just then jogged on the shoulder by the non-
committal spirit of Eclectic "policy," and the  non-conforming character of
its practice, he adds:
  408.  "As to  the doctrine  that all poisons  should  be  rejected from  the
materia medica,  we reply that, according to our understanding  of terms, thai
would involve nearly the whole  materia medica, as there is scarcely a medi-
cine that will not act as a virulent poison, if administered in a sufficient dose.''
  Here is taught the false doctrine of Allopathy, that medicines and poisons
consist not in their inherent qualities, so much  as in their quantities, and the
circumstances of their uses; and this doctrine justifies the use of any thing and
every thing that the prescriber may "judge" to act innocently " >vhen judi-
ciously  giATen."   Hence, he says : "As to opium,  Ave  can say that our expe-
rience in its judicious use, shows that, although it is liable to abuse, its value
is too great to justify its exclusion from the materia medica,"  &c.   See 411.
No. 4—Progress Backwards /
  This  is the plea of Allopathy for the  lancet, mercury, antimony, arsenic,
and every other  poison.   ( Compare this with 398 to 406, which all condemn
it directly.) 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.                   119
   409.  " There are several  other  articles, such as digitalis, strammonium,
 hyosciamus,  &c, which are objected  to by the more ultra reformers."
 [The  I'hysio-Medical].  "We  are  clearly of the opinion that, if  all this
 doubtful class of agents could be  expunged from the  materia medica, and
 their place fully supplied by others more congenial to life, the reform would
 be most beneficial!"   (408).

   410.  Here we find the doctor's  mind  "tending" again in the right direc-
 tion, but his popularity and place in the  college, compelled him to bolster up
 a practice with deadly narcotic  agents!   In  the  Physio-Medical Recorder,
 vol. 17, p. 68, the reader will find a full review of the, doctor's vieAAS  here,
 and the backward "progress" of his mind from 1849 to 1851.

   411.  In his introductory  to the  class  of 1851-2, this "leader of the E.
 M. Institute," asks:
   " What are the  reforms  by which American Eclectics are distinguished
 from old school men?"  And he answers—" They are eight."
   "1.  We  deny the Papal infallibility of the profession."
   "2.  We  deny that it is impossible to produce satisfactory results withou'
 the lancet."
   "3.  We deny that mercurials are ever necessary."  (They are in Beach's
 liniment and Cleaveland's solvent).
   "4.  We deny the propriety of using any injurious remedies" (408)!
   Multitudes of Allopathists join in all these denials, yet they and you pre-
 scribe the most deadly poisons (408), calling them injurious only by quan-
 tity and injudicious use!
   "5.  We deny that a physician should be alloAved to  lose more than two
 per cent."
   In this you deny to yourselves the privilege of  practicing at all, in which
 Allopathists will not agree with you.
   " 6.  We  deny that Ave knoAV enough of the materia medica."
   Nobody ever charged you with the affirmative!
   "7.  We deny that the functions of the brain should  be  omitted in our
 systems of physiology."
   So do all  physiologists.
   "8.  We deny that physicians  should be the last to learn new truths."
   In all these  " denials," save the 5th, all medical men agree Avith you—
 no reform here.

   412.  As all the differences betAveen Dr. Buchanan's system and the Allo-
 pathic is the 5th  denial above!  it  follows that he  believes irritation,  fevfi
 and  inflammation  to be disease; and that cupping, leeching,  cantharides,
 (ansAver to  Harrison), opium, digitalis,  and other narcotics, <fec, are the
 proper means to cure it!   If these are not the fairly inferred principles of
 this  negative lecture, then it contains none.

   413.  In the third vol. of  the  E. M. Journal, p.  537 and onAvard, Ave find
 another address of  Dr. B., quite  reprogressive from that of  1849.   In  this,
 he complains that Physio-Medicals  "denounced Eclectics for using poisons,"
 and says: "There is  no substance in nature which  is not poisonous, if  used
 with sufficient freedom!"
   " The distinction between  medicines and poisons is merely a distinction
of degree not of  kind.  Any medicine,  if sufficiently concentrated, would 
120
ECLECTICISM--BUCHANAN
 be called a poison; and any poison, sufficiently subdivided or diffused, may
 act as a medicine.   Snake poison is converted into a medicine by the home-
 opathists; and the most harmless medicines would be pronounced poisons, if
 we could concentrate their energy till a single grain would be a fatal dose!"
 [Wonderful prediction]!
   Compare this Avith his opinions two years before (403-7),  and see  " Avhat
 a falling off was there!"—"Progress" backward.

   414. In vain have we searched through  succeeding  articles from Dr. B.,
 for the exhibition of any scientific medical principle.   We see no description
 of health, disease, irritation, fever or inflammation, nor any systematic classi-
 fication of diseased conditions, or vital symptoms;  or of food, medicines, or
 poisons.  If he has written any thing on these subjects, avc regret that it has
 never  fallen under our eye.

   415. He boasts much of having  introduced into that school, the "liberal
 policy of protesting against all  prescriptive rules, designed  to enforce any
 species of doctrine of any medical sect."
   In this it is clearly evident that he means to oppose the recognition  of any
 scientific principles, as the teachings of a college or society, such as our Bal-
 timore platform (671).   He insists  that every doctor should be "thoroughly
 instructed in the science aud art of  medicine"—"enjoy the right of private
 judgment"—"examine real or supposed improvements"—"adopt Avhat he
 finds beneficial," and "lay aside measures or remedies, found, on examina-
 tion, to be unscientific, dangerous, or destructive!"   Ann. Announcement.

   416. Noav,  he says: " EArery mineral, every plant, every part and product
 of the  plant,  every  simple and compound substance in nature,  are  [is] in
 some way medicinal to man."   (E.  M. J.,  1855, p. 300).
   Pray, Iioav can he  find out what  is good or bad, if  every thing may be
 made poisonous by condensation, or a good medicine  by attenuation?   He
 has every where condemned the trammeling of the  mind with  principles; and
 yet, in 1855, he justly says:
   "It  is chiefly those Avhose intellectual incapacity  unfits them for the
 development  of principles,  who are  disposed to  deny their importance."
 And elsewhere, that the  "mere recipe system," then taught in  the  E. M.
 Institute, " does not answer the demands of this enlightened age." (I quote
 this from memory).

   417.  Does any one ask an explantion of this gross inconsistency? Let him
 read Jones' aud Balridge's exposition of his neurological moonshine.   Who
 has abused  medica]  principles  ("creeds") more  than  he?  and who  is
 more bitter Avhen his own are assailed?   He must  have liberty  of opinion
 and  speech;  so must others, while  they will  be tamely led  by him—no
 longer!

   418.  In an editorial in  the E. M. Journal for  1854, p. 359, Ave are  told
 that "Eclecticism is not a special, exclusive theory of medicine, based upon
 one principle;  it is a comprehensive system, which tolerates all  ideas, and
 recognizes all  contributions to science."   "It is a system of  Panto-pathy"
 (360),  whose "votaries have the largest liberty to choose, and denies the
 right of any society or college to dictate a medical creed or a limited routine
 of practice."   "It is not a matter of philosophical theory,  but rather of
clinical experience"  (361). 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
121
  419.  This is just what we have always said of it—that it is a grand sal-
magundi of any thing, every thing, and nothing (negatives), wholly destitute
of any scientific, philosophical, or common sense principle.
  A committee of Eclectic physicians of Cincinnati and Covington, say that
"The same member of  the  original  faculty upon whom devolved, from the
first, the duty of  defining the doctrines and  platform of  the school, is still
vigilant, as dean of the faculty, in maintaining  a liberal  and consistent (?)
course,  and in teaching the same Eclectic philosophy in medicine (p. 16).
  This  same Buchanan says:

  420.  " The doctrines taught in this school [the E. M. Institute], and car-
ried out by its graduates  in their  practice,  may be justly considered the
practical embodiment of the American Eclectic system.    These doctrines
are  the  following:"

  421.  "1.  That every physician has a right to exercise his own judgment,
and that no society has a right to prescribe and  enforce a  medical creed."

  422.  "2.  That the physician is bound to preserve, with the utmost care,
the  vital power of his patient;  to aid nature  in  the cure  of disease, and  to
avoid every measure in  practice which experience proves to be deleterious  or
dangerous to the constitution."   [From Thomson and the Physio-Medicals].
  We like this doctrine much; but it is a direct violation  of  the first, and is
itself violated every time that the "graduates"  undertake to "carry it out"
with cups, leeches, blisters, drastic physic,  opium, or  any narcotic, lead,
iodine, prussiate of potash or of iron, niter,  &c, &c, (409).   What right
has the E. M. I., alias Dr. B., or the Am. Ec. Med. Ass., to prescribe such
a "creed" or "duty," or to bind the physician to  obey it, in opposition to
No. 1?

  423.  " 3.  That the practice of blood-letting has been proved, by ample
experience, to be generally injurious, and often dangerous to life; and ought,
therefore, to be discarded from a system  of  medical practice."   [Violation
of doctrine 1.  No one  is to be controlled by the experience of others!  Each
graduate  should  be allowed  to  kill, till he is  satisfied  that the lancet  is
dangerous]!

  424.  "4.  That the  use  of mercurial  remedies (?) has  been shown, by
ample experience,  to be productive of a vast amount of disease and  mortality,
and that such  remedies should be laid aside whenever their object can  be
obtained by other  remedies and measures."
  This  is the genuine Allopathic doctrine.   " Mercury has done great mis
f.hief"—"lay  it aside whenever," &c.  But Prof.  C. H.  Cleaveland, of the
E. M.  Institute, tells us, in  the  Am. Lancet, p. 63, that "the objects of
the mercurial  remedies can not be  obtained by other remedies,"  " in those
cases Avhere  the solvent property is demanded, as in  inflammatory  adhe-
sions [healings] of the  tissues of the eye, or in pleural or  other adhesions of
serous surfaces."   Neither does he believe it  [podophyllin, the great Eclectic
substitute] will  "remove  deposits   of  inflammatory exudations  following
svphilitic infections,  as calomel will."   He thinks that  podophyllin,  with
muriate  of ammonia, may serve all  the  purposes  of mercury, "except  to
counteract the syphilitic virus!" (p.  63).
  So here Ave have Buchanan framing a  platform that will admit mercury,
,md Cleaveland bringing  in the timber and fitting it to  its place!  Is this 
122
ECLECTICISM--BUCHANAN
"tending to a purely sanative medication" (406), or re-progressing into rant
Allopathy, where we always told him he would land at last?

  425. " 5. That the neAV remedies which have been introduced by American
Eclectic (?) practitioners, are entirely sufficient to accomplish all the pur-
poses which have heretofore  been accomplished  by mercurials,  in a much
safer and more efficient manner!"
  So  says the  "theorist" B-----;  the "medicine  man,"  Cleaveland,  says,
"No!" and neither they nor the|r  pupils are to be trammelled  by  creeds,
nor held  responsible  by colleges, nor societies, nor public opinion, for their
conduct!  Principle, No.  1.

  426. "6. That all other unsafe  remedies, which, like the mercurials, are
subject to great abuses in their use, and which are capable of being substi-
tuted by  better and safer remedies, should  be gradually laid aside, and im-
proved remedies introduced  as  rapidly as  the  progress of  science  and
experience  will  permit."   The  Allopathic doctrine most non-committally
expressed!   But what does the Platform Builder mean by unsafe remedies?
Has he forgotten his doctrine (415), that all substances are remedial; and
(413) "unsafe by quantity, not by quality!"  And is it not as easy to give
an  infinitessimal  dose of  antimony, blue stone,  calomel,  digitalis, ergot or
opium, as of anise, bergamot, catnip, dittany, cranberries or figs?   Where
was the "literacy" (397) of the great Platform Builder (see italics), that he
did not "prevent" this wanton murder of the king's English?

  427. "7. That all new truths [proposed  hypotheses]! should be received
and investigated  in a spirit of candor,  and that numerous  errors and defi-
ciencies in medical science and practice, in surgery, obstetrics, materia medica,
physiology and  pathology,  should be corrected as soon as  possible"—as
"policy" will permit (405-6).

  428. What a  "vast" and "irreconcilable  difference," between these doc-
trines and  those on  the same subjects,  of all the true  Allopathists alive!
What " astounding discoveries" are developed by this unique neurologico-pa-
thologico-politico-circumlocutico-ambiguitico-non-committico Eclectic Medi-
cal  Creed-Maker!
  We have been  told by Eclectic physicians  of Cincinnati,  (Report) by
Buchanan (397), and by the Trustees as  his mouth-pieces (circulars) that
he  is the definer of the  platform of American Eclecticism.  He tells us,
(E. M. J.,  1855, p. 338), that—
  " In the programmes of medical colleges,  *  * we find  [in "the institutes
of medicine]," a recognition of the paramount importance of philosophical
principles, without which  facts alone constitute no reliable guidance.  It is
chiefly those whose  intellectual  incapacity unfits  them for the development
of principles, who are disposed to deny their importance, and exaggerate the
value of mere facts."  [All true and good.   Now for the  illustration].

  429. Buchanan tells us that he  rejected  the prospect of the highest honors
and profits of an honorable and popular profession, "fairly within his reach,"
and "sacrificed his personal  respectability" in joining himself to a faculty.
"one half of whom were without  talent, attainments or  notoriety;  and the
other half  possessed  little more to recommend them than a  willingness  to 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
123
learn (E. M. J., 1853, p. 142, <fec), that he might develop the  great  prin-
ciples  of  anthropology,  and its  relations to collateral  sciences, which, of
course, must "include all the institutes of medicine in theory and practice."

  430.  He has now spent nine years in making out a "platform," during
which  time all he has done is to give to any  body and every body, full liberty
to prepare timbers for it, to prescribe the  places and manner in which  those
timbers shall be located; and has promised to "accept all contributions to"
this platform (418).  He has sent out his graduates to prepare  the timbers
(420), each in his own way, or according to Morrow's plan of blistering the
whole  abdomen, and giving morphine; or to I. G. Jones', of tying up the
limbs and  giving prussiate  of iron;  or  to  Newton's, of  giving morphine,
strychine and opium;  or to Cleaveland's, of giving  mercury as  a solvent to
dissolve tissues and prevent adhesive, (healing) inflammation; or to King's,
of rotting the flesh with ergot; or to the steam and lobelia system, or to the
water-cure plan, or to the homeopathic art of converting "snake  poison into
medicine" (413);  or his own theory  of fingering and smelling—but time
and space  forbid  further  enumeration of the objects of his far reaching
liberality.

  431. We  ask, when all these timbers and modes of union, none of which
are to be rejected (418), are brought to  the^great  architect of the plat-
form, on what grand  scientific  principle he will make them come together?
Either our "incapacity to develop principles," or the impossibility of harmo-
nizing such heterogenious materials, deprives us of the power to answer; and
therefore we will ask of the Architect a more reasonable, if not a less difficult
question.   We observe that  this platform definer  has not only given orders
to others how to work, but has provided some materials himself.   He has told
us that he  had developed the science of mind; that this science  involves
physiology;  that physiology involves the institutes of medicine, and, finally,
that  medicine is a system  of clinical experience—not of philosophical  prin-
ciples (418)!   How does he reconcile these  contradictory statements?

  432. He has told us that the true practice would consist of purely sanative
agents; and that all classes of reformers would finally unite on this platform,
rejecting all agents of an injurious or poisonous character (406).   Then he
told  us that nothing is, in its nature, injurious  (409)—"agents are poison
not by quality but by quantity."  Lastly, he  tells us that "every  mineral,
every  plant, every part  and product of  a plant, every  simple and [every]
compound substance in  nature, are, [is]  in some way, medicinal to man."
(E.M. J., 1855, p. 300).

  433. It  is  annoying  to be so often  obliged to correct the "illiteracy,"
"false philosophy," and "supposed hypotheses" of an author; but we may
properly do  it for the  boasted  prince of "literature,  science,  philosophy,
and respectability, whose solidity of judgment and range of reasoning power
are insufficient to  lead him to sound conclusions  in matters of principle and
philosophy," and  who is  therefore "suspicious  of all other deductions but
[than] his own, and ready to raise the cry of  theoretical and visionary" ["nar-
now," "limited," &c], against every development of the principles  of medi-
cine [such as  the Baltimore platform], however correct and comprehensive
its philosophy."—[E. M. J., '55, p. 339]. 
124
ECLECTICISM—BUCHANAN
   434.  Again, we ask, what are  the "scientific principles" of "American
Eclectic Medicine?"   What are its  "teachings"  concerning life, health,
disease, the causes of disease, their modes of attack  and the effects they pro-
duce; what are its  symptoms,  irritation,  fever, inflammation, conjestion,
suppuration, and  gangrene?  What is the nature of food, poisons and reme-
dies?   What  their  modus  operandi,  effects on  the  human  body?   Echo
answers—what?  Oh, " they are taught [in the E. M. I.] as thoroughly
as in all the schools,  Allopathic, Homeopathic, Hydropathic,  Botanic, and
Physio-medical" and yet the graduate is not assured by any scientific demon-
stration,  that  one "supposed hypothesis" is any better  than  another!  He
must try first one,  then another,  till his patient dies or recovers;  and
conclude, in the last  case, that the last dose given was the right one.
   These instructions are very injurious  (E.  M. J.,  '54,  p.  363).  "The
Eclectic physician is especially taught never to use any thing that cannot be
safely given (409); never to allow poisonous materials to become  lodged in
the  constitution," &c.  He can give poisonous materials as much  as he
choses (398, 409); but, after they are down the throat, he  must not  allow
them to be lodged in the system! (142).   Will any one inform us what are
or are not the "philosophical and distinctive principles of American Eclec-
ticism," as taught by the platform builder,—the literary, scientific, politic,
arbitrary, insolent, mountebank leader of the Cincinnati E. M. Institute?

   435.  But certain Eclectics who deny the declaration of the  platform builder
(420), offered  a  premium for the  best  exposition of  Eclectic Principles.
Essays were written and Prof. L. C. Dolley, of Rochester, one of the  pupils
of the E. M. Institute, gained the prize!
   According to Prof. Dolley "the fundamental and distinctive principles of
the Eclectic system," as understood by those who originated the same, may
be said to relate—
   "1st. To its policy,  referring to the  sources of knowledge.
   "2d.  To the methods of investigation.
   "3d.  To Pathology—Theory and Practice.
   "4th.  To Materia Medica."
   Explanations—1st. All systems and all nature.
   2d. "The investigation  and practice  should be entirely untrammeled."
Governed by no scientific rule nor practical experiments! (418, 421).
   3d.  "It  is  not claimed that  Eclectics advocate views of pathology and
practice which are wholly novel and original with themselves."
   4th. They "reject in toto, the most pernicious features of the old  school
practice."   And  who does not reject them?
   Professor D. says,  "medicine is not a fixed science, because it has to deal
with frail  man, whose existence is limited; whose organization  and vital
force are often defective,  and influenced  by the errors of education and
habit."
   That is, man is not built up and sustained on fixed principles, because,
like all other organized bodies, his is subject to extraneous influences,  which
may mar or destroy  him!   Alas for  Geology,  Astronomy,  Chemistry, Bo-
tany,—any science!   all  whose  compound  elements  are changeable!  See
review of this  "Prize Essay," Rec, vol. xix, p. 167.
   What are the "distinctive principles" of Eclecticism? 
criticised and corrected.
125
  In  the announcement of the E. M. I.,  for  1855-6, it is  said  that "in
attending their lectures, the student is  made  familiar with the established
facts and principles of medical science (45), as it has been deA^eloped by the
distinguished  physicians of the present and past centuries ("literacy!") and
is thus carefully and  efficiently taught all  that is  necessary to constitute a
sound and thorough  medical education (5), in the  judgment  of the  great
mass  of  the profession throughout  the civilized world.   In this respect, the
Institute  presents  litle  that  is different  from  other  respectable  medical
colleges."
  Hence, we see that the Eclectic School is essentially Allopathic.
  But they present, also, a vast  amount of " improvements Avhich can not be
found in any other school"—among which stand "first," the  transcendent
system  of brainology, neurology and psycology, of that  prodigy  of  "phi-
losophers," Professor "B."  Next, the use of a vast number and'variety of
remedies  of their own  discovery or invention; and lastly,  the "bold and
manly style" in which they "realize those reforms which the profession has
long been urged to mature."

  436.  Policy.   Lastly, there is a "principle of Eclecticism," called policy,
that must have been selected from the secret instructions of the St. Aloysian
Society, to its missionaries among Protestants.  It consists in telling all sorts
of fibs  for the benefit of the E. M. I., and to the injury of every thing and
person that stand  in the way of its being considered the largest college in
the west, and the best college in the world;  and J.  R. B.  the most  talented,
literary,  scientific, philosophical, benevolent, truthful/ influential, and indis-
pensable man in that  college, or the world!   This "settled policy" has shown
itself  from the first, in praising to the skies men who are connected with the
College,  and the means and measures which its existing faculty recommend;
and in degrading both to the loAvest point of infamy, the moment that the former,
no longer able to  endure their unrighteous and immoral  course, remonstrate
Avith or abandon them; or the latter (their policies) are by other persons turned
against that faculty itself.

  437.  As proof of this assertion, witness the praise bestoAved on the Worth-
ington College while Dr. D.  L.  Terry was a member.   "The system of
instruction pursued here, combines more advantages, and is better calculated
to advance the student in the acquisition of a knowledge of the intricate and
important science of medicine, than any other hitherto in use," W. M. R.,
v. 1, p. 9.  Signed T. V. Morrow and others, and dated Jan. 11th, 1836.
  Dr. T., a young Professor, talented, honest, and energetic, soon discovered
that much of this teaching and practice was wrong, and remonstrated against
it.  This brought on  him,  in August of  the  same year, the ire of  his col-
leagues, and he resigned (ib., p. 116).   Let the reader now examine the de-
scription of his character by the same hand that  done up  the above report
of the capacity of  Dr.  Terry, with others.  "That apostate and  mongrel
Thomsonian ex-Professor, D. L. Terry," whose "course is unparalled in  igno-
miny and disgrace," publishing "barefaced falsehoods and base fabrications;"
"a  designing apostate"  (120),  because, "without the science or the talents
necessary to elevate him to a stand among those of the first  eminence"(?)
&c. (121); that is, he Avas guilty of the "unreasonable ambition" o,f being
counted  equal  to his older colleagues!   What a sin!  Let him who would
know which was  the  superior  of those  two men, read  "Terry on Fever" 
126                    eclecticism—buchanan
(pamphlet), and Morrow's lecture at Russelville (W. M. R., pp. 69, 81), Avith
Terry's review (T. Rec, vol. 4, p. 337).   Let the reader compare the honest,
manly criticism of the Worthington doctrines (T. Rec, v. 4, p. 287), with the
Billingsgate that was heaped upon this author for it (W. M. R., v.  1, ISo. 8).

  438. Dr. H. Cox.  Passing to Cincinnati, we find these extra liberal Re-
formers praising to the skies Dr. H. Cox, because, like Chapman and others, he)
had dared to rail against mercury, and, like Morrow, to "enter his solemn pro-
test" "against the very frequent and almost indiscriminate use of the lancet,
so much advised by many of the authorities of the present day" (W. M. R.,
v. 1, p. 114).   See also vol. 4, p.  103; also page  85, where he is  called "a
highly talented and distinguished physician," and his renunciation of the old
school practice [only mercury], "able, manly and dignified."

  439. Dr. W. Beach.   On page  30th, v. 5, W. M. R., we find Dr.  Beach
" a gentleman  who is, beyond  all  question, one of the most distinguished
and able medical men of the present or any other age; of  exalted reputation
as a writer and teacher,  and  successful practitioner; a brilliant  ornament of
his profession;  an honor to mankind, as well as  one of the  greatest bene-
factors of  our  race."  Vol. 6,  p. 266, he was highly toasted  in  Buchanan's
presence.   1853, p. 310.

  440. With the faculty, consisting of B. L. Hill, Jas. H. Oliver [old school],
L. E. Jones, H. Cox, A. H.  Baldridge, W. Beach, and T.  V. Morrow, "the
course of  instruction in  each of the departments will be full and  complete,
embracing every thing of any value known and taught in the old regular
colleges, as well as in the Reformed and Botanical schools of  medicine," W.
M. R., vol. 6,  p. 110.   Compare this with what Professor Beach says, Fam.
Phi., p. 195:  "Non-professional readers may imagine that  information in
regard to depletion and sweating is annually taught in our medical schools.
Such is not the fact."
  441. Now compare this with what is afterward  said of  Cox,  Beach, Jone*
and Baldridge, in general, E. M. I., 1853 (and of Jones  and  Baldridge in
particular,  page 315):   "Unworthy of notice,"  "regardless of  truth and
honor," "monomaniac of mendacity," "convicted slanderers and traitors,"
&c.  "Mortifying" this  self-conceited, Jesuitical deceiver, by "making public
parade of  his  want of good sense, decency, and  moral principle, and pro-
claiming to the world a fact  that he  (B.) would gladly conceal, as in his
address to the  medical public, that the Institute has heretofore  contained an
individual void of the sentiment of  honor and a proper self-respect."  Better
attend to the one still in it—charity begins at home.

  442. In an  address to the  public in 1853, p.  139, Prof. Buchanan, who
was a member of the committee of negotiation (362), and ostensibly approved
of the testimony for Professor Jones, says, of half of that same faculty, they
were "men who had little talents, less reputation, and nothing  to lose," E
M.  J., 1853,  p.  142.   Of Dr. Jones (362) he  says, in  substance, he was
persuaded  to write  communications for the press, and to lend his name as
author to a book, in his  contributions to which his "ignorance  and illiteracy
were  corrected," &c, p. 142.  His "ideas of medical reform  were adapted
only to furnishing recipes to half-educated physicians"  (p.  140), and his
moral character was that of  "stupid mendacity, a selfish and animal nature, 
criticised and corrected.
127
impelled by ungovernable passions,"  "disorganizing  machinations," with
whom  "his (B.'s) association was a sacrifice of personal respectability," E.
M.  J., 1853, p. 142.
  What confidence can be placed in the word of a man who will deceive and
lie, and contradict himself after this sort?
  With what grace and meekness Messrs. Jones and Baldridge receive their
castigation, hoAV just it was in itself, and how worthy the source from which
it  emanated, may be  fully learned  from a brace of* pamphlets in defence,
which they will furnish gratis to any anxious applicant.

   443. Thus  the remark of Dr. M., vol. 4, p. 106, that, "No sooner does
any man renounce the old school practice of medicine " (or the objectionable
parts of it which the  Eclectics retain), "than his reputtition as a man and a
physician is assailed  with a violence and a malignity truly astonishing," is
abundantly illustrated in the course of  himself and his colleagues toward Dr.
Terry, Dr.  Curtis,  Dr.  Cox, Dr.  Baldridge, Dr. L.  E. Jones, and others,
merely for differing from them in medical doctrine, or for objecting to  the
"policy" of  their "course," private or public, or for all these united.  This
is enough to sink them to the loAvest depths of '' intellectual and moral degra-
dation," W. M. R., vol 1, No. 8.

   444. As the Trustees not only made no defense against the degrading in-
sinuations of B.  (442), but forthwith  lauded their detractor to the skies, as
the greatest of medical discoverers (see Annual Announcement), we presume
they very meekly treasured up the insult to their judgment in selecting, and
their moral responsibility and  honesty  in recommending, such men as Jones
and Baldridge, as worthy to be teachers of the future guardians of the public
health.  Were those trustees merely putting their names to what that unprin-
cipled platform motive had prepared for them? (as Dr. B. L. Hill said they
would consent to whatever the union committee should agree upon), instead
of trying to secure the public  against imposters, and provide them with com-
petent teachers of medicine.                                                    *

   445. The policy of  the  E. M. Institute's Eclecticism, is not confined to the
praise of  undeserving men, and the abuse of either the undeserving or  the
eminently good.   It  extends  to  every species of deception and meanness;
such as the sending of advertisements  through the country, stating that they
have been the means of doing what  Avas  done as  much by others; as  the
breaking  down of the monopolizing medical  laws in the State; the efforts to
gain admission to the Commercial Hospital;  the curtailing of the use of poi-
sonous drugs by Allopathists, and of the introduction of all the "new reme-
dies;" including "lobelia," and fifty others introduced first by Dr.  S. Thom-
son.   In making out false statements that they have  more than half the
students in all the  medical schools in Cincinnati,  by the omission  of  two
schools and over sixty students.  In reporting themselves, and sending run-
ners to the steamboats and hotels, in October and November, to report, that
other schools are "dead," or "have but one Professor," and to persuade the
young men who may be coming in, to go  to their  schools.   In pretending
that their graduates know every thing, when they themselves have no prin-
ciples to teach; are  accomplished physicians, when they have  not a single
settled medical principle, nor an established rule or means of practice.  Of
all which, and a hundred times as much more, we have the  record and the 
128
ECLECTICISM--BUCHANAN
        testimony of living witnesses to prove!  Finally, with B.'s "liberal policy"
        of "tolerating all ideas," and clasping to the bosom all " honest and enlight-
        ened reformer's" (Announcement), contrast his late  "protest"  against the
        doings and  persons of his friends in New York (E. M. J., 1855, p. 341),
        and Ave shall see the truth of our assertion, that nothing is "American Eclec-
        tism" that does not magnify the E. M. I. above all other colleges, and J. R. B.
        above all other men.  His contradictory opinions  respecting his principles,
        and the  character  of medicines and poisons, and the literary and scientific
        qualifications of  his quondam colleagues, show that his judgment in matters
        of science, can not be safely trusted; and his acknowledgment that he strove
        to put forth  one of his colleagues  as an author, of whose "illiteracy" and
        lack of scientific attainments he was ashamed; his  misrepresentations of tho
        number of pupils in his own school, as well as in others;  and his false asser-
        tion, in his address  to the public, that "we once offered him the  use of our
        charter"  and the  privilege of making up a faculty to suit himself, which,
        failing to do, he  abandoned it;  when the truth is, as  will  be partly seen  by
        reference  to  the publication of his name among us, that he Avas only per-
        mitted to be one of  a faculty whom there was no danger  that  he would  bo
        able to lead astray; and when we discovered, by a letter of his from Boston,
        that he was deliberately deceiving the people, we rejected him,  instead of his
        abdicating his chair, prove  that his pretended statements of facts  are  not
        worthy of credit.
          Take  him  all  in  all, his  miserable mangling  of the King's English, his
        heterogeneous medical doctrines, his false statements  respecting facts which
        he knows, and his scandalous abuse of every one who presumes  to question
        his infallibility, or unite  with him in sustaining his "Eclectic policy," his
        arrogant and impudent pretensions to superiority; or of non-committalism and
        humbuggery, point him out most clearly to  the public as  "eminently quali-
        fied" to instruct the future guardians of the public health!
          The grounds for the everlasting boast of the great rrumber of Eclectics in
        the United States will be understood, when  it is considered that, in the  first
t       place, a few  ambitious men, observing that,  on one hand, were a "large and
        respected profession" of men who sustained the Allopathic  system, and, on
        the other,  a great number of Thomsonians who believed in a system and a
        practice diametrically opposed to it;  that other systems, as the Homeopathic,
        the Uroscopian, <fcc, had many adherents;  and that many reflecting  people
        Avere displeased on the one hand with Allopathy, and not sufficiently enlight-
        ened and independent to adopt, on the other hand, a thorough reform, deter-
        mined on that master  stroke of "Eclectic  policy," of rushing in between
        error and truth, Allopathy and a genuine reform, and becoming all things to
        all men (418), giving poisons to those who  demanded them, and medicines
        to those who refused poisons (408, 409), pretending to "select the good from
        every system" (418, 421),  thus ensnaring  alike those who were disgusted
        with Allopathy and those who were not fully prepared for reform, and  pro-
        nouncing all  "Eclectics" who denounced "the indiscriminating use of mer-
        cury and the lancet," or Avho, to avoid the  abuse  always  heaped upon  the
        advocates of  a good  cause, were disposed to be silent  on the virtues of  cay-
        enne, lobelia and the vapor bath.   Of such ignorant and unstable malcon-
        tents, a pretty large  army has been raised, and  are  commanded by a leader
        (418) worthy of their composite and ever-changing character.
          In speaking of Beach, MorroAv, and I. G. Jones,  we gave a sketch of the
        character of  the men, as distinct from their medical systems.   If any thing 
criticised and corrected.
129
of this kind respecting Buchanan is wanted, more than is clearly inferred
from his " principles and his policy," may be found in his publishing to the
world, as "science,"a "system of anthropology," based chiefly on his expe-
riments on a young man who, he knows, was continually feigning nearly all
the "demonstrations" he  exhibited!  See Rec, vol. XIX, p.  129, and the
pamphlets of Jones and Baldridge, once his  worthy colleagues in teaching,
and coadjutors in "Eclectic policy."  See, also, a review of his "Anthro-
pology," in American Med. and Surg. Journal of this year, particularly July,
August and September.

  446.  Apology.  To those who may feel disposed to call us to  account for
the manner in which we have presented the  Eclectic system,  we can  only
say it is the manner in which we  find it, and we are not to be  blamed.   To
him who would ask why,  if  we  find no  scientific  principles laid down
by its authors, we present such a  quantity of trash in their stead, we answer,
this is the material of which Eclectics boast that their system is composed.
To him who would ask us why we do not  exhibit some order in  our presen-
tation of it, we answer, for the same reason that we should  not expect order
from him in  a description of the inmates  and the operations of bedlam.  It
would "misrepresent" the whole idea of their bedlam itself, and make it appear
to be  what it is not;  and thus we should really have deserved, what we have
often  most innocently received, a "severe castigation" (in Billingsgate) for
"slandering and abusing the Eclectics and their system."  B. S. Hill to J.
A. Rowland.
  When Eclectics boasted  of their superior liberality in "tolerating" all
other classes of  medical men; in  condemning no man for his honest opin-
ions, but  in giving aid and comfort to every man to investigate every subject,
and to question the infallibility of every dogma; of their generous and digni-
fied fraternity of all honest and inquiring men of every sect; we  have felt as
though we would  like to be "one of them."   But, when we have observed
that this liberality and this generosity extended  only to those who professed
to belong to their fraternity; that men (as well as "remedial agents")  were
good only while  in their skillful hands, and forthwith became '' intellectually
and morally" "degraded," as soon as they questioned Eclectic wisdom, con-
sistency, morality, supremacy, infallibility or exclusive right to all science
and medical improvement, no language was too vulgar to designate them, and
the best position to be assigned them was, "the lowest depths of intellectual
and moral degradation."   (W. M. Ref., vol.  1, p. 113), we have preferred
to maintain our  "independent  position," and carry on reform  as best we
could.
9 
HOMEOPATHY.
  447. On this subject I was about to  copy the doctrines from its founder,
Samuel Hahnemann, when I thought it best to consult my Avorthy friend,
Dr. Pulte, who informed  me  that many errors in Hahnemann had been
detected, and that the  true doctrines are  more clearly developed by Dr. R.
E. Dudgeon, in his " Late Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Homeop-
athy," delivered at the Hahnemann  School of Homeopathy, and published
in Manchester,  England, 1854.  Referring to this work, I find, page 219
and onward, the advice of Dr. Pulte worthy of particular regard.

  448. Dr. Dudgeon says: "It cannot escape any student  of Hahnemann's
works, that an idea once entertained or  an opinion once broached by him, is
rarely entirely abandoned or formally rejected in his works, even though it is
virtually  suspended by another idea; and the consequence is, that, in  his
Avritings, and more especially in the  Organon, and particularly the later
editions of it, we find statements, side by side, almost diametrically opposed
to each other.  He seems unwilling to efface what he had previously written,
but retains the  older notion, though the more recent one virtually extin-
guishes it."    *   *    *    "Though    *   *    he  does occasionally
solemnly  recant an opinion  he previously  held," &c  "Knowing this pecu-
liarity of his mental organization, we have less difficulty in understanding
his virtual abandonment of the doctrine of secondary actions, while it retains
a place in the systematic exposition of his doctrines" (p. 220).

  449. Something similar to the  foregoing statements was  our opinion, and
therefore we had copied many of the  contradictions, intending to present
them for  comment; and we must still do it, especially, because, looking more
deeply and carefully into the matter, though Hahnemann was  often wrong,
we  find  that Dudgeon  has often condemned what  Hahnemann correctly
stated.

  450. For example, page  212, he quotes Hahnemann's  doctrines  on  the
action of medicines, thus:  " Most medicines have more than one action, the
first a direct action, which  gradually changes into the second, which I call
the indirect secondary  action."   Example, opium.

  451.  "A few medicines  are  exceptions to this  rule,  continuing their
primary action uninterruptedly of the same kind, though always diminishing
in degree, until  no trace of it can be detected, the  normal condition of  the
organism being  restored."  Example, mercury, arsenic, lead.
  Page 216, he quotes:  "In experiments with moderate doses of medicines
on healthy bodies, we observe only their primary action."
         (130) 
criticised and corrected.
131
  Page 213, he says: "The discrimination of primary and secondary action
was a point of some  importance  according  to Hahnemann, as the choice of
specific, Homeopathic medicine,  was dependent upon it."

  452.  Now, with all due deference to the  critical acumen of Dr. Dudgeon,
in rejecting  these doctrines of Hahnemann,  they are, when properly inter-
preted, positively true.   They are absolute facts, and it is because their nature
and character  are not understood, that either Hahnemann, Dudgeon, or any
body else, has ever been or ever will be obliged  to  abandon them.   It is
simply because Hahnemann did not understand them, that he did not bring
the principles  of medication  to  absolute perfection.  We agree  with many
medical men,  that our  knowledge  of the practical art is accumulative,  not
progressive; but the principles,  if we ever find them at all, must be perfect
and unchangeable, and so must be the best  appliances of the art.

  453.  We  agree, therefore, with  Hahnemann, that these several  primary
and  secondary actions (not always  of medicines, but that  often follow  the
use) of medicines, are real;  and we add, that the true understanding of them
will completely revolutionize, not  only Allopathy in  all its  phases  but
Homeopathy itself.   Well might Hahnemann say it was important, and there-
fore we shall attempt to show its importance—to explain the hidden mystery.

  454.  The whole  error and mystery has  its foundation in the  "mother
error" of Allopathy, that irritation, inflammation and  fever are  disease,
which Homeopathy  still hugs to her bosom.   It  deprives all who adopt it,
of the  power  to learn any thing certain about either the primary or  the
secondary action of  remedies, or the reaction of the system upon them.   It
compels Allopathy to exclaim, " Whether as causes of disease or as remedies,
their action is fraught with the highest degree of  uncertainty" (20).   " It
caused  Hippocrates to exclaim, " Fallax experientia;" and Abercrombie  and
Jackson to repeat the exclamation.   It caused Hahnemann to lightly esteem,
if he did not abandon, the everlasting truths above put forth, and Dudgeon
to reject them, saying, p. 560, " There are  still vast difficulties attending the
selection of the remedy," " the  appropriate dose," and "the best period for
repetition"—the all  of therapeutics!

   455.  Let them all abandon that same mother error; adopt the true doc-
trine that irritation, fever, and  inflammation are  but vital manifestations of
the efforts of nature  to expel the causes or  remove the conditions of disease;
let them learn that disease is not a "derangement of the equilibrium of vital
action," but the state of the organs that prevents its equilibrium; and, Avith
this glorious lamp in their hands, the truths above quoted from Hahnemann,
will sparkle in their  eyes like the diamonds and crystals which glisten in the
caves of the earth, on the approach of the explorer with his torch light.  Let
us see:
   456. "Most medicines have more than one action," <fec  Most medicines
are compound, possessing different elements; as gums and resins, the acrid
principle and  the astringent, as bayberry; the aromatic and  the astringent,
as witch-hazel; the bitter and the laxative,  as bitter root; the bitter and  the
astringent, as  birch bark, &c.
  Now, if each of these principles or active powers, acts on the system (and
it does), and  if both can not be manifested at the same time (and, where 
132
HOMEOPATHY  EXAMINED,
they are opposite, they can not), then it follows that one action must be rela-
tively primary and the other secondary.  Thus the resin of gums stimulates
first, then the gum lubricates; in bay berry the  acrid,  and  in Avitch-hazel
the aromatic  effects are  first  developed, then the astringent; in bitter  root,
the bitter effect is  manifested primarily, and the laxative  secondarily; in
birch bark, the bitter first, then the astringent.

   457. Hahnemann saw these facts, and though, afterwards, he  saw other
facts that seemed to contradict them; as  that  some medicines did not pro-
duce  any secondary symptoms, he did not deny the first, because they were
facts.  Not being able to explain both  in harmony, on his established (?)
dogma, "similia similibus curantur," he abandoned the sound principles (Org.,
§12, note), and based his system on the doctrine that we are to regard the
totality of the symptoms as all we know of the disease, as even '' the disease
itself" (Organon, §  6), and to treat them with remedies which have been
observed to be followed by these  symptoms, on their administration to the
healthy body, thus  confounding all sorts of remedies  that  either invite or
provoke vital action to  its  derangements; or that produce  different effects
according to  their qualities;  or that produce now one effect and then another,
according to the relations of the different qualities they possess;  and, in this
respect, securing, over Allopathy,  little  advantage  beyond a negative one,
that of doing less mischief.

   458.   But there  is another kind of "secondary effect," which the  dis-
criminating eye of Hahnemann discovered was  not the same as that which
followed  the  use of  "some remedies."   This  effect, being directly opposed
to the character and tendency of the remedies, he called "indirect action,"
and he found it to take place after the use of nauseants, as antimony, ipecac,
&C, and  before the direct action  of sedatives,  as opium.   This he clearly
perceived was  produced by the vital force; hence he called it a "reactive"
effect.  Here,  too,  he  was right,  and hence he  "retained" this,  to  Dr.
Dudgeon, seeming contradiction, not, as  Dr. Dudgeon unjustly charges him,
because he was unwilling to recant what he knew to be an error, (p. 220, for
he often frankly did that), but because he knew them both to be facts (as they
truly are), which, on what he supposed to be an  infallible principle, he could
not  explain.    Is Dudgeon more  wise or candid in  rejecting these facts,
because he cannot explain them?  Let him learn the  error of similia, and
then these facts will appear to him as philosophical as they are real.

   459. In the use of some relaxants, as antimony, Dr. Hahnemann observed
that the  medicinal  or nauseating action was primary, and the vital, reactive,
was secondary.  But, in the use of opium, he found that the  reaction was
primary, and the narcotic was secondary.   He could not reconcile these facts.
But as  he knew them  to be  facts, and  as his rule was to prefer facts to
theories or explanations, he  saved them  all.   Dr. Dudgeon  can not explain
them, so he charges Hahnemann with a kind of disengenuous "virtual" aban-
donment of the doctrine of secondary actions, while, to avoid confessing a
former error, or the charge of present inconsistency, he suffered the reaction
to "still retain  a place in the systematic exposition of his doctrines." p. 220.

   460. We leave it to the candid to say which is the most noble, disin-
terested and self-sacrificing, to stick to what we know to be true, though it 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
133
seems to be contradictory, or to abandon a known truth or fact, because we
can not explain it?   We do not say that Hahnemann was altogether faultless
in this  particular—who is?  But we do admire  his strict adherence to his
general principle, to let facts be admitted, be the explanation what it may.

   461.  We shall prove that, had Hahnemann bestowed the same criticism on
his " dogma," similia,  &c, that  he did on his facts, he himself would have
given the explanation that would  have reconciled all seeming contradictions.
   He would have seen that the "action which continues the same to the end
in health," ("produces  no secondary,") is the action  of that class of reme-
dies which  harmonize with the demands of the  vital  force, as just enough
of a pure relaxant to relieve spasm, or a pure astringent to restore tone, or a
pure stimulant to  revive from syncope; or  his  trouble or "difficulty" that
these sometimes produce only primary and sometimes secondary actions,
Avould  have been solved by observing that, in  the first instance, they were
used in the very cases in which the conditions  of the system called for their
use, and in quantities just equal to the demand; and in the second,  mis-
applied, either in the  case of  the patient, or the quantity administered, or
mode of application.

   462.  Examples.  1st, constriction of the throat.   Drink a little warm water
or weak boneset tea, and the medicinal action harmonizing with the  demands
of the  system, it "gradually diminishes till it ends in  the healthy state;" no
reaction ("secondary effect") follows.

   463.  Give  to a  case in which this constriction  does  not exist, large
draughts of the same fluids, and the same medicinal, primary, relaxing action
commences; but, "after a time," reaction or vomiting takes place.   Hahne-
mann saw these facts,  and, at  first, he  called them primary and secondary;
but it was soon clearly evident to him that the reaction could  not be  pro-
duced  by the  same cause that produced  the relaxation; hence he gave it the
better name, "reaction," and ascribed it justly to the vital force as its cause.

   464.  Give to an irritated stomach,  a minute dose  of boneset, lobelia or
warm water, and the primary (medicinal) effect will be simply quieting; no
reaction will follow, the relaxing effect  will gradually diminish till it ends in
health.  Give a very large dose of either of these, and the primary or medi-
cinal effect will still be relaxation; but, when this  effect is overcome by the
vital force, reaction will take place.
   Give  to  the same case, a  dose of the  salts of copper or zinc, or of any
poAverful astringent or  stimulant, and  the  primary medicinal  effect will be
vomiting, after which relaxation  will take  place, either from the fatigue of
the act, or from the debilitating influence of the medicine, or both.

   465.  Hahnemann saw these things as facts, and he did not reject them
because he could not explain them.  But he failed in  not  perceiving here a
rule for distinguishing medicines from poisons, and he erred in using indis-
criminately all the agents whose  administration was followed by such effects,
instead  of  ascertaining what remedies directly fulfilled the demands of the
case, their action "terminating  in health;" and in using these, to the exclusion
of those that produced a "primary,"  "direct effect" that was unnecessary
or injurious,  before the "secondary"  or "reactive"—curative effect could 
134
HOMEOPATHY EXAMINED,
occur.  And the same is true of Dudgeon, and of Allopathists, and every
other class and individual of a class, who adheres to the old error of errors—
the "fever disease" doctrine.

   466.  It  amounts to this, then, that, whenever a poisonous drug is given,
or a good  one  misapplied, in  quality, quantity or manner, a reaction  must
take place before the disease is cured.
   But sometimes both  the primary and the secondary actions of the system,
or those of several medicinal qualities are wanted.  Say the stomach is foul
and inactive; the  fluids being absorbed  into  the  system,  the more  solid
portions of the ingesta and of the secretions are enveloped in its corrugated
folds and gastric secernents, so that the ordinary action will not easily expel
them.   That state  demands  first, relaxation to  loosen  the  tissues of the
mucous membrane;  secondly, stimulation to  set the stomach in motion;
thirdly, contraction to diminish  its  caliber, so as to expel its morbific con-
tents.   Warm  water or aromatic teas will do the  first, ginger or  cayenne
the second, and tannin or any pure astringent the third.   Here are  not only
primary and secondary, but a tertiary action,  or a combination of the  pri-
mary and secondary—the primary being the relaxing, the secondary, (3d in
order here), the astringent or opposite  of the primary,  and the third the
stimulant  or a  combination of the other two.   And these are all the purely
medicinal  actions that the practitioner of medicine can directly induce upon
the system.  The when, the how and the with  what, to produce these, con-
stitute the chief skill of the healing art.   The rest is  prophylactic, chemical
and mechanical.

   467.  But I digress.   " In experiments  with  moderate doses of medicines
on healthy bodies, we observe only their primary action."
   I have said this is true when properly understood.   First, it is true of all
true medicines, used in very minute quantities;  for the system, not  needing
their action, is not disturbed by it.  They are like a little cool or a little warm
air or water, a little aroma in the  nose,  or a very little dust in the lungs, not
sufficient  to produce any considerable  derangement  or  hindrance  to the
equilibrium of" vital action.

   468.  But, secondly, it is true of even injurious agents or good ones misap-
plied, when used in extremely minute quantities; thus we breathe both bad
and good  air,  drink both  pure and impure water, and eat both pure  and
impure food, and are not, when in health, sensibly affected by them.

   469.  We must take them in  large doses to know their influence upon us,
and consequently, whether they directly aid or oppose physiological action,
in  other words, Avhether they are medicines or poisons!  And hence  the,
not homeopathic, but physio-medical rule of "proving them on the healthy
body" (which Thomson taught before Hahnemann did), is the only sure test
of the character of remedies.

   470.  But how can they determine this question who count  physiological
action disease ?   If they count irritation, fever and inflammation disease, they
must pronounce all  the  agents that excite them, whether directly or indi-
rectly, pathogenetic; and all those whose administration is followed by their
removal, curative, whether  they remove their exciting causes or destroy the 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
135
power of the system  to manifest them.  Hence, well might "the discrimi-
nation  of primary  and secondary  action  be a point of some  importance,
according to Hahnemann, as the choice of all true medicine is" really,  "de-
pendent on it."


   471. If, then,  Hahnemann, though he could not see  hoxo nor why, was
really right in all these positions, what should Dudgeon have done?  Instead
of condemning what was right, he should have attacked  and exposed  what
was  wrong.  He should  have  opened his batteries on  Hahnemann's  false
doctrine of disease.    " The totality of  the symptoms constitute the disease,"
(Organon, § 6).  He should have shown that the symptoms are not the dis-
ease, and that therefore  they are  not  that  which  is to  be  cured.   He
should have shown that an agent which  causes the disease, whether a bad
one in its nature, or a good one misapplied, is not the proper agent to cure
it.   That, when a disease is cured, after the administration of both poisons
and medicines, the similia non similibus curantur; because the similar symp-
toms are not cured by similar agents, for similar agents are not used.   Or, if
he object to this, and say that similar symptoms are cured by agents that pro-
duce them, whether  those agents are  similar or dissimilar (Org., § 26), I
answer, that dissimilar agents have  no power to produce similar effects, for
it is only by their  dissimilar  effects  that we know them  to be  dissimilar.
Therefore, where the  same effects are produced on the body by the applica-
tion  of dissimilar agents, we must look for the cause of those effects to  some
other power which produces them all, whether in harmony with those agents
or in opposition  to  them, one,  two, or all together.   And thus, he would
have found the fundamental error of Homeopathy involved in its fundamental
dogma, similia similibus curantur, almost the only one on which all its adAro-
cates agree, as a settled principle; and the one in which she is still the infant
daughter of her venerable mother,  Allopathy, a chip of the old Hock, inherit-
ing the same nature, and only a little modified in her manners!
   I know these are  bold assertions, but I proceed to demonstrate their truth.

   472.  Constantine Hering says,  (Organon, p. 3):
   "1. All Homeopathic physicians are united under the banner of the  great
law of cure, similia similibus curantur; however they may differ in regard to
the theoretical explanation of  that law, or the extent to Avhich  it may be
applied.
   "2.  All Homeopathic physicians  acknowledge  that provings upon the
healthy, are indispensable  in ascertaining  the unknown  curative power of
drugs.
   " 3. Finally, all  Homeopathists concur  in giving but one medicine at  a
time.  Never  mixing different  drugs together, under the absurd expectation
that each  will act according to their dictum.   This is the  glorious tricoloi'
of our school, which will make the circuit of the world, and in these Ave are
as the heart of one man."  He adds, p. 4:
   '' There will always be a large number  of physicians who either do not
understand or will not learn,  how to select for each particular case the one
only proper medicine; and such will always find it  more  comfortable to em-
ploy massive doses.    There will always be, perhaps, as large a number, who
will, by-and-by, know how to hit the nail upon the head, and they will  learn
to prefer the higher potencies," (473). 
136
HOMEOPATHY  EXAMINE!>,
  473.  After a long  course  of  critical lectures on  Homeopathy, Professor
Dudgeon comes to the following conclusion, p. 558:
  " I believe I have touched on  (imperfectly in many instances it may be),
every point of practical and  theoretical importance relating to the Homeo-
pathic system of medicine, and I shall  now bring this course of lectures to a
close, by recapitulating, in a very brief summary, the chief points that have
engaged our attention during the past weeks.   The three  cardinal points of
the  Homeopathic  system,  that are acknowledged by all the disciples of Hah-
nemann, however they may differ in other matters, are:
  " 1st. The proving  of medicines on the healthy, in order to ascertain their
pure pathogenetic effects.
  " 2nd. The administration of the medicines so proved, according to the
therapeutic maxim,  expressed in the phrase, similia similibus curantur.
  " 3rd. The administration of the proved medicines according to this prin-
ciple, singly and alone.
  "All who hold these articles of faith, and practice accordingly, are Home-
opathists, and acknowledge, as their master, the great medical  reformer of
the  nineteenth century, Samuel Hahnemann.
  '' I have shown, in the  course of my lectures, that the most rational views
on the subject of Pathology, lead to the recognition of the Homeopathic the-
rapeutic principle, as  the only plausible guide in the administration  of the
curative agents termed medicines; that the  recognition of this  principle  as
our therapeutic guide, involves the necessity of proving medicines according
to the method laid doAvn by Hahnemann, and that the practice of giving but
one medicine at a time is a necessary corollary from the other two maxims,"
(p.  559).                 i
  "I am very far from agreeing  *  *   that the doctrines of Hahnemann
are  an unimprovable system.   *   *   Medicine is and ever must be a pro-
gressive science.  *  *   There are still vast difficulties in  selecting the
remedy. The rule for the administration of the appropriate dose  remains yet
to be  discovered,  the  best periods for repetition of the medicine are still un-
certain, and  there are still many diseases that are not amenable to the very
best treatment,"  (p.  560.   See No. 472).

  474.  It has been  a  matter of surprise to me that all the reviewers of Home-
opathy, its friends as  well as its opposers, have  passed  over its fundamental
errors, and spent  their force on its matters of minor importance.   They have
skirmished about  its outposts, and now  and then taken a redoubt or jostled a
weak sentinel from his post; but not  one of them, even  the great Forbes
himself, has  ever shot a  ball of any consequence into  the main garrison.
This is explainable, only on the fact which I have exhibited, that the great
and fundamental errors of all are the  same.   The inability of  Forbes, the
most learned and  candid opponent, to see the error of Homeopathy, was his
inability to see that  of Allopathy; the error, I  repeat, no matter  how often,
of  considering  and treating  irritation, fever and inflammation  as disease;
which error,  as I  shall show, is involved in the "dogma," "similia similibus
curantur."

  475.  First, then, I most cordially agree that the true way to ascertain the
pathogenetic or the curative nature, properties or qualities of any agent, is
to try it on the healthy subject, in doses sufficiently powerful  to "disturb
the equilibrium"  of the healthy state, or vital action.  But this  doctrine  is 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
137
not peculiar to Homeopathy.   It has been recognized by many eminent phy-
sicians, in all  past  times.   Dr.  Samuel  Thomson,  the  greatest  American
medical reformer,  published it to the world eighteen years before Hahne-
mann did.

  476.  If we try an agent on the sick, and he gets well, it may be that the
vital force cured him, either by the aid of that agent, or in spite of its oppo-
sition.  If he dies, it may be because of the action of the agent or because
of the disease, and we have no means of certainly ascertaining which is the
case.

  477.  Thus, thousands upon  thousands  regularly die  by the  lancet, mer-
cury, opium and other deleterious agents, and their death is ascribed to the
disease for which those agents were prescribed, while thousands more recover
after the use of the same agents, and  the recovery is ascribed to these same
instruments of death!

  478.  But, if persons at a wedding,  drink tea or coffee, or eat cake, or pies,
or puddings, into Avhich arsenic and  other regular medicines have been
mingled, and they immediately sicken and die, there is no doubt  as  to the
character of the medicines  or  the cause  of death; and, if  the doctor who
administers them is caught,  he  is not  treated  quite so honorably and affec-
tionately as the young M. D., who administered the calomel and arsenic a  few
days before, to cure the chills and fevers, in the case of the dear and lamented
young friend, who was thus effectually prevented by "a most inscrutable
Providence, for wise and gracious purposes," from bearing him company to
that same wedding!

  479.  Let us learn the character of remedies by their action on the healthy
system, and there will be no longer-"a vast difficulty attending the selection
of the remedy."   " The appropriate dose" will  be that which  produces all
the action that is wanted,  "the best period for its repetition" will be when
it has spent its force, and the  "cases which are not amenable to the best
treatment," will be only those  of  fatal lesion of function or  tissue.   They
will be few and  far between.  A few persons will be  slain  by accident or
design, but the vast majority of mankind will be  preserved to  the end of the
race, and restored to the care of old Time, who long ago gave up his regular
business and hung up his scythe to the rust, having been supplanted by the
lancets and the poisons of medical  quackery!

  480.  But I shall be asked, why, then, are not Homeopathists right? as they
prove their medicines on the healthy?
  I answer, first because, their  fundamental doctrines (fever disease, and
similia)  teach them to call  both  medicines and poisons both pathogenetic
and curative, and to use them all as remedies.

  481.  Secondly.   The doctrine that but one  remedy is to be used at  the
same time, is a great error in fact, and one which  the Homeopathist seldom
does or can regard in practice, for,

  482.  Most remedies, especially vegetable, are compound, involving  many
distinct  and often opposite principles.   These,  taken  into  the  system, 
138
HOMEOPATHY  EXAMINED,
produce the primary and secondary, and  sometimes tertiary effects, noted
by Hahnemann, (450 to 464).

  483. For example, in a case of bleeding at the stomach, I desire to diffuse
the blood to the surface,  <fec, and astringe the bleeding vessels.   If I give
a pure aromatic, as spearmint or  lobelia, I  do the former but  not the latter.
If I give a solution of pure tannin, I do the latter but not the  former.  If I
give the aromatic astringent, witch-hazel (two properties  in one article), I
do  both.   So  I could give the tannin in  spearmint or lobelia tea, and do
both; as I  have many a time done, and effected my object in a few minutes.
  In these  cases, the relaxing effect is primary and the astringent secondary;
all relaxants acting more promptly than astringents, as the  former excite the
nerves instantly, while the latter bind up more gradually the vascular tissues
with the nerves.   I  use  the same  compound treatment in all the excessive
mucous secretions; as diarrhea,  diabetes,  menorrhea,  &c,  that is, I use
general, diffusible stimulants, combined with local  astringents.   Will any
one say that it would be better to use the diffusible and wait till its relaxing
influence is fully spent before  he attempts  to  close the open  vessels of the
diseased part?   If so, it  is no wonder that he  should not yet have found
"the best period for the repetition of the medicine," or "the proper time to
change it for another," (p. 550).

  484. Do Homeopathists suppose  that,  when they give  their "acro-nar-
cotic," or  "acro-astringent," or "acro-nauseant," or "bitter astringent,"
or " bitter  nauseant," vegetable remedies, they " give but one  medicine at a
time?"  When they give tart, ant., or tinct. fer., plumb., sulph. ac, or
zinc; caps., tinct. camp., canth., sars., samb., scilh, in short, almost the whole
catalogue  of their preparations,  do they suppose they are giving but one
remedy at  a time?   Do they not know that the most of their organic agents
are easily separable into proximate principles, and the  inorganic  into their
elements by the vital chemistry, and then the principles act differently, ac-
cording to  their natures?  Are  not, in the above cases of hemorrhage,  exces-
sive secretions,  &c, more effects  than  one needed, and will not compound
agents, that act in harmony with  the vital indications, produce those effects?

   485. I  reason with you, my Homeopathic friend, candidly.    I have no
prejudice,  that is,  blind objection, against yours or any other system.   I am
open to conviction.  Give me either facts or sound reasoning,  to  prove your
system better than mine, and I  will adopt it at once.  But I can not complain
that "medicine must be a progressive science" (p.  560) to those who have
not yet discovered its true principles.    I  join with the advice of Professor
Dudgeon, that you "rest not  contented with what has been done, but ask
yourselves  what is still to do,"  and watch me carefully while I pull down the
old castle  of error yet  remaining,  whose  inscription  is  similia  similibus
curantur.

   486. It  is seen  before, that there are differences of opinion  as to the theo-
retical explanation of this law,  or the extent to which it may be applied.   I
ask, if they do not know the explanation of that law, nor the extent to which
it may be applied, how much good can it  do them? may they not be  liable
to misapply it, either in manner  or extent, and thus do mischief instead of
good? 
CRITCISED AND CORRECTED.
139
  487.  But it is explained by Hahnemann thus: Sec  26, " a dynamic dis-
ease in the living economy of man, is extinguished in a permanent manner,
by another that is more powerful, when the latter (without being of the same
species) bears a strong resemblance to it, in its mode of manifesting itself."
Again,  Sec. 27:  " Disease can  not be destroyed or cured  in  a certain,
radical, prompt and permanent manner, but by the aid of a medicine that is
capable of exciting the entire  group of symptoms,  which bear the closest
resemblance to those of the disease, but which possess a still greater degree
of energy."
  This would show that nature is  trying to do all that should be done, and
that the doctor should aid all her efforts, by therapeutic means.

  488.  As Hering and Dudgeon do  not tell us what  is either  disease  or
health, we must inquire of HaTinemann on these subjects; for how shall we
restore from disease to health without knowing what either is?   Till these
two points of information are gained, "medicine must" indeed "be an em-
pyricalart," (561).
  Hahnemann says:
  Health is that condition of the body in which  the vital force has full com-
mand of it, (§ 9, 19), and (§ 6) "the totality of the symptoms;"  § 11, "the
irregular actions;"  §  19, "nothing more or less than changes in the human
economy," "is the  disease."                                           ,
  Disease.   What?   "For  the  physician, the totality of  the  symptoms
alone constitute the disease."  " They represent to  its full extent the dis-
ease; that is, they constitute the true and only form of it which the mind is
capable of conceiving," (Organon, § 6).
  " The symptoms  announce themselves to us as the objects  of cure!  What
is there in disease besides  these which physicians have to cure? (Org., § 6).
  "The totality of  the symptoms  is this image of the immediate  essence of
the malady," (Org., § 7).
  " A single symptom is  no more the disease  itself, than a single leg  is the
whole body,"  (§ 7, note, p. 98).
  " The irregular actions of the vital principle we call disease," (Org., §11).
  " The suffering of the vital power, is the entire morbid affection," (§11,
note).
  " Disease is an aberration or a discord in the  state of health," (§31, note).
  "Diseases are solely spiritual and dynamic  changes in the animal econ-
omy," (Org., note  to § 31). " The balance of vital action constitutes health;
the loss of this balance is disease," (Dudgeon, p. 30).
  Here is a great error.   Disease is a state, or condition, not an action. And
this error generates another on the

  489.  Cause of Disease.  "Only the vital principle disturbed by the dy-
namic influence of  a morbific agent, can give to the organism its abnormal
sensations, and incline it to the irregular actions which we call disease,"  Sec
11.—"It is solely the morbidly affected vital principle, which brings forth
diseases," Sec. 12.

  490.  From the  above  quotations, we see  what the "similia" are, that
curantur, are to  be  cured, viz., the "irregular actions," "the disturbances
of the vital principle," caused by its own action as  excited  by the dynamic
influence of a morbific agent (Sec. 11); in other  words, it is  irritation, fever 
140
HOMEOPATHY EXAMINED,
and inflammation that "constitute the sum  total of disease," (Sec. 6, 12),
which identifies, in this respect, Homeopathy with Allopathy.  It is a "fever
disease" system, and of course its advocates must, with Allopathists, count
those articles "remedies," that, being given in fever, &c,  are followed by a
cure, whether in harmony with their action,  as  asarum, or against  it, as
arsenic.  Yet they declare that, in both cases, the cure  is effected by these
entirely different  means, on the  mysterious, unexplainable principle (Org.,
§  12, note), similia  similibus curantur.

   491. It seems to me that  every one  ought to see clearly, that, eAren if  it
were admitted that similia  curantur—similar  symptoms are cured—it  can
not, in these cases, be done similibus, that is, by agents  producing  similar
effects;  for, surely, asarum and arsenic do not act much alike on the system.

   492. The cause of disease.  "The spiritual essence, the vital power pro-
duces the disease," (Org., note to § 6.)  " Disease is produced by a morbid
derangement of the vital force," (note to § 8).  "Only the  vital principle
disturbed, can give to the organism its abnormal sensations, and incline it  to
those irregular actions which we call disease," (Org., §11).   "It is solely
the morbidly affected vital principle that brings forth diseases," (8 12).
   So the vital force is both the cause and the curer  of  disease!  If so, how
can it be said that any similia, that is, material agents, either cause or cure it?

   493.  "Homeopathic medicines are those  agents  that produce symptoms
similar to those of the malady," (8 34).  " The curative virtues of  medi-
cines depend solely upon the resemblance  that their symptoms bear to those
of the disease," (Org., § 27).

   494.  Remedies always act in the same manner, and  produce, so far  as
they produce any, the same effects upon every individual,  (Org.,  § 32).
   " The morbid symptoms which medicines produce in healthy persons, are
the only indications of their curative virtues in disease," (Org., § 21, caption).

   495. From the foregoing extracts, which give us a full and a fair view of
the doctrines of Homeopathy, we clearly perceive that, however different from
it  in some respects, this system has the same canker at its  root, that we have
discovered  and condemned in  Allopathy,  viz., the fatal  doctrine that the
vital symptoms of disease are all we know of its essence or nature  (Organon,
No. 6); that they are,  in fact, the disease itself (ib. 11,12); hence, that irri-
tation, fever and inflammation are disease; and that the treatment must be
directed to the cure of these symptoms, by means the use of which, in health,
will be followed  by  their production.   Now, although they seem to agree
that all the vital symptoms of what they call acute diseases, are of dynamic
origin (Org., § 12),  yet they also maintain that the remedies produce them
(Org., § 1,21), or at least excite  them (Org.,  § 12), and adopt the mis-
chievous Allopathic error, that all  the  remedies whose  administration is fol-
lowed by the same effects, are sanative; perceiving no difference and making
no distinction, between those that provoke and those that invite the vital
manifestations.  If, in one case, they give a small dose of opium, and in another
one of cayenne, and the  system acts  against the opium  to remove  it,  and
in harmony with the cayenne, to increased  physiological results, the symp-
toms in both cases are the same; hence they explain  it by their theoretical 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
141
position, similia similibus curantur, though it is quite evident that, even if a
cure is, in both cases effected, it is not by similia, for there can scarcely be
found two agents in nature more dissimilar than opium and cayenne, as may
be easily demonstrated by giving twenty grains of each to a healthy person.
The fact, then, that the administration of certain remedies, either in large
or small doses, is followed by certain vital manifestations, is no proof that
those remedies are similar, or, what is  equivalent, that they produce similar
effects  on the living tissue.  Such a conclusion ignores in toto both the dis-
similarity in the nature of the agents, and the existence  in the system of the
very dynamic power to produce  the  symptoms which  they ascribe to that
agent,  (Org., §  9, 10, 11, 12).

  496.  Let any one  compare the various "remedies" which, according to
the Homeopathic Repertories, are said to have been "proA'ed" to produce
given symptoms, and he will find them to be of the most heterogeneous char-
acter imaginable.  Take, for example, the following: which are "proved" to
have produced the symptom or disease called "Exanthema;" inflammation
of the surface.
Aconite,	Capsicum,	Hyosciamus,	Fox Glove,
Alum,	Asarum,	Elder,	Ergot,
Bismuth,	Bryony,	Senega,	Phosphorus,
Colchicum,	Copper,	Valerian,	Stramonium,
Iron,	Hellebore,	Verbena,	Zinc, &c -
  Suppose, for the  sake of this view of the argument, that, on the admin-
istration of any of the left-hand agents in some cases, and those' of the right
in others,  the Exanthema ceases.  All admit that the similia curantur, (sim-
ilar affections  are caused); but who Avill  agree that  curantur similibus,—
the  cure is effected by similar agents ?  No one; all must see that the cure
effected by the vital force, aided by some of  the agents, and provoked by
others.
  Compare the Ararious agents recommended in the Repertories, for the cure
of any other symptom of  disease, and we shall see  a  like dissimilarity in
their  nature throughout.   Hence the  very foundation stone of the Homeo-
pathic system is so rotten  that we have picked it to pieces with the point of
our pen!

  497.  "But," says the  Homeopathist, "our system was  not  built upon
theory but upon facts.   The remedies do thus act—they cure disease;  and,
therefore they are similar."
  I answer, so  also says the Allopathic advocate of  facts.  But all the cura-
tive actions are produced in all cases by the vital force, sometimes by provo-
cation, and sometimes by invitation; as men are induced to act sometimes by
enemies and sometimes by friends; to the exhibition of love and good works.
In the Homeopathic practice, so little medicine is used that its pathogenetic
action is seldom manifested.

  498.  "But," says the  Homeopathist again, "all  remedies possess two
qualities, pathogenetic  and curative."   So says the Allopathist of his, and
they and you agree that these two qualities depend  on the quantities admin-
istered,  the condition of the patient and  the  circumstances  of the admin-
istration. 
142
HOMEOPATHY  EXAMINED,
   499. The scientific chemists, of all parties, know that all elements, simple
 or compound, possess certain definite properties which the simples can never
 change, nor the compounds, till  they themselves are changed; and that, of
 course, these properties, when acting as causes,  must always produce the
 same effects, (Org.,  § 32).   Now the production of disease and  its cure
 are opposite effects; they cannot proceed from the same inanimate causes;
 therefore, if cures follow the  administration of  different dissimilar agents,
 they must be attributed to the action of some other power than those agents;
 and the agents must be regarded  as mere excitants of that power, either in
 a friendly or an unfriendly manner, (Org., 11).   One system may prescribe
 largely of  these exciting agents,  and another  sparingly.   That which pre-
 scribes the least of the mischievous ones will do  the  least mischief, while
 that which prescribes the  requisite  quantity of  the good  ones will do the
 most good.

   500. But both systems  are wrong, because  they count  the  same vital
 manifestations disease, and prescribe the same  heterogeneons agents, "reme-
 dies,"  to  cure it!  It is not a little  singular that Homeopathists  declare,
 with one breath, that their system is  based on a principle  totally different
 from the Allopathic, and, with the next, quote the universal similarity of the
 doctrines  and practices  of  Allopathy and  Homeopathy, to  prove its truth.
 (See "Dudgeon's Lectures," § 1).

  501.  We see not how Homeopathists can  complain of  Allopathists for
 bleeding to cure  hemorrhage,  purging to  cure diarrhea, giving mercury to
 cure "morbid secretions," cayenne to cure  inflamed throat, or nux vomica to
 cure tetanus.  In fact, they do, themselves, the second and third.  It does
 not avail to say they prescribe smaller doses,  for the true meaning of Home-
 opathy involves the principle; it does not limit the size of the dose, which, in
 both systems, is left to the best judgment of the practitioner,  as to how much
 is required in given cases.

  502.  Thus, as I have often said, it is clearly demonstrated that Homeopa-
 thy  is but  the infant daughter of Allopathy, and  has no  other reason to
 quarrel with her mother than simply  that the old lady has become rather
 hardened in iniquity, and gives with a more liberal  hand  the  nauseating
 doses.   Homeopathy is Allopathy, for a similar disease is not the same dis-
 ease, therefore  it is  another disease;  and  because  it professes to cure the
 same disease with remedies of a very different character.  If these remedies
produce specific results, it must be because they possess specific, that is, de-
finite and unchangeable qualities, (Org. 32).
  If different agents possessing different specific  properties, really cure the
same affection,  it must  be  simply because they excite or provoke the vital
force to an  action of its  organs which  produces  the cure without reference
to the character of the exciting causes, and this is the fact.   Stimulants or
astringents, or even powerful relaxants—the nux vomica or too much  of a
good dinner, may so excite  the already irritated stomach that it will reject
them.  If,  after the emesis, the  irritation ceases, there is a cure; but it is not
effected similibus, that is, by agents all calculated to produce the same effects.
  One who observes  and reasons, would think that the very fact  that  the
 "provings" have taught Homeopathists that specific  symptoms  can be  re-
lieved by such a multitude of agents of a very different specific  character, 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
143
and that such a host of different symptoms  can be relieved by the same Ac.
or Cup. should  teach  them  also that  it is not always  the medicine that
cures in these cases.

   503.  But we are told that Hahnemann  Avas no  therorist, that he never
allowed  theory to question his "proved facts," and his  followers seem  to
closely imitate him.  Hence,  alone, can a philosopher account for their swal-
lowing such palpable absurdities as the proposition that a  similar disease is
not another disease; and  that when  the cure  of a specific  affection  in a
hundred  different  cases follows the  administration of a hundred  different
agents,  of as many different specific  properties, qualities, or capabilities of
action, that cure  is effected,  in each case, on the principle and  by the law,
similia similibus curantur.

   504.  But, asks the Homeopathist,  if they are not so cured, by what law
are they cured?  I  answer, 1st. He,  of all  men in the world, should be the
last to ask me to explain what he considers it folly to examine,  (Org. § 12,
note).  He accepts his  apparent  [false] facts, without  a  question,  con-
demns me for testing them by observation and experiment, and then requires
me to explain their essential character!  But, as  I  reject this  ignoring of
every thing that does not appear plain to the  most superficial sense, I diso-
bey his caution not to reason against nor question supposed facts, and plainly
and clearly answer his query.  It is because all agents that affect the system
for good or for evil, if they do not disorganize nor paralyze it instantly, ex-
cite  it to  acts of  a physiological  character;  conservative,  defensive, and
sustaining; which acts are the procuring causes  of cure  in every case, no
matter what be th« character of the medicine.   And this is the  reason why
Allopathists,   Homeopathists, Eclectics, Physopathists,  and  all  pseudo
reformers who despise  theory (science), and use,  promiscuously, medicines
and poisons of every shade of character and  grade of power, sometimes cure
by inciting or provoking a due degree of vital action; and why the big dose
men of  all these  parties or sects, often kill  outright, by giving more poison
devils than the system can cast out, and the little dose men sometimes do the
same, and that others do no good by  not giving enough to excite the sys-
tem at all.

   504 a.  The dynamic or vital manifestations are not disease, but efforts of
the system to remove the  causes of disease;  of  course  they  should not be
silenced and subdued, but aided.   If,  then,  a febrile effort is in operation to
remove  some obstruction, the  use of a diffusible  stimulant, like ginger,  sage
or catnip, in moderate quantities and  with much Avater, will  loosen and re-
move the obstructions to regular action, and set the  fever free, when it will
equalize and diffuse itself, and disappear.   Thus, that which will  induce
excitement, when used alone and in large measure, will, in smaller quantities,
increase or diffuse an excitement already started  by another cause; as catnip
tea, which, when given strong, to a healthy person,  exites a febrile, that is,
an increased physiological  action, will, when given in weak solution, aid an
already  excited action or fever  to  remove obstructions and to equalize and
diffuse itself, in bringing up to the standard  of full health, the action of the
parts  debilitated.   Now it is apparently true, that,  in this  case, "similia
similibus  curantur," that is, a febrile  action is dispersed  partly by the aid
of an agent (catnip) which, given  in  large doses, would excite  the system
to a moderate  febrile action. 
144
HOMEOPATHY  EXAMINED,
   But the error consists in this, that the fever is not the disease,  neither is
 its subsidence the cure.   Fever is the accumulated action of the vital force,
 when its equilibrium is opposed by the  presence or action of  the  causes of
 disease, or roused by the remedial agent, and the disease removed is the dis-
 tention and excitability of the arterial capillaries, and the collapse and in-
 capability of expansion, of the absorbents.   Thus direct homeological (not
 pathic) cures, are made  whenever innocent and  sanative remedies, like cat-
 nip,  sage, balm,  pennyroyal,  ginger, &c, are given; but, when poisons,
 as aconite, belladonna, opium and mercury are given, the cure if  it follow,
 is effected by the reaction of the  system against  the combined influence of
 the causes of the disease, and the drug administered to cure it;  and  this
 cure should be represented or expressed thus:  Two enemies, if their com-
 bined influence is not so great as  to overcome the object of their injurous
 attacks, are more likely than either one alone to provoke that injured opponent
 to a resolute exertion to remove them both, and get rid of their annoyance.

   504 b. The Homeopathic system,  like the Allopathic,  pronounces  fever,
 &c, disease, and  legion, and aims at its destruction.  Also, like the Allo-
 pathic, it uses promiscously and without discrimination both medicines and
 poisons to effect its objects.  All the real difference, then, between these
 rival  systems, consists in the quantity of the doses recommended and pre-
 scribed, (which neither has any definite, established law to regulate), and the
 manner of preparing and administring their remedies; their diet,  regimen,
 &c   Hence the mother  should be tender with her infant daughter, who ex-
 hibits in small measure her defects, and the daughter should not be saucy to
 her mother from whom she has derived her living and support.

   504 c.  Disease is not, according to  Hahnemann, disturbed vital action
 (§ 11), for that exists as a consequence of every physiological motion of
 the body.  But disease is that condition which deprives  the vital  principle
 of the power to restore its equilibrium of action.  Health is the capability
 of the organs of  maintaining an equilibrium of vital action (Org., § 9), not
 the mere equilibrium itself, which is not constant in  health, and may often
 for a time, exist in disease.
   Cause of disease.—As the derangements  of vital action are not disease
 (§ 11), so the vital principle cannot be the direct cause of any  disease, hoAv-
 ever its derangements or misdirections may contribute to that  end, (8 12).
   The true causes of disease are those "morbific agents" which  "derange the
 equilibrium" of  vital action.
  Before Homeopathists  will be able to explain their absurd principles, that
 a cause of a disease is the proper  agent to cure  a similar one, and that a
 weaker power, under the same  circumstances, can overcome a strong one,
 (rejected by many), they must correct their error in regard to  the essence
 of disease and its causes, and must prefer always the correct  definition of
 health in Org. § 9, to the false one frequently presented, that  it is  the mere
equilibrium of action, instead of organic power to act.   Here,  as elsewhere,
 it is seen that this "fever disease"  error lies at the bottom,—is the very basis
of all the other errors, absurdities, mysteries and mischiefs,  of  all the sys-
 tems of practice save the physio-medical which alone rejects it.

  505. The power of small doses.—Much unjust ridicule is cast, by many,
on the pretended  power of infinitessimal  doses of medicine.  But that power 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
145
is often manifested to the most stupid observer.   How great a dose of  cam-
phor,  ammonia,  musk,  chloroform,  &c, does it require to  produce the
most powerful effects, when inhaled?  Yet one can take, internally, a con-
siderable quantity of  these  agents  in a concentrated  form, without feel-
ing  their effects.   Why?  Must it  not be because,  in  their  concentrated
forms, all their atoms can not act at  once?  If small doses were sufficiently
diluted to pervade the whole volume of blood in the system, would they not
act as  powerfully as they do when inhaled?  Who  does  not  know that one
small cayenne pill when infused in a quart of water,  will warm the system
or promote perspiration, better than a teaspoonfull in  its  concentrated form?
Or that the simple smelling of warm lobelia tea, will often relax the system
sufficiently to excite the "reaction"  of emesis?   Who does not know that
chemical actions are more prompt and violent, when the substances are re-
duced to fine powder or weak solutions?  It is true that, being more speedily
spent,  their effects are more evanescent;  but  this is often no objection to a
jnedicine; as, in many cases, a prompt and powerful action  is all that  is
wanted;  the vital system maintaining the action once set  up.  When a mod-
erate but permanent action is required,  it is evident that the pill or concen-
trated  dose, or, what is  better, if it can be done, a frequent repetition of the
diffused dose, is required; but this large or small dose, and the reasons for it,
belong as well to Allopathy  or  any other system, as to Homeopathy.   It
is not  the quantity given but the modus operandi, that constitutes Home-
opathy;  and that is the  same, whatever be the quantity, (Org., § 32).

   505 b. Although most Homeopathists contend that "the high potencies"
as they are called, meaning the most numerous dilutions, are generally the
most suitable, yet they admit that, in some  cases quite large and tangible
doses are required, and  they administer accordingly.
   It is not the  quantity of medicine administered,  but its supposed modus
operandi that constitutes Homeopathy.
   Still, it is  contended that,  whatever, in any  quantity and concentrated
form, will produce, in a well man, those deranged vital actions (Org., § 11),
which they call disease, will, in a sick one, when administered in very small
quantities and properly diluted  and diffused, affect a cure.   They contend
that nearly all simple agents possess at least two properties, one pathogenetic
(disease  making) and the other curative.  The over dose being more  than
is wanted, produces more excitement than is wanted,  Avhich overcomes and
prostrates—and is therefore injurious: the proper quantity, producing just
the degree of excitement wanted, proves  benefioial and does  not exhaust.
This is true of all good  things; food, caloric, electricity, exercise, air, water,
medicines (not poisons) of  every kind.  But this does not prove that any of
these agents possess two qualities.  The character of all the action being the
same (Org., §11) the nature of the cause that produces it, must be  the same.
The disease that follows the action of good agents must be ascribed  to
other causes,  than the character of those agents.

   506. Homeopathists themselves do not  seem  to understand  this subject,
any  better than their opponents  do, or we should  not see them engaged  in
giving for the same purposes, substances of  diametrically opposite qualities
and actions; and hear them declare that the quietus that follow their admin-
istration, is produced by the action of these agents, according  to the prin-
ciple "similia similibus  curantur."
                                  10 
146
HOMEOPATHY  EXAMINED,
  There may be a cure of similar symptoms, but it is not effected  by the
action of the  dissimilar agents as opium  and digitalis, and ginger and
cayenne.  It is effected by the vital power in opposition to the one class of
agents and in harmony with the other.

  507.  The fact is, in the case of the  opium nature feels the action of some
cause tending to disturb her equilibrium, and to deprive her of the power to
restore it.  In making a proper resistance to  this foreign invasion, she mani-
fests  certain  signs or symptoms.  Now, if  we give her a medicine  which,
when she is in health, induces her to make like efforts and exhibit like symp-
toms, it may  aid her in accomplishing  her object,  and a very small portion
of such medicine being often sufficient, is better than a large one; (for it is
evident that more of even a good excitement than is necessary,  tending  to
exhaust the vital force, is objectionable.)   But poisons of any  description,
whose legitimate action is in opposition to life, are objectionable, even  in the
smallest dose—the atomic pill, if one could  be made;  because, in this case,
the system must act against two enemies instead of one, and without a friend
to aid her.  She must fight the cause of  the  disease and the remedy, instead
of the former with the aid of the latter.   This she often does  successfully,
and  thus Allopathists, Homeopathists, and all other " fever disease"  advo-
cates, are deceived into the false notion that poisons are "good medicines in
skillful hands;" and because  medicines may be improperly  used,  as  to
character, quantity, time, and circumstances, they become "poisons when
unskillfully applied."

  508.  From this it appears that all supposed simple medicinal  substances
act either pathogenetically or curatively;  but  that none act in both ways; the
pathogenetic  effects that follow  the use of  physio-medical  agents, being
properly attributable to the misuse or abuse of the remedies, not to the nature
or properties  of the remedies themselves.   The pathogenetic effects of poi-
sons, are the  results of their direct actions in  opposition to the indications of
the vital symptoms in the given case:  but the curative effects are produced
by the vital force  and against the "remedy."  Thus, when a  solution of
tannin is used to stop  hemorrhage, or  warm  lobelia tea to remove obstruc-
tions to the natural secretions, the action is in direct harmony with the vital
efforts, the disease  being cured and no  injury resulting.
  But reverse these same remedies in the two cases, and the result would be
bad, in  both, from the  abuse,  not the nature  of the remedies.  On the
other hand, suppose we attempt to stop the hemorrhage with acetate of lead,
and to promote the secretions with mercury.  The vital force may in warring
against the poisonous agents, effect the cure;  but the direct tendency of the
agents is to deprive the tissues of the  power to perform their physiological
offices; and they do it, so far as they  do any thing.   For these effects, thus
cured, are very apt to return Avith greater violence, and to be less controllable
than before.
  To their inability to appreciate the action of the vital force  in both cases,
is therefore  justly attributable the inability of all physopathical, or fevei
disease doctors,  of  every name, to  distinguish between medicines and poi-
sons; also their disposition to pronounce food poisonous when not demanded
by nature in  the case;  and lastly to say that  nothing is poisonous except by
quantity and  injudicious  use, while the venom  of the rattlesnake may be
made a good  medicine by judicious use.  Here is  the "error of errors," 
CRITCISED AND CORRECTED.
147
the basis  of  all their  "ignorance of disease, and of  a suitable remedy."
Homeopathists differ from others only in the amount of the  power they use
to "multiply  diseases and increase their mortality," and their better diet and
regimen.

   509 a.  I have now so far cut loose the Homeopathist from his blind and
slavish  submission to his apparent facts, that  he puts to me a "stumping
question."   " You admit, says he, that a large dose of lobelia will produce
vomiting and a very small one will  stop it.   Now explain this fact  on any
other principle than the Homeopathic action of lobelia."
   I will.  In the first place, lobelia never produces vomiting at all, in any
dose, large or small.  It is a pure relaxant, and does nothing else to the vital
tissue but relax it.  When there is given a dose  large enough to produce
a degree of relaxation beyond what is for the time pleasant to the nerves of
the stomach,  &c, they call the aid of the muscles concerned in vomiting to
react against that relaxation, and this is often done so  promptly and effectu-
ally as to eject the other contents of the stomach, when the relaxing  influ-
ence  of  lobelia is  felt and opposed, again and  again, till  its power  is no
greater than the system demands.   At this point, the relaxing  influence of
lobelia is universally diffused through  the system, and  perspiration  takes
place, and so do all other secretions flow; excretions are effected, dryness of
the nose, mouth, lungs,  eyes, ears, and surface vanishes,—dysuria, biliary
obstructions, constipation,  asthma,  cramp, rheumatism, in  short  irritation,
spasm, fever and inflammation, in every part of the body, and .all derangement
of the vital action vanish.

   509 b. With a dose of lobelia, I have cured at the same time, in many a
case,  dysuria, dysmenorrhea,  strangury and hysteria.  Is lobelia a Homeo--
pathic specific for all these varied, opposite and  specific  conditions? ("dis-
eases"?) or are all these "diseases" a unit? or did it, by  the simple process
of relaxation, relieve the  vital force from bondage, and  enable it to cure them
all?   I beg pardon, we must "not reason as on other subjects," but practice
according to  "provings" with some of those contradictory agents whose use
has been known to be followed by a cure.
   "But," says the objector, "it stops vomiting when given in an infinitessi-
mal dose,—how do you  explain that?"   "Very scientifically.   In the cases
in which lobelia, in minute doses, stops vomiting, the cause  of that vomiting
is not always an offensive agent in the stomach, but is  frequently a mere ir-
ritated  condition, Avhich a  proper  quantity  of lobelia's relaxing influence
will allay.  That amount is not always the highest nor the lowest "potency,"
the 1st, the   10th nor the 30th dilution.  It is just enough to meet the de-
mands of the present case.  Sometimes with a single snuff  of the vapor of
weak, warm  lobelia tea, I have relieved the spasm in cough or dry asthma;
with  three drops of such tea I have stopped vomiting and relieved cramps
and spasms, in cholera, and, with a table spoonfull of the  powder in water
I have arrested the same  symptoms in parturition.   In all these cases it
acted homeologically, or in harmony with  life, for even the  vomiting was a
physiological action deranged, which the lobelia equalized.   In some cases,
small doses are wanted, because there is little resistance to be overcome.  In
other cases, as the parturition, and some severe ones of cramp, cerebral inflam-
mation, <fec,  large doses will be needed to overcome the extra tension, and re-
duce  the tissues to the natural standard.  In parturition, the relaxing power 
148
HOMEOPATHY  EXAMINED,
is all spent in dilating the cervix uteri to the required degree, while the re-
action is spent upon the fundus, and other tissues which, being for the time,
more impressible than the stomach, spend it in their efforts to expel the fetus.

  509 c. Action of Medicines.  The idea that medicines act in one manner
for  Homeopathists, and in another for Allopathists, is too silly to be enter-
tained a moment.  They might be more  properly applied by the one than the
other.   But it is not a fact that they are.  There is scarcely a form of disease
in which both clases of doctors do not use all sorts of drugs, good and bad;
and generally the same articles to a great extent.   Look at the Homeopathic
Repertories, and see where there is an acute symptom that does not demand
aconite, belladonna,  nux vomica, &c, and  see these beside capsicum,  asa-
rum, arsenic, antimony, alum, opium, with a hundred more articles equally
dissimilar in character, each of which Hahnemann justly says (§32) acts in
a specific manner, and always in the same manner as recommended by Okie,
for "itching in  general/"
  But  "the stubborn fact stares us in the face, that these have been known
to cure it."  Well let us look at this supposed fact.   Ghosts will not hurt us.
Suppose that cures do follow the use of cayenne and opium,  alum,  nux vom-
ica, mercury and  belladonna, asarum and arsenic,  are  they the legitimate
results of the specific action of these dissimilar agents?  Did any one ever see
alum relax  a tissue and  belladonna astringe it ?   Will capsicum, just as well
as opium, destroy the power to feel itching?  Do nux vomica and mercury
act on the same principle?   Will asarum and arsenic cure the ague on the same
principle?  Ought not the most thoughtless observer to perceive that, when
cures follow the use of such heterogeneous agents, it is because they all excite
the  system  to the performance of its own specific actions, which cure in  har-
mony with some agents and in opposition to others? and  therefore to select
the  good, or those  whose actions "gradually diminish till they terminate in
health," and reject those whose actions begin, like sedatives,  or end like mer-
cury, by destroying  health, in opposition to the vital efforts to defend the
organism against their specific action?  Even those  non-discriminating  dis-
criminators, called Eclectics, have perceived that the "secondary effect" (real,
specific, destructive), of mercury, are worse than those (sedative) of opium,
provided that the latter are not so great as to kill at once.  But they have
stupidly contended,  with the Homeopathists,  that, in small  doses,  opium
changes its specific, pathogenetic and destructive nature to a curative.  And
so of many other deadly poisons.

  509 d. In cases  of simple irritated stomach, a large dose of cayenne, or of
baybery, or of  any other direct  stimulant or astringent,  will excite  vomit-
ing.   Why is  it  that even "the  highest potency of the same  agents  will
rather  increase than allay it?"   This is a fact that has been  "proved "a
thousand times by myself alone, and I know not how many  times by others.
Why will  sulphate of, copper or zinc,  though of the highest potency, not
allay the irritation,  when we know that in large doses it will  excite it?
Does the Homeopathic law fail here? If so, it is not true, for laws always act in
the same manner.   Cohesive, attraction  was neA'er known to split a rock, nor
caloric to condense charcoal into a diamond, gravitation to send a bullet up-
ward, nor magnetism to arrange a balanced needle parallel with the equator.
Why should the life power produce death, or poisons cure disease?   Are these
questions too  "theoretical" for Homeopathic  philosophy?  If  so,  / will 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
149
answer them.   It is the peculiar specific property of cayenne to stimulate, that
is, to excite action, and of astringents to contract; of course neither of them
Avill produce that relaxation which is necessary to relieve an irritated stomach,
no matter how small  the  dose.   But their use is improper in this case, be-
cause  their  specific action is not wanted.  A Homeopathist would call their
action pathogenetic.  If the stomach were relaxed and inactive, they would
be demanded, and would  prove  curative.   Would their  character or action
be changed by these circumstances?

  509 e. The copper  and zinc   (alias blue stone and white vitriol)  excite
vomiting in this case, and any other where there is impressibility to recognize
them and power to react against them, and this they do in small  doses as well
as in  large.   "But," says my Homeopathic  friend, "it may  have been
"proven" that the highest potency of these agents has allayed irritation and
vomiting."   To please you I will admit this as a fact, though I believe it to
be an error, notwithstanding you or I may have  seen  the  appearance of it a
thousand times.  I know it to be an error, because these  agents, in atoms as
well as masses, possess an astringent power, and no relaxing power, which is
indispensable to the relief of the irritation; the latter being caused by contrac-
tion of the tissue.   Whence, then, comes  the  relief?  Let us  see.  You
dilute  your  astringent with water, so that the stomach cannot appreciate its
specific action.   You administer  this water in small doses frequently repeated,
till it absorbs the irritating caloric generated by the excitement  of the stomach,
when it relaxes the tissue a hundred times as much as your infinitessimal dose
of the astringent would  contract it.  The irritation is allayed by the  water,
not the zinc or copper, which never, in any case or quantity, tend to allay
irritation.   And here  is explained  the  real fact as  you  understand it
the manifest absurdity, that "the higher the potency (the less  of an agent)
the better."  But you say, "then the  cayenne and astringents are improper."
They are improperly applied, and we  never use them in such cases.
  Again you say, "If they  would do harm in such cases, they  are as poison
as zinc or copper."  I answer, we  "prove" that they kill no  man, nor make
any well man sick, while our Allopathic  friends have often  proved, and so
would you if you had used enough of them, that the very nature of the poisons
is to do both.   You ask how I know  that tannin  contracts the  stomach?   I
answer, it contracts the mucous  membrane of my mouth, which is made of
the same material.

  509/. You ask how I  know  that tannin is not poison? Because I have
both chewed it much,  (in birch-bark, choke-cherries,  &c,) and seen  others
do it, and never knew it to produce a pathological condition.
  Again you ask, "Why  is Homeopathy so much more successful in curing
disease than Allopathy?"   I answer, first, because it never cures at all with
poisons, because, to make a disease, whether  similar or dissimilar, is not to
cure one.   But more patients recover  under the former treatment than under
the latter, because it does  less mischief with poisons, and more  good with
medicines, diet, regimen,  &c.   It not only applies  the rod very sparingly,
but, by its multiplied  and constant kindnesses and encouragements, enables
them triumphantly to bear it.
  Again you ask, "Why, then, is not Homeopathy worthy of all acceptation?''
I answer, because it retains fundamental errors in principle,  perpetrates in-
finitessimal  mischiefs  in practice, and neglects  to apply with a liberal hand 
150
HOMEOPATHY EXAMINED,
the means in its poAver to do good.  Homeopathy is a delicate and ignorant
but amiable little girl, but I hope that, Avith the instructions here given her,
she will cast off her errors lay aside her wrong  doings, grasp Avith a firmer
faith her truths, and practice with a more vigorous hand her right ways, till
she shall become so intelligent and  vigorous  as  to be a worthy companion
and help-meet  to her more motive physio-medical brother, to which end 1
shall watch her course carefully, and claim a large share in the labor and
the honor of her training.

   510.  Truth and facts admit of rational explanation;  Avhatever of Home-
opathy or any other pathy will not admit of them,  can not be true nor real.
   It will be said that, if I use lobelia homeopathically, I am a Homeopathist.
I answer, I will as cheerfully receive a truth from  Homeopathists as from any
other  source.   But I use  it homeologically  to  aid  nature in  curing the
present disease, not homeopathically nor  allopathically to produce  a disease
similar to the present, nor another disease of any kind.   And I haAre shown
that when the Homeopathists use  it in the same cases and the same  manner,
he cures, as he says the Allopathists do diarrhea by physic, and  sudoresis
by sudorifics.   The only difference between us all is, that, "not reasoning on
medicine as on  other subjects," (Harrison, Hanhemann,  Hering,  &c,) they
know not what they do, but "go it blindly" with all sorts of agents, sometimes
killing, sometimes curing;  they that use  the largest doses doing the greatest
execution, while I, reasoning on medicine as I do on other subjects, have learned
the character of remedies and the wants of the system, know Avhat I should
do; therefore always rejecting what is improper, and using what is good,
adapting the  agent  and the dose,  and the manner of application to the case
before me, direct all my "exertions" to  the  heads of the  disease  to be re-
moved, and cure all cases that are capable of cure.

   511.  Artificial and Natural Disease.   We are  frequently told, by Home-
opathists, that the disease produced by the  medicine is slight and transient,
while  "the natural disease" is  more  severe and  persistent.   They seem to
forget, at this moment, what  they often tell us elseAvhere, that "the natural
disease" is often caused by the very  medicines which they prescribe to cure
it.  Why should it be more severe and persistent, when taken by accident
or given by Allopathists to cure disease, than when  given by Homeopathists
to cure it?   Why should one be called artificial and the other natural ?

   512.  They speak  often of the "aggravations  of disease," as  being  pro-
duced by its  causes, or by their  medicines; and  tell us that the latter will
soon subside if we cease to administer, while the former are to  be dreaded
and  speedily removed.   Why  should mercurialism,  or  narcotism, be any
more  dreaded when  produced by Allopathists, than when produced by Ho-
meopathists?  It will not do to say that  the  former are more difficult to be
removed than the latter; for, if so, they could  not be cured or supplanted by
the latter, and hence, the very foundation  stone of Homeopathy would be
crumbled to the dust—that a mild medicinal action can subdue a seArere one
not intentionally excited!

   513. The Goliahs of all these systems  may fight as they will against these
"theories," and him who  has the "daring impudence" to boldly set them
forth;  but truth is stronger then  they all, and he who seeks a shelter under
her expanded, mighty wings, is best of all  protected. 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
151
  514.  What, then, is  the true  lesson to be learned from  all these facts?
Evidently that,  to cure disease, we should use  the  remedies whose specific
qualities harmonize with  the demands of nature in every given case,  and
use them in the  quantities  and all the different ways which she demands.
  Homeopathy has no more reason for giving poisons than has Allopathy or
Physio-medicalism.

  515.  The  sum of the whole matter is this:  In all cases of disease,  Na-
ture makes the  proper efforts to relieve herself; consequently,  whatever  will
aid her in these efforts, will be likely to cure the disease.  Even whatever
will maliciously provoke her to them, may be overruled to the same end;  and
hence, the similar results  that follow the  use of different drugs, of hygienic
or pathogenetic  agencies, led Hahnemann, as they ever have the rest of the
Allopathic school,  into the error of supposing that the agents themselves
were similar.  And from this mistake proceeded the Allopathic doctrine  that
medicines are good or bad according to the quantity or use;  and the equally
erroneous Homeopathic dogma, similia similibus curantur.
  It is only by knowing that substances are essentially different in their na-
ture or constitution, that Ave know, a priori, before we try  them, that they
will produce different effects on the body;  and,  on the other  hand, we know,
by  their different effects on the body, before we test  them  chemically,  that
they are different substances.  In very many cases, as what are called isomeric
bodies, or compounds, as the oil of turpentine, of bergamot,  of lemons, &c;
the physiological test is the only one by which we can distinguish  any dif-
ference.   Substances very different, as ginger and  alcohol,  cayenne  and
opium,  may excite the system to  action; but it is only those  whose  action
passes off physiologically, and leaves no ill effect behind, that are innocent.

   The Good of Homeopathy.   No  system of unmingled error  and mischief,
can ever be palmed upon a general public  credulity and favor.  Man never
was so perfectly depraved  that he could be  made to believe a palpable lie, or
love unmitigated evil.   Whatever would gain our faith and favor must present
prominently, something, at least apparently, true and good. And such, to some
extent,  has every popular system of medicine presented.   The Homeopathic
system presents a large share of those excellencies that  commend it deservedly
to public  favor, the most of which  I proceed to cite.
   First. Negatively.   Though its  errors in principle are of  the same  nature
as  those of Allopathy (56), the practice  built  upon them is  comparatively
harmless.  Poison, indeed, it uses, and on the Allopathic  principle, (for a
similar  disease  (omoion pathos) is another disease—alios pathos); but, in
quantities so small that the system scarcely acknowledges their presence, or
even recognizes it, while  its directions  for diet and  regimen, air, exercise,
&c, are excellent,  and worthy to be adopted, almost wholly, by practitioners
and patients of  every faith.
   Second. It is a practice easily prescribed, and pleasant  to be taken,  and
its operation  is nearly imperceptible.  Of course it meets  little opposition
from  the patient or the public.
   Third.  Although its principle, "similia similibus curantur," is false,  (for
the medicines are not similar, neither are the vital symptoms—fever, &c,—
the disease to be  cured), yet the  cure is often effected on truly scientific
principles which the doctor does not understand: for it matters not whether
he  knows the nature of the  disease or the character  and adaptation  of his 
152
HOMEOPATHY  EXAMINED, ETC.
 remedies, provided  he happens to use in the  proper  manner  the  remedies
 required.
   Fourth.  By  doing little or nothing to disturb nature, it  gives her an
 opportunity to  do all she can for herself.
   Fifth. By inducing the patient to believe that the medicines are powerful,
 and the most  useful  when followed by no  other perceptible  effect  than  a
 gradual  diminution of the unpleasant symptoms,  it converts every feeling of
 real relief  into an encouragement  to expect more, the  beneficial  action of
 which is almost sure to secure them.
   Sixth. It generally avoids the error of over-dosing,  which is too common
 among all other classes of physicians, and of entailing much mischief on so-
 ciety by the action, whether primary or secondary, of  its poisonous  drugs.
   Seventh. When it shall cast off  its "fever disease" doctrine, and  conse-
 quently  all its  errrors of similia  similibus  curantur,  and all its poisonous
 drugs, it may  then, and not before, claim the  true standard of medical
 science and practice.

   Hahnemann.   From all that I have read of the writings of Hahnemann,  I
 am disposed to  rank  him among the most honest and conscientious of Medi-
 cal Reformers.  I have shown that, contrary to the accusation of his  ardent
admirer, Dudgeon, he  did not allow even his strong  love of consistency to
prevent him  from presenting facts apparently inconsistent; nor to compel
him to force all forms of disease into either of  his classes of dynamic or of
psoric origin.   His followers will do better to search out some means  of  ex-
plaining his well presented facts, than to accuse him of inconsistency, or dis-
honesty in presenting  them.   Though his  theory and his practice will be
greatly modified, yet so much of both will be found worthy of  preservation,
that his labors will not very soon   be forgotten.  He  was a real  benefactor
of his species.  Long may he live in their grateful remembrance. 
THE  CHRONO-THEMAL  SYSTEM  OF   MEDICINE.
  This  medical  system was  devised  by Dr. Samuel  Dickson, of London.
It is published  in a work entitled "Fallacies of the Faculty and Principles
oftlie Chrono-Thermal System of Medicine ," 13th edition, New York, 1850.
Introduction and notes by Dr. Wm. Turner.
  From this work I derive the following :

  516.  "Fifteen  years  ago it  was my fate—I can scarce call it my for-
tune—to make two  most important discoveries in medicine, viz: the perio-
dicity of movement of every organ and atom of all living bodies, a, and the
intermittency and unity of all diseases, b, however named and by whatever
produced.  To these two add a third, the unity of action of cause and cure,
c, both of which involve change of temperature," d.  Pref. p.  5.
  a. The heart moves periodically; so  the chest in respiration, the stomach
in digestion; the senses waking and sleeping, and the  voluntary muscles in
their action, &c  Doubtless,  too, the most of "the atoms of living bodies"
move periodically:  but the periods of  some of these movements are as long
as life itself—witness those  that retain the stains of the letters and figures on
the  arms of sailors,  Indians, &c.   So do those that retain constitutional pre-
dispositions.
  b. Here we have the old  error of disease consisting  in an act, instead of
a condition, and that act, one of the  nerves and blood vessels moved by
the  vital force, of course it is  one; and, as the  organs must have repose
sometimes, it must  be "intermittent," though that of the circulation is  a
perpetual succession of action and reaction.   Is this idea new?
  c. This doctrine  was advanced  by Hahnemann, (Org., § 12).  It is also
Thomson's fever unity doctrine, under the  name of friend, instead of dis-
ease.  Not new!
  d. All the  world has  always known that every motion disturbs the equi-
librium  of  caloric.   There is, therefore, above, no new discovery, but there
are  three old errors, a, b and  c.   For  Dr. D. himself  quotes,  from Hippoc-
rates, the doctrine of the unity and periodicity of disease (ix. 25), and adds
that posterity  will  award this  discovery to  himself!   Drs.  Brown,  Rush,
Alibert, and hosts of others, taught the unity of disease in the  same sense as
did Hippocrates and Dickson.  Dr. Turner should know better than to call
it "Dr.  Dickson's new doctrine," p. xvi.

  517.  "2. Such is the ground work of the Chrono-Thermal System, so called
from Chronos, time  or period; and Therma,  temperature  or heat.   This  I
         (153) 
154
CIIRONO-THERMALI?M,
gave to the public in 1836.  Then, for the  first time, I  announced the ap-
palling fact that up to that hour the Professors of the healing art had been,
to a man, in all  but utter darkness on  the  subject they pretended to teach,"
p. vi. (7, 22, 26).
   In this discovery  and  announcement,  Dr. Dixon  was centuries behind
his Allopathic brethren, see the first fifty pages of this work, where Dr. D.
is completely outstripped  by "startling revelations" and professional "thun-
der-bolts."

   518.  "3. The lancet and the leech must hereafter give way to bark and
tonics, even in inflammation of the chest," p. vii.
   If his doctrine that inflammation is disease, were true, this using bark and
tonics would be  a murderous practice, and  the lancet would be the best rem-
edy ever discovered.

   519.  "4. Forms of disease change, types are immutable," p. vii.
   " From the beginning of time there never was a continual disease—a con-
tinual tempest of the  human body," p. viii.
   Predicated on the doctrine that irritation, fever and inflammation, are dis-
ease, this would  be true; but, as that doctrine has been proved false,  the truth
is just the reverse.   There never was a disease begun, that did not continue,
without intermission, till cured, or relieved by death.  The reactions of  the
system against obstructions, are periodical, because, as Prof. Jones has dis-
covered (385), they are of vital origin, and must have rest; but disease is a
mechanical or a  chemical condition that needs no rest, and the  system has
none but by its removal!  The pain and soreness of a boil may intermit, but
do  the  swelling and lesion cease till the boil is cured?   Do the lungs in
phthisis become  sound and corroded periodically during the progress of  the
disease?   Does white swelling cease when  the inflammation and pain cease?

   520.  "5. Dr.   Dickson says:  "The modus or type, of Hippocrates, is
fever and ague, or intermittent fever," p. 24.
   Dr. Turner says: "The following are the conclusions to which Dr. Dick-
son arrives on  the subject of health and disease."
   "1st. The phenomena of  perfect health consist in a regular series of alter-
nate motions or events, each embracing a special period of time," Pref.  p. ix.
   The phenomena, signs,.or evidences of  health, are  not health itself; and,
if they were, they embrace no special period of time.   The mental manifest-
ations, the secretions and excretions, though periodical,  are not, even in
perfect health, limited to special minutes or hours.  Nothing new here.

   521.  "2. Disease, under all its modifications, is,  in  the first place, a sim-
ple exaggeration  or diminution of the amount of the same motions or events,
and, being universally alternative with a period of comparative health, strictly
resolves itself into fever—remittent or intermittent, chronic or acute—every kind
of structural disorganization, from tooth decay to pulmonary  consumption,
and that decomposition of the knee joint, familiarly known as white swelling,
being merely developments in its course: tooth-consumption, lung-consump-
tion, knee-consumption."
   This is the some old fever-disease doctrine with which we have become so
familiar; also the sthenic and asthenic doctrine of Brown and Rush, and  the
unity and type of Hippocrates.   Nothing new here. 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
155
  522.  "3. The tendency to disorganization, usually denominated acute or
inflammatory, differs  from the chronic or scrofulous, in the mere amount of
motion or temperature, the former being more remarkably characterized by
excess of both, consequently exhibits a more rapid progress to decomposition
or cure; while the latter approaches its respective terminations [decomposi-
tion  or  cure~\ by  more  subdued, and therefore slower  and less  obvious
terminations of the same action and  temperature.  In what  does consump-
tion of a toothache differ  from consumption of  the lungs?  except in the
differences of  the  tissue  involved, and the degree of danger to life arising
out of the nature of the respective offices of each," p.  ix, x.
  Dr. D. here puts together Professors Paine and Watson's two notions (41
and 45; 40 and 44), and makes inflammation both disease and a healing ac-
tion—"tending to disorganization or cure."  Yet he  calls it a unit.   How
can a unit of power tend both  to life and death?   Nothing new or reforma-
tory here.

  523.  "The remedies used, Dr. Dickson terms Chrono-Thermal, from the
relations which they bear to time and temperature."
  A most strange  idea!   Medicines are not living animals that their  power
should become weary, and should vascilate with certain periods  of time!
Nor can temperature do more than prepare the system and them,  for a more
perfect exhibition  of the power they always inherently possess.
   "They are  all  treated of in  the various works on materia medica.   The
only agents this system rejects, are  the  leech, the bleeding lancet  and the cup-
ping  instrument."
  Then it differs from "American Eclecticism," only in rejecting leeches
and cups, and retaining  antimony, arsenic  and mercury, and  Dr. Dickson
must  be fraternized by them, and not called to answer  for his opinion or his
presumption,  (398).

  524.  "Other distinguished features of the Chrono-Thermal  System, are,
first, a demonstration of the fallacious character of the ideas entertained by
the profession in reference to inflammation and conjestion, those fruitful
sources of error.   2d, That calomel is no longer in the first rank.  3d, That
all medicines are given generally in  minute doses; and 4th,  That all medi-
cines act  primarily on the brain, and thence, electrically or magnetically,
through the system," xi.
   Dr. Dickson is  not the only man who has shown many "fallacies of  the
faculty" respecting fever and  inflammation, and then built his  whole system
of reform on these same fallacies.  What is  the difference between the con-
clusions of  Professors Watson and  Paine, (40,  41, 44,  45), and  Dr. D.'s
inflammation  terminating in decomposition or  cure (5)?   Thousands of
Allopathists have driven mercury and the lancet, not only from  the first
place, but almost  out of any place in their therapeutics; and,  lastly, Dr. D.
does not equal Hahnemann in  minute  dose reform, nor  James Graham in
electric therapeutics.

   525.  " Disease  being thus simplified, it is amenable to a principle of treat-
ment  equally simple.  Partaking, through all its modifications, of the nature
of ague, it will be met by a practice in accordance with the proper principle
of treatment of that  distemper.  To apply warmth or administer  cordials,
in the cold stage; in  the  hot, to reduce the amount of temperature by cold 
156
CHRONO -THERM ALISM,
 affusion and fresh air; or, for the same purpose, to exhibit, according to cir-
 cumstances, an emetic, a purgative, or both in combination.  With quinine,
 arsenic, opium, &c, the interval of comparative health, the period of medi-
 um  temperature,  may be  prolonged to an indefinite period; and, in  that
 manner, health may be restored in all diseases, whether, from  some spinal
 local development, the disease be denominated mania, epilepsy,  croup, cyn-
 anche,  the gout,  or influenza.   In the early stages of disease, to arrest the
 fever is, in most instances,  sufficient for the reduction of every kind of local
 development," xi.

   526.  " Disease is neither a devil,  nor an acrimony nor a crudity to be
 expelled, nor any fanciful goblin to be chemically neutralized;  but an error
 of action  [irritation, fever, inflammation], of which inflammation  is not so
 commonly a cause as a coincident part," p. 31.  "The  difference between
 disease  and health, consists  in mere variation of the sum or amount of partic-
 ular corporeal motions; and in  difference in the effect of  external agency on
 the matter and functions of the body."   "The cause of all diseases, varied
 in name, place, and degree, one only in their real nature,  is either a depriva-
 tion or  a  wrong adaptation of the identical  forces which continue life in
 health."  This is Hahnemann's doctrine, (Org., § 6 to 12).
   " The unity  or identity of all morbid action" (is fever); and the unity and
 identity of the source of power, of the  various agencies  by which  diseases
 of every kind may be caused or cured" (is electricity).   Hippocrates said:
 "The type of all disease is one and identical,"  p. 24; "and from this,  you
 may learn the absurdity of nosological distinctions," p. 23 (40 to 45).

   527.  Here, as in Allopathy, the disease is the chill and the fever, and  opi-
 um and quinine are the  remedies.   No improvement in the principle  and
 very little in the practice.   As to simplicity, it does not compare at all with
 Allopathy!  which may be expressed in a very  few words,  viz: "Irritation,
 fever, and inflammation are  diseases, and opium, the lancet, and mercury are
 the remedies, aided by blisters, cups, setons, and poisons in general."
   These remedies are not, like Dr. D.'s,  variable in their character and liable
to fail.   They have no "dual action."  They are "adapted to the cure of
 'those diseases,'" and  will never  fail if the practitioner only gives enough
of them!   All the failures are  caused by stopping the practice before  the
diseases are subdued!   Who can ask for a system more  simple, or more
easily learned or practiced than the Allopathic ?

   528.  Remedies.   "Peruvian bark, quinine, in fact its essence, arsenic and
 opium,  hydrocyanic acid, iron, silver, copper, strychnia, musk, assafcetida,
valerian, colchicum, zinc, bismuth, turpentine, and there are doubtless others
in nature, which time  and accident may yet discover."   "These agents are
generally most  effective when taken during the intermission," 36, 114.
   "The principle upon which these substances can cure or cause disease, is
one and the same, viz:  their power of electrically altering the motive state
and thermal conditions of certain parts of the body."   Quinine is "generally
the most efficient of all remedies."

   529.  " There is no substance in nature  that may not be turned  to good
account by  the wise and judicious physician," 28.  "Poison signifies any
 thing in nature that,  in a comparatively  small  quantity, can  shorten  or 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
157
Otherwise prove injurious to life.  It is a term of relation, depending entirely
on degree, volume, or scale.   What is there in nature that, tried by  this test,
may not become a poison?   Poison and physic are identical, for any earthly
agent may become both, by turns, according as it is used or abused.   Every
thing depends on the scale or degree in which  you apply a given substance
to the body, whether it  be a remedy or a poison,"  181.
  This  is the Allopathic, the  Homeopathic and the  Eclectic doctrine.  See
index and references.

  530.  Action of Remedies.   Dr. Dickson attributes all the action of exter-
nal agents on the body, to their power to excite  electrical changes in that
body.   "The action of these medicinal substances,  is purely electrical," p.
184.   " The primitive agency of the purely medicinal substances, is one and
the same, namely,  the power of electrically moving some of the various parts
or atoms of the body, inwards or outwards, according to the previous state of
the vital electricity of the brain of the different  individuals to whom they may
be administered.   For,  through the medium of the brain and  nerves, do all
such substances primarily act.  The ultimate and apparently unlike results
of the action of the different substances, depend entirely on the apparent dis-
similarity of the functions of the organs they respectively influence," p. 184.
  "If electricity can produce, take away and reverse the polarity of the needle,
so also can it give, take away and reverse every one of  the particular func-
tions and motions of the various parts of the  living body,  to which it may,
under particular circumstances, be applied," 184.

  531.  As each special agent either increases or diminishes electric force,
and as the derangements (that is,  increase or diminution from the  healthy
quantum), of this  force constitute disease, (35),  Dr. D. teaches that every
agent may produce or cure disease, according as it is adapted to the particu-
lar state present,  (which he ascertains by cautious trials of small quantities
of each  article till he finds the one adapted, p.  209).   Thus he  says, "Elec-
tricity is the source of power by which opium  and arsenic kill and cure, and
by precisely the same power mercury salivates,  antimony vomits, and rhubarb
purges, and may all produce the reverse effects," 184.

  532.  How strangely  a smart man will allow himself to be  led  into the
grossest blunders when  striving to bolster up a favorite  hobby!  He asserts
that there are  no specific  remedies,  but admits the fact that "opium and
strychnia manifest a choice of  parts—the elective power of one substance be-
ing shown by its influence on the nerves  of sense,  and that of another by its
effect on the muscular apparatus," 185.

  533.  But this  raised a difficulty of accounting  for the fact that  "opium
sometimes vomits and sometimes allays vomiting—sometimes  produces sleep
and sometimes  prevents it," (186).  This would require the  different parts
of the nervous system to be in different states (positive and negative) at the
the same time,  (which every school boy knows is impossible)! and hence he
adds: "How cautious you ought to be in every new case of disease for which
you may be consulted;  and how necessary it is to exercise all your powers of
circumspection in practice!  When you prescribe medicines  of any kind,
you ought to feel your way (No. 22) with the smallest doses from which you
might, from your experience, expect an appreciable  effect, whether for good or 
158                      CHRONO-THERMALISM,
evil; for, remember, not only do all medicines occasionally manifest a differ-
ent elective affinity from that which they usually exercise, but even when they
act in their more ordinary course, they have still the double power of  attrac-
tion and repulsion—of aggravating or alleviating the symptoms for which you
prescribe.  Indeed, by this duality of movement—attraction and  repulsion,
and no other—we are compelled to ascribe  every change which the body
assumes, whether in health or disease," 186.

   534. This assumes that  every substance in nature  (181)  is electrically
either positive  or  negative, or both!  to  the  human body, and positive  to
some  parts  and negative to others, (p.  191), when it is well known that,
whatever be the quantum of electricity in the  body  at any  one  time, it is
always equal in all parts.
   But suppose the doctrine were true, (and it is so  nearly true that we wish it
were quite), why so necessary to be always cautious in  selecting the remedy?
Could it not be ascertained which articles are always positive or always nega-
tive, and when  the  body requires  one and  when the other; and thus we
might adapt, scientifically,  the  one to the other, and not always practice
empyricism, as in cases 48, 49, 52, 63, 61, 109, 186?

   535. Dr.  Dickson counts disease a derangement of the electrical conditions
of the brain, and through it of the organs, and assumes that all medicines are
either positive or negative to those conditions, (196), and therefore produce
their  curative or pathogenetic effect by their  proper or improper application
in each case.
   He contends that these elective conditions  are continually changing, pro-
ducing the phenomenona called intermittency or periodicity, and that, there-
fore, the  specific remedy for one state, should be substituted  by others, as
the progress of the electric changes demands.   That the present state is
known only by trial, (p. 209); and, therefore,  in every case, begin cautiously
with the least appreciably effective dose,  and  change as  soon as it does not
produce the  desired result, p.  186.

   536. Thus he gives to every medicinal substance what he calls a duplexity
of action, sometimes one way,  sometimes the other,  and  sometimes both
ways.  "Iodine cuts both ways."  " One way or the other according to the
electric  conditions of the brain," (191).  Thus  the  electric state  of the
body, which can not be known but by an experience of their effect upon it, deter-
mines whether  squill or digitalis prove aggravant or remedial," 192.
   " Colchicum, like all other medicinal agents, is a motive power; and, if it
fail to move  matter the right  way, it must occasionally move it the wrong,"
 192), and thus "produce the very symptoms or effects it was given to cure."
 See Homeopathy).   So  of the other remedies cited, p. 191.

   537. Chrono-Thermal Remedies.  Bark, quinine, prussic acid, arsenic,  opium
and morphine,  &c, are those that are  supposed to destroy the "memory of
the system" of the last chill, and  make it forget to repeat the ague!
   Those that act on  particular organs or  tissues of the body, he supposes
have some chemical  affinity for  those  organs or tissues, and these he calls
[not specifics, but]

   538. Symptomatic Remedies.  Of these are, iodine for glandular affections;
colchicum or guiac for rheumatism; squill or digitalis for dropsy; cantharides
 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
159
or copaiba for leucorrhea or gleet; squill for catarrh;  purgatives for costive-
ness;  cardamoms, <fcc, for flatulency,  (198), and  mercury for  glandular
affections,  &c,  (72).   To one or  both of these classes of remedies, he
supposes "everything in nature" to belong,  38.

   539.  Dr. D.'s "Great Abstract Law," is  "Any given power  applied in a
particular degree  and at particular  periods, may cause, cure,  aggravate or
alleviate any given form of disease, according to the constitution of the par-
ticular patient," 179.
   This  is one of the absurdities and follies  to which all men are driven who
base their system on the false notion that fever is disease, (35).  Alas for their
common sense!  Comment on this great law is superfluous.  Its absurdity
can scarcely be rendered more apparent than it is.

   540.  It is based upon the assumption, contrary to chemical and physiologi-
cal demonstration, that medicines are all constituted alike, as to the elements
of which  they are composed; that they possess no inherent qualities and pro-
duce  no  specific  action on the system,—all the  results of their presence
depending  on circumstances!   Opium  and mercury  may  sometimes be
removed  from the system  by an action which they provoke; but that is not
their action.   The only action  produced  by them is destruction of function
and tissue! which they always effect when not overruled by the superior
force  of vital  defense.

   541.  "It never seemed to\ enter the head of any medical writer before me,
that these diseases havre each something in common which  establishes their
unity of type.   One remedy cures them all, and physicians either can not or
will not see that the action of that remedy is only one—the motive power,"
(p. 194).   If one remedy cures all, why run through all the catalogue?
   So  that motive poAver is  one but not electricity.   How near you are to the
truth, yet how far from it!

   542.  When you give bark  to continue theelectric  (vital) action  during
the interval, of febrile action, you do right,—for then its aid is needed.  If
you give it  when the fever is on, you aid Avhere that aid is not  wanted; but,
you do not "reverse the action," for you have justly  said that all  simple
medicines possess but one specific poAver.  If, then, the bark,  as  you say,
(p. 196), prolongs the intermission as well as the exacerbation, you must be
wrong  in your  notion that these are  different electric states; for the power
of the bark does not change!   The fact  is, you are  in the  same old error
with the Allopathists,  in treating fever as disease.  And you will never be
able to  learn "the modus operandi of external agents" (20), till you  correct
that error.  You  must "feel your  Avay"  in every  case, and  never know
before you  try  (p. 209), what  nor  how much  you ought to prescribe, nor
what  produces the results that follow.  You will never know whether the
causes of  the  disease, the vital force, or your medicines, or  all together, are
the agents  to which  you should ascribe  the symptoms.

   543.  This explanation of the  modus operandi of bark in preventing chills
and fevers,  shows that Dr. D.'s mind is shrouded in total  darkness on the
nature of that form of disease,  as well as the remedial  power that cures it.
He seems to think that his notions of it are peculiar;  but, let him compare 
160
CHRONO-THERMALISM,
his doctrine that "these fevers, however mild in themselves, are sufficiently
powerful in many cases, to avert the return of the more  dangerous morbid
motion," (p. 197), with the Homeopathic doctrine of cure, or the Allopathic
(Watson, p. 95), and point out the difference, if  he  can see any, and be wel-
come "to all that is peculiar to himself."

   544.  Dr. D. asks (197), "what medicine acts invariably in the same man-
ner?"   I  answer,  every medicine acts  invariably in the same manner, and
Dr. Dickson agrees with me.  "The  primitive agency of the  purely medi-
cinal substances, is one and the same," (184).   How can it  be otherwise?
He says again, justly, (196),  "that the same atom can not work in two dif-
ferent  directions."   But,  he also says,  "if  a medicine always acted invari-
ably, that would prove it specific," (197).  Well, what of that?   Oh, he
has said—"but that we shall never discover!"   What does  he say of others
who presume to set limits  to discovery?

   545.  But it is discovered—tannin produces invariably an astringent effect,
and lukewarm water a relaxing effect on animal tissue.   They never produce
any other effect;—they are physiological specifies, and  will invariably cure
all those "diseases,"—wrong  states of  living tissue,—that need  no other
action than theirs.   Other effects that follow their use, must be attributed to
some other power than theirs—as the debilitating or the astringent cause, or
the vital force, one, two, or all.

   546.  Prussic Acid.   In giving  its properties, Dr. D.  says: "Combined
with lobelia inflata, I have found it one of the most generally effectual reme-
dies for asthma with which I am acquainted," 198.
   What an experimental philosopher!   Here is an effect,—relief from dysp-
noea.   The vital force,  lobelia inflata,  and  prussic acid,  are combined to
produce this effect, either  in harmony  with, or in opposition to, each other.
"One drop of the  prussic acid will kill a well man,"—(Christison).  You
cannot give to a well man enough of lobelia in any form,  to  kill or injure
him.   But, lobelia,  without the acid, "almost invariably"  relieves asthma.
"A twelfth or a sixteenth  of a drop" of the acid is "combined with lobe-
lia" and given—the asthma is cured—and—wonderful "discovery!" the acid
is a "most efficient remedy!"

   547.  But, suppose prussic acid did  allay  the irritation in asthma, cough,
chills,  &c, how does it allay it?   As all deadly narcotics do; it so paralyzes
the nerves as to deprive  them of the power to feel the impression that excites
the irritation, and, if much is given, to respond to it, if it  did feel!   Dr. D.
is welcome to even  his  cures by prussic acid.—Some cures are worse than
killing.—We have no doubt that prussic acid will "allay excessive irritability
even in cancer," (197-8), if you take enough of it

   548.  Opiates.   Of opium Dr. D. says: "The  most obvious effect is the
control it exercises  over  the  nerves of the senses.   *   *  A minute dose
generally heightens the perceptive  powers,  while a large dose generally  di-
minishes them,"  199.
   Here is the  same  old  Allopathic  doctrine of  the  "dual action"  of
remedies—no account taken of the  vital force!—whose  reaction against the
small dose produces, the  "heightening of the perceptive  powers,"  and the 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
161
yielding of which, to the large dose,  permits  the blessed "allaying of the
irritation."

   549. The same is true of all poisons.   Their action is only one—tending
invariably to death; so the action of simple medicines, is  only  one, tending
invariably to life.   The use or abuse, increase or diminution  of either, does
not change  their nature  nor the  character of their  action.  Poisons are
falsely called medicines, because they diminish those vital actions that are
falsely called disease.

   550. Hence,  the argument that sustains opium and prussic acid, with the
AUopathist,  the  Eclectic,  the  Homeopathist, the Chrono-thermalist, is just
as good for  "antimony, arsenic, mercury and the bleeding lancet," for these
are "among  the most effective remedies" for fever and  inflammation,  "with
which Dr. D.," or any body else, "is acquainted."   They have only to give
"a sufficient dose" and the work  is "invariably" accomplished! (No's.  51
to 54, and 78 to 84).

   551. Dr. D. asks, (199), "who can tell what may  be  the effect  of any
remedy till  it  be tried?   In practice, we  find opium gives  sleep  in one
case and precludes all sleep  in another."  We answer.   The invariable ef-
fect of opium and all pure narcotics,  is to  destroy nervous impressibility
and action.  The nerves battle successfully  against small doses; and yield
submissively to large  doses.   If, in any case,  you do not see the "invari-
able"  effect  of  narcotics,  it is simply  because you are  afraid to give  as
much  of those "invaluable remedies,"  as the case demands!  and  for which
you are very blameworthy, for your doctrine is that  "the dose required is
always safe," and "the scientific physician can always  ascertain it."

   552. "Alcohol, wine and malt liquor, like every other medicinal agent, act
upon the body beneficially or the reverse, in no other manner than by  chang-
ing the existing temperature of the brain," 199.
   But, "bark operates by changing the electric  conditions" of  the brain
(196).  Are electricity and caloric  the same?

   553. "See how differently alcohol effects different men?"   You just now
said it  only  changed  their temperature.   If, therefore, they act differently,
this difference must be ascribed to something else than alcohol,—viz: their
natural temperaments, which, on alcoholic  provocation, act out themselves!
Alcohol has but one nature;  therefore it produces but one  action,—viz: pri-
vation  of nervous power to act, which the drinker "invariably"  suffers when
fully under its influence—"a sufficient dose!"

   554. It acts in a different manner from corrosive sublimate  and  nitrate of
silver, because it is a different substance.   The common result—death—of
the full action of poisons,  no more proves them "identical,"  than  that the
same "result" of a bullet or a sword, fire or frost, pro\res them identical.

   555. "Wine makes" no man "brave" nor "cowardly;" it only provokes
to action the powers  which  each man possesses, and those  respond  first
which are the most sensative at the time, while those which are depressed,
are the most easily paralyzed;  and this  impressibility, or the want of it, is
owing  to the differences of vital, not electric action."
                                   11 
162
CHRONO -THERMALISM,
   556.  "It throavs them into a state  of fever."  "Does not this unity of
result argue unity of mode of  action?" (200.)  Most  assuredly a unity of
result generally, though not always, argues a unity both of mode and cause
of action, and therefore so shrewd a man as Dr. Dickson,  when he saw that
fever Avas a result of the administration  of such heterogeneous materials as
his materia  medica, bark and arsenic, valerian  and strychnine, beer  and
mercury,  musk and zinc, should have looked for the cause of this  "same
mode of  action,"  not to those  differently constituted agents which could not
possibly produce it, but to something permanently in  the system, that  was
always able to produce  it.   That something is the vital force;  and the cause,
not only  of that (febrile) "mode  of action,"  but of every other physiolog-
ical  action in the system.  He Avould then have learned that, not only "the
lancet, the leech, and the cupping glass,"  but arsenic,  mercury, opium,  and
prussic acid, and  everything  that directly depresses  irritation, fever,  and
inflammation are,  in their nature,  in all quantities and  circumstances deadly
poisons, hostile to life and health, and  should be rejected from all medical
practice;  while those that act in harmony with these vital movements—(that
is, aid the  system in increasing or equalizing them) and produce no  "sec-
ondary effect" (that is, prostration or injury),  such as  cayenne, ginger,
lobelia, valerian, tannin, Peruvian bark, cherry bark (in which there  is no
more quinine nor prussic acid than there is of  alcohol in a wheaten loaf  or a
roasted ear of corn), should be regarded and applied as the only legitimate
remedies for disease.

  557. How such  a man as Dr.  Dickson could bring his mind  to belieAre
that
       Bark and arsenic,               Fir-balsam and cantharides,
       Prussic acid and valerian,        Earths and alkalies,
       Opium and ginger,              Sulphur  and bismuth,
       Morphine and quinine,           Digitalis and squills,
       Musk and strychnine,           Iodine and turpentine,
       Zinc  and camphor,              Lead and belladonna,
       Nit. silver and tinct. of iron,     Lobelia and tobacco,
                    Mur. of mercury and assafcetida,
and  "every  other agent in  nature," can "act in  the same manner and pro-
duce the  same effects upon the human body," should puzzle any one to divine,
who has  not observed that a favorite hobby like the Doctor's notion of "the
Electric  action" of "all agents  in nature,"  sometimes completely  narco-
tizes the  most discriminating powers of the brightest men, and makes them
talk as if they had neither talent nor knowledge, nor scarcely moral honesty.

   558.   How could Dr. Dickson  quote from Hippocrates (p. 24) the doc-
trine of the  unity and type of fever, and then  declare that he was the  dis-
coverer ?
   Can it be supposed that he  never  read  Brown, Rush,  nor hundreds of
eminent Allopathic authors on the unity of fever, called by them and him
disease ?  Did he never read Gregory, Armstrong,  Southwood Smith, Mar-
shall Hall,  nor Watson, who all treat fevers as a unit ?  Has he never read
our learned Paine who says (Inst.  p.  464), "They  who have  considered
inflammation and  fever distinct affections, have offered no analysis by which
their individuality may be established"? and that they are "the two orders 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
163
of disease that make up the great amount of human maladies and form the
grand outlets of  life"?

  559.  Can it be supposed that Dr. D. ever read  the total rejection of the
lancet by Salmon,  Brown, Donaldson, Graham, Louis, and  Hahnemann in
Europe;  and Samuel Thomson,  Wooster Beach,  and Lobstein  in  Amer-
ica, and knew how much  was done here by the latter gentlemen  and there
by the former, to curtail its  use; and  how much  it is still used, notwith-
standing all their and his efforts; and then had the assurance to  publish to
the world? p. 209,

  560.  " Gentlemen, to say  blood-letting is a bad remedy is one thing—to
prove it to be bad is another—to force the world  to believe  and act upon
your arguments  in the teeth of the  opinion of the world,  is  a  still greater
achievement.  That merit I  distinctly claim.   With Coriolanus, I can say,
alone  I did it"!! (209).
  Alas  for human  frailty!

  561.   The pretending medical scholar  who could pen  such a declaration,
reminds me of the boasting geographer who asked if Massachusetts was not
somewhere about  Boston!  If he will study medical history,  the Doctor
will find,  in the works of John  George Hansel,  an Englishman,  a century
ago, the  doctrine of the Chrono-Thermal system, all but  the electricity,
and in  Dr.  Samuel Thomson's work,  the  same  doctrine,  purified  of  its
fever disease, unity of medicinal action and  poisonous  medicine errors; and
that, with all his boasting that "he alone did it," he has scarcely a score of
followers in America, while there is more radical medical reform in the Uni-
ted States than in all the rest of the world put together!

  562.  Absurdities and contradictions.    Dr. Dickson says, (page 54,) "The
only test of  medical truth and treatment is successful results."  But, on page
190, he says,  "  That individuals occasionally recover  from serious disease,
after the unsparing use of calomel in scruple (20 gr.) doses,  is no more an
argument in  favor of such a mode  of treatment, than that many a man has
been knocked down by a blow and lived," is in favor of such blows.  "To
reason in this manner is to argue that blows are good things."  Yet such is
the only reason that could be given  for giving poison of any kind!

  563.  He says, (page 37),  "Quinine is generally the most efficient  of all
remedies; but others are sometimes  better on account of their better adapta-
tion to the electrical conditions  of  the brain."  Yet, he  says, "The only
reason why any  article acts as a  medicine is its power to change the electrical
conditions of the  brain!"   Here is a direct  contradiction.  If any  other
remedy is on this account ever  better than quinine,  it must ahvays be: for
he says in another place that  the medicines do not change their conditions.

  564.  He prescribed 3 grains of opium (p. 81), and, (p. 181), he says:
•' Only let So-and-So put down in writing, that any of these substances ever
poisoned any body, in the dose and  at the age  for which I and others pre-
scribe it, and I shall have the pleasure  [!] of publishing the  fact (!)  to the
professional world for their future edification." 
164
CHRONO-THERMALISM,
   Did he never read the authors from which I have  quoted Nos. 71 to 77,
where he would have learned that one grain of opium often kills ?
   On 105 and 116, he says  "there are no specifics,"  and yet he devotes a
o-ood  part of section ix,  to  the  consideration of "particular remedies that
affect particular parts."

   565. He abuses  "the profession" by wholesale, for "wielding daily, such
power, without the smallest idea of the principles on which  they act," and
on p.  191, 199, asks,  "Who can tell what effect any remedy may have  till
it be tried?"  And on page 209, "Perceiving the utter impossibility of fore-
telling, in many cases, the particular agent by which  you are to obtain ame-
lioration ; and, as in almost every case, when an agent does not act favorably
it does the reverse; you must see the necessity of  commencing your  treat-
ment with the smallest aArailable [effective] doses of the  more potent remedies
of feeling your way, in short, before you venture upon the doses prescribed bj
the schools."

   566. If this is not "arrant quackery," we must have a new definition of
the term.   You cannot know  by examination the  "electric state,"  "dis-
ease" (181), nor by experience what remedy  will correct it (181).  You
must guess at it: try first one and then another, of "powerful agents," that
"cut two ways," perhaps half a dozen that cut backwards,  and "nearly ex-
haust all  your best resources,"  before you hit the one that cuts forward (46).
"Physic and  poison are identical,"  (179) "till  they are  tried,"  and no
matter how many times they have been tried (Nos.  46  to 151),  they must
be tried again, not only in the commencement of every case, but during its
entire progress as the  "electrical state" changes from chills to fevers and
backwards!   May  we not justly style Dr.  D. "the prince of  quacks"?
On his principles blood-letting should be tried over and over, for nothing is
more effective in changing the  "thermal" and "electric states" of  the body!
The experience of the past against it is of no more value than the same expe-
rience against  mercury!  (78 to 151).   "Who  can tell the effect of any
remedy"  [in any case] "till it be tried?" (199).  Success meach case (54)
must be the test, though many recover  from blows on  the head, and  "the
reparative power  of nature  will cure nineteen cases  out of  twenty  without
the assistance of any physic at all," (178).

   567. In general  Dr. D. seems to count opium, prussic acid, &c,  "nega-
tive" or depressing remedies.  He considers the "period" of intermission a
degree or two  below par; and  yet he administers in this state the negative
agents to raise it up.  "Lower him up," said Pat, when he wanted the  coffin
lifted from the grave!  But  we will not do  the Doctor  injustice.   He is not
sure beforehand whether  the stage of lassitude is negative or positive.   He
tries his generally negative remedies, opium, prussic acid, <fec, in the  smallest
appreciably effective doses (209), "feels his way;" and if they provoke the
system to an action sufficient  to both drive  away the drug and prevent the
chill, why, then, "heis justified" (p.54) in continuing this blind and dan-
gerous quackery with opium,  (81, 3 gr. doses), prussic acid, &c, "by suc-
cessful results," which, however, are no more  justification to a "regular,"
(118), than "recovery from blows on the head" is  for repeating the blows!
And this he proves by an equal success with his generally positive remedies,
bark, wine, camphor, &c.  He does not know till he  tries it, whether cayenne, 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
165
will increase the heat or digitalis diminish it, in any given case !   The "elec-
trical conditions of the system may, "for aught he knows till he tries," be such
as to directly reverse the action of these remedies!"  (52, 199).   An article
may be generally good for "a particular type of disease in one locality, and as
generally prejudicial when applied to the same type in another," 191.  The
gout in the first toe and gout in the second may require different remedies !

   568.  Before  telling us what  "never entered into the heads of  any medi
cal writer before him," (194, 24), he should at least have read some of those
things that have been recorded  by many of the most distinguished medical
men who ever lived !   Or he should have  remembered, when writing page
194, what he himself said on page 24, that Hippocrates taught the doctrine
of the  unity both of disease and its type.  But let it be remembered by the
reader,  that all those  writers, Dickson included,  (35), have taught the erroi
that this unity consists in fever!!! and hence, all their other errors in theory
and mischiefs in practice—their inablility to define either medicines or poi-
sons, or to learn their modus operandi, (No. 20), or "the  shade of  morbid
action," (22), or the "electrical states of the system to which they are appli-
cable."  Dickson, 186, 209.

   569.  On page 179, the Doctor says:  "If  the Homeopathists will  put in
print the  instances in which I have  neglected to acknowledge any thing I
have borrowed  from them or others, I will very much thank them," <fec

   570.  Having found  the  Doctor either  very culpable  in this respect, or
very ignorant of medical progress, I will not say what he has borrowed from
others;  but I will say that he claims the discovery of the unity and periodicity
of disease [feA^er] though he quoted it from Hippocrates, (24).  The univer-
sality of fever in all  forms of disease, though he might have quoted it from
Gregory,  (No.  38), or from  Paine,  (No. 41), or Marshall Hall on Infl.,
(No.  302),  or  Hahnemann,  every where.   He claims the  discovery of the
electric action of remedies and the rejection of the lancet—though he might
have quoted both from his countryman, Dr. James  Graham of London, and
J. S.  Olcott of  Boston.   He claims the discovery of  the  unity of disease,
though he might  have read it in Brown, or in Gregory, in Hahnemann, in
Graham, in Rush, in  Samuel Thomson, in W. Beach, in fact in one half of
the ablest works of the profession.   His "discovery," (195), that "whatever
can cure disease can  cause it,"  is the  basis of Hahnemann's system!  He
claims to have discovered the periodicity of all disease and the proper time
for medication;  and yet his favorite, Hippocrates, taught the expectant treat-
ment—the waiting for the favorable moment to "aid nature."  He  claims the
discovery of  the doctrine that the true treatment of disease  consists in regu-
lating the  temperature of the body;  but, if he  read the book from which was
derived the doctrine  that lobelia is the best  remedy for asthma,  (198), he
would have learned that doctrine far more perfectly than he has taught it!
He would have learned before trying, whether the heat is too high or too low,
and  what remedy to begin with in each and every case!  He  would have
learned also, sure "rules" by Avhich he could "tell  what effect a medicine
will have  on diseased states" before it has been tried on any one!
   If  I  had never  read any book but  Dr.  D.'s,  I might have supposed that
some of his  claims to discoveries are just; and if I had never "tried" nor
thought for mvself, I might have supposed  that his doctrines of disease were 
166
CHRONO-THERMALISM, ETC.
true and his practices good; but as it is, I am skeptical on all  these points.
Still I esteem the man for his moral courage in combatting what he believes
to be wrong, and boldly advancing "in the teeth of public opinion," what
he believes to be right; and for putting forth, in his work, much that is true
and good, (as on page 40,  second  paragraph), which may be very useful to
those who have the  true philosophy of medicine, that  will enable them to
know the right  and the wrong, and to separate the one from the other, before
they "exhaust nearly all  their best resources," p. 46

  571.  While  we thus  criticise  Dr.  D. as in duty to science, justice and
humanity we are bound to do, we most cordially assert that in many of his
criticism on Allopathy and  modifications of its practice, he, like Hahnemann,
has done a signal service for reform,  and assure the reader who is on the true
foundation of medical  science and practice, and therefore can not be lead
astray by its "bewitching theories," that he will find Dr. D.'s "Fallacies of
the  Faculty,  and   Principles of Chrono-Thermal Practice of Medicine,"
a most deeply interesting book, by carefully reading which, he will be able
to judge of its value  and of the justice of our criticisms on it. 
WATER   CURE.
   Thus far, I have presented the efforts to reform the practice of  medicine,
on the  basis of the Allopathic  doctrine that "irritation, inflammation and
fever are diseases," by men who belonged to the profession, and desired  to
remain in social and scientific harmony with its members;  and who  left it,
if at  all,  only because  of  its  ill treatment of  them, on account of their
reformatory efforts.

   572.  I have shown that, for the want of a new and sure foundation prin-
ciple to start upon, their reforms  have been but superficial at  the best, and
have  mostly  fallen back again entirely to Allopathy; that Eclecticism, Ho-
meopathy and Chrono-Thermalism, have no principle that will prevent them
from being again swallowed up by Allopathy,  and poisoned and reduced by
its errors and practices, till they can no longer be distinguished as reforms.

   573.  It now becomes my pleasure to speak of men who, out of the pale
of the Profession, uninstructed in  its plausible and "bewitching theories,"
and unbiassed by the influence of a powerful profession and temptation  to
honor and profit, could look on the practice as it was  exercised by its advo-
cates, and justly scan and measure its results; and Avho had the moral inde-
pendence to  break all restraints, to reject what they believed to be Avrong,
and adopt what they found to be good,  without the fear of consequences.

   574.  The first of these that I shall notice, though not the first in time, is
Priessnitz, the pioneer of what is called, The Water Cure.
   This system of medication was devised by Vincent Priessnitz, a peasant
of Graefenburg, Germany.

   575.  It is based upon the proposition that, by eating  and drinking what
he should not; by neglecting the proper use of water, exercise  and air; and,
finally,  by taking poisonous and exciting drugs to • cure disease, man has
departed very far from his  original health: and that he can  return to  it only
by reversing  this course.

   576.  He must  eat moderately and at proper times, of that which is the
most suitable to sustain  and the  least liable to injure him—must drink only
water and  use it  freely  on  his person; must  breathe fully of fresh air, and
take the amount and character of exercise the best calculated to give  health
and vigor to every organ of his body.
         (167) 
168
WATER CURE,
  577.  It is  generally the  case that, when a  man  becomes  disgusted and
displeased with a part of a system of principles or practices, he is inclined
to reject the whole, the good as well as the bad features of that system, and
fly off at once to  the opposite extreme.  Hence, it is quite natural that  a
peasant who has seen little else than misery and  death as the result of drug
medication, should exclude everything that bears the name of drug or medi-
cine from any system which he may devise.
  It is equally natural  that men  like Johnson  and Gully,  in  Europe, and
Shew, Trail,  <fcc, in this country, who, from  their  unfortunate adoption of
the  "fever disease doctrine" were never able  to  distinguish  medicines from
poisons, should take the same leap from the practice of using indiscriminately
medicines and poisons, to that  of  using nothing that is called a medicine.

  578.  Hence, the fact that nearly all the men Avhohave embraced hydropathy
exclusively as their practice, have  been eithei  persons who, like the peasant,
Preissnitz, never knew much of medicine; or who, like Johnson, Forbes, Shew
and Trail, had been through the allopathic routine, and become entirely dis-
gusted by it.

  579.  Others who have seen  much of what is  called domestic or sanative
practice, and its effects,  have turned their attention towards the use of innoc-
uous stimuli,  and the rejection of only what they have  considered inimical
to life.  These are found  among Eclectics,   Botanies,  Thomsonians,  root
and herb doctors, Indian doctors, <fec   The most sensible, philosophical and
honest among them being Physio-medicals, using only agents whose action
harmonizes with the vital functions and benefits the tissues, among which
water is so conspicuous that  many of them  enter  the  existing water-cure
establishments or provide its appliances in their Infirmaries, so that patients
can have the benefit of those convenient combinations of water with medicine'
in cases in which neither would be so effectual alone.

  580.  The pure water cure establishments are mostly conducted by converts
from the allopathic faculty, who have had a large experience in practice, and
who, from their false views of  disease and of  therapeutic action, have never
been able to estimate aright or duly to  appreciate, the purely physio-medical
agents of the materia medica, whose action  is as innocent as  that of water,
and often far  more speedy and  efficient.

  581.  Thus, Dr.  Trail, of New  York,  says: "Of drug remedies  in any
sense,  from  calomel and antimony  down through  lobelia and nervines, to
raspberry leaves and catnip—all or either, we dispute their innocency," and,
"all drug remedies, lobelia and cayenne, as well as calomel  and opium, are
absolutely poisons."  W. C. J., 1854, p. 85,  and P. M. R.,  1854, p. 161.

  582.  But there are other establishments  under the name, conducted  by
men who have learned, from the Physio-medical  system, that many of these
"drug remedies" are more prompt and efficient,  in many cases, than water;
always as innocent in their nature and often more so in their effects, and they
use  them as they think proper. We are acquainted with a number of such
establishments.

  583.  This  course is not sanctioned by Preissnitz, nor any of his strict fol-
lowers.  Dr. Joel Shew, who spent some time with him,  says: "No one 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
169
deserves the name of  hydropathist who does not practice according to the
principles of the  immortal founder of the new system.   It is well known to
be a standing rule with Priessnitz,  with which all must comply, that no
patient is allowed to take medicine while undergoing the cure."   W. C. Man.,
p. 28.   Neither does Priessnitz allow the vapor bath, but Dr. Shew uses it.

   584.  I find, nowhere, any set  platform  of  principles  from the hand of
Preissnitz, though he may have written one that has not come under my eye.
Yet, from reported remarks, I infer some of his doctrines; for example:

   585.  Dr. Shew reports  a  case of "liver complaint," to cure which the
lady had been treated with mercury.   Under Preissnitz's treatment in a short
time "she had a crisis of boils, through  which the  mercury  evaporated."
Immediately after these had healed, "the inflammation of the liver returned.
'Now you may consider yourself cured,' said Priessnitz;  and she was indeed
cured in a few weeks, when the liver complaint left her."  W. C. Man., p. 25.
   From this, I infer that Priessnitz did not consider inflammation disease.

   586.  Dr.  Edward Johnson, who spent some months  with  Priessnitz in
1842-3, for  the express purpose  of  observing the facts of water cure and
learning its principles, says:
   " There is no well educated medical man in  England who will refuse to
admit that a remedy which can produce (at will) the  most profuse perspira-
tion, and which can (also at will) lower the temperature, and the velocity of
the heart's action  to any given degree, (even the extinction of life), that such
a remedy must possess an immense power over diseases of all kinds."  Prin-
ciples of Hydropathy, Pref., p. 11.

   587.  Hence, I infer that the science of Hydropathy consists in regulating
the temperature, or, in other words, the action of the system, with the tem-
perature for a guide.

   588.  Again, I find several pages devoted to the processes of nutrition and
purification, at the close of which Dr. Johnson arrives at the conclusion that
the process of waste is quite as important as that of nutrition, and that the
promotion of  this,  chiefly through the skin, is "even more important than
that of nutrition" [?]  p. 87.   Hence, an important doctrine of Hydro-thefa-
peutics  is to  remove all the waste from the body as fast  as  it  accumulates.
So that, as nearly as I can deduce them  from  all that I can find written on
the subject,

   589.  The water cure consists in the grand propositions:   1. Put into the
body that and that only which  is useful to  it as food or drink.   2. Keep the
body in those circumstances of air, temperature, exercise and rest, that will
enable it to make the most profitable use of the first.   3. Remove from the
body, as fast as separated from its tissue, or by any means accumulated in it,
everything offensive to its well-being.

   590.  To all these propositions, in the abstract, all sensible  men, profes-
sional or not, most cordially assent.  The only questions  are:

   591.  What is the condition of the  body (called health) in which all these
things are fully and perfectly regarded ?   What are  the conditions (called 
170
WATER-CURE,
 disease) that  result from the  neglect of any of the above?  What are the
 signs or symptoms  by which those conditions may be known ?  What are
 the agents of  No. 1, (589), the circumstances of No. 2, and the best means
 and processes of No. 3? on  all which  there is  a vast diversity of opinion
 among men, even the strongest advocates of water cure.

   592. In searching among their writings,  I find that the leading authors,
 Johnson, Gully, Shew,  <fec, adopt nearly the same doctrines of disease, viz:
 that its distinct forms are legion, and its essence irritation, fever, and inflam-
 mation.   Shew's Manual, p. 126.

   593. Dr. Trail says, (Cyc, vol. 2, p. 74), "Fever is an abnormal disturb-
 ance of  most  or all the bodily functions;" and  (p. 78), "The  paroxysm
 is a remedial effort."  But, speaking of ague and  fever (p. 91), he says,
 "We find this disease," &c,  (Dr.  Dickson's type of  all disease).   In his
 discussion with me on the modus operandi of drugs,  he  says: "Fever is both
 disease and an effort of nature."

   594. In the department of nosology,  Drs. Shew and Trail follow the de-
 scriptions of "disease" by the Allopathic writers.
   But, vol.  2, p.  72, Dr. Trail's "judgment" is with wmethat these "Nosol-
 ogies are all unphilosophical and absurd," and in vol. 1, p. 33,

   595. That " The only foundation of a true medical practice, is correct phys-
 iologiccd  principles," or those "based  upon the laws of life."  "And here
 [not in their notions of the modus  operandi of remedies] is precisely Avhere
 the whole orthodox medical system  utterly and totally fails."

   596. "It has no physiological science upon which to practice the healing
 art."   [This is the  "error of errors."   They count irritation, fever,  and
 inflammation—mere disturbances of physiological action—disease; and, in
 practice,  seek to  destroy the power that produces them,  instead of removing
 the obstacles to their equilibrium].
                                                            V
   597. What  then are the distinctive doctrines of Water-cure or Hydro-the-
rapeutis ?  I answer:
   1st.  That vegetable food and pure air  and water  are the only substances
proper to be received into the human economy, in a state of  health.
   2d.  That daily, universal bathing in cool water,  is indispensable to the
preservation of perfect health.
   3d.  That pure  water is the only proper remedial agent to be administered
or applied to the body for the cure of disease.
   4th.  That all  substances called  medicines or pure  stimulants are  more
or less poisonous, and  do more harm than good.   (See Discussion.   Also
No. 575).

   598. To the first proposition I remark:  It is seldom that we can find veg-
etable substances  so abundant and so pure, that we may  not find some animal
food preferable to the vegetables before us.   Thus the imperfectly developed
grain, fruits, and roots, are often quite deleterious to health, while good ven-
ison, wild fowl, fish, &c, are nutritious and wholesome.   I prefer good dried 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
171
beef or venison to sour bread, wet potatoes,  gnarly  apples, <fec.   Yet, as  a
general proposition, I believe that vegetable food is preferable to animal.
  I believe that few bodies are constantly in such a condition even when we
call them healthy, that the addition of a little acid,  sugar, ginger, or spice
of some kind, or aromatic stimulant may not sometimes be beneficial.
  To the second proposition I give my full sanction.
  3d.   I cannot admit that pure water is the only substance properly admis-
sible as medicine, nor do I believe that there is,  in the  civilized  world,  a
Water-cure  establishment in  which  actively medicinal substances are not
used.   For example, Dr.  Trail says, (vol. 2, p.  84), "Indian or wheat meal
gruel promotes the action of the  bowels."   "Crust-water, corn coffee, lem-
onade, apple tea, <fcc,  (p.  85), [and he might just as well have added, pep-
permint, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, or cayenne tea],  "are both grateful and
harmless."
  A medicinal action is one that is calculated to remove  obstructions,  or to
correct the wrong conditions of the  tissues in disease.   If  wheaten grits,
barley cakes, rye mush,  stewed apples, pears, plums, and tamarinds excite
the bowels to action and remove  costiveness  (and they do), they act medic-
inally;  and it were just as sensible to object  to them on account of the extra
labor they provoke, as to  oppose leptandria or juglans when used  for the
same purpose.   If lobelia and boneset, by relaxing the system, excite  it to
vomiting to remove pernicious substances (and  they do), they do just what
warm water does in the same cases.  The question,  which is the best means,
depends on the answer to another question, viz: Which does it the best and
with the least expenditure of vitality to the system?  Having tried them all,
/ much prefer to put lobelia into the warm water.  If my Water-cure friends
Srefer to make the system do  all  the labor without any assistance, let them
  o so.    I will neither imitate them, nor commend their course.
  4. This I  deem a very great mistake in  theory, which  leads  to a great
defect in practice—that of rejecting from the materia medica a multitude of
therapeutic agents as innocent as water and far  more efficient.

  599. It is surprising to what an extent persons will go,  to sustain a dogma
which they suppose they have discovered to  be  true.
  The  application of water in any way, bath, shower, or wet pack, so cold
as to produce a chilliness of more than three minutes duration, is as great an
abuse of water as the continuance of the vapor bath to fainting, or of  lobe-
lia to entire prostration,  or cayenne to a strong  fever, is of these invaluable
and equally innocent remedies.   The liability to abuse  of either is no objec-
tion to  its legitimate use.   It is not liability to abuse that constitutes poison,
but the intrinsic character of the article and its tendency to a wrong action.

   600. Water is indispensable, to keep the blood thin and sufficiently abund-
ant to distend the vascular systems, to prevent organic and tissual irritation,
and, above all, to absorb the extra heat and regulate the temperature of the
body under great excitement.

   601. Liebig's notions, indorsed by so many learned men, about the veget-
able food of  the tropics and the  train oil of  the north regulating the animal
temperature,  should not be received without great deductions.
  If it is the mere burning of such food in  the animal body, that keeps up
the heat, how does the bear keep up his heat during winter, while he sits in 
172
WATER-CURE,
a  holloAV  tree, without food, and comes  out  fat in the spring?   How is
the flesh  of those  men sustained who eat no animal food in any climate?
and how is  the heat of those sustained  who eat nothing but lean flesh?  A
friend of  mine once spent four years among the buffaloes of the west, living
almost wholly on their lean flesh.  Yet he  retained all  his health and vigor.
And it is  notorious that the hardiest plebeians  of  the northern countries of
Europe, seldom eat any meat.  How is their flesh sustained ?

   602. The fact is, that much of  the heat in animals, is generated, as  it is
around pivots in machinery, by  friction alone,  and  its degree is regulated
almost wholly by the  elastic power of the surface which, when too much
accumulates, expands to let it escape; and when too little, contracts to retain
a sufficient quantity.   The irritation, called thirst, which an excess of calorie
excites, induces the animal to drink, and the fluid absorbs the caloric, and
carries^it out in the form  of perspiration.   When excitement  is great and
water deficient, the result is a contraction  of  the  surface that retains too
much heat.   This excites  the nerves and blood-vessels to the  production of
that  condition which  is termed fever and inflammation.  Now,  common
sense  tells us that this  condition  demands cool  water,  internally  and exter-
nally :  and hence the  reason why water is so  effectual, as a remedy, in all
acute  forms of disease.  If applied, of the proper temperature, and in the
right quantity and manner, it is  often all that  is necessary; and  even  when
morbific matter has accumulated and the action of the  system is low, warm
or hot water is an indispensable aid to medicines that more speedily raise
the action and purify the body.

   603. But, when used cold internally or externally as a stimulant,  to  raise
healthy action in a case of chronic debility,  as in packing a dyspeptic  or
consumptive patient in a cold wet sheet, and keeping him there two hours,
with his teeth chattering with cold, or even in bathing him in cold  water  in
the hope that,  after this very disagreeable,  fatiguing,  and prostrating  pro-
cess, he will be blessed with a free perspiration, is little if any better  than
to expose him to cold,  and then to ague and fever,  for the same purpose.

   604. It should be no wonder to the reflecting mind,  that morbific matter
should thus be confined in the tissues till it forms  deposits and breaks out
in "sore boils from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot."

   605. If the object is to purify the body by perspiration,  why not put it
into a vapor bath,  and let it have the benefit at once, of artificial warmth
and moisture, instead of compelling  it,  in  its  debilitated state, to labor two
hours in chattering its teeth, and suffering all the torment of a universal
chill, till,  by this  severe goading provocation, it shall  raise heat enough  to
warm the  water, relax  the  tissues, and relieve itself from "duress vile?"

   606. I am not a  little  amused at  the hue and  cry  of the Hydropathists
against the  "extra labor" necessary to remove stimulants (such as ginger,
sage, and  catnip),  over and above what is  necessary to remove the disease
for which I  give them, connected with the recommendation  of  two hours
chilly labor in  the cold pack, to heat water enough to make the patient as
comfortable as he was  when they put him into  it,  before a perspiration, not 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
173
 so good as that produced by my ginger and vapor bath, can be started to
 relieve it!

  ^ 607. I am glad to see that some Water-Cure advocates are becoming sen-
 sible of this absurdity and folly, and are giving,  in  such cases, warm  and
 vapor baths at once.   Dr. Shew has given us a full chapter (viii) on the use
 and value of the vapor bath, and it is the most valuable chapter in his book.
 It is exceedingly rare that "boil crises" follow the use of the  vapor bath,
 for the plain reason that the morbific material which forms them, under cold
 pressure, is carried out through the natural channels opened by the combined
 influence of warmth and moisture in the vapor bath.
   I was pleased also that,  when about to advocate the superiority of a vapor
 over a cold bath in cold chronic cases, in preventing  chills, boils,  &c, the
 pupils of Dr.  Trail assured  me that they  already agreed with  me in  this.
 And Dr. Trail himself,  (p. 37, vol. 2),  speaks of the  vapor bath as superior
 in many cases to the cold water bath, and attributes  all the evils of its use
 to its abuse (599) by "steam doctors," whom he represents as ignorant of its
 proper management.  He tells us how it should be  used !  If he will only
 allow us as much  science and common sense as he possesses, I suppose that
 we ourselves may use it  properly hereafter!
   I think the Doctor is  hardly fair in saying  that the  steam doctors have
 brought the vapor bath  into disrepute.   Was it in scientific and popular use
 and credit, before Dr. Samuel  Thomson revived its use in this country?  And,
 if it is in some  places  less respected now than it was twenty years ago, is it
 not because pseudo reformers have joined with Allopathists  in  abusing it,
 for the purpose  of putting down the strong opposition to their craft, of those
 who then the most judiciously and effectually applied it ?

   608. Principles.  Priessnitz and his followers seem to have disregarded, in
 a great measure, all platforms of principles as well as  systems of nosological
 arrangement; and devoted  themselves chiefly to the  business of regulating
 the heart's  motions and the  temperature of  the body,  with  water, applied
 according to the dictates of their judgment in each particular case.   Still a
 few  of them have laid  down what they conceived to be the main foundation
 stones of their  edifice.  I quote them here  for inspection, and add a few
 comments.  Dr. Edward Johnson, who spent some time with Priessnitz, says:

  609. "Health consists in that state of the  body in  which the  transforma-
 tion of food into the  living tissue, bears the natural  proportion  (as regards
 their activity), to the activity of the tansformations of  living tissues into life-
 less amorphous compounds of  oxygen—in other words, when the conservative
 vital  force  offers the proper amount of resistance to the destructive force of
 oxygen—or in  language simpler still, the supply is in due proportion to  the
 waste.  An adult animal is in health when these two forces exactly counter-
 balance each other." [Good].

  610. "Disease is a disturbance of this equilibrium  or balance, [fever, an
 error], consequently, whatever causes this disturbance is a cause of disease,
 [good].  The vital force offers a perpetual resistance to all causes of disturb-
ance, [good].   When this resistance is stronger than the cause of disturbance,
disease does not occur.   But when weaker,  disease [inability]  ensues,  the
condition in which this resistance entirely ceases is death," p. 118, 119. 
174
WATER-CURE,
  611. Dr. J. proceeds to show,  by very apt illustrations,  (an  issue and
a caustic), the healing tendency of inflammation, and the importance of keep-
ing up healthy action.  As cold water is by all, himself especially,  (page xi),
pronounced a powerful sedative, capable of "lowering  the temperature and
the velocity of the heart's action to any given degree, even to death," it fol-
lows that it is not a proper remedy for  great deficiency of temperature and
cardiac action, and, of course that, when,  in such cases, it does  good, it 16
by the reaction it provokes, not the direct  action  it produces, and  in this
respect is no better  than the "stimulating drugs" we often use.

  612. Dr. Shew, page 127, describes "inflammation generally" as  "disease,"
and gives us, as the causes, "exposure to great heat and cold, cold and mois-
ture," <kc   He  gives the symptoms, "heat, throbbing, and violent pain,"
&c.   "Thisdisease, [phrenitis], when severe, is exceedingly dangerous, and
must be treated with promptness.  Cool thoroughly the head and reduce the
general fever," which he effects with cold water and pounded ice, p. 128.
So "pneumonia is one of  the  most dangerous of all diseases,"—to be cured
in the same manner.
  Here are only four errors, first, inflammation is not disease; second, the vital
force alone is its cause; third, inflammation is a unit, not  "diseases," if it were
many, and fourth, the practice should be to remove obstructions to its actidn,
not to "reduce" the power of the system to make it.

  613. The only difference between  Dr.  Shew and Allopathists  is, that  he
acts contrary to his theory, confining his practice to one inherently innocent
remedy, while they act consistenly with their theory of  inflammation, in sub-
duing it with remedies appropriate to their notions of it.

  614. One would think the fact that the Water-Cure men use but one medi-
cine for all cases, were enough to convince  them that disease is a unit.  But
Dr.  S. has as  many diseases as Allopathists have, and  they are the same—
irritation, inflammation, and fever in their various forms.
  Dr. Shew does  not  confine his materia medica to cold water,—he gives a
merited and generous credit to the vapor bath,  page 96, and we assure him
he needs not put  ice on the head.   It will fare quite as well if he envelopes
it entirely in the vapor.

  615. Dr. Trail  gives the symptoms of several different forms of fever, and
then comes the "rationale" of it,  which amounts to "a general effort of all
the vital energies  to relieve the  system from the influence of  some offending
cause.  That this effort is made periodically, the system requiring intervals
of rests, until victory or death results," and he adds, " If this view of fever
is right, the drug  system of treatment must be wrong,"  p. 78.

  616. This view of fever is nearly right, and, of course, proves that the use
of poisonous drugs  must be wrong.   But  some of  the  agents called drugs,
have a direct tendency to aid "the vital powers" in removing the obstacles
to their free and equal action,  consequently these are right instead of wrong.
The good  Doctor's "foggy" idea that "fever is both the disease and an effort
of  nature," prevents him from yet seeing clearly  the difference between
medicines and poisons,—"hygenic agencies" and "deadly drugs."   His treat-
ment is so much like that of Dr. Shew,  that we hardly need to repeat it 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
175
here.   As he  uses no poisons he can do no mischief, except (as he says the
Thomsonians  do with their  steam  bath, p. 37), he, being ignorant of its
powers  and adaptations, may not make  a proper use of his cold bath!—
may "over do it," or use ice water with it, or not use the vapor bath first! or
may commit  some other blunder for want of a little  instruction  from some
Thomsonian who does not abuse it by making it a universal hobby.   Dr.
Trail says,  (vol. 2, p. 51), "There are some delicate individuals of bloodless
skin and feeble vitality, who  find it extremely difficult to get comfortably
warm in the Avet sheet, and such may be very much assisted by a [warm]
fomentation to the abdomen for five minutes before and after the pack."
   According to our observation, nearly all chronic cases are just such "deli-
cate individuals," and we are of the opinion that a full  vapor bath, and a
gentle cold shower after it, to close the pores and  keep the heat in, is as much
better  than the "fomentation on the abdomen," as it is  more general over
the  system, and that the cold dash is as  much  better than the intermediate
"pack" as it is adapted to the purpose of preventing exhaustion and regulat-
ing the temperature; and we have a  great mind to go and learn of Dr. Trail
how to use  it judiciously, and not to abuse it, as he thinks the ignorant steam
doctors are in the habit of doing!  Seriously,  this regularly casting slurs on
"steam doctors" for  ignorantly abusing steam, reminds us of some  great
literary characters on a railway, condeming the engineers as unfit to manage
the locomotive,  because they can not translate a passage in Homer or Csesar,
nor repeat a single page  of Shakspeare,  Milton, or Byron.
   As one of Dr. T.'s doctrines is, that we must cure disease by "aiding na-
ture,"—hygienic agencies alone—and another is, that "fever is both disease
and an effort of nature," I am curious to know how he will cure disease with-
out opposing the efforts of nature?  And  how the adoption of  the double
doctrine that  fever is and is not disease, does not make him wrong, let which
ever doctrine  may be true.  At all events he believes, with Dr. Beach, that
 "disease is a  salutary effort of the  system  to remove disease!"   That is as
bad as making the  stomach vomit up itself !  I  would not turn the mind of
the  reader from the Avorks of Drs. Shew and Trail,  but only  guard him
against their  errors and inconsistencies.  He will find in  them much that is
worthy of  his careful attention.

   617. The Water-Cure, then, as an important department of medical prac-
tice, can not be too  highly estimated; and, unlike any of the systems here-
tofore  examined, all the harm  it ever  does, results solely from  improper
applications of it, and not from any inherent tendency in  water to injure the
human system,  whenever and wherever its  action  is demanded.   No system
of medical practice can ever be fully effective without its aid.   Though its
 processes are  by some carried to unjustifiable extremes, yet the Water-Cure,
or Hydro-therapeutic system, is to be commended more than any of the pre-
ceding for the greater  and more judicious attention to diet and exercise, on
 which  it continually insists,  especially in its public establishments.  The
mere regular daily cleansing  operations,  diet and  exercise of these institu-
tions,  do much, independent of what is considered  medical, to aid the vital
 force of almost any patient to recover its equilibrium of action, and the organs
their proper  impressibility and  activity.   When they add to what is there
applied, the judicious use of other purely sanative medicinal agents and pro-
cesses, and that direct aid to the vital force which electricity and extra vital
 power can apply, they Avill do all that has been yet discovered for the relief 
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WATER-CURE,
of physical  suffering.   On this system  of  practice,  Drs. Johnson, Gully,
Shew, and Trail are good authorities.

  618. In view of the preceding exhibition of it, is it wonderful that Bichat
should say, (4), "Medicine is not a science  for a methodical mind," but "a
shapeless  assemblage of inacurate ideas"?—That Whiting should call it (5)
"nothing  but hypothesis piled on hypothesis"?—That Bigelow should style
it (5) "an ineffectual speculation"?—That Abercrombie should call it (1)
"the art of  conjecturing"?—That Waterhouse should call it (25) "learned
quackey"?—and that Rush (26) and Chapman (141)should call the practice
"horrid, unwarrantable, murderous quackery"?
  Since, as I have shown, they all retain  the fundamental, Allopathic errors,
that "irritation, and inflammation are diseases," and that the symptoms which
follow "the  action of external agents  on the body, whether  as causes of
disease or as remedies," (20), are produced by those agents,  is it at all won-
derful that Homeopathists should never have learned how, in any case, to
"choose the  proper agent, the dose, or the time of repetition?"  (473)—That
Eclecticism  and Chrono-Thermalism should be guility of the  inconsistency
of railing  against one mode of depletion, (the lancet),  and adopting another,
(physic),—of rejecting one poison (mercury) or three, (mercury, antimony,
and arsenic), and prescribing all others—that they must be sometimes obliged
to try  many agents, (418), even their whole catalogue  (533), before  they
hit  the right, and never know, but by their success, whether  they have hit
the right or  the wrong—killed or  cured?  (531).   Is it strange that none of
the sects should be able to distinguish between food, medicines, and poisons?
(408), or that all should so stupidly adopt the absurdity that "food may be
made poison by  concentration," and  "snake poison a  medicine" by dilu-
tion? (413, 550)—and  that no one  can give a good reason why he differs
from the rest in his selections or his  rejection?  Is it strange that even our
good friends of the Water-Cure  tribe, while they are confused with  this
"fever disease" doctrine, can not determine what agents are  sanative and
what are  poisonous, and therefore "pronounce them  all, from calomel and
antimony, through  lobelia to sage and  catnip tea, absolutely poisonous?"
See Dr. Trail against Dr. Curtis.
  No!   The wonder is, that  any  well  instructed medical man should be so
stupid as  to  count that absurd doctrine (fever disease) science for himself,
(4), or have the impudence to publish  it as science to the world!
  But says Whiting:  "Because all systems hitherto promulgated, have been
false, and consequently transient,  it by no means follows that there may not
be  found  one which will stand a tower of  strength, unharmed by the  rude
shock of opposition's bursting wave, through all succeeding time."  L. M.
S.,  page 7.
  Says Prof. Samuel Jackson of the University of Pennsylvania, Principles,
page 11:  "The true science Bf medicine is a demonstrative science, and all its
processes  should  be proved  by established principles,  and based on  posi-
tive inductions.   That the proceedings of medicine are not of this character,
is to be attributed to the manner of its cultivation, not to the nature of the science
itself."   L.  M. S., p. 15.
   These sentiments of Dr. Whiting and  Prof. Jackson,  are  my own, and 1
now proceed to develop this "demonstrative science,"  that proceeds  from
"established principles," is "based on positive inductions," and will "stand
unharmed through all succeeding time." 
THOMSONISM.
  619.  In the latter part of the  last century, in the town of Alstead, New
Hampshire, lived a farmer's boy named Samuel Thomson.   He was a keen
observer of men  and things, particularly the practitioners and the practices
of medicine.   He watched, closely, both the men who studied at the colleges
and gave  drugs by the prescriptions of Professors, and of books sanctioned
by law; and the less pretending but more useful doctors who practiced what
was called "Domestic Medicine;" and he carefully noted the different results.
After he became a man and had a family, he had abundant opportunities for
painfully witnessing disease, and the empyrical and barbarous treatment of
it, by "the legally constituted guardians of the public health," whose con-
duct appeared so  strange and inconsistent, that he commenced comparing  it
carefully with experience, reason, and common sense.   Trammeled by none
of the "bewitching theories of medical professors,"  blinded by no self-inter-
est  that should lead him to attempt  to  sustain ancient, time-honored and
popular errors, his mind played freely over the  field of observation and ex-
periment before him, and  soon discovered  the fatal  error of Allopathy—the
doctrine that irritation, fever, and inflammation are disease.

  620.  "I found by experience," says he, "that  the learned doctors were
wrong in  considering fever a disease, or an enemy.  The fever is a friend
and cold the enemy.  This I found by their practice in my family, till they
had five times given the patient over to die.  Exercising my own judgment,
I followed after them, and relieved my family every time."

  621.  "After finding  a general principle respecting fevers, and reducing
that to  practice, I found it sure in all disease, when there was any nature
left to build on; and in three years constant practice, I never lost one patient.
  "I attended all 'the fevers' peculiar to our country, and always used fever
as a friend, and it returned the gratitude  by saving  the patient."  Guide to
Health, p. 10.

  622.  Here was a grand  discovery in medicine, viz: that fever is not
only sometimes but always a friend; and that friend is a unit,  an effort of
the  vital force to  protect the organism from the aggressions of the causes of
disease, "The struggle of nature to throw off disease," G. to H., p. 14.
  Others  had discovered that, in mild cases,  fever is a friend; but it was
left for Sam'l. Thomson to maintain  this doctrine  consistently throughout.
Not  only  once  a  friend but always a friend, Avas  his  doctrine.  But  this
was not all.
         (177)                       12 
178
THOMSONISM,
   623.  SamT. Thomson's conduct was consistent with his principles.   Hav-
ing discovered  this great general  principle, he  "reduced it to practice."

   624.  This was no Allopathic, Homeopathic,  Eclectic,  nor Chrono-Ther-
mal  patching up of an old rotten system  of error and  mischief.  It was,
indeed,  as the Eclectics pronounced it, "a complete revolution in medicine,"
and the  first and the only one that has ever been well planned, and completely
carried  out, since the murderous  devices  of Paracelsus  came into vogue.
Nothing else is worthy to at all compare with it.

   625.  But how did  he make the  discovery?   "Possessing a gift for exam-
ining the things of nature,  my mind was left  entirely free  to follow that
inclination,  by inquiring  into  the  meaning of  the great variety of objects
around  me," p. 8.

   626.  Thus he discovered that "much of what is at this day called medi-
cine, is  deadly poison; and were people to know what is offered them of this
kind, they would absolutely refuse to receive it even as medicine."

   627.  " This  I  have long  seen and known to be true, and have labored
hard, for many years, to convince them of  the evils that attend such a mode
of procedure with the sick; and have turned my attention to those medi-
cines that grow in our country and which the God of Nature has prepared for
the benefit of mankind."

   628.  "Long has a general medicine been sought for, and I am confident
I have found such as  are universally applicable,  in  all cases of disease,  and
which may  be used by the people with safety  and  success.   After thirty
years study, and repeated successful trials of the medicinal vegetables of our
own country, in all forms of  disease incident to our climate, I can,  with well
grounded assurance, recommend my system of practice and medicines to the
public, as both salutary and efficacious," p. 8.

   629.  Here we  find the true  foundation  principle of all scientific medica
tion, whatever be the particular remedy used, or the mode of application, viz'
   Whatever, in its specific  nature, tends  directly to aid the efforts  of the
vital force in protecting herself against the aggressions of the causes of dis-
ease, or in removing  those causes  or the effects of their  presence or action
from her domain; whether by directly exciting her to a higher action, or by
relaxing her tissues and enabling her to act more freely, or to remove offend-
ing matter or conditions; or by lubricating, or by toning up her tissues, is a
medicine, each  particular character  or article of  which, if used in the cases,
quantities, and  modes, in which it  is demanded, (all which  this doctrine
clearly indicates), is innocent and sanative; that is, it is intrinsically harm-
less, an  aid to nature in the prevention and cure of disease.   The misappli-
cation of it, is properly termed its abuse, and is the mildest form of quackery,
and the  most excusable.
   The ascertainment of the conditions and wants of  the  system, the judg
ment as to the kind of medicine wanted, the quantity, and mode of appli
cation,  &c,  fall within  the scope of physiology  and pathology, materia
medica,  and the knowledge and skill of the physicians; all which being now
rightly based on the true doctrine of deranged vital action (irritation, fever, 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
179
and inflammation), are no longer mysteries and guess work, speculation and
recklessness  (5, 6, 21, 27), but positive sciences, capable of being learned
and successfully practiced by ordinary mental power and industry.

   630.  On the other hand, whatever, in its  nature, tends  to destroy the
organized tissue, or to deprive it of the power to respond to the action of the
vital force, in its efforts to preserve health or to  raise a  fever (when one is
necessary for self-defence),  no matter in what  special article found nor how
applied, is a poison, always injurious to the system, even when used to pro-
voke it to a physiological action to remove the causes, the conditions, or the
effects of  disease.
   The use of these for any  medicinal purpose,  is an abuse, both of the arti- §
cles and the patients, and  a  disgrace to the medical profession.  It is the
worst form and character of quackery—"horrid, unwarrantable, murderous
quackery," (142).

   631.  Observing that,  in  all cases of health, the heat is fully and equally
distributed, and, in disease,  deficient and  unequally diffused, the farmer
adopted and  proclaimed the doctrine that the great duty of the physician is
to "raise  the heat," and to "keep the inward  heat  above the outward,"
(p.28).   So strenuously did he maintain this  doctrine,  that  his Allopathic
opponents charged him  with burning and  scalding his  patients  to death.
He, in return, charged them with freezing  theirs to death—adding, figur-
atively, as they killed  their patients by freezing them, and he cured his by
warming them, it must follow that "heat is life and cold is death," p.  8.
   That this expression was intended to mean nothing more than that "the
preservation of the equilibrium of heat,  is the  preservation of life; and the
destruction of  it produces death," is evident from the fact that he  every-
where says that, the raising of the heat, by artificial means, will restore the
patient " whenever there is nature enough to build upon," p. 10.
   It must not be denied that, so strongly was he impressed with the idea
of the deficiency of  heat  in all  cases of disease, that  he sometimes labored
to increase the quantity, when an equal distribution of that already pres-
ent,  would  have been  much better.  But  let him give  his principles for
himself:

   632.  "Led to inquire into the component parts of which man was made,
I found him composed of fire, air, earth, and water.  The earth  and water
are the solids,  the fire and air the fluids.  The two first  are the component
parts; the two last keep them in motion."  This is, indeed,  not very defin-
ite, but about as  useful as that  of the scientific Simon, or Carpenter, or
Brande, or others of the present day.  "Heat I  found  was  life, and  cold
death; and that all constitutions are alike."   [He means, as I learned from
himself, in regard to their anatomy and physiology, their powers and their
wants].

   633.  "I shall now describe the fuel which continues the fire  or life of
man.   This is  contained  in two things, food and medicines, which are in
harmony Avith  each  other, grow in the same field, to be used by the same
people,  [A  very important doctrine].   They who are  capable of raising
and preparing their  food, may as easily learn to collect and prepare all their
medicines and administer them when needed." 
180
THOMSONISM,
   634. "Our life depends on heat; food is the fuel that kindles and continues
 that heat.  The digestive powers being correct, consume the food; this con-
 tinues the warmth  of the  body, by continually  supporting  the  fire.   The
 stomach is the deposit from which the  whole body is supported.   The heat
 is maintained in the stomach  by consuming the  food; and all the body and
 limbs receive their proportion of nourishment and heat from that source; as
 the whole room is warmed by the fire which is consumed in the fire-place.
 The greater the  quantity of fuel consumed in the fire-place, the greater the
 heat of the room.   So in the body; the more food, well digested, the more
 heat and support through the whole man," p. 8, 9.

   635.  This  doctrine may seem erroneous to some, but Dunglison has copied
 it almost verbatim, and  Liebig has risked his reputation on its truth, except
 that he prefers the lungs to the stomach for his fire-place, and allows the lit-
 tle salamanders called arteries to scatter the coals all over the room, and set
 fire to all the combustibles they may alight upon.

   636.  Thomson continues: " By constantly receiving food into the stomach,
 some of which is not the best for nourishment, the stomach becomes foul so that
 the food is not well digested.   This causes the body to lose  its heat—then
 the appetite fails, the bones ache, and the man is sick in every part of his
 whole frame.   This situation of  the  body shows  the need of medicine,  and
 the kind needed; which is such  as will cleanse the stomach and  bowels and
 restore the digestive powers.   When this is done  the food will raise the heat
again and nourish the whole man.   All the art  required is  to  know what
medicine will  do this and how to administer it,  as a person  knows how to
clear a stove  and pipe when clogged with soot, that  the fire may burn free,
 and the whole room be Avarmed as before."

  637.  " The body, after being cleared of whatever clogs it, will consume
double the food and the food will afford double the nourishment and heat that
it did before.  We know that our life depends on food, and the stomach be-
ing in a condition  to receive and digest it.  When the stomach and bowels
 are clogged, all that is needed is the most suitable medicine to remove obstruc-
tions from the system.  All disease  is caused by clogging the system, and
all  disease is  removed by restoring [as above] the digestive powers so that
food may keep up the heat on which  life depends," p.  9,  10.

  638.  Hence it is evident that, as the Doctor puts both food and heat in the
capacity of powers  "on which life depends," he  does  not mean  to say,  lit-
erally,  that heat is life,  any more than that food  is  life.  They are both
used figuratively,  to  signify that  they are indispensable  sustainers of life;
and here all philosophers and sensible men agree with him.

  639.  Those who have been willing to put down  Dr. Thomson's system,
have perverted his doctrine, "the more food well  digested the better," to a
license to patients  to "eat as much as they please of anything they want."
 But, as he has here said "the more food" ('suitable for the best nourishment,'
 page 9,) and "well digested," the  better.  Neither he  nor  his  system is
 chargeable with  this error.   Again, of medicines he says:

   640.  " There  are two great  principles in the constitution  of things—the
 principle of life  and the principle of  death.   That which contains the prin-
 ciple of life can never be tortured into an administration of death.   [Here he 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
181
 is wrong.   We can kill ourselves by eating good food].  If, then, a medicine
 is good in any case, it is because it is agreeable to nature, or this principle of
 life, the very opposite of  disease.  If agreeable in one case, it must be abso-
 lutely so in all.  [Not  if  unsuited  to  the  case, as an astringent  where a
 relaxant is required].  By the active operation of nature, the whole animal
 economy is carried on."  [But here he is sound and true].

  _ 641. "If, then, heat is life, and its extinction death, a diminution of this
 vital flame, in every instance, constitutes disease, and is an approximation to
 death.   All then  that medicine can do, in the expulsion of disorder, is to
 kindle up the decaying spark, and restore its energy till  it glows in all its
 wonted vigor."   [He means, of course, by removing obstructions, and stimu-
 lating the  system  to a healthy action].

   642. "If a direct administration can be made to produce this effect (and
 it can) it  is evidently immaterial what  is the name or color of the disease,
 whether bilious,  yellow, scarlet or spotted; whether it is simple or compli-
 cated; or whether nature has one enemy or more.  Names are abitrary things;
 the  knowledge of the origin of a malady, and,of its  antidote, makes the
 genuine physician—all without this is real quackery."  (p. 11, 12.)   [Most
 excellent doctrine].

   643. "The study of anatomy, and  of  the  whole animal  economy, is
 pleasing and useful; but it is no more necessary to mankind at large to qualify
 them to administer relief from pain and sickness, than to a cook in preparing
 food to satisfy hunger and to  nourish the body."

   644. This has been ridiculed by many; but  nothing is more certain than
 that neither anatomy nor physiology ever taught us, a priori, what is good
 for either food or  medicine, nor what is or is not poison.  Experience alone
 has taught these lessons.  And both history and observation tell us that many
 very accurate anatomists and physiologists  are miserable practitioners  of
 medicine.   The Doctor continues:

   645. " There is one general  cause  of hunger and  one  general supply of
 food; one  general cause of disease and one  general remedy.  One can  be
 satisfied and the other removed, by an  infinite variety of articles, or a few
 the best adapted to those different purposes.   That medicine, therefore, that
 will remove obstructions, promote perspiration, and restore digestion, is suited
 to every patient, whatever form the disease assumes, and is universally appli-
 cable,  and will relieve acute disorders, such as fevers, cholics, dysentery, <fec,
 in twenty-four or  forty-eight hours at most."  p.  13.

   646. To these doctrines,  except the one cause of disease, I can  most cor-
 dially subscribe.   I have demonstrated them as surely as I ever did a problem
 in Euclid.

   647.  The Doctor, not being a literary critic, calls heat life,  and fever, heat;
 and he shrewdly asks—' Is there in the human frame more than one kind of
 heat?'  'Yes,' says the physician, 'there is the pleuritic heat, the  slow,
nervous heat,  the  putrid heat, the  hectic heat, the yellow heat, the  spotted
or cold  heat,  the typhus  or ignorant heat,  and  many other heats, and, 
182
THOMSONISM,
sometimes (calamitous to tell) one poor patient has the most or the whole of
these heats, and dies at last for the want of heat!"

  648.  " Is fever, heat, or nature, disease ?  Surely not.   What is commonly
called fever, is the effect and not the cause of  disease.  It is the  struggle of
nature to throw off disease."   p.  14.

  649.  This is the true doctrine.  It is the struggle of nature to remove the
causes,  conditions, or effects of  disease.  It is  the "effect," not of disease,
but  of  the vital  efforts to get rid of  disease,  its causes,  or its consequences.
It has but one cause, and that is not "heat," but the vital force.   Its tendency
is one, the ewe of disease; though extraneous causes  may obstruct that ten-
dency,  and direct  its  power to the  prevention  of  the cure,  or even the
production of  injury.

  650.  The duty of the physician is to remove those "extraneous causes,"
and give to fever the opportunity to fulfill its mission and disperse itself again.

  651.  " The cold causes obstruction, and fever arises to throw it off.  This
is universally the case."  p. 14.
  The Doctor was much mistaken here.  Cold is  not the cause of small pox,
nor measles, nor scarlatina nor erysipelas, nor many  other  forms of disease.
In another place  he  said, "all disease is caused by clogging the  stomach;"
[not quite], and in another, "all disease is caused by obstructions."

  652.  Only the  last of these three is true; all disease is caused by obstruc-
tions, of some kind, to the free and universal action of the vital force, through
nerves, blood-vessels, or any other tissues of the system.   Cold, and clogging
of the stomach, are only two means of producing disease; but the agents that
obstruct the vital action, are innumerable.   On the next  page he says, "cold
is the cause of fever."   He means the exciting cause, and  it is one, but not
the  only one.   He  says, "remove  the cause (cold) and the effect (fever)
will  cease."   True: but the cause of  fever is  the vital force; we do not wish
to remove that, nor did he, for he says:

  653. t" No  person ever yet died of a fever, for, as death approaches the
patient  grows  cold,  till, in death the last spark of heat is extinguished.  This
the  learned doctors  cannot  deny, and therefore  they ought, in  justice, to
acknowledge that their whole train of depletive remedies, such as bleeding,
blistering, physicking, starving, with  all  their refrigeratives,  their  opium,
mercury, arsenic, antimony, niter, &c, are so many deadly engines combined
with the disease, against the constitution and life of the patient.  Using them
to cure disease, is like throwing a part of the  fire out of  the house, and put-
ting upon the balance water, snow, and ice, for the purpose of increasing the
fire and heat in a room."

  654.  Instead of  this, "The  great principle  is to  assist  nature, which  is
heat."   [That is, whose visible sign  is heat].

  655. "At the commencement of  fever, by direct  and  proper  application
of suitable medicine, it can be  easily and  speedily removed, and the patient
needs not be confined long.   In  twenty-four or forty-eight hours to the extent,
often short of the final time, the fever may be removed,  or that which is the 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.
183
[exciting] cause of it.  But when the patient is left unassisted, to struggle
with the disease, until his  strength [fever] is exhausted, and, more especially,
when the most unnatural and injurious administrations are made, if a recover}'
is possible it must require a longer time.  These declarations have been often
proved, and can be  again, at the hazard of any forfeiture the faculty may
challenge."   p. 15.

   656. Dr.  T. says: "The balance  of power between heat within and cold
without, or  heat within and heat without, or cold within and cold without,
produces cessation of motion which is death."

   657. And, of course, he bases all his treatment on the doctrine that "the
inward heat should  be kept superior to the outward," and  that the  current
outward, or "determination to the surface," should always be maintained.

   658. This,  he contends, cannot  be  done  by any agent  or  process that
directly destroys fever; hence his whole practice is directed to the aid of  the
"heat" or vital force in passing outward, removing obstructions and pro-
moting healthy action; and he contends that the most favorable time  to "aid
nature" is when nature is making a  strong effort to help herself.

   659. Hence, he says: "when the fever fit is on," give diffusive stimulants
to aid it in  the removal of  obstructions, and,  at  the same time, by relaxing
enemas, cold affusions, warm and  vapor baths,  "open the pores,"  to "let
out the obstructions," &c.

   660. Thus, he was a Chrono-Thermalist of the first water, but just the reverse
of Dr. Dickson, who believed that  the cold stage is the most  favorable for
treament, and  then  gave  poisons to lower  the heat,  instead  of  stimulants to
raise it!  But  Dr. D. did not refuse to  practice or "aid nature" when  she
Avas  tired  and  languid.   He then gave her the  more aid.   Instead of  Dr.
Dickson's deadly opium, prussic acid, quinine and arsenic, he gave cayenne,
ginger, cloves,  the aromatic mints, &c, and thus he cured his patients  "in a
very short time," and lost a smaller  per centage of like cases treated, than, I
believe, any other man that ever practiced medicine; for he  seldom left  one
patient to attend to another till the first was out of danger.

   661. Though he said,  "Disease could be  removed by an infinite variety
of articles," he generally preferred "a few of the  best adapted to the pur-
pose," and  pointed  out about a hundred  others, that any one who chose,
might use instead of them.   He saw that,  in disease, the system required,
1st.  Relaxation; 2d. Stimulation; 3d. Astringency; 4th. An alterative and
tonic effect; 5th. A restorative;  6th. An antiseptic influence; and he  selected
the best articles for these  purposes and arranged them under these numbers,
so that any person could readily refer to them in practice.   The index arti-
cles  of these numbers, selected as the best of  their kind, were,  1st. Lobelia;
2d.  Capsicum;  3d.  Bayberry; 4th. Chelone  Glabra;  5th. A compound  of
peach meats, astringents,  and aromatics, and 6th. A tincture of gum myrrh
and  capsicum;  and he enumerated under each head, other invaluable articles,
in variety of number and  power, sufficient for the  judicious and effective
treatment of every form  of disease  to which the human family are liable.
To aid these, he adopted the use of the invaluable vapor bath, a means more
effectual than any other one in medication. 
184
THOMSONISM,
   662.  He has been laughed and sneered at, despised and abused, for using
so few  remedies: but Professor Harrison  says, in his  materia medica, that
he can  find but six indications in disease, and even these may be  reduced
to four!  Prof. J. R. Coxe, of the  University of Pennsylvania, said that
tew practitioners in America used more than fifty different articles,  and the
best of them  did not use a third of that number.   Lastly,  the Allopathic
faculty  en masse have but three  systematic remedies, the lancet, opium, and
calomel!  All besides these are either subservient to them, or suggested by
a pure empyricism!

   663.  I do not desire to conceal the fact that Dr. Thomson adopted some
crudities, contradictions,  and absurdities,  in theory;  such  as that man is
made of fire, air, earth, and water, the two latter being the solids  and the
two former being the fluids, and the first of them all, life, if the reader will
have it so;  that cold is the cause of all disease, and all disease is caused by
clogging the stomach; that the internal heat of the body must always be kept
above the outward;  that  a fever turns  inward instead  of outward;  that we
must sometimes  stimulate in high fever, and force as well as invite a crisis,
and  put cold water on burned feet and  then a steaming  stove to them, (p.
116).   I say, though he committed some  such errors and mistakes as these,
they were all of  minor importance.

  664.  The great fundamental doctrine that "fever is an effort of nature to
remove disease," (42), kept him almost always right in practice.   (Dr. Wa-
terhouse said,  "Had John Hunter, whom  I well know, been born and  bred
Avhere Samuel Thomson was, he would have been just such a man," letter
to Prof. S. L. Mitchell).   John Hunter did not carry out his principles (42),
because his mind was not " emancipated from the tyranny of the schools."
That doctrine blew, for Dr. T., to the winds the lancet, narcotics, and mercury,
and every other poison in all its forms;  and established,  in his mind, a purely
sanative medication.

  665.  It is a wonderful, a most "astounding" fact,  that such a man  as
Samuel  Thomson should have prescribed a hundred different remedies for
disease, (many of which had never before been used),  and yet among them
all is not a single deadly poison,  nor even a dangerous article!

  666.  The only reason  that can be given why reformers called  Eclectics,
Homeopathists,  Chrono-Thermalists, and  some  Physopathists, have  never
been able to separate poisons from medicines, while Dr. Thomson succeeded
so completely, is, that they adhere to the "fever  disease" doctrine, and he
rejected it.

  667.  I most conscientiously declare  that, no matter  what  my disorder,  I
would rather be treated in strict  accordance with the  directions contained in
Dr. Samuel  Thomson's  little "twenty dollar" "Guide to Health," though
some of them are quite objectionable, than by a council  of  one of the best
practitioners from all the  sects of medicine, who reject the great Thomsonian
doctrine, and follow what is written in their books!

  668.  I do not deny that, to him who is able to  separate the true and good
from the false and mischievous,  the Eclectic, the Homeopathic, the Chrono-
Thermal, and  the Physopathic books contain much  valuable matter that is 
CRITICISED AND CORRECTED.                  185
not in Thomson's work; but they contain also enough that is pernicious, to
more than counterbalance all that value, to him who can not make the proper
separations, but must take the doctrines and the treatment as he finds  them.

   669.  This conviction is the reason why I did not, long ago, review those
works, and recommend them to the readers of the P. M. Recorder, and the
students of the Physio-Medical College of Ohio.

   670.  Once, when very sick of phrenitis, I called a true Thomsonian to cure
me.   He has since "progressed" into Eclecticism, and I would not trust him
now to cure a diarrhea or a common  cold! which any Thomsonian can cure
in a few hours, or days at most, more surely than David Crockett could kill
a buck with his rifle, at a hundred feet! 
THE   PHYSIO-MEDICAL  PRACTICE.
  671.  Lastly.  There is a true science and practice, called  the  "Physio-
Medical," the character of which is indicated  by its title.  Its "leaders"
are not men, but the immutable laws of nature.
  It is the system of principles properly called  physiological,  or those that
govern the formation and preservation of the organized body.

  672.  Its doctrines are, that  the  human body is formed and controlled,
preserved and defended, and, when  injured, restored,  by the action of an
invisible agent called the vital  force; that, when all  its parts  are in such a
condition that this force can act freely and fully through them, this body is
said to be in health.

  673.  That any thing which may in any way interrupt this full,  free, and
universal action through the body, may be a cause of disease; that the states
of the tissues  in which  this action  is permanently interrupted,  is  diseased
itself; that any such interruption is manifested by certain  signs  or symp-
toms, consisting of  1st.  Disturbances of the equilibrium of the action of the
vital force, called  irritation, fever, and inflammation; 2d,  of  a  destruction
of the tissue by chemical action, called gangrene;  3d. of  a combination of
these two, vital and  chemical, called  suppuration; 4th. of certain mechanical
conditions called congestion, cramp,  spasm, &c, and 5th. of the effects that
follow or accompany these  several disturbances, called heat, redness, pain,
swelling, tumors, ulcers, cancers, &c

  674.  It maintains that these manifestations of deviation from the healthy
state, dictate to the  person affected, or the practitioner of medicine, the pro-
priety of avoiding  contact with or  coming under the dominion of, all the
causes that tend to  permanently derange, or long and seriously disturb, the
vital equilibrium.

  675.  And when,  by ignorance,  inadvertency, or unavoidable exposure,
the conditions called disease have occurred, it teaches the duty of aiding the
vital force, in its exciting, irritating, and inflammatory efforts to remove the
obstacles to  healthy action, by means and  processes that do not  further de-
range it, but tend directly to restore  it, and to heal the breach,  if any.

  676. It rejects from  its remedial  means and processes,  every thing in its
nature calculated to do violence to the healthy state, as lancets,  leeches,
cups, blisters;  and  all poisons, narcotic, escharotic, and mechanical.  And
         (186) 
PHYSIO -MEDICALISM—APPROVED.
187
  677.  It uses those articles and those only, which, in their nature, harmonize
with the organic tissue and the vital force;  and, in the measure and mode of
application required in any given case, directly aid that force in restoring its
equilibrium; by judiciously removing or helping it to remove, all the obsta-
cles to its free and universal action.

  678.  It calls  the ability of all the organs of the body to admit or mani-
fest the full and free action of the vital force, Health.

  679.  The inability of any organ to perform  its healthy functions, it de-
nominates  disease.  It teaches that this disease consists, essentially,  in a
fixed contraction of tissue; as cramp, tetanus, stricture;  nervous, muscular,
or capillary erethism or tension: or, in undue and permanent relaxation of the
same tissues, as in syncope, or any great prostration; or, in a composition of
these two, called an irritated or excited condition, as manifested in phrenitis,
mania, fever,  &c, in which the organs are  unable to perform  properly their
offices;  or, in a suspension of responsibility to  the action of the vital force,
as in paralysis, narcosis, &c; or, lastly, in partial lesion, as in the process
called suppuration.  Entire destruction, or  gangrene, is death.

  680.  It regards any thing and every thing that can,  in any way, directly
or  indirectly, by use  or abuse, deprive the organs of the power to respond
fully and freely to the action of the vital force, as causes of disease.
  It regards the vital force as the  only cause of so much of the manifesta-
tions or  symptoms of  disease, as are  properly termed irritation, fever,  and
inflammation.

  681.  It  regards as poison, any thing and everything that is certainly
known, in authorized medicinal doses or degrees, to have directly destroyed
human life, or is, in its nature calculated to deprive the organs of the power
to respond to  the action of the vital force in the production of irritation and
fever; as, antimony, arsenic, mercury, belladonna, cantharides, cicuta, digi-
talis,  opium, &c, <fec, and rejects them in toto from its remedial means.

  682.  It adopts, as remedial means and measures, only those which Allopath-
ists, Homeopathists, Eclectics, Chrono-Thermalists, &c, &c, suppose to pro-
duce but one action, a direct tendency toward, till it finally vanishes in, health.
In  other words, only those whose inherent  tendency, like that  of food, exer-
cise, warmth, electricity, and the influence  of pleasant company, harmonizes
with  the organic and  conservative force of the system, and  like food and
water, may and should be given or applied, in the quantities and modes re-
quired,   till the objects  of their use are  fully accomplished—till perfect
health returns.

  683.  It rejects, as unsuitable and mischievous, any thing and every thing
that can not be  continually administered, with impunity and with benefit, so
long as  the  conditions requiring its use, remain.
  It does not  use opium for irritation,  nor the lancet  for fever and inflam-
mation, nor mercury for defective secretions; because it  must not use these
means till  the irritation, fever, and  inflammation subside,'the  secretions be-
come natural, and the patient healthy and strong.

  684.  The principles of this Physio-Medical (or natural) system of science
were  shadowed  forth  in the B. M.  Recorder, vol. 4th, p. 227;  vol. 9th,  p. 
188
PHTSIO-MEDICALISM—APPROVED.
 346; vol. 17th, p. 130; vol. 18th, p. 108.  They are very well embodied in
 the  platform of the Baltimore Convention of October 1852,  see P. M. Re-
 corder, vol. 18th,  p.  155, and fully developed,  and applied in practice,  in
 "Curtis' Lectures on Medical Science and Practice."

   Platform of Principles adopted by the National Convention, at Baltimore.
   " Whereas, There have arisen in different ages and countries, and of ever}'
 sect in  medicine,  men of noble minds  and benevolent hearts, who  exerted
 all their energies to reform the errors and abuses of what was called  the sci-
 ence and practice of medicine.
   "And whereas,  The men of this description of the Allopathic school, are
 still  compelled  to  pronounce their principles an  "incoherent  assemblage of
 incoherent ideas;" and  their most efficient medication  "horrid, unwarranta-
 ble, murderous quackery;"
   And whereas, Many modern New School Reformers of the same honest
 intentions,  have few fixed principles of practice in which  they can agree,
 and no firm bond of union in effort for the promotion of  medical reform;
   "It evidently appears to be the  first  and most important duty  of this
 convention, to point out the generative  errors of  all the popular systems  of
 the day, and to lay down in clear and  unmistakable terms  the fundamental
principles of true  Medical Science and practice,  as guides to all who may
 desire to attain  to perfection in the knowledge of the Healing  Art, and as a
 common creed,  which all can advocate  and defend, and as a bond of union
 in effort for the promotion of this most glorious cause of science and human-
 ity; therefore,
   "Resolved, By the Reformed Medical  Association of the United  States,
 that medical science, pertaining altogether to natural subjects, must be in
 itself as fixed and definite as any other natural science.
   "Resolved, That the reason why medical men have not learned it, is they
 have attempted to base it upon the violation of physical laws, which are ever
variable, instead of those laws themselves, which are immutable: they have
built  their systems on what they call pathology—or rather they have pro-
nounced that pathology which is only deranged physiology,  and built upon
this error.
   "Resolved, That the Reformers of past times have failed to perfect their
practice, because of the impossibility of doing it while they retain the false
 notion that the  science is based on pathology, or the doctrine that physiolog-
 ical derangements are disease.
   "Resolved, That the fundamental principles of true medical science are
 not pathological but physiological.
   "Resolved,  That  disease is not vital action  deranged or obstructed,
 increased  or diminished, but any condition  of the organs in which they are
 unable to perform their natural functions:  a  condition that permanently de-
 ranges,  obstructs, or diminishes vital action, and in this sense  is a unit.
   "Resolved, That  irritation, fever, inflammation—terms used  to  signify
 increased, deranged, obstructed, or accumulated vital action in the nervous
 or vascular systems—are not disease,  but physiological symptoms of disease;
 and are not to be directly subdued, but always to be aided in their ultimate
 design and intention in removing obstructions and restoring the nervous and
 circulatory equilibrium.
   "Resolved, That suppuration is to be encouraged and promoted whenever
 there is accumulated morbific  matter to be removed;  that gangrene, being 
PHYSIO-MEDIC ALISM--APPROVED.
189
no  part of inflammation,  but a  purely chemical process in  opposition to all
vital action, and occurring  only when vital action has wholly ceased,  the
associating of it with inflammation, and treating the latter as tending to ter-
minate in the former, has been a source of immense mischief in medication.
  "Resolved, That it is the duty of the practitioner to reject in toto every
means and process, which, in its nature and tendency, in authorized medic-
inal quantities, degrees, or modes of application,  has been  known  to have
directly destroyed human life, or permanently injured the tissue, or deranged
the physiological action, and to use those, and those only, which have a direct
tendency to aid the vital organs in the removal of causes of  disease and  the
restoration of health and vigor.
  "Resolved, That the agents of  this character are not confined to the veg-
etable kingdom,  but are  found in every department of nature,  and  to be
' seized upon wherever found.'
  "Resolved, That though we shall exercise charity towards the ignorance
and prejudices of all men, we can  count no  one a true medical reformer who
rejects the doctrines of the foregoing resolutions."
  These resolutions were  thoroughly examined and discussed, in a commit-
tee, consisting  of Professors L.  Bankston  and J.  T. Coxe of  the S.  B.
M.  College at Macon, Ga.; I. M. Comings of  the Metropolitan Medical Col-
lege of New York;  Wm.  F. Smith of Philadelphia;  H.  F. Johnson  of
Mass.; A. Curtis of the P. M.  College of Ohio; Dr. S. L.  Swormstedt of
Maryland, and  Dr. Samuel J. Watson of  Virginia.  Also, separately in the
general  convention,  (P. M.  Recorder, vol.  17), and  adopted with but two
dissenting voices, [Drs. P. John and H. F.  Johnson].
  They have since been adopted, in substance, by the Middle States Medical
Association,  at Philadelphia, (in  which Dr.  John coincided); and by the
Eclectic Medical Society of the Eastern States, held  in New York in  1855.
Individuals professing to be true  Reformers, sometimes erring in practice,
will not destroy the principles.

  685. In Physio-Medical estimation, the indications of disease are:
  1st. To relax constricted tissues so as to favor secretion and depuration.
  2d. To stimulate them, if necessary, to healthy action, to promote secre-
tion and remove offending matter; and, at  the same time, to lubricate drv
surfaces and neutralize morbific  agents.
  3d. To restore and maintain healthy tone or condition.

  686.  The first of these indications,  is fulfilled by water, warm or cold, in
fomentation, tepid,  or vapor baths; or cold wet cloths,  baths, or  affusions,
as required;  aided by anti-spasmodic medicines, such as lobelia, eupatorium,
catnip, asarum,  sage, and the bland and soothing aromatics generally.
  The second indication is fulfilled by heat,  moist or dry, as required;  by
capsicum, ginger, xanthoxylon,  cloves, pennyroyal, or any  innocent, acro-
aromatic or exciting substance suited to the  case.   The lubrication is effected
by  water, mucilages, oils, &c, and the neutralization by alkalies, acids, and
innocent astringents, as bayberry,  and by resins, as myrrh.
  The third indication is effected by gentle, steady,  and  permanent relax-
ants and stimulants, good food, pure air, suitable exercise, cheerful company,
variety of  scenery, &c   As  to the manner in which the various curative
agents and processes are to be applied, the true Physio-Medical science gives
us the following general directions: 
190
PHYSIO-MEDICALISM—APPROVED.
  687. Aid nature.—There are three ways to aid man in the accomplishment
of his objects or wishes:  The first is to remove the obstacles to his efforts; the
second is to supply him with the means best adapted to enable him to effect
his purposes; and  the third is,  to inspire him with a desire to exert all his
own power and means in the right direction.  So of every part, organ and
tissue, of the man.

  688. Remove obstacles.—In all cases of disease, there are, in the diseased
parts, obstacles to  the free and  universal action of the nerves and circulating
vessels, which the vital force is endeavoring to remove.  The whole science
of Physiology consists in the knowledge  of the  character and  uses  of the
organs and powers of the system; that of Pathology,  so far as it is a science,
in the knowledge of  its conditions and wants; and the whole art or practice
of medicine lies in the knowledge of the modes and the means of supplying
those wants.   In some cases  nature wants only one, in others two of the aids
above indicated; in others all.  In  some cases, all can be supplied  by one
means; in others more are wanted.

  689. The clear and  prompt  discernment  of  what is present and what is
wanted, and how to apply it, constitute the  perceptive skill of the physician.

  690. In all cases of disease, or of obstruction to healthy action, the  system
indicates her condition and wants by certain irregular actions of the nervous
or of  the circulating system,  and generally of both.   These deranged actions
are properly called vital signs or symptoms of disease; which are very improp-
erly called, by all  pathists, "diseased morbid actions."  She also sometimes
gives mechanical symptoms, as obstructions to  circulation or nervous  action,
or muscular motion; and sometimes  chemical symptoms, as  suppuration
and gangrene.

  691. The discovery of these symptoms, and  the conditions they indicate,
is called diagnosis, that  of their course and termination  prognosis.   That
which they demand,  as a corrective, is called their indication of  cure.

  692. In all  cases of  disease,  then, the   practitioner  should direct his
attention to all parts of the system, having it in his mind  to  detect any
obstruction to, or irregularity in, the action to the nerves or the blood vessels.
He should attend,
  1 st. To the general irritability, impressibility and tenderness of any part; the
derangement of the senses, or the mental and moral manifestations.  2d. To
the respiratory and the sympathetic.  3d. To the feverish  excitement of the
whole system or  any portion of  it, as manifested  by irregularities  in  the
circulation,  the secretions or  excretions; the  temperature, the color,  the
swelling or flabbiness, the smoothness or corrugation.  4th. To the suppura-
tion or gangrene of any part.  5th. To the character of all these, as modified
by the tissue affected, the velocity of  access, the time of continuance, and
to the specific agents that produced the disease (if discoverable).  6th. To
the state of the  tissues, as contracted, relaxed, irritated, paralyzed, <fec.   7th.
To the demands of  the tissues, that is, what character of means they want
to relieve them from their present ill condition.  8th.  To what are the articles
adapted to  supply those demands; and, 9th.  The  most proper way to apply
them. 
PHYSIO-MEDICALISM—APPROVED.
191
  These are the things present  and the things wanted; the  knowledge and
application  of  which  constitute,  as above  remarked, the  chief  medical
knowledge and skill of the practitioner.

  693.  The Allopathic  School  have  discovered  and used  many of these
modes and means of curing disease; they occasionally use them and do good.
But their erroneous views of vital action require them to subdue it—a work
which nature's means or true medicines and processes will not do.  Hence,
they have devised unnatural means—the lancet and poisons—the use of which
accords with  their pathological science, and  can not  be  rejected till they
acquire correct views of irritation,  inflammation and fever.

  694.  The Reform Schools, seeing the great mischief which the lancet and
some of the most  virulent poisons  produce, have rejected those agents, and
undertaken to cure disease by the use of the milder, and of opposite means,
under the influence of the same  false principles.  These agents, acting, some
for  and others against nature, produce effects which they can neither foretell
nor explain; hence they despise and reject nearly all principles, allopathic and
physio-medical, and practice  a  blind empyricism; sometimes curing, some-
times killing the patient, not knowing, in either case, the  how or why they
do it.   Hence they all tend back to Allopathy; as every sensible  and honest
man will obey the  dictates of what  he believes to be correct principles.

  695.  Simplicity.—The simplicity of the Physio-Medical practice has been
considered an objection to its  universal application and  efficiency.   It is
rather a recommendation.  The beauty and excellence of all science,  consist
in its ability to reduce confusion to order, to extract philosophy from mystery,
and to  bring all  the  operations of art within the comprehension  of the
ordinary mind.  The human body is supported and health sustained, by the
beautiful  operation of  the  digestion,  circulation and deposition, of a few
organized substances, composed chiefly of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen,
phosphorus, sulphur and lime.   All the motions of all the organs are produced
by  the  simple contraction and relaxation of their constituent fibers.

  696.  Disease is  a condition that prevents this full, free and regular action.
Of  course, all that is necessary to cure any case of it, is to remove obstacles
to this action, and excite the organs to their proper motions.   Whatever will
invariably, promptly, powerfully and permanently, relax, contract and stimu-
late, will remove all obstructions to vital action, and cure all forms of disease.
As  stimulation  is  nothing more  than rapidly alternating  relaxation and
contraction, it follows that the two  motions  in different ways and degrees  of
rapidity,  sometimes relaxing, sometimes contracting, with  greater  or less
velocity, are all that is needed.
  Now, if it can be proved that any one article will, by different modes  of
application, produce all these effects, it will follow that  this article will cure
all forms of disease.

  697.  The next step will  be  to prove that this is the best single article for
the  general purposes; and the last,  that different modes of applying this one
article are better than different articles for the different purposes.

  698.  To all questions on these three points,  Allopathists answer: 
192
PHYSIO-MEDICALISM--APPROVED.
   Disease, though  in some mysterious particular which we have not dis-
covered, unless it be fever, <fec, is evidently a unit; and  it would seem as
though a few  good remedies ought to cure it.   Well, gentlemen, wliat are
your remedies?

   699.  AUopathist.—The lancet, opium and calomel.  If these do not cure,
try something else; (the best medicines are virulent poisons), always remem-
bering to confine your experiments to means and processes recommended by
"the Profession!"

   700.  Eclectic.—Well, I—hardly know what.  Podophyllum, saline baths,
opium, irritating plasters, leeches, cups, &c, I guess will do, generally.  But
we "do not limit our resources."   Every thing in nature is a medicine or a
poison, according to quantity and the circumstances of its administration.
Food may be made poison by concentration, and "snake poison a good medi-
cine" by dilution.   We must try the medicine.   Nor are we bound by the
experience or opinions of others, or by any established  creed  or principles.
Medicine is a  progressive science.   What may suit  a case of disease to-day
may not suit one to-morrow.  We must try one medicine after another till
our patient is cured, when we shall know that we were right; or till he dies,
which will prove that he was incurable!  For we have the best of  all the
remedial means of other systems, and much of our own discovery that is far
better!

   701.  Homeopathist.—There are great varieties of symptoms, for each and
each group of which, called disease, there are specific remedies: as Ars., Bel.,
Colch.,  Dig., Eup.,  Gera., Hell., Ignat., Jad., Hal., Sam., Merc, Nux. V., 01
Ric, Plumb., Ran., Sa., Tart. Ant., Ulm., Verat.,   *  *  Zinc.  But these
are not one in a hundred.   I can't enumerate for you; go to Jahr, there you'll
find them, with all the diseases they have cured.  For each case of disease,
you must select the remedy that has cured the greatest number of the symp-
toms present, and change it as these  symptoms are cured and  others arise;
or, as the symptoms are reduced to those for which it is not suitable, remem-
bering that your medicines are  pathogenetic as well as curative, and of course
that, if you don't select the right you do injury.  Remember, too, that, if
you choose the right remedy, the less you give of it the better.  (Hering).

   702.  Chrono-Thermalist.-We\\, there now; disease is simply a derangement
of the electrical or of the thermal equilibrium.   It consists in actions, called
irritation, fever, &c, which come and go by fits, as agues and fevers.  Every
agent in nature has power both to derange and restore this equilibrium.   The
best agents to cure agues  and fevers are  quinine, prussic acid, opium, arsenic,
colchicum, mercury, copper, lead, zinc,  &c;  "everything in nature is  in
some way medicinal to man," "either positive or negative" to the system,  in
both health and disease.   But, the difficulty is to know what  are the rela-
tions of the medicines to the system in any given case of disease.  Who can
tell what will be the action of  any remedy till he tries  it?  We must begin
with a small dose, somewhere between Allopathic and Homeopathic, and "run
sometimes through the whole catalogue," ("feeling the way," for each remedy,
"if not appropriate does harm!") till we come to the right one, which we
will always know  by "the results!"   [Empyricism from beginning to end in
every case of practice]. 
PHYSIO-MEDICALISM—APPROVED.
193
   703.  Hydropathist.—I believe  in  the  simplest form  of  simplicity;  that
disease is a unit, (fever, <&c,) and that one medicinal agent, water, is enough
and the best means to cure it; or rather,-1 choose all the "hygienic agencies,"
air, exercise, diet, &c, with water of different temperatures and  modes of
application, by which  I can produce  relaxation, contraction, excitement and
tonicity, all that is required.   I want nothing else.

   704.  Dr. Thomson.—I taught, before Chrono-Thermalistdid, that derange-
ment of temperature is disease, and before Hydropathist did, that water, in
different temperatures and  modes of application, (vapor bath, &c), would
cure it.  But I found many simple  articles  that would  produce  relaxation,
stimulation and astringency, much quicker, more powerfully and permanently,
and  with less expenditure  of vital  energy to the patient.   A great many
articles will very much assist water to produce these  several effects; and I
use, in  each case, any that are convenient, safe and sufficient.  But, when I
can't relax a man with lobelia and  the  mild  vapor bath, "raise the heat"
with  cayenne  and the hot vapor bath,  lubricate with  mucilages and oils,
neutralize with alkalies and acids, contract  the fiber with tannin and  cold
water, and "tone it up"  with "No. 4, 5, &c,  the patient would do well to
make his will!"  See "Guide to health."

   705.  The Physio-Medicalist.  In the main old Sammy is right.  He only
takes heat,  the manifestation, for life, the cause of  fever, &c, and  cold an
effect, for obstructions, the causes of disease,—mere metonymic figures, quite
excusable in an illiterate philosopher—and  commits a few minor blunders.
His  agents, lobelia, nervine, slippery elm, cayenne, bayberry, gum myrrh,
and the like, with plenty of water, of  a temperature suited to the cases, prop-
erly applied and judiciously selected, as to time, quantity and manner,  with
all the hygienic agencies combined, constitute the true  healing art—the ne
plus ultra of medication.

   706.  We may discover new means of carrying them out, and  new modes
of application, but the principles are  the laws of man's nature, and they can
not "progress."   Let these  be adopted and  consistently  obeyed,  Mid no
longer is there any trouble about the  "secondary action" of the remedies for
disease;  no longer is the physician compelled to guess at the  circumstances
in which his  "remedies may be converted into poisons," nor poisons made
"innocent as breast-milk;" no longer to "lift his club and strike," (21), nor
raise  his gun and fire (27) "at random," thus "multiplying diseases and
increasing their mortality,"  (26).  No longer must he "grope without a clue,
like Homer's cyclops round his cave,"  (22), but "emancipated from the
tyranny of the schools of physic," (6), and guided by the true Physio-Medi-
cal priniciples, he sees, at a glance, the character and conditions of disease,
knows for a certainty  the means and processes by which it may be routed,
and goes to work in a scientific manner, with the same fixedness of principle
and certainty  of success, that he would bring to bear upon the practices of
any other art, derived  from the principles of its appropriate  science.  He
can not, indeed,  expect to  prolong human  life forever, nor  to reconstruct
the organs of the body that may have been fatally marred; nor restore the
functions of organs that are totally deprived  of the power to perform them;
but he  can learn to restore that which is capable of restoration, and he is
blame-worthy if he ever does any thing to hasten dissolution,  or entail upon
his patient any chronic malady. 
194
Pir\'S10-MEI)ICALI>M---Ari'li<i\ Kl).
   The Physio-Medical school commends the use of  heat and moisture, bland
 diffusive stimulants, innocent astringents, of the character that may be taken
 in perfect  health, in all the ways and to the extent ever required in disease,
 without  seriously deranging the physiological state.  Thousands of means
 and many processes are of this character, and may be used almost indifferently;
 but some of the best have been selected, as those that may be relied  upon,
 since, with them alone, disease is treated and cured with as much directness
 and certainty as philosophical and chemical experiments  are performed.
   Indeed,  it can be easily proved that the best philosophers and chemists fail
 more frequently in the performance of their projected experiments, than do
 the well  instructed and  faithful Physio-Medical practitioners  in the cure of
 disease.
   The conditions of their experiments being right, and the operators intelli-
 gent and skillful, both classes of operations are sure to produce the expected
 results.   But sometimes the instruments or agents of both are defective,  and
 then the  results in neither case can succeed. The chemist can do nothing if
 his instruments are imperfect or his agents impure.  So the doctor can not
 cure a far gone consumption with any medicine, nor any disease with spoiled
 medicines.

   707. Thus, some of the differences between the Physio-Medical system  and
 all others, have  been pointed out.  It has been shown that, first,  it counts irri-
 tation, fever and inflammation as so many modes of manifesting an interrup-
 tion of the  free  action of the vital force,—of course  not disease,  but a sanative
 effort.  Secondly, it never seeks to diminish  the power to produce these symp-
 toms, but always  to remove what  prevents an  equilibrium  of vital action,
 whether  that obstacle  be a positive substance, as in retained  secretions or
 excretions; or a mere condition, as  in cramp, tetanus, the contraction of  the
 surface in the incipient stages' of fever,  &c
  But, most of all, this science explains all "the doctrines of fever," in such
 a manner, that they are no  longer "difficult  to study," nor are the results of
 that study  "very unsatisfactory," (35), nor are  "the doctrines  of inflamma-
 tion" at  all "problematical," (36). In the light  of these glorious truths,
 (these foundation  stones of the beautiful temple of true medical science),
 "experience" is no longer "false,"  (19), and "the action of  external agents
 on the body is" no longer "fraught with the highest degree of uncertainty,"
 (20).

  708. The Physio-Medical science and practice is not the gift or invention
 of any man nor  company, nor succession of men.   It is the  eternal  truth
 and good,  science and art of God, and His inestimable and unequaled gift to
 all who will thankfully receive it and properly apply it.
  Different individuals, in all ages and countries, have discovered and pro-
 mulgated more or less of its principles, and means and modes of practice,  for
 which Ave should render to each due honor and gratitude.   And since, among
 them  all, I know of no one who has given us so much that is true and good,
 connected with so little that is false and  bad, as what we find in the little
 •Guide to  Health," so I know of no one who is entitled  to higher  honor or
 deeper and more lasting gratitude  from all the sons and  daughters of afflic-
 tion, than Dr. Samuel Thomson, the farmer doctor of Alsted,  New Hamp-
 shire, who  presented to the world his chief medical discoveries and inventions
•in the ninth year of the  present century. 
PHYSIO-MEDICALISM—APPROVED.
195
  Other men  may more clearly develop these God-given principles, remove
from them errors and crudities that still hang about them, and discover and
devise better ways and means of putting them in force.   But, I repeat, the
doctrines  themselves, the general deductions from them, and  the character
of the means and processes of medication, which constitute the Physio-Medi-
cal  science and practice, are the immutable truths and art devised by the
unchangable God for the benefit of the unchangeable constitution of man, and
can never "progress" nor be supplanted Avhile man shall inhabit this earth,
and disease continue to vex him.

  709.  We are now ready to answer our last questions, What is medical
science?  What is quackery? and where can each be found?
  Science is knowledge; of course, what is not well known to exist can not
be science.   Erroneous theories are not  science.  "Science," says Aber-
crombie,  "is the established relations of things."   But he calls medicine the
"art of conjecturing," (1).  The science of guessing, (1).   Prof. Jackson
says it is  what is "proved by established principles and based  on positive
inductions."   "Demonstrable."   Of  course, Allopathy,  or "a  shapeless
assemblage of incoherent ideas," (4), "hypothesis piled on hypothesis," (5)
"ignorance of disease and of a suitable remedy," (6), "absurdity, contradic-
tion,  and falsehood," (7), can not  be called science, or knoAvledge.   Of
course Allopathy is not science, (4).
  Neither is  that a science which  "knows nothing more of disease than its
symptoms," (457),  which has not learned to "select  the proper article, the
proper dose, nor time of repetition," (473).   Nor is that a science Avhich is
not a matter of fixed principles but only of clinical practice,  (418), which is
based upon no rule "proved  by positive  induction," which "has no par-
ticular principles to  promulgate," (Morrow), which has no test but quantity
by which food and medicines can be distinguished from snake poison, (413).
  Nor is  that  science which can not determine the  "electrical states"  [health
or disease] of the system, (533), or a character of a medicine as good or bad
till  he tries it."
  Nor is  that  science which counts  " fever both  disease and a remedy," or
ranks ginger,  sage and catnip,  with calomel, antimony and arsenic, and  is
compelled tofufill all the indications of disease with one remedy!
  But'that is medical science which is "based on the laws of physiology,"
(684); namely, of the formation, sustenance and defence of the animal frame,
;md on the relations which external agents bear to  that frame and its laws,—
a science proved by demonstrations, and positive inductions from established
principles, (   ).  It teaches that natural  laws and their powers and modes
of action; and material substances and their qualities, are invariably and
always the  same, and that apparent differences of modes  and qualities, are
to be attributed to the circumstances surrounding them.
  That health and disease are  positive states, not variable actions; and that
food, medicines and poisons are such by virtue of their immutable properties,
not the quantities nor circumstances of their use.  This is the Physio-Medi-
cal system.  It is made up of  principles demonstrated and promulgated by
individuals, and embodied and set  forth in the "dogmas of colleges" and the
"platforms of societies," for the benefit of those  who  have not the time nor
the means to discover, demonstrate and arrange for themselves, so that they
may each learn, in a few weeks, what it cost  many others  centuries to dis-
cover, demonstrate and develop. 
196
rHYSIO-MEDIOALISM—APPROVED,
   What is Quackery?   Answer.  It is practice without the guidance of any
therapeutic principle.   (19, 68, 69, 70, 93, 94).
  Where is it to  be found?  Answer.  In the practice on disease  without
a knowledge of its character (19, 22, 26, 27), and with  agents, whose
action is fraught with the highest degree of uncertainty,(20, 59, 60, 76, 94,
105); which  cut two ways, (81, 60, 105, 74); of those who know not the
proper article, dose, nor time for repetition, (473); of those who use agents
of which they do not know the action in any case till they try them, (566),
and yet use them, though they believe  them mischievous when not appro-
priate, (533).  In short, quackery is found wherever men use, to cure disease,
whatever in its nature tends to the destruction of life and health.
  jJST Directly following  this work, will be another by the  same hand,
entitled "Synopsis of Lectures on Physio-Medical Science and Practice," in
which the author has embodied the chief of these glorious principles as he
understands them,  and the  best means and modes of practice which he  has
approved and used, and which he  recommends to the careful study and appli-
cation of all persons, sick or well, young and old, male and female, heads of
families or communities, teachers and  practitioners  of medicine, till they
can find a better in the work of some  one who, more talented and  learned,
more discriminating and industrious, shall more clearly develop the principles
of nature in the healing art, and more perfectly remove from them all that is
erroneous  in doctrine or mischievous or inefficient in practice. 
INDEX   TO  AUTHORS.
Allopathists                        jy0> i
Abercrombie on medicine        1,13, 21
    Experience; symptoms, progress
      and termination of disease       19
    Remedies                        20
Abernethy vs mercury                122
Alembert D' on practice            13, 21
Alley vs mercury                101,128
Armstrong.  Lancet and mercury, the
    two arms of practice               82
Authors, sundry                     331
Bachus on fever                      246
Bartlett on medicine                   18
Bell condemns mercury       99,131,140
Bichat on medicine                    4
Bigelow on "speculation"              24
    Inflammation                     29
    Commends mercury                81
Blackall vs mercury                  123
Brown on medicine                    15
Medical Reformers
Beach.  Reform combines all good
                                   332
                                 332-3
    The irreconcilable difference      334
    Health                         335
    Disease, pain, fever              336
    Practice.  Ignores  Thomsonism,
      quotes true Thomsonians, other
      contradictions                 337
    Character of                    338

Eclecticism                          397
Buchanan J. R.,the "literary" and "sci-
      entific" defender, &c.           397
    Doctrines        399, 400, 403-6, 408
    Medicines made poisons by increase
      of quantity, opium too good to be
      rejected                       408
    Narcotics                       409
    Eight denials                   411
    Medicine and poison the same      413
    Every thing medicinal           416
    No principles           411, 414, 418
    Only blockheads deny  their im-
      portance                  416, 428
    Platform builder       419, 22, 424-7
    "Sacrificed"  the highest profes-
      sional honors, caste, and "person-
      al respectability," joined himself
      to an "illiterate" and "unscien-
      tific" faculty                  429
    That he might finish the platform 430-4
    Compare                        440
     With                   iVo.441,2,3
     "Literary" specimen           441,2
     "American Eclecticism," J. R. B.,
      M. D.                        445

 Allopathists                           1
 Chapman on doctrines                 7
     Diagnosis                       22
     Commends mercury              79
     Condemns it                   142
 Cleveland on mercury               424
 Clymer on distinctions of fever       246
 Clutterbuck on fever                  33
     Blood-letting                    51
 Cooper vs mercury               HO, 11
 Copeland condemns blood-letting       66
 Coxe, J. R., few remedies             662
 Cox, Hiram, vs mercuiy             145

 Allopathists                            ]
 D' Alembert on practice            13, 21
 Dewees on blood-letting               59
 Dispensatory, TJ, S., on mercury       94
 Donaldson on medicine               16
     No cure for fevers                 5
 Drake on Typhoid fever               18
    Mercury                        100
 Dunglison's chart                   316
Eclectics                            397
Dolly's Eclecticism                  435

Homeopathists                        447
Dudgeon  against Hahnemann         448
    Principles'                     473

Chrono-Thermalists                   516
Dickson, discoveriee             516, 517
    Disease, fever                   516
    Type of disease              520-24
    Remedies                       528
    All substances  remedies          529
    Poison same as medicine    529, 537-8
    Action of remedies         530, 531-6
    Disease                        535
    Great law                      539
    Unity of disease              "^ 541
    Fever—disease                  542
    Medicines do and do not act in the
      same manner             544, 552
    Lobelia                        546
    Prussic acid                    547
    Opium                         548
                      (197) 
198
INDEX  TO  AUTHORS.
    Who can tell effect of remedies till
      tried?                         551
    Alcohol                      552-3-5
    Unity of action               556, 557
    Egotism                   541, 560, 4
    Inconsistencies            562-3-4-5
    "Feel your way"                 565
    Practice                         567
    Not given credit for articles    569-70
Dr. D.'s character                  570-1

Allopathists                             1
Eberle on doctrines                     2
    Practice and fever                  37
    Mercury                           97
    Diseases caused by "remedies"   146
    Chart                           316
    Opium                            76
Enquirer, New York Medical, systems
      changeable                       3
Erichsen on inflam. 238, 241, 247, 284, 286
Eve on medicine                       18
Allopathists
Falconer vs mercuiy                  126
Farre vs mercury                      124
Fletcher on inflammation              250
Flint, mercuiy produces scrofula  147 to 151
Forbes,  Dr. John, on Allopathy          18

                                       1
Gallup on opium                      76
    Diseases                        297
Golphin condemns mercury            93
Good, J. M., describes blood-letting     67
    Mercuiy                     115-16
    Condemns it                 116, 141
Graham, Jas., on theories              14
Graham, Thos., curses mere. 117 to 120, 129
Gregory on disease and theories         8
    Fever                  28, 34, 35, 38
Water-Curers	572
Gully on disease	592
Allopathists	1
Hall, M., on blood-letting	50,61
Dangers of	62
Condemns mercury	81
Inflammation	29
Hamilton vs mercury	125, 127
Harrison, J. P., on blood-letting     61, 63
    Opium                  71 to 75, 219
    Mercury—a great blessing     78,143
    Controllable                      94
    Condemns it   81, 95, 96,135-7, 143-4
    On medical reasoning             323
Henderson on practice                 17
Hering on systems                    11
Holmes on inflammation               29
    Commends mercury               81
Hooper, poisons best medicines         48
    Condemns mercury                97
Wo.
 83
 42
 55
664
    Universally prescribed
Hunter on inflammation, sanative
    Blood-letting kills
Hunter's character
Homeopathists                         Ml
Hahnemann's doctrines  450-2, 456-9, 461,
                            465, 470, 471
Similia similibus curantur	471
Cure	487
Health and disease 488, 490	492
Causes of disease	489
Medicines 493	496
Error	495
    Dual action pathogenetic and cura-
      tive                            498
Hahnemann's character                515
Hering on principles              12, 472

Allopathists                             1
Jackson on medicine               9, 618
Johnson on narcotics                   76
Journal, B. M. & S., on poisons         48
Journal, Edinburg M. & S. vs mercury 112
Joy vs mercury                    133-4
Medical Reform		332
Jones, I. G. Fever disease		377 381 to 396
Water-Curers		572
Johnson on perspiration Irritation Disease Health Inflammation, cold water		586 588 592, 610 609 611
Allopathists                             1
Liebig in error                   601, 635
Lobstein on blood-letting, murderous    156
Locke on Toxicology                  314
Louis on medicine                     11

Allopathists                             1
Mackintosh on blood-letting            69
McLellan commends mercuiy       80, 91
    Condemns it                  105-6
Maguardic, blood-letting mischievous 64, 65
Menzel on medicine                    10
Miller commends mercury              84
    Its effects _                        90
    Can't stop its action               130
    Uncontrollable                 138-9
Morehead commends blood-letting       53
    Condemns it                  60, 70

Medical Reformers                     332
Morrow, disciple of Beach, introduces
      him in Cincinnati               339
    Establishes Worthington College   340
    Proposes union with Botanies      341
    Rejects mercury, antimony and ar-
      senic                           345 
INDEX  TO  ADTFTORS.
199
-                                     No.
Morrow, sundry others indefinite       350
     The great rule of S. M. Reform    Mf>l
     The medicine to cure Allopathy   .'MU
     Dif. of means and principles        352
     Nothing to do with Thomsonisni   346,
                                 353, 359
     Principles, from 0. S. Journal     353
     Rejects—what?                 353-5
     What retains                   356-8
     No revolutionist, principles        359
     No new pathological views     359-61
     Non-committalism              360-2
     Severe practice                   364
     Principles                     361-5
     Teaches eveiy thing              365
     Rejects chloroform                366
     Justifies blood-letting             367
     Confusion of ideas about fever and
       disease                     368-72
     "Recipe doctor"                  374
     No fixed principles               375
     His reform tested, and Eclectic poli-
       cy detected                     376
     Morrow aud his  practice          376
     The moving spirit of the E. M. I.  379
     Teaching, treatment of Terry      437
     Commendation of Cox            436
     Beach                           439
     Baldridge and Jones              440

Allopathists                             1

Paine on inflammation and fever        32
     A disease                         41
     A cure                            45
     Therapeutics                      46
     Action of remedies; poisons best
      remedies                        47
     Blood-letting                      52
     "Anchor of nope"                 54
     No difference between fever and in-
      flammation                     558
Pereira commends mercury             81
     Its modus operandi               85-9
     Effects of                 101-4,107
     Condemns mercuiy           113-14
Water-Curers

Priessnitz
    On principles
      572

574, 584-5
      608
Physio-Medicalists                     186
Baltimore platform                    684
Principles                        671-83

Allopathists                             1

Rankin on opium                      77
Robinson, blood-letting, murderous      58
Rush on theories and practices           6
    Diagnosis and practice             26

Medical Reform                       332

Reformer, W. M.                      332
Allopathists                            1
Salmon on blood-letting, villainy       57
Smith, Southwood, on fever            34

 Water-Curers                        572
Shew vs medicines               583, 614
    Disease                 592, 594, 614
    On vapor bath               607, 614
    Inflammation—disease            612
    Science, quackery, where found?   709

                                      I
                                     23
                                  36,39
                                     68
                                     30
                                    314
                                    581
Allopathists
Thacher on medicine
    Fever and inflammation
    Blood-letting
Thomson, John, fever and inflam.
Trail on fever and action of remedies
    Against drugs

Chrono - Thermalists                    516
Turner on health and disease        521-2
    Remedies                      523-4
    Treatment                       525

Water-Curers                        572
Trail vs "drug remedies"             581
    Fever and disease                593
    Not disease                      615
    Nosologies                    394-6
    True doctrine                    595
    In favor of medicines             598
    "Action of"                      598
    On vapor bath, vs "steam doctors"
      use of it                  607, 61G
    "Foggy" ideas, treatment         61C
    Poisonous                        618
Thomsonians
619
Thomson, Dr. Sam'l., the reformer	475, 619
Fever	620-2
Revolution	624
Poison	62G
General medicine	628, 645
On heat	631
Component parts of the body	632
Support of	633-4
Derangement of the system	and
correction	636-7
Food	63?
Medicine always good	639-40
Heat, life	641
One disease	642
Anatomy	64;<
One cause of disease [error]	645
Heat, fever	467
Not disease	648
Cold, cause of disease	651
Of fever	653
Assist nature	654
Fever don't kill, depletion	and
freezing mischievous	653
Fevers cured	655
Heat balanced, death	656
 
200
GENERAL  INDEX.
Thomson, aid fever                 659
    A Chrono-Thermalist            660
    His remedies                   661
    His errors and crudities, contradic-
     tions and absurdities           663
    Great doctrine of fever           664
    Keen discrimination, no poisons    665
    Difference between him and other
     reformers                    666
    Better practitioner               667
    Reformer                      708
Allopathists	1
Watson on inflammation	31
A disease	40
A cure	44
Commends mercury	81,92
Condemns it	108-9,132
Waterhouse on learned quackery	25
Hunter and Thomson	664
Whiting on popular	medicine	Oo. 5
Practice		27
True science		618
Williams, description of fever and		in-
flammation		246
Medical Reformers		332
Worthington College	established	340
Treatment contrasted.		
AUopathist		699
Eclectic		700
Homeopathist		701
Chrono-Thermalist		702
Hydropathist Thomsonian		703 704
Physician Differences		705-6
		707
Source of Physio-Medicalism		708
GENERAL  INDEX.
Absorbents
    Antagonism of
    Balance secernents
    More numerous
Absorption and secretion balanced
Absurd conclusions
Absurdity             3, 7, 556-7, 562-3
Abuse, of a thing           270, 416, 529
    Eclectic, of persons         437, 441
Access of inflammation              248
Action of vital force in inflam.    250, 278
  No.
  169
  173
  170
  171
  172
286-7
Allopathic remedies	20,	315, 544-5
Eclectic remedies	416, 450-512	
Chrono-Thermal	529, 531, 533	
True, of remedies		544-6
Agents		20, 270
Aggravate disease		512, 533
Aids to mercury		3186
Aid Nature 422,	654,	675, 687-8
Alcohol, how acts		552-3
Allopathic reform		325, 331
Allopathy All drugs poisonous "Alone i" did it," Dickson		1,331 581
		560
American Eclecticism		445-6
Practice		332
Anatomy		159
Dr. S. Thomson on		643
Animal heat		274-5
Animation, cause of		272
Animalculae, Jones's	No 382-95
Antimony	3186
Antimony and arsenic rejected	355
Anodynes, the true	212
Anthropology, Buchanan's	428
Apology for Eclecticism	446
Arteries	161-3
Capillaries of	168
Antagonisms of	164
Structure and action of	168
Effect of cold water on capil. Asthma cured Chrono-Thermally	166
	546
Balance of heat and cold, death	656
Secernents and absorbents	170
Baltimore platform Basis of Allopathy, Ir., Fev., Infl.	684
	153
False, never established 5,	155, 185
Believed and taught, (Al.)	3285
Blistering, Eclectic 320,	357, 361
Blood in inflammation 257-9, 261	, 316-17
Blood-letting, approved Condemned	47-54 55-70
Anchor of hope	54
Best remedy 49, 51, 53	
Experiments with Eclectic, approved	68,70
	367
" condemned	353
Murderous 55-6, 68, 70	
No criterion for it	59,68
Sure only for evil	63-4
 
GENERAL INDEX.
201
                                      No.
Blood-letting worse than war           58
Calomel, antimony and ars., rejected    355
Capillaries, and their action  '     166,168
Causes             265-6, 269, 272, 308-9
     Of disease      177, 266, 316, 325, 329,
                            489, 492, 504
Cause of fever              191, 204, 278
     Exciting cause                 231-2
     Of suppuration and gangrene      253
Cause and cure of disease              696
Candid investigation                  427
Cancer described                   308-9
Changes in the blood                  293
     Described by Dr. Morrow          361
Character of remedies          20, 315, 706
Chrono-Thermalism                   516
     A fever disease system   516, 522, 524
     Principles                   516,557
     Remedies                  528,537-8
     Improvement on Allopathy        571
Circulation                           166
     Equilibrium of          174, 226, 292
     Uses of                           226
     Through inflamed parts            296
Counter irritation                     208
Corns described                       215
Confusion  of notions           245, 285-6
Conditions, of tissue in inflam.          250
     Of disease                   673, 696
Congestion described                  256
Conclusions, absurd                   285
     Not strange                       618
Contraction of capillaries              166
Crisis                                262
Criticism, Dr.  Thomson's          647,  653
Cure, Homeopathic               487, 496
     Our plan, a unit                 268
"Cuts both ways" (iodine)            536
Cupping, Eclectic                357, 364
Creed maker (Buchanan)              428
Death, balance of heat and cold        656
Deception, by Buchanan             441-2
Definitions of  inflam.  243, 250, 253, 255-6
Defence of Eclecticism by Buchanan   397
Deniers of  principles, numbskulls     428
     Buchanan is one                 418
Denunciations of dissenters, Al.       154
     Eclectic                    437,441-3
Delirium, what                       264
Depletion,  Allopathic               290-1
Determination of inflammation         249
Diagnosis                          691-2
Difficulties solved                  295-6
Different practices                699-705
Difference between Al. and Ec.       352-3
     Eclecticism and Thoms'ism  352-3, 359
     Allopathy and      "            359
     Homeopathv and Allopathy      504i
     Neither understands it           524c
     Allop. and Chrono-Thermalism    523
Digitalis, aid to lancet and mercuiy    318
Discussion of inflammation            238
Distinctions of fevers, wanting     242, 246
Dissimilarity of medicines             496
                                     No.
Dickson in the fog                    543
Discovery, real, valuable     622, 673, 693
Distinction bet. fever and inflam.     240-2
    Medicine and poison      20, 413, 529
Dissenters, abuse of    154, 437, 441-3, 565
Disease          175, 206, 521, 525-7, 672
    Ignorance of      13, 16,19, 22, 34, 36
    Not fever                   42, 504a
    Opinions of 32-8, 372-3, 336, 471, 488,
          490, 496, 504c, 511, 521, 610, 612,
                                673, 679
    Aggrava. or diminution of action   521
    Causes of     177, 489, 492,  504c, 673
    A unit         336, 246, 266, 673, 679
    To produce                  146, 200
    Locality of                       207
    Conditions of                     673
    Ir., fev., inflammation  372-3, 490, 496
    Artificial and natural             511
    Intermittent             381, 393, 516
Diseases different                     279
    Intermittent                   519-20
    Aggravations of                  512
    Changes of                       535
    Progress of                   19, 566
    Symptoms and names of          673
    Produced by medicines            146
    Indications of                    674
Diseased actions                      690
Doctrines  worthless 2, 7,16, 404, 408, 413,
        418, 420, 422, 424, 430-2, 672-692
    Eclectic                       411-35
    Fundamental                     664
Doses small, often good, explained     505
Done, what Allopathists have          328
    What they have not done          329
    What they should do              330
    What I have done                330a
Drugs all  poisonous                   581
Ducts described                      169
Dual action of remedies               450
Eclecticism, American               445-6
Eclectic principles                 347-51
    Med.  Institute established    341, 420
    Reform combines  every thing use-
      ful                        333, 359
    Differs from Allopathy             334
Effects of  causes of disease          266-7
Egotism, Eclectic                     397
    Dicksonian                  560,564
Electricity causes and cures dis. 526, 530-1
    Makes agents kill or cure          531
Embodiment of Ec. principles 411, 420, 435
Enteritis  _                           304
Equalize circulation                   292
Equilibrium of pressure          166,174
    Derangement of            165-6, 291
Error of errors 156, 165-6, 186,192-9, 222,
                           245, 285, 619
    Of Beach, &c.                    336
    Of Reformers                    156
    Of Hahnemann   454, 474-5, 488, 495,
                            496-501, 504
    Of Dickson                      521 
202                           GENERAL  INDEX.
                                     No.
Error of Thomson                    663
Excitement, vital                   230-1
Exciting causes         204, 239, 265, 269
Excitation—ability—ment      203, 230-1
Exercise induces fever and inflam.  239-40
Eye, inflammation of                  236
Experience false               11,  19, 314
Explanations of difficulties       296, 327
Faculty, what they have done        327-8
    What believed and taught        328c
    Errors of                 192-9, 328b
    What not done                   329
    What should do                  330
Faithful report                       344
Facts false, facts not understood   487, 497
    Explained                     495-9
Fever, ignorance of                  34-8
    Opinions of               30,  41, 152
    A unit                           246
    Basis of Allopathic practice  28, 30, 35
                                  38,41
    Described      153, 176, 197, 229, 336
    Distinctions of                 246-7
    Names of                         234
    Bachus on                        246
    Cause of       235, 266, 278, 382, 680
    Jones on                       380-1
    Disease                30, 32-8, 612c
    No  cure for                    16, TP 5
    Nervous, cause of    191, 204, 235, 382
    How subside                     232
    Confusion respecting         245, 615
    Clymer on                       247
    Morrow on                    369-72
    Periodicity of           384, 516, 521
    Not disease               504a, 612b
    Sanative                   504a, 616
    Does not kill                     653
    Trail on                         615
    Beach on                         336
    True character                    229
    Objections to                     288
    Its  indications                    685
    Remedies for                     550
Feet, inflamed                        298
"Feel your way"                 533, 565
Fog, Dr. Dickson in                   543
Face, inflamed                        299
Food, what?                          321
    Made poison by concentration      413
    And medicines rejected            321
Follies of the faculty               285-7
Force, vital                        159-60
    Fixed                            188
    Available                        189
Freezing patients                      631
Fundamental doctrines of true medical
      science                         664
Gangrene, chemical, death        244, 284
    Cause of                         253
Good of  Homeopathy                  515
Good agents abused                   270
Grade of fever                        278
Granulation                244, 281, 284
                                     No.
"Guide to Health," good               667
Hahnemann                          515
Headache                            213
Health    174, 200, 205, 335, 283, 488, 504c,
                        521, 609, 672, 678
     Beach on                        335
     Dickson on                      521
     Hahnemann on                   488
     Water-Cure                      609
     True                        672, 678
Heat, animal                       274-5
     Life sustaining                   631
     Effects of                        275
     Equilibrium of               634, 641
Heart described                  161, 168
Homeopathy, cannot condemn Allop.   501
     Asks how do medicines cure       504
     Errors of                     444, 448
     Good of                          515
Human body                  159, 632-3
     How sustained            634, 636-7
Identity of fever and disease           526
     Of  cause and cure                526
     Medicines and poisons            526
Ignorance      6,  7, 8 26-7, 384, 403, 418,
                            473, 536, 565
Illustrations of  inflammation       298-311
Importance of water in the blood       261
     Sanative doctrine             247, 252
     Principles                    428,418
Ignorance of disease and remedy   26, 473
     Cause of '                   508 509
     Dickson's,  of  authors  and  sys-
      tems               558-61, 564, 568
     Of cause of periodicity of disease  384
     Cause explained                  509
Impressfons, false                     211
Impudence of Dr. Dickson    565, 568, 570
    Exposed                     568,570
Incapacity to develop principles        42b
Inconsistency, Jones's        395, 565, 616
    Hahnemann's                   448-9
    Dickson's                      565-6
     Trail's                           616
    J. R. Buchanan's         416, 418, 428,
                              430-2, 434
"Ineffectual speculation"         24, 26-33
Inflammation, disease               40-1
     Not disease                    42-^5
     One                        522,246
     Tends to disorganization or cure    552
     Destructive                   40,41
     What  28-32, 36, 41-3, 237-4, 298-304
     True character 229-32, 235-7, 240, 312
     Vital action                  176, 250
     Curative               42, 444-5, 247
     How commences  229, 231, 248-9, 298
     Subsides            232, 238, 244, 283
     Resolution                       238
     Suppuration and granulation       244
     Healing                          283
     Localities of                      191
     Brain                            191
     Eye                             236 
GEJS'ER.U, • INDEX.
203
 Inflammation, feet and hands         298
     Invited                 236, 248, 298
     Forced                          229
     Active                          255
     Passive                         256
     Simple and sanative      42, 252, 611
     Tissues in                       250
     Blood in                        257
     True cause of                   235
     Exciting causes of           204, 239
     Erichsen on                      241
     Bachus and Williams on         246
     Trail on, disease                 612
     Illustrated            236-40, 298 304
 Inability to act  physiologically and
       fully, disease                  175
 Infancy, medicine in          11, 313, 384
 Indications of disease            674, 685
     How and with what fulfilled      686
 Insanity, what                       264
 Institutes of medicine                428
 Inquiries of  Dr. Morrow              359
 Investigation, candid                 427
 Iodine cuts both ways                556
 Irritation                        176,203
     A blessing                   209, 221
 Irritability                           203
     Treatment of                    210
 Irritants, excitants                   204
 Irritation,  inflam. and fever, in cause
     and character identical           176
 Kills if it don't cure 3,13,27,56-7, 60-7, 69-
       71, 74, 76-7, 96,117-21 142, 512, 536
 Labyrinth, practice a                  22
 Lacteals described                   169
 Lancets and leeches rejected           523
     In part rejected              353, 369
 Laudanum and leeching  prescribed by
      Dr. Morrow    353, 357-8, 3616, 364
 Law, great Chrono-Thermal           359
 Leaders of Eclecticism   331, 337, 419, 441
 Learned quackery 25, 418,473, 533, 70, 78-
      84, 95-7, 117,  142,  353, 356-9,  364,
                    376,384, 413, 551, 565
 Liberality of Eclecticism  408, 415-16, 418,
                      421,424,437,441-2
 Ligatures to prevent phrenitis         392
 Literature, specimens of    397, 432-3, 437,
                                   441-2
 Lobelia cures asthma                  456
 Mal-practice,                         287
     Allopathic, see learned quackery
     Eclectic       376, 392, 408, 418, 424
     Homeopathic                     479
     Chrono-Thermal     533,536,551,565
     Water-Cure                  606, 616
     Thomsonian                      663
     General, and  its cause            618
 Manifestations of  vital force        189-90
 Materia medica    20; 332-3; 403, 408,  416;
      493; 523, 528; 529; 581-2, 584;  588;
      629-30, 640, 645, 661;  665; 676,  677,
                             682; 699-706
Medicine, principles of, incoherent ideas  4
                                     No.
     Baseless                           5
     Ineffectual speculation           5, 24
     Rejected               5, 6, 11, 15,18
     Allopathic       1, 4-6, 8,16b, 18, 327
     Beach's                   333-6, 618
     Morrow's                  353,361-5
     Jones's                       381-96
     Buchanan's                  399-430
     Hahnemann's                 472-94
     Dickson's   516-17, 520-4, 528-9, 535,
                               539 541-2
     Water-Cure 589, 591, 592, 597, 608, 617
     Priessnitz's                    583-5
     Shew's       583, 575-7, 594, 607, 612
     Trail's       531, 593-5, 598, 607, 615
     Johnson's            586, 588, 609-11
     Thomson's                   620, 661
     The Physio-Medical 330, 475, 665, 671,
                         -696, 705-6, 708
 Medicines and poisons, same   493-4, 413,
                                     526
 Medicines, see remedies
 Mercuiy,  greatest and best remedy  78-84
     Anti-inflammatory                 81
     Prevents healing 81, 84, 91-2, 318, 424
     How  it cures  81,136, 138-141, 143-5
     Theory of its action             85-9
     Effects        90-106, 132-144, 148-51
     Buchanan and Cleveland on       424
 Membranes, mucous, inflam. of     302-4
 Mean business           436-7, 441-3, 445
 Minor practice                        320
 Murderous quackery  55-6, 68, 70, 76, 142
 Mortification                         284
 Nature, aid her       422, 654, 675, 687-8
 Negatives, eight Eclectic              411
 Nervous system              178-187, 222
     Fluid                           225
     Action                           214
 Nervines,  the true                212, 214
 New views of pathology, none        359
     Truths received                   427
 Non-committalism 342, 360,375,424,403-5,
                                408, 424
 Nosologies condemned   5,15,19, 22, 527
 Objections, Dr. Morrow's           350-3
     To the true theory of infl.  288, 293-4
 Obstructions                  175-6, 668
 Opium                            71-77
     Hoav acts            319, 327, 507, 548
     Used  by Dr. Morrow             356
 One remedy cures all                 561
 Organization, cause of                273
 Pathogenetic and curative not under-
      stood                         508
     Explained                       509
 Pain, what                          216
     To cure                         217
     Wrong notions of            218, 336
     Is a blessing                    221
Periodicity, Jones on               384-5
     Dickson on                      516
    Explained                       393
Perfect system               399, 406, 671 
204
GENERAL INDEX.
                                     No.
Pericarditis and peritonitis            306
Phrenitis, what                       191
    Ligatures to prevent              392
Philosophy, Eclectic 408, 416, 418-19, 424,
                                430, 432
Platform, Baltimore                   684
    Eclectic, rejected            418, 421
    Adopted  403-6, 408-9, 411, 413, 416,
      418, 420-8, 430, 432, 435-6,  440-2,
                                     445
    Homeopathic                  472-3
    Hahnemann's                488-94
    Sanative                    406,432
      Reformers unite on              406
    Chrono-Thermal                  516
Plaster, Morrow's                     364
Poisons                     271, 630, 681
    Wrong notions of                 581
    All drugs                        581
    Excluded                 403-4,406
    Admitted                        409
    Can't dispense with          408, 413
    Every substance poison  413, 416, 507
    Or not poison                     375
Policy, Eclectic               375, 436-45
Practice, reformed                3616-62
    Jones's                      387-92
Practice, general             220, 699-705
    Allopathic                  155,220
    Beach's                          337
    Morrow's                    356,358
    Jones's                      387-92
    Dickson's                 575,565-7
    Buchanan's                       405
Prescription                          568
    Dickson's                     562-6
    Priessnitz's              583, 585, 608
    Water-Cure                  589, 617
    Thomson's       641-2, 645, 655, 667
    Best time for                387, 659
    Adopted                    416, 682
    Rejected                415, 418, 683
Preserve vital force                    422
Principles, not new             358—9, 365
    Of reform, none              414-15
    Importance of                    428
    Distinctive                       435
    Error of Homeopathy              474
Prognosis, what                       691
Promise fulfilled                      313
Procuring cause                       265
Process of inflammation            248—9
Progress of disease                    19
Quackery   25,155, 324, 330, 702-10, 287,
      357-8, 405, 430, 496, 523, 557,  562,
                 565-9, 599, 616, 618, 663
    Learned                    25,55-6
    Murderous       55-6, 68-70, 76, 142
Reasoning, Allopathic                 323
Reform, by Allopathists          325, 331
    S. M. rejects        332, 348, 351, 361
    The means                  352, 359
    Morrow rejects                 350-3
    Buchanan's                   411-29
Reformer, W. M., revived
Reformers, why not pure
    True, reject poisons
    Use medicines
    The greatest
Relief of inflammation
Remedies described
         No.
        363
    666, 694
    676, 683
        677
        708
251, 315, 326
        682
    Action of    20, 47, 315, 326, 450, 470,
                          493-6, 499, 509
    Explained                       327
    Unknown 20, 226-7, 509, 640, 529, 115
    Dual               456, 494, 529, 557
    Different action of         491, 556-7
    Pathogenetic and curative         508
    Rejected, lancets, leeches and cup-
      ping, Dickson                  523
    Food and medicines               321
    Ignorance of                   326-7
    Who can tell till tried    551, 554, 556
    True action  of    337, 414, 548-51, 629
    Aggravate disease                512
    Causes of disease                 316
    Every thing a    416, 453, 529-39, 553
    And poisons the same             529
    Eclectic                     364,366
    Allopathic                      330a
    Chrono-Thermal             523,528
    Contrasted                  490,557
    Quinine best                     563
    General                          628
    Thomsonian            661, 665, 682
"Respectability sacrificed"             428
Resolution of inflammation            238
Revolution in medicine           359, 624
Russelville lecture                    347
Sacrifice of respectability              428
Sanative, irritation, fever, inflam.  247, 252
    Medication          406, 677, 682, 706
Secretions and absorptions             170
Serous membranes                 305-7
Scrofula                              308
    Produced by mercury         148-51
Scarlatina                            302
Scarifying                       357, 364
Science, what C.                      709
    True medical, demonstrable and
      immovable                     618
Sclerotitis, what                      304
Signs of inflammation        241-2, 277-8
Similia similibus curantur an error  457, 461,
                              471, 495-6
Similarity between Homeopathy  and
      Allopathy                  500-2
Simplicity of science                  695
State or condition                185, 205
Slanderous opponents refuted            397
Small doses                           505
Snake poison made good medicine     413
Speculation, medicine a              5, 24
Specimens of Eclectic literature 437, 441-3
State or condition, healthy             205
    Diseased                         206
Suppuration                     244,280
    Causes of                        283 
GENERAL INDEX.
205
Surface in inflammation	No. 300	Uncertainty of Medicine	1-	No. -18, 20-1
Cold and dry	166	Unity of disease Power of cure	246,	336, 526
Warm and active	167			526,541
Symptoms, deceptive Few permanent	19	Poisons and remedies		529
	277	Remedial action explained		556
True	673, 690	Union College		362, 376
Systems, good in all	666	Unsafe remedies		426
Perfect	399, 406, 671	Use and abuse		413, 529
Teachings, Allopathic	328c	Valves of the heart		168
Eclectic	436	Vapor bath, Trail on		607
Temperature, changes of	167	Shew on		614
Test of remedies	327	Veins described		169
S. M. Reformers, or Eclectics 376		Velocity of circulation	;hrough	in-
Of practice, Allopathic, Homeopathic, Chrono-	Eclectic,	flamed parts		296
	Thermal,	Vital force, specific power		159,160
"successful results"	562	Fixed		188
Theory rejected	503	How diffused		225
Adopted 472-	-3, 488-9, 492	Available		185
And Practice, J. & M's	377-92	Manifested		190
In trouble	394	Produces irritation, fever and in-		
Not proved	6,7,8	flammation	191,	204, 272
Allopathic	328-30	Power, preserve Warmth and moisture		422
Thirst, what	262-3			165
Therapeutics, what	46	Water in the blood		258
Tissues, condition of in Infl.	233, 250, 276	Object of		259
Modify inflammation	276	Importance of		261
Thomsonism, the first radical reform 622		Water cure		575, 617
Beach on	337	Basis of		575-6
Morrow on	359	Rejects all medicines		581, 583
Treatment, see practice		Establishments		580-2
" Try it," 376	,551,553,565	No platform		584
Tumors, what	282	By whom adopted		578
Type, unity and identity of Ulcers, tumors, boils	526	Improving	579,582,607	
	282-3, 310	Important part of medical practice 617		
  The above Index may seem formidable to the reader; but, if he will take any line of it and
read all the references in order, he will have a complete view of the subject implied by the
word.   Take, for example, " PoUcy, Eclectic."  If he should not find all he wants under one
head, let him seek it under another of like import, as Platforms, Systems; Doctrines, Princi-
ples; Medicines, Remedies; Eclectics, Reformers; Mean Business,  Policy; Science, System,
Mal-Practice, Quackery, &c.   By this means any one can select a whole Lecture for either
instruction, criticism or defence, and connect the parts together with a very few words of hia
own. Full as the Index is, it does not contain complete references on all the subjects.  For
example, to refer to all the quackery, would be to cite nearly all the practice of the pathological
systems.  Only a few "striking" specimens, (as 18, 27, 70, 74, 76,117-20,142-51), are pointed
out.  The Reader must study  the whole hook, and make himself master of every section
Then he will be able to determine what practice he should choose, and what refuse. 
      BOOKS  BY  A.   CURTIS,  M.  D.,
NO.  87 EAST THIRD STREET, CINCINNATI, OHIO.
  "A Cyclopedia of Medical Doctrines,"  being an Exposition of Allopathy and its
kindred systems  and branches, or "A Fair Examination and Criticism of all the Medical
Systems in vogue," vriz., Allopathy, Scientific Medical Reform, Eclecticism, Homeopathy,
Chrono-Thermalism, Hydropathy, Thomsonism, and the True or Physio-Medical Science
and Practice.  By A. Curtis, A. M., M. D., Professor, for twenty years, of  the Institutes
of Medicine, in the Physio-Medical College of Ohio.
  This is unlike any medical work ever  published.  It is designed to make the reader
acquainted with all the peculiarities of every popular system, and to enable him to select,
from them, with a clear understanding of their character, that  which he will study or
practice or patronize.
  The knowledge of the best means of preventing and curing disease, is, .to eveiy human
being, only second in importance to any other to which he can devote attention; and it is
believed that this will, on the whole, contribute more to the attainment of that knowledge,
than any other work ever published.
  "It is one of the most keen, pointed, vivid and truthful dissections of Medical Systems
that it has ever been our pleasure to read."—Physio-Medical Recorder.
  Price, bound, $1 50c; when sent by mail, post paid.  Address, A. Curtis, M. D., No.
87 East Third Street, Cincinnati, Ohio.

  " Cuktis's Lectures on Obstetrics and the forms of Disease  peculiar to Women and
Children."—More than twelve thousand copies of this very popular work have been sold.
According to its principles and  directions, the Author  has practiced, very extensively,
for twenty-three years, without the loss of a single mother or a healthy child; and with-
out permitting in his practice the occurrence of a single case of phlegmasia dolens (milk
leg), or puerperal fever.  Nor have there occurred but two cases of broken breast; one in a
mercurialized constitution afflicted with ulcers all over the body, and the other that of a
lady who had lost the nipple from a previous abscess.
  This work has  also been  equally useful to very many other practitioners, not only in
its particular sphere, but in the treatment of most other forms  of disease.  A friend in
Alabama, who nad purchased many copies  for his acquaintances, says:  "It is a given
up case, that the instructions in your Obstetrics, enable us to cure summer  complaints,
dysentery, scarlet fever, measles,  chills and fevers, &c, with almost absolute certainty."
450 pages 8vo.  Price, bound, by mail and post paid, $2.

  " The Botanico and the Physio-Medical Recorder."—We have yet some odd volumes
of this valuable periodical, which has done more than any other single agent to break
down Medical Tyranny and Quackery, and to disseminate and establish truth, and a safe
and scientific practice.
   This work is made up of  contributions from the pens of the ablest and best Reformers,
and has the rare merit of having been so guarded throughout by the same Editorial eye,
as to render it a safe guide to the student, and reliance to the practitioner.  All its articles
having been carefully criticised and  their errors corrected, its pages are, and ever must
be, deeply interesting and  instructive.  No where else can be  found so much valuable
medical matter so little contaminated with error.
   Of this work, the  Editor of the Middle States Medical Reformer says:
   " This is the oldest and most faithful advocate  and defender, in the world, of the true
principles of medical reform.  While  too many others  have  swerved and faltered and
dwindled and died, the Recorder has  always remained firm and unyielding in its war-
fare against quackery and error, and its advocacy of sound medical truth.  Through
good report  and evil report, it has out-lived the  malignity and slander of its enemies,
having now reached its tAventieth volume; and promises to do as much service in the good
work as in days gone by."
   Price of past volumes, by mail, bound, 75c; stitched in paper covers, 50c.  416 pages,
double column 8vo.  Price  of current volumes, $1.   Address,  Prof. Wm. H. Cook, No.
89 East Third Street, Cincinnati, Ohio,

   In course of Preparation for the Press.  "A Synopsis of Curtis's Lectures on
Medical Science;" third edition,  (the second having been published in England).  This
work develops the fundamental doctrines of true or Physio-Medical Science and Practice,
and points out ample ways  and means of preventing and curing disease "with hygienic
agencies alone."  Not only a part of,  but all its principles and practices are free from error
and entirely reliable; and its remedies are all purely sanative  (406). It will be out in
the course of this winter.  About 1000 pages, 8vo., price, bound, single copies, $5; when
requested by mail, post paid.  Address, A. Curtis, M. D., Cincinnati, Ohio.
           (206) 
THE  PHYSIO-MEDICAL  COLLEGE.
  This Institution, the first of the kind in the world, was Founded, Feb. 3rd, 1836, Char-
tered  by the Legislature of Ohio, March 6th, 1839, and  established, perpetually, in
Cincinnati, by act  of March, 1840.  It steadily acquired facilities for Instruction,  and
prospered in patronage and usefulness, under the superintendence of its founder, aided
by his able and faithful co-laborers, Professors Samuel Curtis, Hardy Wallace Hill, James
Courtney, and others, till the year 1849, when, with eighty-seven students in attendance,
its management was resigned to the care of the whole Faculty.
  The session of 1849-50 was prosperous,  but not equal to that of 1848-9.  In the Spring
of 1851, it was resolved to remove the Institution from its location, whereupon Dr. Curtis
resigned his Professorship.   New Professors and new doctrines were introduced, and the
result was, that bad counsels and teaching killed  the new movement the first session,
(Spring of 1851.)   Not willing that the Institution he had spent so much time, strength
and money to rear, and which had done  so much  good, should become extinct, Dr. C.
called to his aid other able men, and revived it in the Fall of 1851. It was now compelled
to encounter a new opposition, that of some of its old friends, turned enemies by unholy
and disappointed ambition, and that of a scheme of the Eclectics, whose " Policy" was
to ruin all other reform schools by reducing the prices of tuition so low that few could be
sustained.   But the Old College stood firm on its first ground of correct principles and
a pure, sanative practice, rising gradually above all opposition and depressing circum-
stances, till now she is again supplied with an able Faculty as well as every necessary
convenience for instruction and illustration; and offers to students facilities for the attain-
ment  of true medical knowledge and skill not surpassed by those  of any other in the
world.
  By the liberality of its friends there have been founded some hundreds of scholarships,
which will both give permanency to the Institution and  provide  the  means of Free
Instruction to as many talented but indigent Ladies and Gentlemen who could not other-
wise obtain it, and who, when thus educated, generally become the most useful members
of society.
  This Institution  has been in successful operation for twenty years.  It was chartered by
a special Act of the State Legislature, and enjoys all the rights, privileges  and powers
belonging to a University.
  The principles taught are the great Laws of God, as observed in nature; and its prac-
tices,  based upon extended and accurate observation of facts, prove them to be as positive
and demonstrable as those of any other natural  Science.   Its leading doctrines are:
  1st. That disease consists in an inability of the organs to properly perform their natural
functions, and hence is a unit.
  2nd. That irritation, fever and inflammation are not diseases, but physiological and
sanative efforts of the system.
  3rd. That no agent should be used in medication that does not act in harmony with the
natural  functions;  all articles that, in authorized medicinal doses, have been known to
destroy  life, being  discarded.

  Apparatus.—The friends  of the College have liberally  supplied it with means for
illustrating the several branches  of instruction.   Skeletons, Manikins, Models, Plates,
and wet and dry Preparations, are among the facilities in the Anatomical and Surgical
Departments, and  enable the respective Professors to teach these subjects in the most
familiar and instructive manner. A very extensive collection of dried plants, a  large
assortment of Anatomical Plates, and of natural Preparations  to be used with the solar
Lantern and Microscope; and a Museum of the commercial articles of the Materia Medica,
aid the  lecturer upon these  subjects.  Electrical,  Chemical,  Philosophical, and  other
appropriate scientific Apparatus, belongs to the Institution,  and is used as required.  A
large  and very choice Library is also open to the reference of students.

  Hospital and Clinic.—The Commercial  Hospital is now open to our students, offering
them  all its privileges on the same conditions as to students of the Allopathic schools.  A
Clinic is also held in the  College Hall  every Saturday,  and  presents an  extensive
variety of affections, operations and prescriptions, to the class.   These facilities serve to
render the student  familiar with disease, and prepare him for the practical duties of the
bed-side.
                                                             (207) 
 208                   THE PHYSIO-MEDICAL COLLEGE.

  Females are admitted to all the privileges of the Institution, which was the first  in
 the world to advocate the Medical education of Woman.  Ladies attend every session,
 and several have graduated with marked credit.

  In the ability and experience of Professors, the value and truthfulness, thoroughness
 and clearness of instruction, extent and quality of apparatus, variety and value of clinical
 advantages, and in liberality of sentiment, on all doubtful questions, this school does not
 acknowledge any superior among the Reformatory Institutions of America.  Though the
practical ability of the graduates who have, for twenty years, gone forth from its Halls,
bears the most convincing evidence of the extent of the education here  imparted, it  is
intended that, with the multiplied facilities now possessed, the classes of the future shall
be still better qualified than those of the past.

  The Annual Winter Term of Lectures in the Physio-Medical College of Ohio, com-
mences on the second Monday of each October,  at the College Hall, Cincinnati, and
 continues sixteen weeks.

  Circulars and further information can be obtained by addressing the Dean, at whose
office all students should apply on their arrival in the City, without giving credit to the
report that the  Physio-Medical College has discontinued its operations, a report which  is
constantly circulatedby opposing schools.
                                                     WM. H. COOK, M. D.,
                                                            Dean of the Faculty,
  Cincinnati, Oct., 1855.                          89 Third Street, East of Broadway.
  I am pleased to inform my readers that there has just now been published, at this office,
"A Valuable Essay on Acute Dysentery, its Nature and Management;"  and "An
Article on the Symptoms and Treatment of Cholera."  By Prof. Wm. H. Cook, M. D.  Price
30 cte."
  Address, Wm. H. Cook, M. D., Cincinnati, Ohio.—A. Curtis. 
 
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