r3 *r*Tfi IX* .»H jij'v|fj|[ffiU^^ 59941973 THE HOMOEOPATHIC THEORY AND PRACTICE OF M E D I G-I-.K-X BY .:\: . , v! -I—i/^r- ct jp-^! rif\i rn w'O! iUl.UI \ v./it jL/i;- .ley I4H-* E. E. MARCY, ..MD, AND F/W. HUNT, M.D. YOLUME I. NEW-YORK: WILLIAM RADDE, 550 PEARL-STREET. Philadelphia: F. E. Boertcke, 635 Arch-st—Boston: Otis Clapp.—St. Louis: H. C G. Ltjyties.—Chicago: C S. Halset.—Cincinnati: Smith & Worth- ington.— Cleveland: John B. Hall, M.D.—Detroit: E. A. Lodge, M.D.— Pittsburg, Pa.: J. G. Backofen & SoN.—Manciiester, Eng.: H. Turner & Co., 41 Piccadilly and 15 Market-st.—London, Eng.: H. Turner & Co., 77 Fleet- street. 18 6 5. J" t-V'vn. W6K M32? -k \8C5 Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1864, by WILLIAM RADDE, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New-York. HENRY LUDWIS, Printer and Stereotyper, 39 Centre-street. PREFACE. The authors present this work to the profession with a hope that it may afford some aid to the medical man in the midst of his arduous and, sometimes, perplexing prac- tical duties, as well as to the neophite who has just en- tered the portals of the temple of medicine. While we have endeavored to present the results of our personal experience respecting the causes, nature, and treatment of diseases, we have not failed to collate, con- dense, and illustrate the discoveries and opinions of other physicians touching medicine and the collateral sciences. We have freely quoted from the writings of other reput- able physicians, with a view of presenting to the pro- fession all the varieties and shades of opinion in the homoeopathic school. These views have been arranged and introduced in proper order under the various topics dis- cussed; and it is proper in this place to remark that many of these opinions do not accord with our own. But as we are advocates of the largest liberty in all that pertains to medical thought and medical progress, we have deemed it expedient to furnish as complete a tab- leaux of the field of homoeopathic literature as possible. v VI PREFACE. Our object throughout has been to present to the medical profession and the friends of homoeopathy a com- prehensive and intelligible view of the principles and practice of our school, as it is now, represented by our best writers and practitioners; to embody, as far as our wide range of subjects permitted, the latest opinions and theories of investigators of every school on pathology and collateral sciences connected with medicine; and to give to all inquirers after advanced scientific truth the oppor- tunity to investigate our principles, and to see them tested by facts, as illustrated in the clinical experience of a large number of reliable observers. From all accumulated ma- terials we have aimed to sift the true from the false, and to condense within as small a compass as possible, all reliable facts bearing upon the subjects discussed. Medical science is yet in its infancy. Our knowledge of the functions of the intricate organs of the human body, of the causes and nature of diseases, and of the effects of medicines, in health and disease, is still limited although progressive. If we have added a mite to the general advancement, and have contributed something to the general sum of medical knowledge, we are content. CONTENTS OF YOLUME I. Page HISTORY OF MEDICINE, ... 33 Egyptians,.............. 37 Greeks,................ 37 iEsculapius,............. 37 Temples,............... 37 Hippocrates,............ 39 Plato,................. 40 Aristotle,............... 40 Successors of Hippocrates,. . 43 Alexandrian School,...... 41 Study of Anatomy,....... 42 Empirical School,........ 42 Medicine at Rome,....... 42 Asclepiades,............ 42 Celeus,................. 43 Druids,................ 43 Roman Improvement, Her- culanseum and Pompeii, . 44 Aretaeus,............... 44 Galen,................. 45 Arabians,............... 47 Libraries,............... 47 Rhazes,................ 47 Turks,................. 47 Avicenna,............... 47 Paqh Paracelsus,............. 47 Servetus,............... 48 Harvey—Circulation of the Blood,............... 48 Regular Medicine 200 years ago,................. 49 Ambrose Pare,.......... 49 Sydenham,............. 50 Boerhaave,............. 51 Hoffmann,.............. 51 Cullen,................ 52 Hahnemann,............ 52 Discovery of the Principle of Homoeopathy,......... 54 The Great Law of Cure,. .. 55 Insanity,............... 56 Hahnemann's Works,..... 57 His Treatment of Cholera,. . 58 Hahnemann's Death and Char- acter, .............. 59, 60 His Theory of Medicine,... 60 Medical Revolutions of the Present Century,....... 62 Pinel, Broussais,......... 63 Louis,................. 64 GENERAL PRINCIPLES Present Position of Allopathic Medicine,................. 65 Medical Scepticism,........... 66 Nervous Fluid. Dynamic Influence, 67 Mental Impressions affecting the Body,................... 71 Material and Natural Stimuli ... 73 vii OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. Health. Perversions of Health. Nature of Disease,.......... 75 Hygiene,................... 75 Therapeutics,................ 75 Specific Effects of Poisons and Remedies,................ 79 Irritability,................. 82 viii CONTENTS. Paqb Medicinal Action,............ 82 Poisons,.................... 83 Allopathy,.................. 86 Inconsistent Reasonings,....... 88 Objections to Allopathic Practice, 91 Mercury,................... 95 Opium,.................... 96 Tartar-emetic,............... 98 Cinchona,.................. 99 Homoeopathy,............... 105 Brief Exposition of the Homoeo- pathic System,............. 106 Modus Operandi of Remedies, .. 110 Tabular View of the Actions of Remedies,................ 110 Classification of Medicines, .... Ill Primary and Secondary Action of Drugs,.................. 112 Susceptibilities of the Organs in- creased by Disease,......... 116 Apparent Exceptions,......... 121 Natural Irritability,...... 117, 137 Allopathic Admissions,.... 118, 321 Small Doses act on a Diseased Organism,................ 120 Reasons for using Attenuated Me- dicines, .................. 121 Hahnemann's Experience,...... 122 His Preparation of Attenuations,. 122 Small Doses have Remedial Power,................... 123 Imponderables admitted by all to be Potent Agents,.......... 123 Minuteness of Miasms,......... 125 New Powers Developed,....... 127 Some Remedies Absorbed,...... 130 Weight and Dimensions of some powerful Agents Inappreciable, 132, 134 A perfect Theory of Cure not yet attainable,................ I34 Summary of Points of Difference between the Old and New Schools,.................. I35 Objection to Small Doses answered, 137 Direct Action instead of Counter- Pagb Irritation applied to Healthy Organs,.................. 136 Divisibility of Matter,......... 139 The Chemical Theory answered,. 140 Homoeopathic Mode of Restoring Deficiencies in the Constituents of the Blood,............. 140 Attenuations of Drugs,.......142 Considerations which Influence the Choice of Attenuations,. . . 142 Example,......■............. 146 Size of the Dose,......... 137, 147 Medicinal Interference,........ 149 Impurities of. Substances Em- ployed in Preparing Medicines, 150 Adjuvantia,................. 151 Selection of the Proper Re- medy, ............... 152, 419 " What is the Like that Cures ?". 152 Advantages of Minute Division,.. 154 Repetition of Doses,........... 154 Medicinal Aggravation,........ 155 Selection of the Second Remedy,. 156 Alternation of Remedies,....... 156 Medicines Operating on Different Spheres,.............. 158,418 Cures by a Single Remedy,. 157, 161 Changing the Remedy,........ 15 9 Antidotes,..............149, 159 Hahnemann on Antidotes,. . 160, 161 Mode of Administering Remedies, 162 Hahnemann's Practice,........ 162 Homoeopathic Notation,....... 163 Mode of Preparing Medicines,... 163 Proving of Drugs. Improvement of the Materia Medica,...... 164 Semeiology—Symptoms of Disease, 165 General Diagnosis,............ igg Figure and Attitude,.......... jqq Fashionable Dress,........... igg Physical Education,........... j^q Symptoms of the Tongue,...... 171 Nervous System,............. ^2 Alimentary Canal,.......... iy2 External Signs.............." jfg Importance of Correct Diagnosis, 175 CONTENTS. IX Page Temperature of the body,....... 175 Pathology,.................. 177 Alteration of Solids,........... 177 Of Fluids,................ 180 Congestion,................. 180 Hypertrophy,................ 177 Atrophy,................... 177 Induration,................. 178 Transformation of Tissue,...... 179 Observations on the Causes of Diseases,................. 182 Determining Causes,...... 182 Predisposing,............ 182 Exciting Causes.......... 182 Heat and Cold,........183 High Degrees of Heat,... 183 Effects of Cold,........ 184 Vicissitudes, .......... 184 Power of Resisting Cold,. 185 Influence of the Seasons,. 185 Impurity of Air,....... 185 Contagion, 186, 539, 542/558 Hereditary Tendency,... 186 Respiration,........... 187 Fatigue,.............. 187 Debility a Cause of In- flammation, ......... 188 A cause of Fever, .. 188 Animal Heat,......... 188 Effect of Stimulating Food, 189 Effects of Cold Climates,. 190 Intense Cold,...... 190 Increase of Animal Food Required,........... 191 Condition of the Capillaries in Inflammation,. 191, 195 Functions first Deranged by the Causes of Dis- ease, .............. 192 Power of Resisting Disease,.. 193 Primary Cause of Inflam- mation, .............. 194 Inflammation Perverted Nu- trition,............... 196 Hyperaemia induced by Ar- tificial Means......... 196 Page Inflammation from Morbid Matters,.............. 196 Artificial Excitement of In- flammation, ........... 196 Different Effects of Cold on different Persons,....... 196 Influence of Dress,........ 197 Radiating Power of Flan- nel, ............... 197 Fitness of Clothing for Washing,........... 198 Influence of Color,...... 198 Limit of the Human Con- stitution to Resist Dis- ease, .............. 199 Influence of Different Periods of Life,.............. 199 Infancy,............ 199 Infantile Diseases,.... 200 Teething,........... 201 Weaning, .r......... 201 Childhood,.......... 202 Youth,............. 203 Adolescence,........ 203 Old Age,....... 217, 702 Periodicity in the Actions of the Animal Economy,... 204 Different Periods of the Day,.............204 Influence of Night, 205, 207 Morning,........... 206 Evening,........... 206 Comparative Mortality of the Present with Former Times,............... 208 Muscular Strength,........ 208 Digestibility of Food, . . . 209 Influence of Cookery,. 209 Physiological and Chemical Classification of Nutritive Substances,........... 210 ARRANGEMENT AND CLAS- SIFICATION OF DISEASES, 211 Acute,............. 211 Chronic,........... 211 X CONTENTS. Page Sporadic,........•.. 211 Epidemics,.......... 211 Number of Diseases,...... 211 Object of Naming and Clas- sifying Diseases,........ 212 Grand Divisions or Classes of Dis- eases, .................... 212 CLASS I.—DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE FUNCTION, 213 Outline of the Process of Di- gestion, ................ 213 Taking of Food,....... 213 Mastication,........... 213 The Saliva,............ 214 The Sense of Taste,....... 214 " Quintessences,"....... 215 Deglutition,........... 215 Chymification,......... 215 Process of Digestion,...... 215 Case of St. Martin—Beau- mont's Experiments,.. 215 The Gastric Fluid,____ 216, 281 Its Mode of Operation,.. 217 Phenomena of the Process of Chymification,......... 218 Changes Effected by Diges- tion, ................ 219 Living Bodies not Digestible, 219 Pancreatic Juice,........ 220 Bile, &c,............. 220 Absorption of Nutritious Mat- ters for the Supply of the Body,............... 221 The Lacteals,....... 221 Th e Blood — Physiological Properties,............ 222 Sanguification,....... 222 Lymph,............ 222 Composition of the Blood,........... 223 Nutrition,.......... 224 Disintegration,....... 224 Nitrogen in Food,____ 225 Quantity of Food Ne- cessary, .......... 225 t Page Order 1.—Diseases Affecting the Alimentary Canal, ... 226 Genus I.—Affecting the Teeth and Gums,................... 226 1. Dentition. Teething,... 226 Process of Dentition,. . 227 Symptoms,......... 227 Treatment,.......... 228 Cham., Merc, Puis., Ipec., Aeon., Bell., Calcar.-carb., Coffea, Hyoscyamus,...... 228 Canabis-Ind., Igna.,. . . 229 Wisdom Teeth,...... 229 Lancing the Gums,.. . 230 2. Toothache.—Odontia Do- loroso,............. 230 Gangrene, Causes.—Caries, Inflammation,....... 230 Hot Drinks,....... 231, 232 Prevention of Caries,____ 232 Treatment,........... 232 Derangements of Digestion, 233 Injuries, Mercury, 233, 234 Bell,.............. 234 Cham., Staphys, Sul., Puis., Hyos., Aeon.,. 235 Local Remedies, Creo- sote, Arsenic, Argent- ni^->............ 236 Minor Operations on Teeth,........... 237 Haemorrhage,........ 237 Local Anaesthetics,.... 238 Chloroform,....... 238 Galvanism,....... 238 3. Tooth-edge.—Odontia Stu- P°ris>.............. 239 Treatment,........239 4. Tartar.—Odontia Incrus- tans>.............. 239 Treatment,........... 240 5. Affections of the Gums.— Gum-Boils,......... 240 Treatment,....... 241 CONTENTS XI Page Genua IL—Diseases of the Maxil- lary Bones,................ 241 1. Abscess of the Antrum Max- illare,................ 241 Symptoms,......... 241 Purulent Secretion of the Antrum,....... 242 Treatment,......... 243 2. Fungous Tumor of the Antrum,............. 243 Treatment. Extirpation, 244 3. Affections of the Lower Jaw, 244 Anatomy,............ 245 4. Inflammation,........... 246 5. Luxations,...........'... 246 6. Fractures,.............. 246 7. Caries,................. 247 Genus III.—Ptyalism,.......... 248 1. Acute,................ 248 2. From Mercury,..........248 3. Chronic Ptyalism,........ 248 , Mercur.-Corrosivus,...... 248 Tartar-Emet.,.......... 249 Nitric-Acid, Iodide of Po- tassium, Nitro-Mur.-Acid, 249 4. Morbid Saliva.—Alumina,.. 249 5. Foetid Odor of the Mouth,. 249 6. Salivary Fistula,......... 250 7. Salivary Concretions,..... 250 General Remedies for Af- fections of the Mouth,. .. 250 Mercurius,.......... 250 Laches.,............ 251 Aeon., Nux-Vom., Sul., 251 Remedies for Affections of the Fauces,........... 252 Genus IV.—Dysphagia.—Difficult Deglutition,.......•........ 252 1. From Mechanical Injury, . . 252 Foreign Bodies in the Throat,.............. 252 2. From Nervous Irritation,. . 253 3. Dysphagia from Spasmodic Constriction of the Pha- rynx, ................ 254 Paob General Remedies for Dys- phagia, .............. 254 Morbid Thirst,.......... 255 1. Excessive Thirst,____ 255 2. Loss of Thirst, ...... 256 Genus V'.—Derangements of Di- gestion—Limosis, ........... 256 1. Anorexia.—Want of Appe- tite, .................. 268 2. Bulimia.—Fames Canina— Morbid Appetite,....... 256 Causes,............. 258 Pathology,.......... 257 Treatment,.......... 258 Cases,.............. 258 3. Abstinence.—........... 258 I. As a Remedy in Disease, 258 II. Effects of Protracted Ab- stinence. Examples, 259, 261 Symptoms,.......... 260 Treatment,.......... 262 III. Inanition as a cause of Dis- ease, ............... 263 IV. Appetite, Vitiated or De- praved, ............. 264 Cases,............. 265 V. Cardialgia.—Heart-Burn, . 266 VI. Flatulency,....... 266, 299 Catarrh of the Stomach, 865 Treatment,........... 267 Ipec, Puis.,.......... 267 China, Cham., Carb.-Veg., Coloo, Carminatives,. . 267 VII. Pyrosis, Water Brash,. . . 267 Treatment,........... 268 VIII. Gastrodynia.—See Index. IX. Nausea and Vomiting. Sickness at the Stomach, 268 Emesis. Pathology. Phe- nomena of Vomiting,. .. 268 Treatment,........... 270 Puis., Cham., Coccul., Secale, Antim-Crud., Arsen., Camphor, Ipec, 270 Cases,.............. 270 xii CONTENTS. Page X. Vomiting of Blood. Hae- matemesis............. 413 XL Dyspepsia,............ 271 1. From Deficient Secretion of the Gastric Juice, with Inordinate Sensi- bility of the Nerves of the Stomach,........ 271 Diagnosis,.......... 272 Combination of Gastric and Hepatic Disorder, 272 Appetite, 272. Liver, 273 Tongue, 273. Skin, 274 Loss of Strength,..... 274 Pulse,............. 274 Effects of Slow Digestion, 275 On the Mind, 275,278,282 Imperfect Nutrition, 276 Distinction between Func- tional Dyspepsia and Malignant Structural Disease,............. 276 Nerves employed in Di- gestion, ............ 278 Causes of Deficient Gastric Secretion,........... 279 " Wear and Tear," Malady,........ 279 Exciting Causes,... 280 Effects of Eating too much,......... 281 Effects of Mental Emotions,...... 282 2. Fermentation of the Contents of the Sto- mach from Deficient Secretion of Gastric Juice,............ 282 Causes, Treatment. Diet, 284 Quantity of Food,.... 284 Hunger,............ 2S5 Irritation from Taking Food in a State of Fever,........... 285 Purity of Food Indis- pensable to Invalids, 286 Page Poisonous Properties of Fermented or otherwise Deteriorated Food, 286, 312 Cryptogamic Fungi Devel- oped in Fermentation,. 286 Butter when Strong con- tains Infusorial Animal- cule, .............. 286 Cheese, Flour, Tainted Food,............. 287 Exercise,............. 288 Medical Treatment, .... 289 Nux-vom.,.......... 289 Sulphur,........... 291 Pulsatilla,.......... 291 Bryonia,........... 292 Lycopodium,........ 292 Graphites,.......... 292 Lobelia-inflata,...... 293 Calcarea-carb.,....... 294 Hepar-sulph.,........ 294 Ignatia,............ 294 Cedron, Case,....... 295 Aperients, Use and A- buse of,.......... 295 Treatment of Fermentation of the Contents of the Stomach,............296 Bad Teeth,........ 296 Water, Remedial Pow- ers of, .......... 297 Effect of Drinking too Httle,........... 298 Effect of Drinking large Quantities,........ 298 Medical Treatment,..... 299 Sanguinaria-canadensis, 299 Phosphorus,........ 299 See also pages 266 and 865 Pepsine,............. 300 Ipecao,............ 300 Nux-vom.,.......... gQQ Muriatic-acid, .;..... 3qi Alcohol as a Remedy and as a Nutritious Substance,........ 30J CONTENTS. xiii Page Relative Advantages of Different Forms of Alcoholic Drinks, .. 302 Wines, Brandy,...... 302 3. Fermentation of the Contents of the Stomach, with De- velopment of Sarcinse, ... 303 Diagnosis,............ 303 Causes,.............. 304 Pathology,............ 304 Treatment,........... 305 Natrum-mur.,....... 305 Bi-Sulphite of Soda,. .. 306 Sulphurous-acid,..... 306 4. Sympathetic Affections of the Stomach,.............. 307 Sympathetic Disorder from Organic Disease of other Organs,............ 307 Sympathetic Vomiting in Phthisis,........... 307 Disorder of the Stomach from the Effects of Gail- Stones, see page ..... 407 ---- From Abscess of the Liver,......... 407 ---- From Passage of Re- nal Calculus,.... 308 Gastric Disorder from Dis- ease of the Brain, .... 308 Gastric Disorder from Or- ganic Disease of the Uterus,............ 308 Nausea and Vomiting in Nervous Females, .... 308 Sympathetic Affections of the Stomach in Young Children,........... 309 Atrophia Ablactatorum, Marasmus from Weaning 310 Hydrocephaloid Disease of Infants,............ 310 Pathology,............ 310 Treatment, '........... 310 Genus VI.—Colica.—Colic,...... 311 Bilious Derangement ..... 311 Pag a 1. Cibaria—surfeit,......... 311 Causes,.............. 312 2. Flatulent Colic,.........(313 Nervous Colic,.......... 313 3. Bilious Colic,........... 314 Causes,.............. 315 Endemic Colic of the West Indies, .............. 315 4. Colica Pictonum, Colic from Lead Poisoning,....... 316 Treatment,............. 317 Auxiliary Measures, .... 317 Colocynth,.......... 318 Plumbum,.......... 318 Cases,........... 319 Nux-vomica,........ 319 Arsen., Cham., Veratr., Pulsat., Coccul.,____ 320 Colch., Phos., Cupr.,— Cases,........... 320 Confirmations of the Ho- moeopathic Principle by Allopathic Authors,..... 321 Jalap, Anise, Senna, .. 32£ Alum,............. 322 5. Colic in Children,^....... 322 Treatment,........... 322 Cham., Nux, Merc,... 323 6. Ileus. Iliac Passion,..... 340 Obstruction of the Bowels, 334 Intestinal Obstipation,. . . 340 7. Gastrodynia. See Neuralgia Cceliaca,—Index. Genus VII.—Copostatris,—Consti- pation, ..................323 1. Constipation, Alvine Obstruc- tion, Costiveness,....... 323 Varieties,.............. 323 Mechanical Obstruction,. .. 324 Constipation, proper, .... 324 Causes,.............. 324 Pathology,............ 326 Treatment,........... 327 Auxiliary Measures,..... 327 Opium, 328. Biy., .. 329 Enemata, 329. Nux-v., 330 xiv CONTENTS. Page Cases,........... 330 Sulphur, 331. Puis., . 331 Graphites,.......... 331 Cases,........... 331 Veratrum,.......... 332 Constipation in Children, . . 333 Puis., Sulph.,........ 333 Lycopodium,........ 333 2. Intestinal Obstruction, .... 334 Treatment............ 334 Auxiliary Measures, .... 334 Enemata,,.......... 335 Purgatives,......... 335 3. Obstruction of the Colon,.. 336 Amusat's Operation, .. 336 Aconite,........... 336 Electro-Magnetism, ... 337 4. Diaphragmatic Hernia,.... 337 Varieties,............. 338 Diagnosis,............ 338 5. Intestinal Intussusception, . 340 Treatment. Manipulation, 340 Gastrotomy,........... 340 Enemata. Tobacco,.. 341 Lobelia, ........... 341 Belladonna,......... 341 Pathogenetic Effects,.... 342 Case,................ 343 Plumbum,.......... 344 Flexible Tube,........ 344 Inflation,............. 344 Crude Mercury,...... 344 Genus VIII.—Diarrhoea,....... 345 1. Feculent Diarrhoea,...... 345 Treatment,........... 345 Dulc,............. 346 Arsen., 346. Capsic,. 346 2. Bilious Diarrhoea,........346 Mercur., 346. Cham., 347 Coloc,............. 347 Plumbum,......347, 318 Podophyllum,....... 347 Nux-v., Thuja, Sulph.,. 347 Sulph.-acid., ........ 348 Other Remedies,..... 348 Nux-moschata, Case, .. 348 Pagi 3. Diarrhoea Adiposa, Oleum Ricini. Cases,... 349 Cuprum, 349. Cases,. .. 349 4. Serous Diarrhoea,........ 350 Rubus-csesius,......... 350 Dyospyros-virginiana, ... 350 Coffea,............... 350 5. Chronic Diarrhoea,....... 351 Calcarea-carb. Case, ... 351 6. Chronic Diarrhoea of Camps and Hospitals, see Colitis, 917 Genus IX.—Cholera. 1. Cholera Morbus, Sporadic Cholera,............. 351 Causes,............ 352 Treatment,......... 353 Veratrum,........ 353 Varieties. Cliolerine Ague, 499 Arsenicum,....... 353 Coloc, 354. Cham., 354 Puis., 354. Ipecac, 354 2. Cholera Asiatica,........ 354 History,.............. 354 Diagnosis,............ 356 Causes, Remote,........ 357 Proximate,......... 357 Symptoms, 1st Stage, ... 358 2d Stage,........... 359 3d Stage,........... 360 Pathology,............ 361 Treatment, Allopathic Ex- perience, ........... 362 First Selection of Reme- dies by Hahnemann,. . 363 Homoeopathic Treatment, 364 Comparison of the Results reached by the two Schools,............ 364 Treatment of the Forming StaSe>............. 365 Mental Influence,...... 365 Camphor,...... 355, 366 Prophylactics,....... 365 Phos.-acid, 366. Sulph., 366 Second Stage. Food,... 366 Camphor,. . 366, 367, 369 CONTENTS. XV Page Veratrum, 368. Cupr., 368 Nux, 369. Veratrum, 369 Arsenicum,......... 370 Allopathic Reports of its Effects,........... 370 Phos.-acid,......... 370 Secale-cor.,......... 370 Rhus, Carb.-veg.,..... 373 Lauro-cerasus,....... 578 Aconite,........... 373 Adjuvantia,......... 375 Allopathic Treatment,... 375 Remedies only partially Homoeopathic are only partially successful, ... 375 Merc, 375. Calom., 376 3. Cholerine,.............. 376 Treatment,........... 377 Genus X.—Intestinal Concretions,. 377 1. Intestinal Calculus,....... 377 2. Bezoar Stone,........... 379 3. Scybala,............... 379 Cases,............... 380 Genus XI.—Helminthia—Intestinal Worms,.................. 380 Varieties of Worms found in the Human Body,...... 380 1. Taenia, Tape-Worm,..---380 2. Trictocephalus,.......... 380 3. Ascarides,.............. 381 4. Lumbricoides,...........381 Diagnosis,............ 381 Sympathetic Effects pro- duced by Worms, .... 382 Causes,.............. 383 Pathology,............ 384 Conditions for the Devel- opment of Worms, ... 385 Diseases connected with Worms,............ 385 Verminous Diarrhoea, ... 386 Treatment,........... 386 Treatment of Worms in General,........... 386 Anthelmintics,......... 386 Spigelia, 387. Case, . 387 Page Cina, Wormseed, Che- nopodium, ....... 387 Santonine,.......... 388 Sulphuric Ether,..... 388 Oleum Terebinthinse, . 388 Case, ........... 389 Aspidium-filix-mas., . . 389 Sulph.-acid.,........ 389 Cases,........... 389 Other Remedies,..... 390 Genus XII.-Proctica—Ecemorrhoids, 390 Anatomy of the Rectum,.. . 390 1 Haemorrhoidal Diathesis, . . 391 Case,............___ 391 2. Haemorrhoids,.......... . 392 Bleeding Haemorrhoids, Ef- fects of, ........... 392 Case,............ 393 Fluoric-acid,.......... 393 Lobelia,.............. 393 Elaterium,............ 393 Haemorrhoidal Tumors,. . 393 Internal Haemorrhoids, . . 393 Symptoms,........... 394 Causes,.............. 394 Treatment,........... 395 Nux-v., 396. Kali-carb. 396 Calc-carb., 396. Thuja, 396 Graph., 396. Sepia,.. 397 Sulph., 397. Rhus-t.,. 397 Hamamelis-vir.,......397 Case,............ 397 Aloes,............. 398 3. Prolapsus Ani,—Protrusion of the Rectum,........ 398 Causes, 398. Treatment, 399 Order II.—Functional Derange- ments of the Collatitious Viscera, ................ 399 The Liver.—Minute Anatomy of the Liver,................ 399 1. Functional Derangement of the Liver,............ 399 Decarbonizing Office of the Lungs and Liver, 399 XVI C0NTENT8. Page 2. Icterus—Jaundice,.......401 Bilious Jaundice,....... 401 Diagnosis, 402. Causes, 402 Treatment,.........402 Sanguinaria,...... 402 Mercury, Diseases caused by it, 403 Its Mode of Action,..... 403 Substitutive or Alterant Action,............ 403 Its more violent Effects,.. 403 Mercurialism,..........403 Mercurial Anaemia,..... 404 Mercury in Liver Derange- ments, ............. 404 3. Jaundice without Obvious Or- ganic Disease of the Liver, 405 Diagnosis,.......... 405 4. Jaundice from Obstruction of the Excretory Ducts of the Liver—Chololithus.—Gall- stone,............... 407 Diagnosis,..........407 Pathology,..........408 Treatment,......... 408 Olive Oil,........ 408 Podophyll., 409. Case. Prognosis. Treatment of Jaundice in General, 410 Various Remedies,. ... 410 Phos.-acid., 410. Aeon. 410 4. Melaena. Black Jaundice, . 411 Diagnosis,...........411 Treatment, 411. Case, . 411 Genus IV- Visceral Venous Plethora, 412 1. Venous Plethora of the Por- tal Circle,...........412 Treatment. Sepia,... 412 Carbo-animalis, .... 413 2. Haematemesis—Vomiting of Blood,............... 413 Mucous Membranes, . . 413 Diagnosis, 414. Causes, 414 Strangulation,.....415 Convulsions,...... 415 Organic Disease of the Liver,......... 415 Page Organic Disease of the Heart,...... 415 Change in the Consti- tuents of the Blood, 416 Treatment of Haematemesis, 416 From Amenorrhoea. Case, 416 Haemorrhage from Gastric Ulcer,............. 417 CLASS IL—DISEASES OF THE RESPIRATORY FUNCTION. Sympathetic Relation of Organs of Respiration,. .. .'........... 418 Diseases of the Respiratory Organs, 419 Diagnosis of Diseases of the Chest,................. 420 Abdominal Respiration,.. 420 Auscultation, ......... 420 Percussion,...........421 Modes of Employing Per- cussion, ............ 422 Order I.—Functional Diseases of the Respiratory Mucous Membrane,...............423 Genus I.—Coryza. Simple Catarrh. Gold,....................423 Diagnosis, 423. Pathology, 424 Treatment,............. 425 Aeon., Arsen., Nux-v.,. .. 425 Mercur., Hepar, Dulc,. .. 425 Sulphur, Nitric-acid,___ 425 Case,..............425 Catarrh, Epidemic Influenza, 832 Genus II.—Polypus,........... 426 Pathology,................ 426 Treatment,.............. 426 Teucrium-marum,........ 427 Cases,............... ^27 Symptoms of Teucrium,.. . 428 Cases............428, 429 Thuja, 429. Sanguinaria, . 429 Minor Operations on the Nasal Passages,...............430 Haemorrhage from the Nose,.. 430 Catheterism of the Eustachian tube»..................430 CONTENTS. xvii Page Genus III.—Bonehus, Battling Bes- piration,................ 430 1. Stertor,................ 430 2. Wheezing,............. 430 3. Obstruction to Respiration from Foreign Bodies in the Larynx or Trachea,.....431 Diagnosis,.......... 432 Treatment, ......... 433 GenusTV.—Aphonia— Lossof'Voice, 433 Genus V.—DyspJwnia — Dissonant Voice,.................. 434 1. Hoarseness. Raucitas, . . . 434 Treatment, . . . *....... 434 Aeon., 434. Arnica, . 435 Cham., Nux-v., Pulsat., 435 Merc-viv., Capsic, .. . 435 Caust., Sulph.,....... 435 Genus V.—Psellismus.—Dissonant Speech,................... 435 1. Bambalia—Stammering, . . . 435 Treatment,........... 435 Order II.—Diseases of the Respiration Affecting the Lungs,................... 436 Genus I.—Cough,.............437 1. Idiopathic Cough,........ 436 Sympathetic Cough, .... 437 Treatment,............ 438 Sanguinaria,.......... 438 Chronic Cough.—Arseni- cum, .............. 438 1. Pertussis,—Whooping Cough, 438 Diagnosis,............ 438 Pathology,............ 609 Causes,.............. 439 Treatment,........... 439 Tart.-Emetic,........ 439 Trifolium-iufoena,..... 439 Capsicum,.......... 440 Coffea, 440, Bell., See p. 593 Drosera,.............. 440 i Mephitis Putorius,...... 440 Other Remedies,...... 440 Genus II.—Dyspnoea.—Embarrass- ed or Laborious Breathing,.... 440 2 Page Healthy Respiration,...... 440 Dyspnoea a Symptom of Various Diseases,....... 441 From Increased flow of Blood to the Lungs, 442 Genus III.—Asthma,.......... 442 Diagnosis,................ 442 Causes,.............. 443, 449 Prognosis,................ 443 Treatment,................ 444 Puis., 444. Ipecac, ...... 444 Arsen., 444. Bry.,....... 445 Nux-v., 445. Bell.,...... 446 Cham., 446. Lobelia-inflata, 446 Other Remedies,........... 447 Thuja, 447. Bromine,.... 448 Calcarea,............• • .. 448 Genus IV.—Laryngismus—Laryn- gic Suffocation,............. 448 1. Asthma Thymicum—Asthma Millarii,—Spasmus Glot- tidis.—Laryngismus Stri- dulus.—Crowing Disease,. 448 Diagnosis, 448. Causes,. . 449 Pathology, 450. Treatment, 451 General Remedies,........ 451 Sambucus. Chlorine.... 451 Genus V.—Ephialtes—Oneirodynia, 452 1. Oneirodynia Gravans—Incu- bus—Nightmare,....... 452 Causes,............ 455 Treatment,..........454 Nux-v., Aeon., Opi., Puis., Sulph.,...... 454 2. Ephialtes Apncetica—Ephi- altes from Suspended Res- piration, .............. 454 Pathology,.......... 455 Treatment,......... 456 CLASS III.—DISEASES OF THE SANGUINOUS FUNC- TION,................... 457 Outline of the Circulation,.. 457 Order I. Pyuectica.—Fevers,. . 458 General Phenomena of Fever,. 458 xviii CONTENTS. Functions Deranged in Fevers 459 Diagnosis,.............. 460 Pathology,.............. 460 Causes of Fever,.....461, 182 Defective Physical Culture,. 462 Dietetics,................ 463 Influence of Cold,........ 464 Congestion,........... 464 Baths—Cold Shower Baths, 466 Effects of Long-continued Cold,.............. 466 Classification of Fevers,.... 467 Genus I.—Ephemeral Fever,.... 467 Genus II.—Malarious of Autumnal Fever,.................... 468 Conditions Necessary to De- velop Malarious Fevers,. 469 Characteristic Features of Malarious Fever,....... 470 Various Types of Ma- larious Fever,..... 471 Extensive Prevalence of in New Countries,.. 472 Genus III.—Intermittent Fever,.. 473 Paludal Fever,............. 473 Diagnosis, 474. Cold Stage,. 474 Hot Stage, &c,............ 474 Varieties, 475. Complications, 475 Critical Days.............. 476 Causes of Intermittent,...... 477 Marsh Miasm. Doctrine of the Correlation of Forces,..... 478 Prognosis,................ 480 Acclimation—Prophylactic Measures,---- 480, 482, 491 Theory of the Cryptogamic Origin of Malarious Fever, 482, 483, 570 Influence of Local Causes,. . 483 Crowding of Individuals in Close Apartments,...... 484 Moisture from the Earth,.. . 485 Treatment of Intermittent Fever, 485 Selection of the Proper Remedy, 485 China,................. 486 Symptoms Produced by China, 487 Page Sulphate of Quinine,...... 487 Its Physiological Action,.. . 488 Prevention of the Destruction of Nerve Tissue,.......488 Its Action on the Circulation, 489 It deSbrinates the Blood,. . . 489 Its Principal Range in Curing Malarious Fever,....... 490 Bad Effects of Large Doses,........... 490, 514 Its Prophylactic Powers,.. 491 Its Modus Operandi in Anti- cipating the Paroxysm of Ague,................492 Arsenicum,......... 492 Ipecac,.............494 Apis-Mellifica,....... 495 Bryonia,........... 495 Eupatorium Perfoliatum, 496 Nux-Vomica,........ 497 Arnica, 498. Veratrum, 499 Belladonna,......... 499 Pulsatilla,.......... 500 Case,............ 501 Ignatia, 501. Cocculus, 502 Lachesis,........... 502 Carbo-vegetabilis.-Saba- dilla. Sulphur,.... 503 Natrum-muriaticum, .. 504 Antimonium-crud, .... 504 Cina, 504. Capsicum, 505 Cedron, 505. Sepia,. 506 Staphysagria,........ 506 Taraxacum,.........506 Thuja. Opium,.....506 Rhus-toxicodendron, .. 506 Hydriodate of Potash,. 507 Lauro-cerasug, ....... 507 Lycopodium, Mezereum, 507 Coffea. Ferrum, .... 507 Ferri-percyanidum,____507 Hepar-sul. Hyosciamus, 507 Sambucus, ......... 507 Calcarea-carb.,....... 508 Camphor. Veratrum-vir. 508 Effects of Large Doses, 508 CONTENTS. xix Page Macrotin,........... 509 As a parturifacient, . 509 2. Congestive Intermittent- Sinking Chill.—Malignant Intermittent,.......... 510 Character and Symptoms,.. 511 Diagnosis and Pathology, .. 512 Consequences of a Protracted Hot Stage,............ 512 Splenitis,........... 512, 937 Prognosis, 513. Treatment, 513 China,............. 486 The Question of the Size of the Dose,........ 513 A Large Dose of a Reme- dy required to Counter- teract a Large Dose of a Poison,............ 513 Opium and Belladonna,. . 514 Bad Effects of Quinine in Excessive Doses,. 514, 490 Arsenicum. Case,..... 515 2. Intermittent complicated with Catarrh of the Stomach, . 515 ---- Of the Intestines, 516 ---- Of the Duodenum, 516 3. Congestion and Persistent Turgescence of the Spleen, 516 See Splenitis,........ 937 Treatment,............516 China. Natrum-mur.,. 516 Genus IV.—Bemittent Fever, .... 516 1. Bilious Remittent,........ 516 Diagnosis,............ 516 Inflammatory Bilious Fever, 517 Symptoms,........... 517 Gastric Remittent Fever, .. 519 Diagnosis,............ 519 Indications of the Tongue in Malarious Fevers, .. 520 Causes,.......... 521 Treatment of Bilious Remit- tent and Gastric Fevers, 521 2. Non-Malarious Congestive Fever,............... 522 Diagnosis,.......... 522 Pag* Treatment,......... 523 Cerebral Form,...... 523 Abdominal Form, .... 523 Pulmonary Form,.... 523 Administration of Re- 523 medies,.......... 523 3. Irritative Fever,......... 523 Fever excited by Dentition, 227 Remedies suitable for Irri- tative Fever,... . 228, 525 4. Infantile Remittent,...... 524 Diagnosis, 524. Causes, 524 Treatment,........... 525 Sul., Calcar., Are., 525, 526 Silicea, Aeon., Bell., .. 525 Ipec, Cham.,........ 525 Cina, Spigelia........ 526 Bry., 526. Dulc, ... 526 Pulsatilla,.......... 527 5. Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis. Spotted Fever. Typhus Petechialis,........... 527 Symptoms. Case,...*. 527 Caufles. Pathology, . . 528 Treatment,......... 528 Aeon., Bell., Arsen., 529 Nux-v., Canth., Opi., 529 China, Bry., Brandy, 529 Malignant Double Tertian of the Mississippi,...... 529 Treatment,......... 513 6. Idiopathic Typhoid Fever of the South Western States, 529 Diagnosis,.......... 529 Treatment,......... 529 Bilious Typhoid Fever,... 530 Treatment,............530 Phosphoric-acid. Cases, 530 Genus V.—Enecia. Continued Fever;................... 530 1. Fever from Functional De- rangement, ........... 531 2. Fever from Inflammation, 531 Synocha,............. 531 Diagnosis,............ 531 Causes,.............. 532 XX CONTENTS. Page Treatment,............ 532 Bell., Opium, Aeon., Stramon., Bry., Tart.- emet., Ipec, Phos., Nux-v., Puis., Dulc, Arsen., Veratr.,.... 532 Gelseminum,........ 532 Mercury,........... 533 Effects of Large Doses, 533 Its Antiphlogistic Power, 533 Typhoid Fever from Mer- cury, .............. 533 Classification of Specific Diseases of* Irregular Febrile Action,...... 534 General Characteristics of Infectious Fevers, .... 534 Enecial Fevers. 3. Typhus,............... 536 Varieties of Typhus,.. 537, 554 Localities, 536. Diagnosis, 538 Allopathic Practice Unsuc- cessful,............. 538 Causes,...............539 Typhus a Specific Blood Disease............. 540 Effect of Crowding People together,....... 540, 541 Catalysis, Septic Diseases, 541 Process by which Putrid Affections are originated, 542 Ferments introduced into the Blood,.......... 542 Operation of the Principle of Catalysis,......... 542 Treatment of Typhus,.. . 543 Cold Water,.........543 Rhus., Bry., Arsen., Adeps,............. 544 1. Typhus Cerebralis,....... 544 Bell., 544. Bry........ 545 Aeon., 545. Opium, . . . 545 Rhus-tox., 546. Mercur., 547 Acetic-acid, Acetum, .... 547 2. Typhus Abdominalis,..... 547 Treatment,............547 Page Arsenicum,......... 447 Drug-symptoms Produced by Bad Treatment,... 547 Bell., 549. Bry.,.. 549 Aeon., Opium, Rhus, 550 Merc, 551. Camphor, 551 Phos.-acid, 551. Bry., 551 Carbo-vegetabilis,. . . 552 Staphysagria, ..... 553 Muriatic-acid,.....553 Calcarea-carb.,..... 555 3. Nervous Fever.—Case of Dr. Spurzheim,........... 555 4. Typhoid Fever. Typhus Abdominalis Exanthe- maticus.—Enteric Fever,. 557 General Symptoms,... 557 Causes, 557. Contagion, 557 Character of Contagious Fevers,.......... 557 Conditions of the De- velopment of Fever Miasm,.......... 558 Mode of Communication, 558 Endemic in Large Cities, 559 Diagnosis.—Distinction between Typhoid and Typhus Fever,..... 560 Pathology,.......... 564 The Typhous Ulcer of Peyer's Glands,____ 565 Termination of Typhous Ulceration,....... 565 Changes in the Blood,. 565 Treatment. See Reme- dies, .............547 5. Yellow Fever. Mode of Attack,.............. 566 Premonitory Stage,.. . 567 Second Stage,....... 557 Black Vomit,........ 537 Notices of some former Epi- demica............... 568 Fever of 1825,...... 568 Fever of 1839,...... 569 Causes,.............. 57o CONTENTS. XXI Page Cryptogamic Fungi—The- ory of the Transpor- tation of Yellow Fever, 570, 571 Contagion,............ 571 The Disease may be im- ported, but it is rarely clone,.............. 572 Pathology,............ 573 Modus Operandi of the Specific Virus,....... 573 Treatment,........... 574 Ipec, 575. Camphor, 575 Arsen., Veratr.-alb., Can- thar., Carb-veg., Nux- vomica,.......... 575 Bell., 575. Bry.,____576 Rhus, 576. Arsen.,.. 576 Aeon., 577. Nux-v.,. 577 Mercur.,............ 577 Effects of Calomel,...... 578 Aggravation of Duodenal Inflammation,....... 578 Veratr.-alb., 578. Sulphur, 579 Tartar emetic,......... 579 Cantharides,.......... 579 Nitrate of Silver,....... 579 Sulphuric-acid,......... 580 Crotalus Horridus,...... 580 Symptoms Produced by Inoculations,........ 580 Use of Crotalus in Yellow Fever,............. 581 Results of Homoeopathic Treatment of Yellow Fever,............. 582 6. Cold Plague. Pneumonia * Typhoides,........... 582 History and Symptoms, 582 Diagnosis, 583. Causes, 583 Pathology. Prognosis, 583 Treatmeut,..... 584, 513 7. Pneumo-Typhus,......... 584 Treatment,........... 584 Aconite, 584. Bry.,.. 584 Phosphorus,.........584 Page Ammon.-carb.,.......585 Phosphoric-acid,..... 585 Other Remedies,...... 586 8. Hectic Fever,........... 586 Diagnosis, Causes,...... 586 Treatment,............ 587 Order II. — Exanthemata. Eruptive Fevers. Genus I.—Febrile Cutaneous Dis- eases, .................... 587 General Characteristics of the Exanthemata,......... 587 Origin of Eruptive Fevers,. 587 Communication by Contagion, 588 Zymotic Diseases,........ 588 Fomites,............. 588 Prevailing Epidemics,... 588 Palpable Contagions....... 589 Malignant Cell Formations, 589 Impalpable Contagions,..' 589 Epidemics Sometimes Con- tagious, ............ 590 1. Scarlatina. Scarlet Fever,. 590 Scarlatina Simplex,..... 591 ---- Anginosa, .... 591 ---- Maligna,..... 592 Causes, 593. Contagion, 593 Treatment,............ 593 Belladonna,......... 593 Symptoms Produced by Poisonous Doses,..... 593 Irritation of the Skin,. . . 595 Homoeopathic Use,..... 595 Antidotes, Hyoscy., Stra- monium, Opium,.....595 Aconite, 595. Ipecac,.. 596 Pulsatilla, 596. Zinc,... 596 Mercur., Muriatic-acid,. .. 596 Nitric-acid, 596. Bry.,.. 597 Arsen., 597. Opium,... 597 Recession of the Erup- tion,___......... 597 Sequela of Scarlet Fever, 597, 600 Treatment, ........... 597 Administration of Reme- dies, .............. 597 xxii CONTENTS. Page Arum-tryphillum, . . 598 . 598 . 598 . 599 Ammonium-carb., . . 600 2. Scarlet Rash,............ 600 Diagnosis. Treatment, . . 600 3. Sequelae of Scarlatina,..... 600 Scarlatinal Nephritis.— Post Scarlatinal Dropsy, 600 Causes,.......... 601 Scarlatinal Rheumatism,. 601 Pathology,............ 602 Disease of the Kidneys,. . 602 See Volume II., p___ 21 Pulmonary 03dema,. 602,796 Treatment. Cases,..... 603 4, Rubeola.—Measles, Morbilli, 604 Diagnosis,............ 604 Febrile Stage,......... 604 Eruptive Stage,........ 605 Stage of Desquamation,.. 605 Diagnosis, 605. Causes,. 606 Treatment,............606 Aconite,........6,06, 607 Pulsatilla, 607. Bell., 607 Bry., 608, Ipecac,. . 608 Mercur., 608. Sulphur, 608 Other Remedies,..... 608 Lachesis.—Case,...... 608 5. Pertussis—Whooping Cough, 438, 609 Diagnosis,............ 438 Treatment,....... 439, 440 6. Roseola,............... 610 Diagnosis, 610. Treatment, 610 7. Urticaria.—Nettle-rash, .... 610 Diagnosis,............ 610 Varieties, 611. Causes,. 612 Psoric Miasm,......... 612 Sycotic Miasm,........ 615 Bad Results from Sudden Repression of Eruption, 612 Treatment,............613 Aeon., Sulph.,....... 613 Page Dulc, 614. Calc.,-carb., 614 Lycopotlium,........ 614 Natrum-Muriaticum, .. 614 Nitric-acid, Pulsatilla,. 614 Ignatia, 015. Ipecac,. 61 Other Remedies,.....615 Genus II. — Emplysis — Achorous Exantliem,................ 615 1. Miliaria—Miliary Fever,... 615 Diagnosis, 615. Treatment, 616 Diet., Aeon., Hyos., Cham., Bry., Ipec,. 616 2. Vaccinia.—Cow-pox,...... 617 Mode of Performing Vac- cination, ............. 617 Time for Taking the Virus,........... 617 Course of the Vaccine Disease,.......... 618 Permanent Evidence of Successful Vaccination 618 Sources of Imperfect Vaccination,...... 618 Permanence of Protec- tion of Vaccination, 619 Propriety of Re-vaccina- tion,.............619 Period at which Vacci- nation may Prevent Small-pox,........ 619 Irregular Course of Vac- cine Disease,...... 619 Bad Effects of Vacci- nation, ........... 620 Distinction between Vaccinia and True Small-pox,........620 Vaccinia a " Similar" Disease, but not the same as Small-pox,. 621 Homoeopathic "Cure in Antecessum,"...... 621 Benefit Conferred on the World by Vacci- nation, ........... 621 CONTENTS. XX111 Page Permanence of the Pro- tection Conferred,.. 622 Object of Re-vaccination, 623 ResultsofRe-vaccination, 623 Characteristics of False or Imperfect Vacci- nation,........... 624 3. Varicella.—Chicken-Pox,.. . 624 Diagnosis,............ 624 Causes, 625. Treatment 625 4. Pelagra.—Description,.....625 Varieties, 626. Causes,. 627 Genus III.—Empyesit—Pustulous Exanttiem,............ 627 1. Variola—Small-pox,...... 627 Mortality of Small-pox,. . 627 Varieties,............. 628 Diagnosis,............ 628 Primary Fever,........ 628 Eruptive Stage,........ 629 Suppurative Stage,..... 629 Exsiccation,........... 629 Confluent Variety,...... 629 Causes—the Specific Poison 630 Treatment,............631 Aconite, 631. Bell.,. . 631 Tartar-emetic,....... 631 Case, 631. Sulphur,. 632 Vaccinin. Variolin,.. 632 Mercurius. Camphor, 632 Consequences of Small-pox, 632 Treatment,............ 632 Chronic Ophthalmia, Remedies,.......... 632 Furunculus,....... 633 Caries,........... 633 Convulsions,...... 633 Typhoid or Malignant Symptoms.—Remedies, 633 j 2. Varioloid. Modified Small- ; pox,................. 633 Protection of Vaccina- tion Perfect according to the Perfection of the Vaccine Disease, 633 Treatment,.......... 633 Page Bryonia,..........633 Merc,........... 634 Opium, 634. Thuja, 634 Sycotic Origin of Small- pox, ............. 634 3. The Black Death of the Fourteenth Century, .... 635 Description,......... 635 4. The Oriental Plague, a Relic of the Epidemic of the Middle Ages,.........636 Treatment,......... 637 Order III.—Phlogistic a.—In- flammatory Diseases. ... 637 Inflammation,............. 637 Structure of the Capillary Vessels, ................ 637 Phenomena of Inflammation,. . 638 Stage of Incubation,.......638 Stage of Congestion,........ 638 Hyperemia,—Distended Condi- tion of the Part,.......... 639 The Seats of Inflammation,. . . 639 Products of Inflammation,.... 640 Organic or Structural Disease,. 640 Effusion of Coagulable Lymph, 640 Lymphfzation,............. 641 Each Cell of a Texture an Organism in Itself,....... 641 Cell Growth,.......... 641 Cicatrization,.......... 642 Serous Effusion,............ 642 Objects of Inflammation, .... 643 Adhesive Process,.......... 643 Obstacles to Successful Repara- tion of Injuries,.......... 643 Process of Granulation,...... 644 Reparation of the Skin,..... 644 Cicatrizes, Diseased State of,. . 645 ---- Warty Affections of,____ 646 ---- Wounds of,........... 646 Morbid Blastema giving rise to Abnormal Tissues,........ 646 Diatheses,................ 646 ---- Iodic,............... 646 ---- Cancerous,........... 646 XXIV CONTENTS. Page Results of Imperfect Nutrition, 647 Cell Formation.........641, 647 Cell Development of Epithelium, 647 Epithelium Destroyed by In- flammation, ............. 647 Diseases from Perverted Evolu- tion of Cells,............ 647 Formation of Morbid Tissues,. 647 Blastema,............646, 647 Death from Imperfect Nutrition, 648 Glycogenous Matter no longer produced,..............648 Remote Causes of Inflammatory Diseases,...............649 Idiosyncracies and Predisposi- tions to Disease artificially Induced,...............649 Predisposition to Disease de- pends on a peculiar Physio- logical Condition,........ 649 Treatment of Inflammation, .. 649 Modes in which Drugs act on the Living Organism,.....650 Size of the Dose to be governed by the more or less perfect Homceopathicity of t'.ie Re- medy to the Individual Case, 650 Aconite. Its Specific Powers and Sphere of Action,..... 650 Views of Various Authors, 650, 651 Principal Forms of the Condi- tion produced by Aconite,. . 651 Genus I.—Apostema—l. Abscess,. 652 Formaibn of Abscess,....... 652 Spreading or Diffuse Abscess,. 654 Character of Pus,.......... 653 Purulent Collections in Lym- phatic Suhjects,.......... 654 Abscesses Extending through the Interstices of the Cellu- lar Membrane,........... ggj Consecutive Abscess,........ 554 Process of Suppuration and Pro- gression in a large Abscess,. 654 Diagnosis, 655. Prognosis, . . 656 Treatment,..... n~n '............... 606 Page To Remove the Purulent Col- lection,................ 656 2. Abscess, Secondary,...... 657 Treatment of Abscesses in General,.......... 658 Arsen., Asarum, Bell.,. 658 Bry., Mezereum, Puis.,. 658 Rhus tox.,.......... 658 Chronic Abscesses. Remedies 658 3. Cellular Inflammation. In- flammation of the Cellular Membrane. Case,......658 Treatment, 659. Remedies, 658 4. Frost-Bites,............. 659 Effects of Excessive Cold, 660 Process of Freezing, .... 660 Recovery from Effects of Great Cold,......... 660 Treatment,........... 660 5. Panaris—Whitlow,....... 661 Treatment, 661. Case, . 662 6. Contusions.............. 662 Arnica,.............. 662 7. Sprains................ 662 Dislocations. Luxations,. . 662 Treatment,........... 552 8. Periostosis,...... ...... 663 Diagnosis. Treatment,. . 663 Incisions,............. 553 Ruta Graveolens ,......664 Stone Bruise. Treatment,. 664 Alkaline Foot-Bath,..... 665 Nitrate of Silver,...... 665 Arnica. Calendula,____ 665 9. Ulceration of Cartilages of the Joints,............ ggg Cartilage, Structure of,____ 665 Treatment,........... ggg Antipsorics,..........66g 10. Poisoned Wounds.—Bite of the Rattlesnake,........ ggg Bromine—Bibron's An- liuote>........... 666 Experiments with do. 666 Dissection Wounds,...... ggy Lachesis. Case,....... ggf CONTENTS. XXV Page Bites of Insects.—Collodion, 668 11. Malignant Pustule. Charbon 668 Causes, 668. Symptoms, 668 Pathology, 669. Diagnosis, 669 Anthrax.—Carbuncle,..... 669 Causes, 670. Treatment, 670 Rhus-tox., Arnica,. . .. 670 Arsen., Chlor.-calc,.. . 670 Calendula,..........670 Incisions, 670. Cases, 670 Calcarea-muriatica, ... 671 Chloroform,......... 671 Carbonate of Lead, ... 671 12. Erysipelas. St. Anthony's Fire,................ 672 Diagnosis,.......... 673 Erysipelas phlegmonodes,. . 673 --- Gangrenosum, .... 674 --- Neanatorum, ..... 674 Epidemic Erysipelas,..... 674 Causes, 676. Treatment,.. 676 Rhus-toxicodendron, .... 676 Symptoms produced by it, 676 Pathological Conditions curable by Rhus,..... 677 GSdematous Erysipelas of the Face. Cases,---678 Belladonna, Aconite,. . .. 679 Opium, Bry., China,---680 Tartar-emetic,......... 680 External Applications,. . . 680 Carbonate of Lead,..... 681 Acetum,.............. 681 Inflammatory Diseases of the Brain and Nervous System, 681 1. General Observations,..... 681 Characteristic Features of Dif- ferent Portions of the Brain 682 Dangers of Depletion iu Ce- rebral Diseases,........ 683 Dynamic Causes of Disease,. 683 Absurd Opinions of Old Au- thor?.............084, 685 Difficulty of Distinguishing between Different Cerebral Diseases,............. 686 Page Genus II.—Injuries and Transient Affections of tlie Brain,...... 687 1. Concussion of the Brain, .. 687 Symptoms. Case,..... 687 Treatment,........... 688 Chronic Disease from Injury, 688 Symptoms of more Severe Cases, ............. 689 Treatment,............ 689 2. Inflammation from Injury of the Brain,............ 689 Treatment,......... 690 Fungus Cerebri,........ 690 Treatment,......... 690 Apparent Death from a Fall,.............. 691 3. Fullness of Blood to the Head,............... 691 Pathology,.......... 691 Exciting Causes, ..... 691 Treatment,......... 692 Nux-vomica,...... 692 Other Remedies, . . 692 4. Coup de Soleil, Sun stroke,. 692 Aeon., Bell., Bry., Carbo-v. 692 Glonoine. Its Sphere of Action,.........692, 694 Proving?,.............. 692 Congestion of the Brain— Sick Headache, Veitigo, . 694 Genus II I.— Cerebral Inflammations, 695 1. Encephalitis,............695 Inflammation of the Medul- lary Substance,........ 695 Inflammation of Different Portions of the Brain, . . 696 Causes, 697. Pathology, 697 Inflammation of the He- mispherical Ganglion, ... 697 The Seat of the Intellec- tual Powers,.......... 698 Meningitis,............. 699 Inflammation of the Dura Mater,........... 700, 710 Otitis, Extension of,..... 700 Cases,............... 700 XXVI CONTENTS. Page Osseous Deposits,...... 700 Cases.............. 701 Atrophy of the Brain,---- 701 Atrophy of the Brain in Old Au-i-................ 702 Induration of the Brain,.. . 702 General Principles of Treat- ment of Inflammation of the Brain,............ 703 Blood-letting Condemned, . 703 Remedies,............. 703 Cold to the Head,....... 703 Homoeopathic Remedies,.. . 704 Bell., 704. Aeon.,..... 706 Opium,.............. 706 Effects of Large Doses, .. 707 Indications for Opium,. . . 708 Alcohol, 708. Hellebore, 708 Tartar-emetic,......... 708 Poisoning by,....... 708 Treatment of Inflammation of the Dura Mater,..... 709 C-ise,.............. 709 Inflammation of the Brain Consequent on Scarlatina, 710 Meningitis Caused by Sun- stroke, ............... 710 Bell, Aeon., Opium,.. 710 Case,.............. 711 Derangements of the Brain Accompanied by Paralysis of the Voluntary Muscles, 711 Case,.............. 711 Sleeplessness,........... 712 Coffea,, Aeon., Ignatia, Puis., Cham., Opium,. 712 Hyoscyamus,........ 712 Strain., Musk, Rhus., . 712 Cuprum-aoet., Merc.-sol., 712 Camphor,...........713 Anaemic Disease of the Brain. "London Cachexia," .... 713 2. White Softening of the Brain.—Ramollissment. Cerebral Anaemia,...... 713 Diagnosis, 714. Causes 715 Pathology,.......... Prognosis,.......... Treatment, ......... Nux-Vomica. Case, 3. Hydrocephalus,.......... Water-Brain Fever, Dropsy of the Brain. Tubercular Meningitis,........... Acute Hydrocephalus, .... Symptoms, ........... Diagnosis, 720. Causes, Prognosis. Treatment,.. Prophylactics,....... Aeon., Bell., Bry.,---- Helloborus,......... Oilier Remedies,..... Tartar-emetic,....... Mercury,........... Chronic Hydrocephalus,.. . Treatment,............. Aeon., Bell., Calcarea.,.. . Other Remedies,....... Genus IV.—Inflammatory Diseases of the Eur, Mouth, and Throat, 1. Diagnosis of the Condition of the External Meatus of the Ear,.............. 2. Foreign Bodies in the Ears, 3. Diseases of the Membrana Tympani, ............ Fungous Membrane Cover- ing the Membrana Timpani Common in Congenital Deaf Mutes,............... Diagnosis. Treatment,. . 4. Inflammation of the Mem- brana Tympani,........ Treatment,... ...... Remedies,.......... 5. Ulcerations of the Meatus Externus,............ Abscess of the Meatus—Otor- rhea), 729. Treatment,. 7. Rupture of the Membrana Tympani,............. Treatment,............. Page 715 716 717 717 718 718 718 718 721 721 721 722 722 722 723 723 724 724 724 724 725 725 725 722 727 727 727 728 728 729 729 729 730 730 0ONTENT8. xxvii Page Injury of the Ear by Loud Explosions,........... 730 8. Poiypus of the External Surface of the Membrana Tympani,............. 731 9. Relaxation of the Membrana Tympani,.............731 Treatment,.......... 731 10. Morbid Tension of the Mem- brana Tympani,........ 731 Treatment,..........731 Otorrhoea—Chi onic,...... 732 Bad Results of Suppressed Otorrhoea,............ 732 Constitutional Treatment. Case,.............. 732 Apis-mellifica.—Case,. . 732 11. Induration of the Membrana Tympani,............ 733 Symptoms. Treatment, 733 12. Ozcena,................ 734 Treatment,............ 734 Pseudo-ozoena from Foreign Bodies in the Nostrils.— Cases,............. 734 13. Swelling and Inflammation of the External Nose,... 735 Treatment,.......... 735 Group II.—Inflammation of Organs and Tissuks Con- nected with the Mouth, and Throat,............. 735 1. Glossitis — Inflammation of the Tongue,........... 735 Diagnosis, 735. Treatment, 736 Mercurius. Belladonna,. 736 Plumbum,............ 737 Other Remedies,....... 737 2. Herpetic Glossitis. Case,.. 737 3. Aphtha. Thrush. Muguet. Stomacace,........... 737 Aphtha Infantilis,___ 738 Pathology......... 739 Mercurial Stomatitis,..... 739 Ulcero-Membranous Stoma- titis.................. 739 Page Chronic Exanthematous Eruptions of the Intestinal Canal,............... 740 Stomatitis Materna. Nursing Sore Mouth,........... 740 General Symptoms,...... 740 Diagnosis. 740. Treatment, 741 Calc-carb. Mercurius, . . 741 Natrum-muriaticum.....741 Nitric-acid. Muriatic-acid, 742 Sulphuric-acid,......... 742 Sulphur, 742. Veronica, 742 Frasera, Hydrastis,....... 742 Diet,................ 742 4. Parotitis.—Mumps,....... 742 Diagnosis, 743. Causes,. 744 Treatment, .... ...... 744 Bell., Merc-sol., Calc-carb. 744 Mercurial Parotitis,...... 744 Parotid Gland, Induration of. Case,............ 745 5. Tonsilitis.—Quinsy,...... 746 Diagnosis, 746. Causes,. 747 Treatment,........... 747 Bell.,Merc, 747. Aeon., 748 Baryta-carb., Nux-vom., 748 Puis., Hepar-sulph.,... 748 Angina Maligna. See page 592 6. Pharyngitis. — Inflammation of the Pharynx,........ 748 Treatment,......... 749 Remedies,.......... 749 Tartar-emetic,..... 749 7. Laryngitis,............. 749 Pathology,............ 749 Diagnosis,............ 750 Treatment,............ 750 8. Chronic Laryngitis,....... 750 Symptoms,............ 750 Causes, 751. Pathology, 751 Treatment,............751 Remedies..............751 Tracheotomy,.......... 751 9. Diphtheria—Laryngitis Exu- dativa, 752. History,... 752 Varieties,........... 752 xxviii C0NTENT8. Page Nature of the Disease,. 753 Causes,........ 753, 754 General Symptoms,... 755 Diagnosis, Distinction between Diphtheria and Croup,............... 757 Between Diphtheria and Scarlatina,........ 759 Relations between Diphtheria and Erysipelas,........ 760 False Membranes.—Patho- logy of Diphtheria ,..... 761 Diphtheritic Deposits...... 762 Prognosis,............ 763 Treatment,............ 763 Chief Remedies,........ 763 Mercury. Hydriodicum, 763 Kali-bichromicum, 763,766 Aeon., 764. Bell.,... 765 Rhus-tox., 765. Colch., 765 Merc-iodatus,........ 765 Cases,............. . 765 Bichromate of Potassa, 766 Inhalation,.......... 767 Hydriodate of Potash,. 767 Tartar-emetic,....... 767 Arsenicum,......... 768 Iodide of Arsenic, .... 768 Bryonia,........... 768 Capsicum-annuum,.... 769 Carbonate of Baryta,. . 769 Nitric-acid,......... 769 Bromine,........... 769 Provings,........... 770 Dyscrasias Present in Individual Cases,. .. 771 Cantharis,.......... 771 Croton, Rhus,....... 771 Nitr.-silver,......... 772 Local Applications,... 772 Bromine Mixtures, . . . 773 Alcoholic Stimulants,. 773 Diet,.............. 773 10. CynancheTrachealis,—Croup, 774 Diagnosis,.............. 774 False, or Non-membranous Page Croup,............... 775 2. True or Membranous Group, 775 Causes,................ 776 Treatment,............. 776 Aconite, 777. Spongia,. 777 Hepar, 778. Bromine,.. 778 Caustic Ammonia,...... 778 Bichromate of Potash,. . . 119 Tartar-emetic,......... 779 Effects of Large Doses, . . 780 Treatment of Croup, .... 781 High Potencies,........ 781 Case, 782. Thuja, ... 782 Apis., 782. Ipecac,____ 782 Cold Water Bandage,... 783 Genus V.—Inflammatory Affections of Organs within tlie Thorax, . . 784 1. Bronchitis,............. 784 Acute Bronchitis,........ 784 Diagnosis,............ 784 2. Capillary Bronchitis,...... 785 ffidema Glottidis,........ 785 Summary of Physical Signs, 787 3. Pseudo-membranous or Plas- tic Bronchitis,......... 787 4. Chronic Bronchitis,....... 788 Complications,......... 789 Treatment,............. 789 Aeon., Tartar-emet.,..... 789 Bell., 790. Rhus.......'790 Bry, 790. Pulsatilla,. .. 791 Hepar.-sul.,........... 791 Sanguinaria,.......... 791 Deobstruents,.......... 792 Lobelia. Pathogenesis,. . 793 Apis-mellificd,......... 794 Cedron, 795. Arsen.,... 795 Inhalation,............ <^95 Other Remedies,........ . 795 Rhus., Merc,.......... ^96 5. 03dema of the Lungs,..... 79g Physical Signs,.......... ^9* Treatment,............. hq* 6. Haemoptysis—Haemorrliage from the Lungs,....... 799 Diagnosis,.............. ^gg CONTENTS. xxix Page Pathology, 798. Prognosis, 799 Treatment,............. 799 Aeon., 800. Ipecac, . . . 800 Achillea-millefolium, .... 800 Hamamelis-virginica, .... 800 Pathogenesis of,........ 801 7. Pneumorrhagia.—Pulmonary Apoplexy,............ 802 Diagnosis,..............802 Physical Signs,.......... 802 8. Congestion of the Chest in Children,............. 803 9. Pneumonia.—Pneumonitis.-- Peripneumonia.—Lung Fever,............... 803 Diagnosis,.............. 804 Percussion,----421, 422, 805 Latent Pneumonia,......805 Diagnosis,.............. 805 Causes of Pneumonia,.....806 Prognosis,.............. 807 Treatment,............. 808 Aeon.,............... 808 Bell., Bry.,............ 808 Tartar-emetic,......... 808 Pathology,............ 809 Homoeopathic Use in Pneu- monia,............... 810 Bilious Pneumonia. Cases, 810 Phosphorus,............ 812 Pathogenetic Symptoms,. . . 812 Mercurius,............ 813 Phosphoric-acid,....... 814 Sulphur, 30,°......... 814 Rhus tox.,............ 814 Typhoid Stage,........ 814 Veratrum-viride,........815 Pneumonia in Old and Feeble Persons,.............. 815 Other Remedies,......... 815 10. Pneumo-thorax.—Pneumo- hydrothorax,.......... 815 Diagnosis, 816. Percussion, 817 Vocal Phenomena,........ 87 7 Inspection and Mensuration, 818 Succussion,.............. 818 General Symptoms,....... 818 Treatment, Pages 808, to 815, and 824 to........... 827 11. Pleuritis.—Pleurisy,...... 819 Diagnosis, 819. Causes,.. 820 Acute Pleuritis,......... 820 Stages of, 820. First Stage, 820 Page Second Stage,........... 821 Third Stage,............ 821 Diagnosis, ............. 821 Auscultation,.......420, 822 Diagnostic Symptoms be- tween Pleuritis and Pleu- rodynia or Intercostal Neuralgia,............ 823 Treatment,............. 824 Aeon. Bry.,.......... 824 Tartar emetic,......... 826 Phosphorus,........... 826 Rhus-tox.,............ 827 Arnica. Other Remedies, 827 12. Chronic Pleuritis,........ 827 Period of Accumulation,. 827 Period of Absorption,.....828 Diagnosis,.............. 828 Mediastinal Tumor,...... 829 Cancer of the Mediastinum, 829 Diagnosis,.............. 829 Retrospective Diagnosis.— Evidence of the former Existence of Pleuritis,.. . 830 13. Empyema. Pyothorax,. . . 831 Diagnosis,.............. 831 Perforation of the Walls of the Chest,............ 832 Treatment,............. 832 See Pleuritis, p.,......... 824 Pneumonia, p.,...... 808 Also, Articles Phthisis and Scrofula, Volume II. 14. Emphysema,............ 832 15. Epidemic Imflammation of the Pulmonary Mucous Membrane—Influenza,. . . 833 Treatment,............. 833 See also Coryza, p.,...... 425 Summary of Physical Signs of Diseases of the Lungs, 834 Emphysema; Pleuritis, ... 834 Hydrotborax,.......... 834 Pneumothorax,.......... 834 Pulmonary Apoplexy, .... 834 ffidema Pulmonum,...... 836 Pneumonia,............ 836 Tuberculosis,........... 836 Tuberculous Phthisis,.....838 Diseases of the Heart and its Appendages,........ 838 12. Carditis and Pericarditis, 838, 846 Diagnosis,.............. 838 XXX CONTENTS. Page Causes,...........,____ 839 13. Organic Disease of the Heart, 840 Diagnosis, 840. Causes, . 841 Sounds of the Heart,..... 841 Symptoms Showing Dis- ease of the Heart,...... 842 Irregular action of the Heart, 842 Treatment,............ 842 Digitalis, 842. Aconite,. 842 Bry., 843. Arnica,____ 843 Cannabis. Tart.-emetic,. 843 14. Endo-carditis. Treatment,. 844 Influence of External Tieat- ment in Causing Metastasis ofRhcumaiism to the Heart, 844 Aconite.—Case,.......... 844 Kalmia-Latifolia,......... 844 Proving of,........... 844 Cuprum-aceticum. Cases,. 845 15. Pericarditis,........ 838, 846 Treatment, 846. Case, ... 846 Lobelia-inflata,......... 846 16. Chronic Aortitis and Cardo- Aortitis,.............. 847 Diseases of the Arteries,. . . 848 Organization and Structure of the Arteries,........ 847 17. Inflammation of the Arteries.—Arteritis,..... 849 Symptoms,............. 849 Diagnosis, 851. Causes, . . 851 Pathology,............. 851 Genus VI.—Inflammation of the Abdominal Viscera,..... ... 852 1. Gastritis.—Inflammation of the Stomach,.......... 852 Inflammation of the Lining Membrane of the Stomach, 853 Diagnosis, 854. Causes... 854 Case, 854. Treatment,. . . 854 Arsenicum,........... 854 Veratrum-alb.,......... 855 Nux-vom., 855. Pulsat, 856 Aeon., Iodine, Colch., Ipec, 856 Gastritis from Effect of Boiling Water. Cases,. . 856 -— from Effects of Mineral Acids. Cases...... 857 ---- From Irritation of Hard, Indigestible Food. Extreme Cases, 857 — From Swallowing Melted Lead. Case, 858 Page Experiments,.. .. 858 Table of Powerful Mineral Poisonsand their Antidotes, 859 Vascular Nerves of the Ab- dominal Cavity,........ 859 2. Chronic Gastritis,........ 860 Diagnosis, 860. Treatment, 861 Tartar-emetic,......... 861 Alcohol. Case of St. Martin, 861 Power of Reparation of the Gastric Mucous Mem- brane, ............... 862 Alcoholism,........ 862, 863 Habitual use of Alcoholic Drinks in large Quantities, 863 Causes of Chronic Gastritis, 863 Slow Poisons,........... 863 Case of Napoleon I. Scir- rhus from Chronic Gas- tritis, ............ 863, 865 3. Acute Catarrhal Inflamma- tion of the Stomach, 515, 865 4. Chronic Catarrhal Inflamma- tion of the Stomach,____ 865 See Page,............ 515 5. Ulcer of the Stomach,..... 866 Diagnosis, 866. Pathology, 866 Treatment.,............. gg^ Aqua-calcis. Arsenicum, 867 6. Gastromalacia—Perforatio Ventriculi. Perforation or Softening of the Stomach, 687 Diagnosis, 867. Causes,.. 868 Treatment,.......... ogg Kreasotum. Oxalic-acid, 868 7. Self-digestion of the Stomach, 868 Changes from the Action of the Gastric Fluid on the . Stomach.............. 868 Action of the Gastric Juice, 866 See Digestion p.,..... 217 Increase of its Secretion by Irritation of the Brain,.. 870 Excessive Activity Discover- able During Life,....... 870 Excess of Gastric Fluid in Certain Diseases..... g^j Ulcer of the Stomach,! 871 In Advanced Phthisis,. 871 Disease of the Brain Cancer. Dentition1,. 871 Diminished POWer of „;„ Digestive Fluid......... 872 CONTENTS. xxxi Page Low Temperature. Alcohol, 872 Various Appearances found in the Softened tSlomach on Dissection,......... 873 8. Hypertrophy of the Coats of the Stomach,.........i 873 Diagnosis,.............. 874 Tiealmenl, 874. Diet,... 874 Remedies, 861, 868. Water, 297 Other Remedies,......... 874 9. Duodentis,............. 875 Inflammation of the Duode- num. Pathology,...... 875 Often caused by Mercury, Calomel,............. 875 Other Causes,........... 876 Treatment. See pp.,.410, 574 10. Gastro-enteritis. Doctrines of Broussais,.......... 876 11. Enden ic Gastro-enteritis.— I n testin al Paraly sis.—M il k- Sickness,............. 877 The Disease in Animals,. . . 877 ---- in Man............ 877 Diagnosis, 878. Cause,... 879 Pathology, 880. Prognosis,. 880 Treatment,............. 880 Homoeopathic Remedies... 881 12. Enteritis. Peritoneal Enteritis 881 Causes. Treatment,..... 882 Arsen., Veratr.,........ 882 Other Remedies,....... 883 13. 'Follicular Enteritis,...... 883 Summer Complaint,...... 883 Structure of the Gastroin- testinal Mucous Membrane, 8S3 Function of Absorption, .. . 884 Mucous Follicles,........ 884 Peyer's Glands,......... 884 Treatment of the First Stage, 884 Diet.................884 Diagnosis. Distinction be- tween Follicular Enteritis and Tubercular Meningitis, 885 Causes, 886. Pathology,. . 886 Peyerian Glands,.........886 Softening of the Intestinal Mucous Membrane,..... 887 Sympathetic Erethism of the Brain,.............. 887 Prognosis, 888. Treatment, 888 Aeon., Bell., Calcarea-Carb., 888 Second Stage,........... 888 Page Pathological Appearances,. 889 Treatment of the Third Stage,............... 890 Aeon., Bell., Mer.-sol, .... 890 Ipec, Bry., Dulc, Veratr.-alb., 890 Cholera Infantum—Crolon Tiglium,............. 890 14. Acute Peritonitis,........891 Diagnosis,.............. 891 Puerperal Peritonitis.—Puer- peral Fever,..........891 Chronic Peritonitis,...... 892 Causes, 892. Treatment,. 892 Aconite and Belladonna the Chief Remedies,.. 892 Other Remedies,......... 893 Opium—Its Characteristic action in Abdominal In- flammation,. .. 706, 710, 893 Peritonitis from Rupture of the Gall-bladder—Strangu- lated Hernia, Rupture of the Uterus, Effect of Para- centesis, .............. 894 From Perforation of the In- testine,............... 894 15. Dysentery, 894. Diagnosis 895 Causes—Remote,........ 896 ---- Exciting,........ 896 Pathology,............. 897 Congestive Stage,........ 897 Inflammatory Stage,...... 898 Condition of the Large In- testine,............... 898 ---- of the small Intestines, 899 ---- of the Rectum,...... 899 of the Mucous Membrane, 899 ---- the Intestinal Follicles, 900 Source of the Blood Dis- charged, .............. 902 Prognosis,............. 902 Treatment, 904. Diet, .. . 904 Drinks, 904. Hygiene,.. . 904 Medical Treatment,...... 905 Selection of the Specific Remedy,............. 905 Generic Symptoms,....... 905 Specific Symptoms the only Guide,............... 906 Aeon. Cases,.......... 906 Characteristic Symptoms,.. 907 Bell., 907. Colocynth,... 907 Arsenicum, 908. Cham.,. 908 xxxii CONTENTS. Page Pulsatilla, 908. Ipecac,.. 909 Mer.-sol................. 909 Mer.-Corrosivus,......... 909 Merc.-viv., 910. Nux-vom., 910 Iodide of Mercury,....... 911 Merc, in Poisonous Doses,. 911 Apis-Mullifica,........... 911 Sulphuric-acid,.......... 911 Dulcamara, 912. China,.. 912 Nitric Acid,........ 909, 912 Rhus-tox.,912. Veratrum-alb. 913 Carbo-vegetahilis, ......... 913 Sulphur,............... 913 Aggravations by Strong Purgatives,........... 914 Warm Water Homoeopathic, 914 Flexible Tube. Case,____ 914 16. Mucous Dysentery—Muco- Enteritis, 915. Diagnosis, 915,916 Treatment, 916. Mercur.,. 916 Nux-vom., 916. Arsen.-alb., 916 Chronic Ulceration of the Intestines,............ 917 Treatment,............. 917 17. Colitis—Camp Diarrhoea,.. 917 Lientery,............... 917 Purulent Diarrhoea,...... 917 Treatment.............. 918 Aeon. Colocynth,..... 918 Arsen. China,........ 918 Other Remedies, 918. Diet, 918 TheNational Hotel Epidemic (Washington), 918. Cause, 918 18. Structural Disease of the Colon,............... 919 Diagnosis—Sympathetic Ef- fects of Structural Disease,. 919 Symptoms of Accumulations in the Colon,...... 337, 919 Collections in the Cse- cum............. 920, 921 19. Malignant Ulceration of the Colon,............... 920 Diagnosis, ............. 920 Treatment,. . . 904 to 917, 921 Carcinoma of the Rectum,. 921 Symptoms, 921. Treatment, 922 Page Also see Cancer.—Index. Volume II. Inflammatory Diseases of the Liver,............ 922 Congestion of the Liver,-. . 922 Causes, 923. Pathology, 923, 924 See also Page......... 399 20. Acute Inflammation of the Liver,............... 924 1. Adhesive Inflammation of the Liver.—Hepatitis,.... 924 Diagnosis, 924. Pathology,. 925 Prognosis, 926. Causes,... 926 Suppurative Hepatitis, .... 926 Abscess—Causes,........ 926 Diagnosis,.............. 927 Abscesses of Large Size, . . 928 Prognosis,.............. 929 21. Inflammation of the Gall- bladder and its Ducts, . . . 929 Diagnosis, 929. Pathology, 929 Ulceration of the Gall-blad- der, 930. Pathology,. . . 930 Treatment of Inflammatory Diseases of the Liver,. . . 930 Aeon., 410, 930. Bry.,... 930 Cham., 931. China,..... 931 Lachesis, Bell., Merc, Nux.-v., 931 Puis., 931. Sulph.,...... 931 Podophyllum,........... 931 Leptandra-virginica,...... 932 Nitro-muriatic-acid,....... 932 22. Chronic Hepatitis,........, 933 Diagnosis, 933. Causes,.. 933 Treatment,............. 933 Hypertrophy of the Liver,. 934 Aurum.—Case,.......... 934 Fatty Degeneration of the Liver, 934. Causes,____ 935 23. Cancer of the Liver,...... 936 Diagnosis, 936. Causes,. . 936 Pathology, 937. Treatment, 937 24. Splenitis—Inflammation of the Spleen,----512, 516, 937 25. Pancreatitis,............ 941 26. Leucothyscmia Splenica, . ! 942 27. Leucosis,.............. gi. THE HOMEOPATHIC THEORY AND -PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. HISTOKY OF MEDICINE. The Science of Medicine has not hitherto been ranked anions: the exact sciences. Its most zealous votaries are still compelled to ac- knowledge that all efforts to reduce its principles to the precision of mathematical rules have failed; and, though we purpose to show that Theoretic and Practical Medicine is the grandest of all the Sciences and the noblest of all the Arts, we do not pretend to have discovered any royal road through which indolent or careless inquirers may as- cend its sublimest heights. Persons who desire to be successful in treating even simple diseases must be willing to devote some time to the study of the human body, the nature of disease, and the effects of remedies. The reading of primary Hand-books which may contain a mere sum- mary of many subjects can never qualify for the full understanding and correct treatment even of the most common diseases. So exten- sive is the field of Medical Science, so intricate are the problems in- volved in the theory of all complicated forms of ill health, that a book which can be considered a safe guide for any-bodj in severe cases, must be something more extensive than a cheap domestic Manual, though works of that character have performed an immense public service in qualifying the people to discriminate between good and bad practice, —between substantial merit and pompous pretension "in practitioners. The object of the student of Medicine is the attainment of Truth as revealed in the human body in its relations to the created Universe; and all his aims are consistent with the best interests of our race. Those who study Medicine most extensively, will become most familiar with man's nature in all its aspects; they will become conversant with the sources of physical and moral evil; and, in penetrating the mystery Vol. i.-3. 33 34 history of medicine. of affliction, they will learn to comprehend the laws by which nature is governed in her efforts to resist the powers of disease, as well as to aid those efforts in accomplishing their beneficent purposes. The origin of Medical Science is lost among the obscure traditions and fables of the earliest ages. The mythological history of the ancients derived the art of curing diseases from the direct inspiration of their gods; and even among the moderns many authors of the highest reputation have attributed to Medicine a Divine origin. But, in reviewing the progressive steps by which the most sublime of all sciences has advan- ced from a position in which it was a mere appendage to the priestly office to that of a proud and noble profession, we may safely begin with the assumption that individual observations must have been made by the earliest inhabitants of our earth; that these observations embraced the diseases to which they found themselves subject, as well as the injuries received in war or by accidents. As in modern times the lowest savages discovered by explorers have possessed some degree of medical and surgical knowledge ; it may be presumed that medicrne in its rudest form is almost coeval with the duration of human existence. The sight of suffering in the earliest times must have led to the desire to relieve it. And when men's small experience failed, super-natural means, such as charms and incantations must next be tried. At what period it began to be practiced as a distinct profession is not known. The most ancient physicians we read of were those who embalmed the body of the patriarch Jacob, by order of his son Joseph; and these physicians were the servants of Joseph, not priests, as the earliest physicians are supposed to have been. At that time Religion and Medicine had been already separated into distinct callings and they so continued ever afterwards. The Egyptians themselves attributed the invention of Medicine to Thoth, the Hermes, or Mercury of the Greeks. He is said to have written many things in hieroglyphic characters upon certain pillars, in order to perpetuate his knowledge. These were transcribed 'by Agathodemon, or the second Mercury, whose son Teut is said to have composed books of them which were kept in the most sacred places in the Egyptian temples. The books however attributed to these ancient personages have long been considered as forgeries; and they were more probably written many ages after the time of Hermes. The art of curing* disease was blended in the religion of Egypt with superstitious traditions and observances ; and it is certain that their first physicians were priests. They were treated by the people with the highest respect; and on certain public occasions they moved in solemn procession through the splendid temples and palaces of Thebes and Memphis, dressed in stately robes, and bearing the symbolic represen kative bed of the goddess of Love and Beauty. As the Egyptians and" HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 85 afterwards the Greeks, considered diseases as a direct manifestation of the displeasure of the gods, they looked to the ministers of these deities, the officiating priests of the temples, as the divinely favored agents through whose influence the pestilence might be averted. They believed there were thirty-six spirits or demons of the air, who divided the human body among them; they had names for them all; and by invoking them according to the part affected, the patient was cured. This system has prevailed in all Pagan countries. The American Indian priests, says Monardes, when consulted by the Caciques, took large quantities of tobacco smoke, fell to the ground, and after lying a while in a stupor, they arose and delivered the answers they had re- ceived from the world of spirits. It is not known that Mercury, the father of Medicine in Egypt, em- ployed many natural remedies. The only prescriptions made by him that have been transmitted to us by the poets, consisted of the herb Mercury, of which he discovered the use, and the herb Moly, which he gave to Ulysses to secure him from the supernatural powers of Circe the enchantress. His successors learned the process of venesection from the Hippopotamus, which is said to perform the operation on itself by striking the leg against a pointed reed, taking care to direct the stroke against a vein. Cathartics, emetics, clysters and abstinence constituted the principal remedial measures of the early successors of Mercury in Egypt. Galen says that 630 years B. C. the Egyptian king Nechepsus wrote, that a green Jasper stone, cut in the form of a dragon, surrounded with rags, and applied to the epigastrium externally would strengthen the stomach and promote digestion. At a later period Medicine was divided into numerous branches or specialties in that country. Herodotus says: "Eachphysician applies nimself to one disease only, and not more. All places abound in phy- sicians : some are for the eyes, others for the head, others for the teeth; some devote themselves to parts about the abdomen; and others entirely to internal disorders."—[Herodotus, Euterpe, cap. 84.) The art of embalming, which still astonishes modern nations was per- formed rather as a religious rite than as an appropriate appendage to the medical art. In the process, says Herodotus, the brains were drawn through the nostrils with an iron hook; and the intestines were taken out through an opening in the side with a sharp stone. It is not probable that those engaged in the art of embalming ever acquired much knowledge of the structure of the human body. The decaying bodies of the dead were viewed only as objects of disgust or supersti- tious reverence ; and among the Hebrews, who had passed a captivity of near four hundred years in Egypt, he who even touched a dead body had certain ceremonies of purification enjoined upon him; and if these were neglected, it was declared that his presence defiled the sacred 36 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. Tabernacle, and he was separated from the congregation of Israel. On going out from Egypt to Canaan, the Israelites carried with them the bones of the patriarch Jacob, and his ear-rings were buried as amulets under the oak of Sichem. The Jewish priests continued to be the only physicians. The Law of Moses, combining enlightened principles of Hygiene with typical and emblematic religious observances, prescribed the separation of persons infected with the leprosy, and pointed out the diagnostic symptoms by which the priests should pronounce upon the character of any cutaneous disease which should present any of of its features. The Law directed that any " rising, scab, or bright spot" on the skin, which should "resemble the plague of leprosy," should be exhibited to a priest; "and when the hair in the plague'is turned white, and the plague in sight be deeper than the skin of the flesh, it is a plague of leprosy, and the priest shall look upon him and pronounce him unclean," on whose skin it occurs. The further medical duties required of the priests are detailed in the twelfth and fifteenth chapters of Leviticus. They have long been regarded as embodying the most profound principles of medical police; and the latest writers have expressed " admiration for the wisdom and foresight which made such salutary regulations a religious duty."— {BenouaroVs History of Medicine, p. 33.) In the course of successive centuries after the ar- rival of the Jews in Palestine, medicine became a separate vocation. Sometimes men were consulted who professed to be in direct communi- cation with the spirits or daemons of the invisible world; as the king of Judah sent messengers to inquire, through the priests of Baalzebub the god of Ekron, whether he should recover from his disease or not' Ihe author of the Apocryphal book Ecclesiasticus mentions the office of physician as distinct from that of a priest about 200 years before the Christian era; and claims that high "honor is due him for the uses ye may have of him;" "For of the Most High cometh heaW TmiSi"ff,recei;ehrorfthekin»-" josePhus**j* (Z*J. 8. c. 2 5) that Solomon the king discovered a plant which cured epilepsy with he aid of a charm or spell. The root was concealed in a ring and applied to the nostrils of the demoniac ; and the historian says he saw it practiced with complete success in the presence of Vespasian, his sons and the Tribunes of the Roman army/ Erom this tradition come the stories of the Seal of Solomon: '* Some amulet of gems anneaPd In upper fires, some tabret seal'd With the Great Name of Solomon » Which spell'd by her illumined eyes' May teach her, where beneath the moon In earth or ocean, lies the boon. The charm that can restore so soon An erring spirit to the skies. {Paradi$e ^ ^ HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 37 The Greeks attributed the invention of medicine to several persons of whom Prometheus, Apollo, and JEsculapius were the most dis- tinguished. Being a warlike people, the art of curing disease was little cultivated for centuries, while the surgical department of Medicine Was so highly esteemed that their best poet declared, that '• A wise physician skilled our wounds to heal Is more than armies to the public weal." They trusted much to amulets as late as the days of Pericles, who was pronounced insane by Theophrastus, because he wore an amulet on his neck. The most celebrated Greek physician during the fabulous ages was iEsculapius. His skill in curing diseases was so great that he was highly revered by the people during life ; and, after his death it was believed that he had been removed from earth at the request of Pluto, who complained that the physician performed so many cures that he was rapidly diminishing the number of the dead. iEsculapius was after- wards ranked among the gods ; and temples were erected in which his pupils, Chiron, Machaon, Podalirius solicited the aid of their great master. Among the pupils of Chiron the Centaur were: Hercules, who discovered the virtues of many plants ; Aristasus king of Arcadia, who first used the drug called Silphium, supposed by many to be asafcetida ;, Theseus, Jason, Telemon, Peleus, and Achilles. The last named of these is said to have discovered the use of Verdigris in cleansing foul ulcers ; and Palamedes prevented the plague, which had ravaged most of the cities of the Hellespont, including Troy, from en- tering the Grecian Camp. His method was to confine the soldiers to spare diet and oblige then to use much exercise. Helen mixed opium with wine and gave i* to the guests of Menelaus under the expressive name of Nepenthe, to drive away their cares. Opium was obtained from Thebes in Egypt, from which Tincture of Opium was called Thebaic- tincture. {Odyssey V.) The first great schools of medical knowledge among the Greeks were the Temples of iEsculapius. The priests who directed their erection knew how to select healthy locations; the reverence which the priests inspired in the minds of the invalids ; the invigorating effects of hope, change of scenery, diversion of mind; and the exercise of long journeys by which the temples of the god were reached; all contributed to in- crease the fame, as well as the successes of the priests of iEsculapius. Their powers were greatly enlarged by strict hygienic rules, which men will observe when prescribed as parts of a religious ceremony, but scorn and neglect when dictated by true science and common sense. These priests (or Asclepiades) also employed many agents of real power. Darwin thought the Cumaean sibyl took a few drops of the juice 38 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. of the cherry laurel before ascending the prophetic tripod. Others suppose they used stramonium or opium. (Paris, Vol. 4, 24.) n some cases they prescribed bloodletting, purgation, emetics, friction, sea-bathing, and various mineral waters. Beyond all this, and exercis- ing a powerful influence on the sick and their friends, was the mental influence of the doctor-priests. Admission to the temples was only permitted after certain processes of purification had been undergone. The interrogation and the answers of the oracle were often delayed for a day, and one or two nights while the patient remained lying in the temples. Abstinence, prayers, fastings, sacrifices followed. In some of the temples a ram or a fowl, at Cyrene a goat, and in other places various animals were sacrificed to iEsculapius before the will of the oracle was asked for. Socrates, requested in his last interview with his friends, that they would sacrifice for him a cock to iEsculapius. The answers were sometimes delayed, and sometimes mystical and dif- ficult of interpretation. Sometimes the divinity was made to appear in the form of a serpent, devouring the cakes upon his altar; other manifestations were made through dreams which were interpreted by the priests. The temples of the god of Medicine thus became the first hospitals in which the sick were regularly treated. To them those who could reach them brought the afflicted; and those who could not, in various countries, exposed the sick by the side of the highways, that they might receive the advice of every one who passed. (Good, Co> banis, Renouard, &c.) In these early ages the knowledge that was ac- cumulated by such means as these was chiefly transmitted to posterity by tradition. (Strdbo) The chief temples of iEsculapius were those of Epidaurus in the Peloponessus, Pergamus in Asia Minor, Rhodes in the isle of Cos, Cnidos, and Cyrene in Lybia. Besides these nearly one hundred have been enumerated in the different countries afterwards included in the Roman Empire. (Schulze Hist. Med) In these temples the first re- corded experience of men in the treatment of diseases were transmitted to posterity in the form of inscriptions on plates of metal, wood or stone. The priests reported to new patients the history of cases which had been previously treated with success. The descriptions of cases and the methods of cure were briefly and imperfectly given; but they were of immense value to men in succeeding generations. They formed the first rudiments of that art which was in future to grow into a sublime and noble science, through that very method of observation and experiment which was there first inaugurated in the world. These temples of the god of Medicine maintained their rank in the estimation of men long after the genius and industry of Hippocrates had reformed the theories and practice of ancient medicine. Democedes,who had been the slave of a tyrant of Sardis, became court physician to Darius, Emperor HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 39 of Persia, by his success in curing the "king of kings" of a sprained ankle. The intellectual labors of Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and Democritus, had already divested it of many of its useless superstitions, when " that divine old man" Hippocrates undertook to create a new science out of the old materials; and then to supersede all the old by new obser- vations on diseases of every form. At that time anatomy and physiology were almost entirely unknown. The Materia Medica of the Greeks was limited to a small number of articles, and the powers of these were imperfectly understood. But the reformer brought to his work the most extensive and varied qualifications. In the ability to observe, collect, arrange, and methodize, he surpassed all who had preceded him. Inheriting the wisdom recorded in the votive tablets of the Temples as the "seventeenth lineal descendant of iEsculapius," he commenced the labor of making a clinical report of the daily changes that occurred in individual cases of disease. In recording the symptoms from day to day, and narrowly watching the good and bad effects of his remedies, Hippocrates originated Clinical Medicine / through the " bedside ex- perience" of the wisest and best physicians of all ages, Medicine, as a science and an art, has since grown to what it now is. Hippocrates (born 460 B. C.) lived four centuries before Christ, and he is the most ancient medical author whose works have descended to our times. Regarding his science " as a principle of humanity, and not merely as a means for attaining profit and glory," he abandoned the course his ancestors had pursued; and, instead of instructing the mem- bers of his family alone, he endeavored to communicate his knowledge to strangers; and thus to extend the usefulness of medicine in the world. The "iEsclepiadean oath," by which the mysteries of the science were confined to the limits of a single family, was now super- seded by the " Hippocratic oath" or declaration still respected in Modern Schools. Several of his pupils became his most distinguished successors. Many of the works attributed to him are known to be forgeries. Brevity, gravity, and the absence of visionary theorizings are the characteristics of his writings." The Theories by which Hippocrates endeavored to explain the causes of disease were necessarily imperfect, though generally based upon patient observation. His knowledge of Anatomy was limited to the results of the dissection of animals; and but once in his life did he enjoy the privilege of seeing a human skeleton. He refers much to the humors of the body, particularly to the blood and the bile, sup- posing that there were but two fluids in the body; he employs the same word to express his idea of a nerve, a ligament, or a tendon; he gives much attention to the good and bad effects of sleep, watchings, exercise, and rest With him the same word is used for an artery, a vein, or an excretory duct; and the word aima signifies any fluid. On 40 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. the subject of diet he wrote several books, and was particularly careful in selecting the food of invalids ; in observing the courses and changing of the winds; the irregularity of the seasons, the rising and setting of the stars or of certain constellations; also, the times of the solstices, and of the equinoxes. To all of these meteorological and astronomical changes he attributed effects which he has not attempted to explain. He thought the above causes, with many others, when operating on different regions of the body, produced diseases of greater or less malignity; some of these he accounted mortal, others dangerous, and the rest easily curable, according to the cause from which they originate or the parts of the body on which they fall. He also distinguished diseases into acute and chronic, into endemic, when confined to certain localities, and epidemic, when they seized great numbers at a time, passing from one place to another; of this kind the most terrible known to him was the plague. He also remarked that single cases of diseases usually epidemic sometimes appeared alone: these cases he called sporadic. He distinguished between those diseases which are heredi- tary, or born with us, and those which are contracted during life; and also between those that are of a milder character and those of a ma- lignant nature, and are less frequently overcome by medicine. The chief articles in his Materia Medica were: Hellebore, Colocynth, Elate- rium, oxydes and scales of Copper, Onions, Garlic, Parsley,Wine, Honey, Cantharides. The peculiar merit of Hippocrates is found in that great power of'observing facts which he so eminently possessed, and so con- scientiously employed; in that high analytical intellect which could trace symptoms to their origin, and classify and arrange the vast number of observations made by himself and others; in that exalted morality which always commands respect; and in that intuitive insight into human character, and physical as well as moral peculiarities,°by which minds can be controlled, and pathological conditions analyzed. Though but an indifferent practitioner in our view, he was the greatest of medical observers. Whatever may have been the merit of his suc- cessors, the improvements made by their master appear to have been so satisfactory to them, that no real advances were made for ages after his death, which occurred at Larissa, when he had reached the a^e of 90 years. He had practised his profession at Abdera, in Thessalv but chiefly at Cos; which he had rendered famous by making it the only great School of Medicine in the world. At the same time that Hippocrates was constructing the Science of Medicine, "the illumined Plato" was employed in revolutionizing philosophy. Without entering into the study and practice of medicine, as a profession, Plato became familiar with what was then known of the theory, of the science and the economy of the human body. He was followed by Aristotle, whose wonderful genius left its impress on all the intellectual pursuits of men HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 41 for more than a thousand years. The character of his mind was different from that of any philosopher who had preceded him, in that strange power of "grasping, as if by intuition, all the stores of knowledge;" while it " leaves dull learning toiling far behind." His strength consisted, not in collecting with patient labor the minute facts of which a theory might be constructed; but in boldly penetrating the realms of the mysterious and unknown, and generalizing, as if by the aid of inspiration, the truths already known, and those which remained to be discovered. As a primary doctrine he regarded the soul as " the efficient, the final, and the formal cause of the body." That his pro- found speculations should be found invariably true, could certainly never have been hoped for by himself, but that his genius, such as it was, should have sufficient inspiration in it to sway the minds of men for a long series of ages, continues still to be a subject for the admiration of philosophers. Medicine in succeeding centuries permitted the Aristotelian Philosophy to mould her theories, when her disciples should have been employed in making new observations for themselves. Among the most distinguished successors of Hippocrates were Polybius, Draco, Prodicus, and Praxagoras, who ventured to deviate from the opinions and practice of Hippocrates. He is said to have cured ileus by cutting open the abdomen and intestines and sewing them up again. Erasistratus adhered more strictly to the doctrines ot the great master. He gave to the world the first regular indications of the pulse, and came near discovering the circulation of the blood; but he could not perceive the use of the two sets of cavities in the heart, and was afraid to bleed, lest the blood should find its way from the heart to the arteries which he thought contained nothing but spirit. The death of Alexander the Great, 324 B. C, was followed by the dismemberment of the vast empire he had erected on the ruins of conquered kingdoms; and his successful general and half-brother, Ptolemy Soter, became king of Egypt, in the year 321 B. C. Alex- andria, founded only seven years before, became his capital, and the centre of the science and learning of the Greeks. The first Ptolemy founded the library and museum of Alexandria, which were enlarged by the munificence of his successors* until the literature of all nations were collected in the royal library of the successors of Alexander. After the purchase of the library of Aristotle, the largest then in the world, the Alexandrian collection, according to Eusebius, contained one hundred thousand volumina or rolls, the whole of which were placed "at the disposal of studious men, who were desirous to use them for their improvement and the advancement of science." (Renouard, p. 166.) The extensive commerce in which the Greeks were engaged, enabled the Ptolemies to gather together the rare plants and animals 42 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. of distant climates, stimulating the curiosity of naturalists and physi- cians. Medicine was now divided into three branches, the dietetic, the pharmaceutic, and the chirurgic; these branches became entirely distinct and were cultivated by different individuals. Anatomy and Physiology now received a new impetus in the efforts of Herophilus and Erasistratus, who commenced the dissection of the human body and the vivisection of animals at Alexandria. About 287 B. C. Serapion of Alexandria formed a new sect called the empirical. He retained the practice of Hippocrates; but despising his mode of reasoning, depended on personal experience alone. His followers used Castor, Opium, Cicuta and Henbane. Those who maintained the value of theories were afterwards known as dogmatists; they insisted on the necessity of knowing the latent as well as the evident causes of disease; and taught that physicians should understand the natural actions and functions of the body. At this period there were medical schools of some importance at Smyrna, Pergamus, and Epidaurus, all of which attracted students, and were visited by distinguished pupils from Alexandria. At Rome the study and practice of Medicine remained entirely un- known for more than six hundred years after the founding of the city. (Pliny, Liber 39. Chap. 1.) Though the usual efforts of ignorant men to mitigate pain must have been made, there was no class of men who devoted themselves to the treatment of diseases alone. The people had faith in the priests and oracles, and the mystical responses of the Cumsean Sibyl were particularly reverenced. ^Eneid., Lib. VI. 78.) According to Livy, the Roman historian, the medical and religious sciences of the Greeks were introduced at Rome 234 years B. C. Fifteen years afterwards Archagatus, son of Lysanias of the Pelopones- sus, settled in the Eternal City as a physician and surgeon. The practice of surgery was considered incompatible with kindness and humanity, and the Romans were deeply prejudiced against everything from Greece; hence all the Greek colonists in Italy were regarded with envy or hatred by the people; and Marcus Porcius Cato, the Censor, particularly distinguished himself in his hatred of physicians, (Cor- nelius Agrippa, Arts and Sciences, p. 297) and he even meditated the expulsion of every man from Rome who should attempt to practice there. For a century more no distinguished physician appears in that city, till Asclepiades of Bythinia (born 91, B. C), who, having failed as a teacher of rhetoric at Rome, took up the practice of Medicine, at a comparatively late period of life. He at once openly opposed Hippocrates' theory of natural power and sympathy or attraction, and engrafted upon his science the physical principles of the Epicurean philosophy. By the general condemnation of the practice of his co- temporaries, and the disparaging manner in which he spoke of all the HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 43 doctrines of his predecessors, he attracted a large share of public attention. "His arts," says Pliny, were such as every fashionable physician employs : soothing the patient and avoiding every thing that can give pain till nature cures him, or he sinks under the disease." By these arts Asclepiades became the most fashionable practitioner of his time. He declared that he deserved no credit if he should ever become sick himself; and by good fortune he always escaped disease till extreme old age, and was then killed by a fall down stairs. He employed the lancet in acute diseases of the chest accompanied with pain; incised the tonsils ; and was the first to perform the important operations of laryngotomy and tracheotomy. He originated the doctrine of "the self-limitation of diseases, asserting that the principal cure for a fever was the disease itself." ( Watson, p. 101.) On the conquest of Gaul and Britain the Romans became acquainted with the Druids, who were both priests and physicians. They gathered the Mistletoe or Viscum Album, cutting it with a golden knife when the moon was only six days old. This parasitic plant, when consecrated by certain ceremonies was considered the most certain remedy against poisons and sterility. The letter R used at the beginning of a medical prescription is now usually understood to be an abbreviation for the word Recipe, but was originally employed as the astrological symbol of Jupiter, as it was under this planet the plant prescribed was to be gathered. Vervain was to be gathered after drinking of honey, at the rising of the dog-star, at a time when no sun or moon was shining, and collected only with the left hand. It then had power to cure fevers and the bites of serpents ; and was employed to conciliate friends. Immediately after Asclepiades arose Themison, the founder of the Methodic Sect; whose doctrines evinced equal hostility to the dog- matists and the empirics; he divided diseases into the two classes of hypertonic and atonic; a division which with some modifications has descended to the present day; Thessalus, who was contemporary with Nero, was a man of merit but of inordinate vanity. Aurelius Cornelius Celsus, the first native Roman who wrote on Medicine, was born in the year 4, A. D. After receiving the best education the times afforded, he engaged in writing on various scientific subjects; and it is said that he served as Secretary to the Emperor Tiberius on his expedition to the East. Devoting himself to medicine, he left behind him a large work which is equally valuable for the elegance of its language, and the complete knowledge it gives of the state of medicine at the time he wrote. The Treatise "De re Medica, libri octo" is the only work of Celsus that has been preserved, and it is not entirely complete. In many parts of it the author agrees with Hippocrates, and quotes largely from him. Asclepiades is his next 44 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. highest authority; and after these Themison his contemporary, and Herophilus and Erasistratus of the Alexandrian school. Though agreeing in general with Hippocrates, Celsus rejected the doctrine of critical days, which has been often revived and exploded, and still holds a place in modern works on febrile diseases. (Brit.&For. Rev., July, 1857, p. 61.) In the time of Celsus Surgery had made more progress at Rome than it had ever done among the Greeks or Asiatics. Many of the largest operations are minutely described by Celsus; and the instru- ments and apparatus employed by the ancient surgeons have been dis- played to modern eyes among the relics of the disentombed cities of Italy. In the year 79 A. D., while Celsus was still living at Rome, and was probably engaged in writing his great work " De re Medica," the Cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii were overwhelmed by a tempest of ashes, cinders, and lava, poured upon them by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The people with all their wealth were in a moment en- tombed in their own dwellings; and all their works.of art, all the para- phrenalia of domestic life, and all the apparatus employed in all the branches of science, stood still in their places, and remained unchanged and uninfluenced by the revolutions of seventeen centuries. Modern en- terprise has now disrobed the silent cities of the dead, and brought to light the long-buried remnants of ancient arts and sciences. Among them the offices of the physician and apothecary, and the various implements employed by the surgeon may be seen in the Royal Museum of Naples. (See Prof. Vulpes' ulllustrazione Strumenti Chirur., &c?—Dublin Quar. Jour. Med., Aug. 1852.) The Romans still trusted much in the powers of charms and amulets, till the Emperor Caracalla passed an edict that no more amulets should be worn. (Paris Phar- macologia Introduc.) For 250 years, extending from the time of Asclepiades to Galen, Celsus was the only distinguished medical writer at Rome. The state of the sciences generally can be best seen in the works of Pliny the younger. The Romans made few discoveries, but they were ever ready to adapt to public uses the improvements made by the Greeks. Among their sanatory improvements may be noticed "their immense cloacce for the drainage of the city,—their public baths,—their care in the selection of sites for new towns, villas, and private residences,—their improvements in architecture, and domestic arrangements of dwellings,"—all of which show that the lectures of their Greek masters on the rules of health had been properly appre- ciated. Watson, Discourse,—N. Y. Acad, of Med., 1856, p. 142.) Of distinguished men in the distant provinces of the Empire, at this period, the most conspicious was Aretaeus of Cappadocia, Though little is known of his life, it is supposed that he passed part of his life in Egypt, and probably made his way to Rome, the great capital of the HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 45 empire, (Adams' Biogr. Works of Areto3us.) He was the ablest of the defenders of the new doctrines of the sect called the Pneumatics; * who taught that the body was constituted of solids, fluids, and pneuma or spirits, and upon the due correspondence and relationship of these three constituent elements depended health. The " pneuma" or spirits was regarded as a subtle fluid, passing from the lungs to the heart, and thence by the arteries distributed to all parts of the system. The heart was believed to be the focus or central point of the vital force or soul. "A dense pneuma" was supposed to cause organic obstructions. The description of Hypochondriasis by Aretaeus is elegantly written and proves him to have been an accurate observer. The two Andromachi became conspicious at Rome, by the elder one, (the father), becoming physician to the Emperor Nero; and Dioscorides, born in Cilicia in the latter part of the first century, wrote the only complete treatise on the Materia Medica now extent among the labors of antiquity. In the year 131 A. D., during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian, was born Claudius Galen at Pergamos in Asia Minor. Pursuing the study of medicine in his native city, in Smyrna, Corinth, and Alexandria, he, after travelling through Cilicia, Phoenicia, and the isles of Scyros and Crete, returned to Pergamus at the age of 28 years. It was not long till the successes of many Greek physicians attracted him west- ward to Rome. Here he commenced lecturing, writing and practicing his profession, and soon drew upon himself the envy of inferior men, who stigmatized him as a theorist and a dealer in magic. In less than five years he was obliged to leave Rome, under pretence of avoiding a plague then raging there, which had originated at Antioch, 166 A. D., but he was soon recalled from his native city to attend the two Em- perors Aurelius and Verus, of whom the latter died. The physician made the long journey on foot, and Aurelius formed so high an opinion of Galen, that he entrusted him with the care of his two sons ; and Galen having predicted the recovery of one of the princes from fever in opposition to the opinion of other physicians, rose at once to the highest rank in the profession. He lived to the age of 70 years and died during the reign of Severus. To him is commonly attributed the famous maxim: i(contraria contrariis curantur" and the invention of cold and hot, dry and moist diseases. Galen wrote about 750 Essays on various medical subjects, constitu- tions and medicines. His first object was to illustrate Hippocrates who was then imperfectly understood by the commentators. Galen was evidently superior to all his contemporaries. And so successfully did he expose the " deficiency of their information," and the " futility of their reasoning," that he triumphed over all his rivalSj and " attained a rank in the medical world, and swayed the opinions of physicians and the public on all points connected with medicine in a 46 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. manner before and since unknown." He lived at a time when the Roman Empire combined all nations into one; and when extended intercourse between men of different countries had developed the human mind to a degree that had not been reached at any former age. Of the many works attributed to him, eighty-three are believed to be genuine. The best edition of his works is that of Kuhn, in twenty volumes, 8vo. 1821-1833 Galen attached himself to no one of the different sects into which he found the profession divided, and despised those who gave them- selves up to obey any particular master. He followed Hippocrates in denominating the vital principel Nature; like him he admitted the existence of four distinct humors, from the predominance, or de- ficiency, or disproportion of which originate the different tempera- ments of the animal frame, and the varieties in the different diseases to which it is subject; these humors are the blood, phlegm, yellow, and black bile. He likewise established three distinct kinds of auras, gases or spirits, a natural, a vital, and an animal, which he regarded as so many instruments to distinct faculties ; referring the seat and action of the first chiefly to the liver, of the second to the heart, of the third to the brain. Though Galen nowhere refers to the dissection of the human body, he frequently examined monkeys and other animals, and made some important experiments in Physiology. It had been taught by Era- sistratus and the disciples of the Alexandrian school that the arteries contained only air. Galen contrived a series of experiments by which he demonstrated the fact that these vessels contained blood and blood alone. This was the most important discovery in Physi- ology that had ever been made: and the account he gives of the respiration shows also that his mind had caught hold of some cor- rect ideas, which aided in the making of future discoveries. In pathology his views were less correct. Like Hippocrates, he sup- posed that the primary cause of disease existed in the fluids ; and he adopted the doctrine of the four elements as the basis of all his reasonings. He distinguished between the remote or predisposing causes of disease, and those now called exciting or causes near at hand; and regarded the superabundance, the degeneration, or the putridity of the humors as the primary cause of all diseases. Upon this pathology his practice was based, and it was often successful even when suggested by erroneous theories. In his general rules of regimen, diet, and the. prescribing of medicines he followed Hippo- crates ; at Pergamos he acted both as physician and surgeon, ac- cording to the usage in provincial cities. In the great metropolis of the world he restricted himself to medicine exclusively. (Brit. c& For. Med. Chir. Rev.—Ju\j 1857, p. Q6.) After the death of Galen no medical author of high abilities appear- HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 47 ed for centuries ; and the reign of the " Prince of the Latin Physicians" continued unshaken. Ordinary men could originate nothing new; and they dared not express an opinion in opposition to the authority of Galen. After the overthrow of the Roman Empire of the West, the seat of learning and the arts was transferred to Constantinople ; but no im- portant discovery in medicine was made till the commencement of the sixteenth century. The Arabians adopted the chemical ideas which the learning of antiquity afforded; but they neglected the study of Anatomy, and the solid sciences on which alone a true system of me- dicine could be erected. There could be no general diffusion of medi- cal knowledge so long as an individual could not obtain the written works of his predecessors. The few manuscripts that existed could only be seen in a few libraries, and the greatest collections the ancients had ever made were burned by ignorant or fanatical invaders or rulers who knew nothing of their value. The Alexandrine Library was destroyed by Caesar's soldiers, and when the Arabs conquered Egypt a few centuries after, all that remained of classic literature in the city of the Ptolemies was burned by order of the sultan Amrou. (A. D. 640.) The Library founded by Constantine at Constantinople, contain- ing at least 300,000 volumes, including the works of Homer written in letters of gold on the entrails of serpents, was burned by order of Leo Isaurus the bigoted Emperor. The Vatican library of Rome was destroy- ed by Charles, Constable of Bourbon. In France the first Library was founded by King Charles V., who died in 1380. The 20 volumes be- queathed to him by his father were augmented by him to 700, and placed in the Louvre. Before printing was invented a manuscript was a precious treasure. A Latin breviary was kept in a few churches, enclosed in an iron cage. But little advance had been made in practical medicine since the time of Galen. Rhazes of the Arab Empire of Persia had described the small-pox and used some chemical remedies. He died A. D. 923. Avicenna followed him and died near 50 years later in the same city, (Bagdad). Averrhoes, of the Arabic capitol in Spain left a treatise on medicine at his death in 1206. His preceptor Avenzoar had made im- portant observations, and is said to have lived to the extreme age of 135. From this time no progress was made in science till the Turkish sultan Amurath II. took posession of Thessalonica in 1430. Theodore Gaza escaped from the captured city, carrying with him some valuable manuscripts, and reached Florence, where he was kindly received by the Medici family. From these manuscripts thus preserved, the stores of Grecian literature were gradually disseminated in Italy. But no new theories in medicine were promulgated till the time of Paracelsus. This man was born in Switzerland in 1493. Having made himself ac- 48 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. quainted with the old medical theories and chemical remedies, he travelled extensively, gathering up from all sources a knowledge of all the claims of empirics and quacks. Adopting the wildest theories of the alchemists, he boldly began the use of active remedies. With Mer- cury, Antimony, and Opium he appears to have effected some remark- able cures. These successful cases were displayed in the most pompous terms to all who consulted him. In 1527 he began lecturing in the university of Basel as the first professor of Chemistry in Europe. He now pretended to cure diseases by chemical remedies, burnt the works of the ancient authors Galen and Avicenna in solemn state, and profess- ed to have discovered a universal remedy which would cure all manner of diseases, and give to his followers immortal life and health. But his death, in 1541, at the age of 47, exposed his vanity and blasted all their hopes. Paracelsus was the first to give Mercury internally, though the sa- livation it causes when externally applied, had been known to Friar Theodoric in the 12th century. Though Paracelsus displayed human insolence, conceit, and insincerity, vanity as well as immorality in the most extravagant degree, he rendered important services to our race. He broke down the despotism of the schools and sects of his time, and in- troduced some valuable and powerful remedies. His example and teach- ings excited the envy of some, the emulation of others, and the industry of all. (Paris, Pharmac. Vol. l,p. 27.) At the same time that he wandered from place to place, generally intoxicated, seldom changing his clothes, or even going to bed, he was teaching fragments of truth which the world could not receive till the discoveries of four centuries should teach men how to use them. The great discovery of the Circulation of the Blood was the next step in the progress of discovery. Michael Servetus, (born in Arragon in 1509) was proceeding rapidly with the researches on this subject, when he was charged with heresy and arrested and imprisoned through the influence of John Calvin, the Reformer. When Servetus had com- pletely established the fact of the passage of the blood through the lungs, he happened to pass through Geneva; there Calvin procured his arrest, brought against him a charge of blasphemy and heresy; and Servetus was found guilty and burned at the stake (in 1553) with his books around him, to kindle the flames. The tract on the circulation was saved by one of the judges ; and was finally traced out by Dr. Sig- mond through Dr. Mead and the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel. The discovery rested for nearly three-fourths of a century. Twenty- five years after the death of Servetus, William Harvey was born in Kent, England. His education was prosecuted abroad and in England and his researches occupied his time for many years before any publi- cation of this theory of the circulation was made. In 1615 he was ap. HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 49 pointed lecturer on Anatomy and Surgery in London. In this position his new views which were soon to revolutionize all medical philosophy, became known (about 1619); but he fortified himself by every possible proof that the subject could admit of, before he published his first work on The Circulation in 1628. The publication of his theory brought upon him the most bitter opposition; some of his contemporaries condemned his doctrines as presenting an unjustifiable innovation, others declaring that it was no new discovery, but had been well known before. Though he lost popularity at the time of the publication ofliis discoveries, and his practice was diminished by it, he lived to see his opinions establish- ed in the scientific world ; he served as physician to James L, and after- wards to Charles I. He became President of the College of Physicians, and saw his bust placed in its hall before he died in 1658. The best edi- tion of his works is that of the College of Physicians published in 1666. At this period the powerful remedies introduced by Paracel- sus were still in the hands of quacks only: and Van Helmont who con- tracted the common itch in 1640, could not be cured by regular medi- cine, and had to resort to the quack remedy sulphur. In this century the French Parliament interdicted the use of Anti- mony as a medicine, and the Faculty of Paris not only forbade the employment of all chemical remedies, but would not even allow them > to be mentioned in theses, and examinations. In the same century, also, the discovery of the valves of the veins by Amatus Lusitanus was denied and ridiculed by the chief anatomists of the day. In 1615 Solomon de Caus, the discoverer of steam-power, was im- prisoned by Cardinal Richelieu in the Bicetre, and there he became a lunatic. Lord Worcester who visited him there, thus spoke to his keepers : " Misfortune and captivity have deprived him of reason ; you have made him mad, and when you threw him into that cell you shut up the greatest genius of the age." At this period the universities, which possessed the sole power of authorizing physicians to practice medicine, were mere ecclesiastical establishments. They taught very little, but persecuted all who at- tempted to learn anything not found in the writings of Galen. When a few men attempted to learn something of Surgery by observation and experience, they were persecuted by the regular Galenist priests; who, having been prohibited by the Pope from the practice of surgery, themselves gave secret lessons in this branch to their barber servants ; and these last became the Barber Surgeons. At this time hot irons, hot oil, and hot pitch were applied to wounds to stop bleeding; and Guy de Chauliac,' asserting that it was better to let a limb drop off by sphacelation than to amputate it, compressed the limb with pitch plasters to compel it to mortify. Ambrose Pare saw the bad results of such practice, and invented the mode of arresting the bleeding by You l—4. 50 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. tying the arteries, and curing the wound by mild dressings. But this discovery, though worth more to humanity than all the improvements made by the routine followers of Galen in a thousand years, was not permitted to be published; and Pare was so cruelly persecuted for pretending to innovate upon Regular Medicine that he was compelled, for his own safety, to adduce garbled and incorrect extracts from the old authors to prove that his discoveries were made by them, and not by himself. The establishment of the important fact of the circulation of the blood did not, for a long period after its truth was admitted, produce all the advantages that might have been expected from it. For the phy- siologists of that day, in reasoning upon the powers by which this phenomenon, as well as others of the animal frame was accomplished, unfortunately took hold of the mechanical philosophy as their guide ; and the explanation of every function was immediately attempted ac- cording to the law of projectiles; the system was speedily pushed so far that it destroyed itself by the absurdity to which it was carried. The first English physician who introduced important improvements in medical practice was Thomas Sydenham, born in 1624. After graduating at Cambridge he commenced practice in Westminster. De- voting his attention to the study of febrile diseases, and finding ample opportunities in an extensive practice, after six years experience he published in 1666 his great work "Methodus Curandi Febres" To this work he afterwards added the experience of nine subsequent years ; and the whole of it displays the most careful observation of nature and the effects of remedies. In the treatment of small-pox he first introdu- ced the method of checking the eruptive fever by means of cool air and other antiphlogistic means, by which he found that the eruption and subsequent danger were diminished ; and the same practice has been since applied to other eruptive and febrile diseases. In the accurate histories he has left behind him of small-pox, measles, gout, hysteria, and some other diseases ; in his close discrimination between the dif- ferent varieties of the febrile maladies as they disclosed, in different seasons, and different years, peculiar epidemic constitutions of the atmosphere ; Sydenham surpassed all his predecessors, from Hippo- crates to his own time : and he has still maintained his rank as the first practitioner of his own country. He died in 1689. His work displays all the elements of a master mind, and will be referred to in all future time by the student who is ambitious to measure all the depths of the human intellect.—(Gooch, Diseas. Fern. &c. 1832.) Regular Medicine lays claim to all the accidental discoveries made by men who do not pretend to be making their voyages of discovery under her authority. The discoveries of Peruvian-bark,*Vaccination Io- dine, and Lemon-juice against scurvy, were made by accident. Peruvian- HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 51 bark was discovered by the Indians of South America, and was first brought to Spain in 1632. It remained in Spain seven years before it was tried by Alcala an ecclesiastic in 1639. The medical profession was roused to fury by the introduction of this substance into popular practice. This remedy was not brought into the profession through the portals of the college; and the new discovery, says Bouillaud, had to be "baptized in tribulation." The physicians of Oliver Cromwell allowed him to die of ague rather than ad- minister the hated specific. In the same century the president of the College of Physicians committed Dr. Groenvelt to Newgate, for daring to prescribe Cantharides internally. Sydenham was followed by the great medical philosopher Boerhaave, who led the way to many important reforms both in theory and practice. He was born in Holland in 1668. After thoroughly studying the works of Hippocrates and Sydenham, he commenced making a selec- tion from all the ancient and modern authors ; and from these materials he constructed a new theory of Medicine, which was so well adapted to the existing state of science, and so ably explained and defended by its author, that it was generally adopted throughout Europe, and rendered its author a commanding authority for more than half a century. After several years devoted to teaching other branches he was appointed to the professorship of the practice of Medicine at Leyden in 1715. His lectures on this subject, on Chemistry and Botany rapidly extended his fame. Students flocked to him from all countries, until the little city of Leyden, which had so suddenly become the Medical Metropolis of the world, could scarcely furnish accom- modations for the votaries of science drawn together by the genius of Boerhaave. He died in 1737, and his fellow-citizens erected an ele- 'gant monument to his memory. His theory of the origin of diseases from acrimony, lentor, or other morbid changes in the fluids of the body, has long since been so far modified by later discoveries that it can scarcely be recognized in the form in which it appears in the medical writings of the present day. Hoffmann of Saxony was contemporary with Boerhaave. Appoint- ed by the first King of Prussia Professor of Medicine at Berlin, he in- troduced to the public through his lectures and his " System of Ra- tional Medicine," (a work which cost him the labor of twenty years,) an important modification of the humoral pathology. He has the merit of first directing the attention of physicians to the morbid affections of the nervous system, instead of framing mere mechanical or chemical theories ; he laid the foundation of the spasmodic hypothesis, by resolv- ing the origin of all diseases into a universal atony, or a universal spasm in the primary moving powers of the system. This theory still holds its place in modifying modern theories and practice. It was 52 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. this doctrine, combined with that of Stahl, from which Cullen selected the materials of that theory which can not yet be said to be entirely superseded by any more recent system. The popularity of Monro hav- ing made Edinburgh the chief centre of attraction for medical students, Cullen was appointed to a professorship there in 1756, and became at once a leading spirit in the profession. The humoral pathology had governed medical practice ; though vague notions had been disseminat- ed by Stahl, of the controlling power over the noxious disease- causing agencies, that was ever exerted by the internal rational soul, which resided within the animal economy and directed all its operations. The genius of Cullen seized upon the two prominent ideas of Hoffmann and Stahl and blended them into one harmonious system. His most important work: "The First Lines of the Practice of Physic," in four volumes octavo, published in 1784 revolutionized the theories and prac- tice of the profession. Though, controverted by Brown and Darwin, in his own time, the theories of Cullen have never been entirely exploded. Medicine had thus reached a proud position among the sciences at the close of the eighteenth century. It was already established in the public mind as the most sublime, the most comprehensive, and the most useful of all the departments of human knowledge, and was cultivated with enthusiasm by a vast number of men of the highest order of mind in both hemispheres. In the medical schools of Europe and.America new doctrines and new discoveries were being successively announced, such as never entered into the imagination of the wisest of ancient sages. Just at this time a new theory, which seemed to set at nought all the accumulated wisdom of ages, was proclaimed to the world by a phy- sician of Germany. In 1790 Samuel Hahnemann, then residing at Leipzig, was employed in translating Cullen's Materia Medica ; and was dissatisfied with the explanation given by that author of the anti-febrile powers of the Peruvian-bark. He determined to discover by experiment on him- self, what were the real properties of the bark. He took it in consider- able quantities, while in perfect health, and found that it produced an ague, similar to the intermittent marsh fever. This remarkable fact was treasured up in the memory of Hahnemann, until its great value and significance could be rendered appreciable in the light elicited by further observations and discoveries. Hahnemann was a native of the little town of Meissen, on the Elbe near Dresden, in Saxony, born April 10th, 1755. His father, who was a painter on porcelain, enjoined the son to avoid all the liberal pro- fessions. But the youth managed to evade his father's injunctions by secretly contriving for himself a midnight lamp; and by its aid he was able to gratify his intellectual longing for knowledge, while the members of the household were asleep. His assiduity excited the admiration of HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 53 the school-master, and the aspiring boy was advised to pursue a more intellectual vocation than his father had designed for him. The father was displeased, and placed him in a position where mental improvement was more difficult. But he was at length moved by the solicitation of the teacher, to permit the latter to direct his son's studies, which he did till young Samuel reached the age of 20 years. (Dudgeon's In- troductory lecture.) He now began his medical studies at Leipzig, where he supported himself by translating French and German works into English. From Leipzig he went to Vienna, where he studied under the direction of Dr. Von Quarin, who treated him with the great- est kindness. He graduated at the university of Erlangen in 1779, on which occasion he defended a dissertation, " Conspectus Affectuum Spasmodicorum." He had already served Baron von Briickenthal, governor of Transylvania, for some years in the capacity of physician and librarian. He now commenced practice at Mansfeld, but soon re- moved to Dessau, and afterwards to Magdeburg. After some years in practice, he published his first medical work, giving an account of his practice in Transylvania. In this work he honestly confesses, that me- dical experience was unsatisfactory; and admits that most of his patients would have fared better if left without any treatment at all. He had now practiced his profession eight years; and he says he had bestowed the most "conscientious attention" on his patients. And he had only "learned the delusive nature of the ordinary methods of treatment." He determined to relinquish the office of physician ; as he said "it was painful" to him to "grope in the dark, guided only by books in the sick-room, to prescribe according to this or that (fanciful) view of the nature of the disease, substances that owe to mere opinion their place in the " Materia Medica." " I had," says he, " conscientious scruples about treating unknown morbid states in my suffering fellow creatures with these unknown medicines; which, being powerful sub- stances, may, if they be not exactly suitable, change life into death, or produce new affections, or chronic ailments, which are often much more difficult to remove than the original disease;" " and how is the physician to know whether they are suitable or not, seeing that their peculiar special modes of action are not yet elucidated ?" " To become in this way the murderer or the aggravator of the sufferings of my brethren of mankind, was to me a fearful thought—so fearful and distressing was it, that shortly after my marriage, I abandoned the practice and scarce- ly treated any one for fear of doing him harm," and "occupied myself chiefly with chemistry and literary labors."—(Hahnemann's letters on the necessity of a regeneration of Medicine. 1808.) In chemistry his talents found a wide field for successful exercise, and in the course of a few years prior to 1790 he published some valuable tests for ascertaining the purity of wine, and a treatise on 54 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. Arsenic, which is still referred to by the ablest writers, as a work of great originality and scientific accuracy ; and Dr. Christison quotes the account of poisoning by Arsenic. Berzelius admitted the claims of Hahnemann to distinction as a chemist. In 1789 he was settled in Leipzig and published a medical report of some forms of disease which he had treated with success; and here he described his method of preparing "soluble Mercury." The next year he made the first step towards the discovery which was in future to infuse a regenerating influence into the whole science of Medicine. His first conception of the Homoeopathic law of cure, says Dr. Hen- derson, was not reached by the inductive method, nor has any other great discovery ever been made in that manner. " Lord Bacon's method was never tried by anybody but himself." Bacon himself once attempt- ed to form a new theory of heat by gathering up all the facts he could find that had any bearing on the subject. He then tried to arrange them into a theory by placing them in tables ; and, grouping them ac- cording to various methods, "he cross-questioned them in every possible way, and could educe no general law from them, for nature thus inter- rogated was silent; a "memorable instance of the absurdity of attempt- ing to fetter discovery by any artificial rules." (Brewster's Life of Newton)—Hahnemann's mode of proceeding was very different. Hav ing abandoned the practice, he still reflected on the possibility of find ing some more successful mode of treating disease. Is it, said he, " the nature of the art that it should not be possible touring it to any greater certainty ?" Shameful, blasphemous thought. Shall it be said that the wisdom of the Eternal Spirit could not produce remedies to allay the sufferings from the diseases he allows to arise ?" He thought there must yet be some "easy, sure, trust-worthy method," by which we might learn the effects of medicines, " as to what they are really, surely, and positively serviceable for." "The alterations which medicines cause on the healthy body do not occur in vain: they must signify something, else why should they occur ? What if these altera- tions have an important, an extremely important signification ? What if this be the only utterance whereby these substances can impart in- formation to the observer, respecting the end of their being ? " " How do medicines effect what they do in disease except by their power to alter the healthy body ? Certainly in this way alone the effects can occur." "It follows, then, that the medicine among whose symptoms these characteristics of the given case of disease occur in the most complete manner, must most certainly have the power of curing that disease * in like manner that a morbid state which a certain medicinal a^ent is capable of curing, must correspond to the symptoms these medicinal substances are capable of producing in the healthy body. In a word HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 00 medicines must only have the power of curing diseases similar to those they produce in the healthy body, and only manifest such morbid actions as they are capable objuring in disease!" Such were the reasonings f Hahnemann in the day when, through the inspiration of a highly illuminated intellect, he had grasped the outline form of that great Law of Cure which was in future to recon- struct the healing art; but which the world could not receive until it should be demonstrated by an amount of evidence that had never before been demanded for the establishment of any doctrine in physical science. Like Newton, meditating the -tremendous problem of At- traction, he knew that his clairvoyant mind had seized upon one of the commonest facts, with which all men were familiar, and had "borne hiro. away to conclusions that common minds never would have reach- ed." But Hahnemann felt from the first a deep conviction that his first conjecture embodied an ever-living truth, and that his self-evident reasonings must be true also. "If all this be not true," said he, "how was it that those violent tertian and quotidian fevers which I completely cured, four or six weeks ago, (without knowing how the cure was effected,) by means of a few drops of tincture of bark, should present almost exactly the same array of symptoms that I observed in myself yesterday and to-day, after gradually taking, while in perfect health, four drachms of good Cinchona-bark by way of experiment." Other men had developed intermittent fever by giving bark as a remedy for some other condition which they did not understand. Hahnemann alone possessed penetration enough to perceive that the disease caused by Cinchona was the very same disease that it was capable of curing: and that the remedy, both in causing and curing disease must be governed by some higher law than was yet known to men of science. He felt assured that the Being who created the universe must be the wisest and most benevolent of all beings; and that "there must somewhere exist a principle" through which the powers of the remedies he had created could be rendered available for the promotion of the happiness of "His best loved creatures." (See Henderson, p. 119. Through successive steps the one idea of curing disease upon the simple principle of Hike by like," took possession of his mind ; but extensive and varied experience could alone demonstrate to the outer senses of men in an age of materialism, the truth of Homoeopathy ; though that truth was clearly embodied in his own mind in the aphorism "Similia Similibus Curantur." To attain that precise know ledge which experiment can only give, he tested the powers of useful remedies, deadly poisons, and articles hitherto believed to be inert; he tried them on himself, his patients, and then on his friends ; and he found that they all possessed powers new and hitherto unsuspected. 56 HISTORY of medicine. His experiments often resulted in astonishing cures; but difficulties, such as the advocates of revolutionizing truths always meet, and such as no reformer ever before met, obstructed his path, and persecution, poverty, and the dark clouds ©f adverse- gathered around him. To carry out his own principles it became necessary that he should pre- pare his own medicines; and in doing this he was compelled to set at defiance that ancient law of Germany that restricted the preparation of medicines to the apothecaries; public sentiment and tradition erected tremendous barriers in the way of any man who dared to set at nought the wisdom of the wise, and threatened to scatter to the Avinds the counsels of the learned. In 1792 Hahnemann was requested by the reigning duke of Saxe Gotha to take charge of an asylum for the insane in Georgenthal, in the Thuringian forest. Among the patients treated by him at that time was the Hanoverian minister Klockenburg, who had been rendered insane by a satirical epigram of Kotzebue; the successful treatment of this case by Hahnemann created some sensation; and from his report of it, published in 1796, it appears that he, in that first case, instituted the system of treating the insane by mildness instead of coercion. He says: "I never allow any insane person to be punished by blows or painful corporeal inflictions, since there can be no punishment where there is no sense of responsibility; and, since such patient can not be improved, but must be rendered worse by such rough treatment." It is believed that this is the first announcement of the modern doctrine which directs the moral treatment of the insane; though it was in that same year (1792), that the illustrious Pinel made his first experiment by unchaining the most furious maniac in the Bicetre at Paris; and, by treating him as a man and a friend, succeeded in restoring him to reason. But is was not by discovering new modes of curing any one disease, but by the initiation of a radical doctrine that was to revolutionize the treatment of all diseases that Hahnemann had aroused the attention as well as the hostility of medical men. To maintain the ground he claimed, and establish his doctrines on the basis of accumulated experience and facts, was the work of many painful years. In 1795 he established himself in Konigslutter where he remained till 1799 During this time he published his "Friend to Health, a popular miscellany his Pharmaceutic Lexicon; his Essay on a new principle for ascertaining the remedial powers of medicinal substances." (Hufeland's Journal 1796) and other works on the absurdity of complex prescriptions and regimen in the treatment of febrile and periodical diseases. In 1800 the sc-irlet fever prevailed extensively in Germany, and it was at this time'th-it Hahnemann discovered the prophylactic power of Belladonna in averting this disease. For a long series of years he was depressed by poverty •HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 57 and driven from one town of Germany to another by the persecutions of physicians and apothecaries. In 1803 he was Without a fixed resi- dence; and, though -he had reached the age of forty-eight years, and had been styled by Hufeland r one of the most distinguished physicians of Germany," he felt himself a stranger in every corner of his native land. At one time engaged in writing a new book; at another experi- menting on himself with a new remedy. Then, gathering up his family, his books and his medicines, he flies again before his enemies; and was at one time detained six weeks on the road by the turning over of his wagon, by which a limb of one of his children was fractured. In 1803 he published a work on the injurious effects of coffee, as it was then used. After practicing for brief periods at difierent places in the north of Germany, in 1805 he published "Esculapius in the Balance," and " The Medicine of Experience." In the same year, Napoleon the First applied to the French academy to know if concen- trated steam, according to Fulton's process, could propel a vessel? The question was answered by a burst of laughter, and the emperor was extremely mortified for having shown his ignorance. "The same body of philosophers rejected the proposition to light buildings by gas, as an impossibility: and a few years ago Mr. Arago was received with bursts of contemptuous laughter, when he wanted to speak of an electric tele- graph,—his learned confreres declaring the idea to be perfectly Utopian." In 1808, Hahnemann wrote to Hufeland his celebrated "Letter on the urgent necessity for a reform in medicine," in which he said: "I cannot resist the desire I feel to unveil to the public the convictions that now possess me. For eighteen years, I have wandered from the beaten track of medicine. It was a punishment to me to grope always in obscurity when called to wrestle with disease, and to prescribe medi- cinal agents which had at least an arbitrary place in the materia medica." In 1810, while residing at Torgau, he wrote his " Organon- der rationellen Heilkunde," which was published »at Dresden the same year. At the same time he established himself in Leipzig: and,in order to obtain the privileges of a physician in that city, he defended his thesis, De Helleborismo Veterum, in 1812. From this time till 1821 Hahnemann was actively engaged in defending his new system of medicine, in teaching it, and in enlarging its domains by new researches. In 1819 he published an improved edition of his Organon, which was further improved in a third edition, translated into French, English, and Italian, 1824. Homoeopathy was introduced into Italy by the surgeons of the Austrian army, when they entered Naples in 1821. But all the rising prospects of the reformer only strengthened the hostility of his enemies. The law which prohi- 58 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. bited physicians from preparing their own medicines still existed; and Hahnemann, who could neither find his medicines already prepared, nor find apothecaries, who would obey his instructions, was compelled to violate it. A formidable combination of interested persons demanded of the government the enforcement of its own absurd statute, and Hahnemann the founder, the first apostle and, martyr of homoeo- pathy, could no longer remain in the city which was in future to erect a monument to ask posterity to excuse the wrong she had inflicted on her noblest benefactor. Driven from Leipzig, Hahnemann found an asylum at Anhalt-Cothen, where Prince Frederick offered him pro- tection. Here he was permitted to practise his profession without fear of apothecaries, though his enemies circulated false statements, to prejudice the people against him. In 1828 he completed his great work on "Chronic Diseases," in five volumes; and its publication was followed by other smaller works, since collected in two volumes, under the title of "Minor Writings," 1829 to 1834. In the work on " Chronic Diseases," he announced and explained his theory of the origin of a great number of the most inveterate forms of disease. He says, that the majority of the cases known as palsies, asthmas, dyspepsias, con- sumptions, headaches, epilepsies, vertigoes, &c, are caused by the presence of a morbid matter or miasm existing in the body. When it comes to the skin, it produces, some of the obstinate cutaneous affections, known as, leprosies, milk-crusts, scald heads, ring-worms, itch, herpes, pustules, &c. The term Psora, he employed as a general designation, not of itch, but of all the constitutional hereditary affections described by other authors under the head of psoric or dys- crasic diseases. In 1831, at the age of 76, whem epidemic cholera had excited the alarm of all the nations of Europe, Hahnemann examined the symptoms of the disease, as reported by those who had seen it, and predicted the remedies that would be found most successful in its treatment. His directions were printed and circulated; and their value and accuracy are attested by the general success of his disciples in the treatment of cholera asiatica. The first public hospital and school for the advancement of homoeo- pathy was established at Leipzig, and there the theory and practice of the new system of medicine continues to be taught. When Hahnemann saw old age advancing upon him, he had the gra- tification of knowing, that he had not lived and labored in vain; but that his doctrines had been accepted by some of the progressive minds in all the countries of Europe, and by many in other parts of the world Approaching the age of seventy years, he said: "I have paid no regard to either ingratitude or persecutions in the course of my life, which. HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 59 although toilsome, has not been without satisfaction, on account of the grandeur of the end I had in view." " The grandeur of the end he had in view," was rapidly unfolding itself, when these words were spoken; and it has continued to expand with increasing splendor as successive years have passed away. His wife, who had witnessed and shared his trials and sufferings, without understanding him or sympathizing with him in the greatest of them, lived to see his fame safely established; and then died in 1830. At this time his writings had made his discoveries and successful practice known far from the city in which he had been almost imprisoned by the narrow prejudices of the people. In 1835 Mile. Melanie d'Her- villy, of an ancient noble family of France, visited Hahnemann at Cothen; and so thoroughly did she comprehend the greatness of the man and his discoveries, that she became one of his most distinguished pupils. At a later period she was united to him by marriage; and, ob- taining from M. Guizot, then at the head of the cabinet of Louis Phi- lippe of France, the privilege for her husband of practicing his pro- fession in Paris, she induced him to remove to that city. The royal ordinance granting this permission, was dated August 31,1835, and from that time till his death, Hahnemann was engaged in practice at Pari.-. In 1843 he had reached the age of eighty-nine, but his intellect waj still clear; his habits of constant and patient observation made it ;; pleasure to note the symptoms of disease; and his ever-glowing bene- volence inspired him with an ever-burning zeal in the cause of science and humanity. " He was," says Hering, "a true man without falsity, candid and open as a child. When the last fatal hour had struck for the sublime old man, who had preserved his vigor almost to his last moments; then it Avas the heart of his consort, who had made his last years the brightest of his life, Avas at the point of breaking. "Why shouldst thou," she said, "who hast alleviated so much suffering, suffer in thy last hour? Providence should have allotted thee a painless death ?" Then he raised his voice, as he had often done when he exhorted his disciples to hold fast to the great principles of homoeopathy: "Why should I have been thus distinguished? Each of us should here attend to the duties Avhich God has imposed upon him. Although man may honor, more or less, yet no one has any merit. God owes nothing to me. I to Him owe all," With these words he took leave of the world, his friends, and his foes." As devoted admirers of the genius of Hahnemann we are still de- sirous to do no injustice to any other benefactor of our race. It will not be claimed, that the last victory of science had been Avon Avhen the founder of homoeopathy closed his eyes near the gardens of the Luxem- bourg. But, Avhile we admit that important discoATcries have been made by others which prepared the Avay for a higher unfolding of the prin- 60 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. ciples on which disease originates and may be removed, Ave must still claim the precise discovery made by Hahnemann, as that which of all others, the Avorld most needed in the nineteenth century. Already the lightning had been drawn from the clouds, and all the properties of all the elements of the atmosphere had been examined with great accuracy. All the sciences, that sought to subdue the various king- doms of the physical world had announced a succession of splendid victories; and strong impulses were moving in minds of a high order to stir them up to search for the laws that ruled, and the causes and prin- ciples which operated in some higher sphere, above the mere physical. There were men enough employed in constructing the winding path- way by which the hill-tops might reached; the world needed a commanding genius, who, "seeing the towering, distant tops of thoughts, that men of common stature never saw," could at once ascend to the point where the labors of other men were designed to end; and from that point take his "flight sublime" towards the brighter region that encircled the mountain top. It may not be necessary here to at- tempt to prove, that Hahnemann alone was capable of meeting the want of his age. In his mind, says Dr. Henderson, a conspicuous feature was one common to the German mind, which "is impatient of ignorance where knowledge is impossible, most eager and enterprising, where the dark- ness is the thickest," and must trust to the wings of conjecture more than the solid footing of observation for reaching the goal at which it aims. Without it the Homoeopathic Law would have floated through the world a 'viewless spirit,' and the extreme poAvers of attenuated me- dicines would have never been discovered. The literary labors of Hahnemann extended over a wide field of labor, embracing more than seventy different works on chemistry and medicine, some of which were large volumes. He also translated about twenty-four works from the English, French, Italian, and Latin, on chemistry, medicine, agriculture, and general literature. His philosophical principles ; re thus given in Dr. CI. Mutter's Festival Speech, 9th April, at the Celebration of the 106th Anniversary of Hahnemann's birth, Leipzig;—Homoeo- pathy itself is "especially based on the peculiar observation of the dynamic element in the phenomena of life. Thus, far, from con- sidering the organic life in its various aspects of health, disease, even the medical art, and the effect of medicines on the organism as che'mico- mechanical processes, instead of these, homoeopathy recognized therein the exclusive dominion of a peculiar power which is subject neither to the mechanical nor chemical laws, viz., the vital power; and the laws by which this operates are also her own. Thus not the mass—not the material as such, but only so far as it is vividly penetrated by this power, and thereby brought under the dominion of the laws of vitality is HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 6^ is it the object of her investigation and the scope of her efforts. Hahne- mann in his Organon (5th Edit. § 9, &c.) expressly recognizes an in- dependent vital power (autocracy) which in the healthy state of man as spiritual, rules to an unlimited extent over the living power of the material bo^dy, and keeps all its parts in a wonderfully harmonious tenor of sensation and activity, so that our indwelling rational spirit can employ itself for the higher objects of our existence, independent of this living instrument." The material organism, considered apart from vital poAver, is capable of no perception, no activity, no self-support: it is only the immaterial that imparts to the former all its perception, and executes its vital action, whether in the healthy or diseased condition of the quickening principle. In disease, it is originally only the A'ital power that is mor- bidly out of tune, and expresses its suffering (the internal change) by abnormal states of the sensations and activities of the organism. The suffering of this diseased vital power, and the morbid power, and the morbid symptoms thereby originated, are an inseparable totality—one and the same thing. It is only through the psychical influence of the morbific evils that our psychical vital power can become diseased; and thus also it is only by the psychical " dynamic" operation of medicines that it can be restored to health. This recognition of a purely dynamic efficacy in the medicines, led Hahnemann to his theory of " potencies," inasmuch as it brought him to the conclusion, that, by a systematic attenuation (which at first he adopted merely to avoid undesirable primary and secondary action) combined with succussion, the dynamic curative powers would be exalted, and so in a manner the effect would be more powerful and free from interference." Hahnemann as a philosopher was an opponent, aye, the very antipode of the modern system of materialism. This system of philosophy, which is the dominant one of modern times, is " founded on the consideration of force and matter alone ; and, by virtue of and in conformity to these, of the existing and working aggregate of the external world. It is based conclusively on the re- cognition that force and matter presented inseparably one with the other, keep at work incessantly according to stringent laws; and that the immense universe, with the immense riches of its incessantly changing forms, and with the full machinery of its mighty restless movement, is only a possible and positive fact, on the supposition of and in conformity to the operation of force and matter. Its leading principle is to take as a starting-point for the discovery of results nothing whatever but "what— 1. Each one either knows assuredly by nature, or learns by observation. 2. Relatively, Avhat the collective body of savans receives as posi- tively attested and established by observation; and. 62 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 3. Under all circumstances, what the rational, impartial, unprejudiced mind must consider as true." (See Pere Buffier "Sur les premieres Verites."—See Fletcher's Physiology of Pathology.) The Avhole theory of Hahnemann may be termed nothing but the corrollary of that of John Brown. For while the Brunonian doctrine of the cure of indirect debility by stimulants is unimpeachable in the main, yet it fails in particular instances from disregard of the special character of the stimulus in both causing and curing the particular disease. Here Hahnemann steps in and supplies the missing link, and it noAV becomes clear not only how a stimulus can cure an inflammation that it could cause, but also why it is not any stimulus, but only one of a special character that will do so. We see that this character must be very similar to that of the stimulus which in other circum- stances would produce inflammation. (Mutter.) The leading minds of the medical profession, who preceded Hahne- mann, employed their highest powers in constructing general theories which should render close observation unnecessary. The grand object of pursuit has been a comprehensive theory of disease and of practice which shall " bind together the scattered facts of medical knowledge, and converge into one point of Ariew the laws of organic life." It has been believed that such a theory " would on many accounts contribute to the interest of society, that it would capacitate men of moderate abilities to practice the art of healing Avith real advantage to the public ; it would enable every one of literary acquirements to distinguish the genuine disciples of medicine from those of boastful effrontery and art- ful address ; and would teach mankind in some of the most important situations, the knowledge of themselves."* This great desideratum of the medical philosophers Avas never realized, and the eighteenth century closed with the dawning light of the discoveries of Hahnemann, the im- portance of which was not yet appreciated by himself. Other medical discoveries of that period are still spoken of now Avith admiration, though not then so received by the profession. Jenner who had not really discovered the preservative power of the vaccine disease against the the small-pox, but who appropriated a discovery which he had heard of in Gloucestershire thirty years before, was lampooned, and ridiculed and contemptuously excluded from the honors and privileges of the college of physicians, merely for advocating before the public the truth of a principle which had been known for ages before. Of other discoveries of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries we shall not now undertake to give the history. The principal improvements in the science of medicine made during the nineteenth century have grown out of the researches of anatomists * Darwin's Zoonomia. HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 63 and pathologists. Bichat, of whom Corvisart said " no one had done so much in so short a time, and done it so well," announced his dis- coveries and died at the beginning of the century. The old theories of humoralism and solidism have since been often exploded and again revived. As modified by Hamilton, the former was introduced into England by Abernethy. The two united formed the basis of the sys- tems of Pinel, Broussais, and later names which have receded before the improvements in microscopic pathology and chemistry. Pinel occupied the highest places of medicine ; a chair at the faculty clinique, at the hospital, a seat at the institute, at the academy, titles, decorations, &c. &c. All dreAV their inspiration from him; books, pamphlets, journals, official and other courses were but reflections of the nosography, so styled, philosophical. In the sight of these philosophers the medical problem was stated in the terms: Given a ma- lady / to determine itsplace in a nosographic category. (HArt Med.) "And with the calm security of a conscience at peace witl* itself, they ticketed, they described diseases as objects of natural history; after which, these were neatly pinned each in its case, like a butterfly or a beetle upon its cork, and the savans slept soundly. If some patient, obtuse towards the perfections of nosology insisted on being cured, they silenced the impertinent, and snored on louder than before. " Things went on thus during fifteen years, when suddenly appeared upon the horizon " L'Examen" of Broussais, a book which made a pro- digious stir, and created a stampede in the Pinelist Camp. " Broussais, henceforth master of the battle-field, over-ran, ploughed and harrowed it for the reception of his new doctrines. He held forth that— " There is no specificity in diseases, in their causes, nor in medicines. "Every disease is the cry of a suffering organ; which one, we must ascertain. " There are but two diseases, inflammation and sub-inflammation; and of these two, the second only serves pro memoriam, and as a di- verticulum. The clinical problem is reduced to this : "Where must we place the leeches, and how many leeches must we place V,—(PMontpettier Medical, 1860.) Matters were thus beautifully simplified, and indeed the practice was simpler than this: for as gastritis constituted the immense majority of maladies, if you did but prescribe an application of leeches to the epi- gastrium, you had but one chance in a thousand against you. It Avas magnificent. " All the acute diseases,—fevers, exanthems : all the chronic diseases —dermatoses, gout, gravel, neuroses, &c,—all these were gastrites 01 gastro-enterites, and all were treated by leeches and diet. Ah! the 61 HISTORY* OF MEDICINE. diet, sir, was an admirable thing. What disease could have resisted a diet, more or less absolute in its severity, prolonged during weeks, dur- ing AAThole months ? "It is related that a patient once sought Broussais, complaining, " Doctor, your regimen fatigues me to the last degree ; the diet is kill- ing me ; I am literally dying of hunger." Broussais reflected a moment, then said, "Well, you carniverous animal! I will content you." And he allowed him a teaspoonful of broth in a glass of.water.' The medical system of Broussais was only fitted to amuse the pro- fession for a few short years, when there came from St. Petersburg another giant in the person of M. Louis; a man of immense genius, if, as Buffon has affirmed, genius were only patience ; M. Louis, armed with several thousand brute facts, which he calls observations, bravely flings them at the head of the colossus of Val the Grace, and at one Woav fells it to the ground. Broussais, after making a few imperfect experiments in homoeopathy on others, tried it on himself with partial benefit; but his friends objected, and he went back to his leeches and died. The system constructed upon the bloody ruins of the temple of Broussais consists in the employment of the senses rather than of the in- tellect. To observe is simply to take account of all that strikes the external senses ; to observe and count " how many times in a hundred or a thousand cases a certain symptom has occurred; and deduce the average. As to therapeutics, the study of signs, of indications, the determination of medical constitutions—all that is suppressed ; we may employ, ad libitum, the first remedy at hand," no matter what may be the nature of the disease; and then it only remains to count on your fingers how many die, and how many get well under the influence of such or such a remedy. Indeed the game of goose is algebra beside such therapeutics! " Your school," said d'Amador, " has devised a new method. You count facts and pretend to appreciate their value by their number; you add, divide, subtract; and Avith candid simplicity ibelieve that you are perfecting the methods of art." Thus the operation of the senses and statistics comprize the whole of medicine for M. Louis. Accordingly M. Bouilland bleeds his pa- tients, while M. Delarocque evacuates them excessively upwards and downwards, M. Piedagnel inundates them Avith warm water. M. Stein- brenncr swells them out with cold water, M. Magendie gorges them with punch, M. Serre with mercury, M. Petit Avith bark, M. Broca with quinine, Mr. A. Barthez with alum, others Atith asses' milk, others again with alcohol; Avhile some, like M. Andral, do nothing at all •__and each boasts of his successes, invoking statistics, that lady of good help who sets every body in the right.—(HMontpellier Medical.) The more rigid observers of nature now cultivating the wide fields GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. 65 of pathology have abandoned the effort to construct a true theory by counting and averaging partially observed facts. In nature, says M. Bernard, " there never Avas, nor will be, such an anomaly as an average. Every thing is the absolute and certain result of fixed and definite causes. Alter these in any Avay, eA-en to the least degree, and the re- sults vary accordingly, and in a fixed and certain proportion. She knoAvs no medium, she knows nothing but a unit; and this unit is a combination of facts, varying in each, and the originating results vary- ing correspondingly—experimentation, therefore, and the accumulation of facts, can alone furnish us with the key to her enigmas—and each fact is valuable, just in proportion as all its conditions are accurately as- certained, and in that proportion only; and in collecting these facts we should be careful not to alloAV " preconceived ideas" to become " fixed ideas." The former are necessary, indispensable : we can do nothing without them; we should only knoAV hoAV to abandon them when they are no longer right. The preconceived idea is always interrogative ; it addresses the question to nature, and calmly awaits the answer; ceasing to question when this is received, and adopting the fact with the same readiness, whether opposed to, or in accordance with itself." GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. The present position of allopathic medicine must be ascertained by asking the opinions of its standard authors. A few of these may be permitted to speak for the profession: Prof. Christison of the University of Edinburgh, addressing a class of graduates thus speaks of thera- peutics ; " It is of all the medical sciences the most unsettled and un- satisfactory in its present state, and the least advanced in its progress." (Edin. Monthly Journ. Med. Sciences. Sept. 1851.) In an address delivered before the British Medical Association at Edinburgh in 1858, he said: " Therapeutics considered as a branch, whether of medical science or medical art, and compared Avith the other branches of medicine, fundamentally and practically is in a backward and unsatisfactory con- dition. It is not enough to admit that for a good many years past we can neither point to a single great authority, nor to a single plausible or generally admitted theory as to the action of remedies, but even our therapeutical facts must be alloAved to be too often scanty, vague, or insecurely founded."—(Lancet, Aug. 7, 1858.) Dr. Headland of London, author of the essay on the action of me- dicines, Avhen reviewing the relative operations of the various branches of medical science, says : "For the proper perfection of medicine as a rational science, two things are in the main needed: the first is, a right understanding of the causes and symptoms of disease ;—the second, a Vol. I—5. 06 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. correct knowledge of the action of remedies. Should our acquaintance with these two subjects be complete, we should then be able to do all that man could by any possibility effect in the alleviation of human suffer- ing. This sublime problem is already being unravelled at one end. Diagnosis and nosology are making rapid strides : and perhaps we shall soon know what we have to cure. But at the other end, our medical system is in a less satisfactory condition; and though some impatient men have essayed to cut the gordian knot, and have declared boldly on subjects of Avhich they were entirely ignorant; yet it must be con- fessed, that in the understanding of the action of medicines and of their agency in the cure of diseases Ave do not so much excel our ancestors. While other sciences are moving and other inquiries are rapidly advan- cing, this subject, so momentous in its applications, has in spite of the earnest labors of a feAv talented investigators, made after all, but small progress." The late Dr. Adams of Banchory, who was said to be the most learned man in the profession during the last half century, said: '* NoAV-a-days we haA'e abandoned all general rules of practice, and pro- fess to be guided solely by experience. But variable and uncertain have been its results! I myself—though but verging towards the de- cline of life—can well remember the time Avhen a physician would have run the risk of being indicted for culpable homicide if he had ventured to bleed a patient in common fever; about twenty-five years ago, vene- section in fever and in almost every disease was the established order of the day; and now, what shall I state is general practice that has been sanctioned by the experience of the present generation ? I can scarcely say;—so variable has the practice in fever and in many other diseases become of late years." There is a Avidely-spreading skepticism in all the old systems of medicine. Such questions as the folloAving- are continually rising: "Is there such a thing as therapeutic science? Is the world considered as one complex individual, advancing more and more toAvards maturity in medical knowledge?" Some really believe that the controversies and sects are incapable of settlement: and that whilst "old divisions continue for ages, new ones arise to increase the distraction of the human mind." To many, no doubt, the claims of homoeopathy will still continue to be classed as one of the multitude. Dr. Oesterlen (Medical Logic, Sydenham Edition, p. 238) says: "If we bring to the bedside of the same patient, a disciple of Brown or of Broussais, an empiric of the old, or one of the modern stamp, an adherent of the so-called Vienna anatomical or of the Giessen chemical school, a nerve-patholo- gist, or a blood-pathologist, each will recognize a different state of things. The opinion, which each forms of fever, and similar aggregates of symptoms, of their origin, connection and dependence upon various local or general changes and conditions, and of those in their relations DOCTRINES RESPECTING A VITAL PRINCIPLE. 67 to each other, will be different from that of the others. Each of them, if he reflects upon it at all, will form a different notion of all that he has been able to observe. He will arrange and combine the various phenomena in the patient after his own manner—that is in accordance Avith his own point of view. If the same remedy be administered in a given case, the assertions and opinions of each concerning its effects will equally differ; for each has expected from it different sen-ices, and modes of operation in accordance to his previously formed theory; he will, therefore, interpret what he has observed in the manner which best corresponds to his own views; and in the remedy employed will acknowledge only such effects as it has been his aim to produce." Such views as those from the work now quoted are common among the leading men of the regular profession; and one of the sharpest contro- versies they have engaged in during the present century is now going on, to determine which is best for the patient, "Medication or Non- Medication." Medical skepticism is openly taught from our chairs of clinical me- dicine, and from the seat Avhence Dr. Henderson was deposed for his revolutionary tendencies, Dr. Bennett now utters such sentiments as these: "At this time, medicine is undergoing a great revolution, and to you, gentlemen, to the rising generation, do we look as to the agents who will accomplish it. Amidst the wreck of ancient systems, and the approaching downfall of empirical practice, you will, I trust, adhere to that plan of medical education which is based on anatomy and phy- siology. Everything promises that before long a law of true harmony Avill be formed out of the discordant materials which surround us; and if we your predecessors have failed, to you, I trust will belong the honor of building up a system of medicine, which from its consistency, sim- plicity, and truth, may at the same time attract the confidence of the public aud command the respect of the scientific world." DOCTRINES RESPECTING A VITAL PRINCIPLE.—NERVOUS FLUID. DYNAMIC INFLUENCE. The universe is governed by the same divine Power that created it; and he exercises upon all animate and inanimate things a controlling influence which is perpetually in operation; but he operates in all con- ditions in accordance with certain fixed and invariable princ'ples, usually spoken of as the Laws of Nature. All created objects are divided into two great classes, called living and dead; and they are all in some degree subject to the physical laws of nature. But living bodies are also endowed with a set of properties entirely different, called vital properties, Avhich living matter continues to manifest so long as it is alive, and no longer. The study of life, its manifestations, is the 68 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. object of the science of physiology; in the state of health this vital in- fluence, perpetually emanating from the Creator, exercises an absolute sway over every portion of the body, and maintains all its functions in order and harmony, both of sensation and action; and when these con- ditions of order and harmony exist, "our indwelling rational spirit may freely employ these living healthy organs for the superior purposes of our existence." Of this "vital principle" all authors on physiology and medicine have written something. " There is not," says professor Paine, "in the whole range of medical literature, one author, however devoted to the physical and chemical views of life, who does not evince the necessity of admitting a governing vital principle, as a distinct entity, distinct from all other things in nature. I say, there cannot be produced one author of any considera- tion, who does not summon to the aid of his discussion a vital prin- ciple whenever he touches upon the abstract phenomena of life." Thus Hippocrates speaks of the " Phusis," Paracelsus and Van Hel- mont of " Archaeus," Stahl of " Anima;" medical men of the present day of the " vital principle." " Vis vitm, vis insitaiP But the reasonings of physiologists on this subject contain little of scientific accuracy. " To speak of the vital forces, to give them a definition, to interpre phenomena by their aid, and yet to be ignorant of the laws Avhich govern them, is doing nothing, or rather is doing worse than nothing It is to attempt an impossibility, it is to content the mind to no pur pose, to stop the search after truth. To state that the liver separates the elements of the bile from the blood by means of the vital force, is merely to assert that the bile is formed in the liver. By thus varying the expression, a dangerous illusion is established." * In regard to the nature of the intelligence, or soul, and how it acts upon the material parts, to aid in producing the phenomena of life, we do not now propose to inquire. We are able to see its results, and appreciate its Avonderful influences, but the mode of its operation we will not now attempt to explain. It pervades every part of the body and operates in a different manner on different organs. It gives rise to sensation in the organs of sense, motion in the organs of motion di- gestion, absorption, assimilation, respiration, circulation, &c, in the organs provided for these functions. All modifications or derangements of structure, alter the peculiar effects of this spiritual power; for it acts only through the medium of the organs as they actually exist. All deviations therefore from the normal organization of parts, induces corresponding alterations in the manifestations of the intelligence. * Matteucci on Living Beings. " DOCTRINES RESPECTING A VITAL PRINCIPLE. 69 The living intelligence has no particular location, but pervades every portion of the nervous system, exercising a constant, and direct in- fluence over every organ and tissue. This is clearly apparent from the experiments of Philip, Stilling, Hall, and others, which prove, " that the poAver of the heart and vessels of circulation, is independent of the brain and spinal narrow," and " that the power of the muscles of voluntary motion, vessels of secretion, and peristaltic motion of the stomach and intestines, are independent of the nervous system, and that their relation to this system is of the same nature with that of the heart and vessels of circulation, the nervous power influencing them in no other Avay than as other stimuli and sedatives do." From these and other experiments, Dr. Philip supposed, that the vessels possess "a principle of motion independent of their elasticity," and identical with galvanism. The experiments of Magendie and later physiologists have shown that the hemispheres of the brain and cere- bellum may be removed in a mammiferous animal, and it will continue to experience sensation, perceiving odors, sounds, and rapid impres- sions. Vision, however, is abolished." Dr. Dowler of NeAV-Orleans, has instituted a series of experiments on the alligator, which exhibit in the clearest manner the peculiar operation of the living intelligence upon the organism. In one experi- ment Dr. D. divided the muscles of the neck, the cervical vertebrae, and the spinal cord, also the spinal cord between the shoulders and hips, destroyed the sympathetic nerve, and removed the intestinal A'iscera, " yet, for a period of more than two hours, the alligator exhibited com- plete intelligence, volition, and voluntary motion in each and all divisions of the body. It felt, saw, defended itself'/ showed anger, fear, and even friendly attentions to its keeper, a black boy /" In another experiment, " the upper portion of the skull, including a hori- zontal stratum of the brairi, was removed! The animal performed a series of voluntary motions, intelligibly directed, to ward off injuries. The entire brain and the medulla oblongata were now removed, without diminishing its power to direct its limbs to any part that was pained by the slightest touch of a pin or knife. A metallic rod was passed many times within the spinal cord, completely destroying the spinal marrow beyond the hips. It was still found that both volun- tary motion and sensation remained, though their manifestations were greatly impaired." Dn D. concludes from these and numerous other experiments of a similar nature, " that voluntary motion is neither directly communicated from, nor regulated by the brain, or the cerubellum; that the muscles in connection Avith the spinal marrow, perform voluntary motions for hours after having been severed from the brain; that these motions are not only entirely independent of the brain, but may take place, though 70 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. imperfectly, after the destruction of the cord itself; that the trunfy as well as the brain, thinks, feels, and wills, or displays psychological phenomena ; that the senswium is not restricted to a single point, but is diffused, though unequally, or in a diminished degree, m the periphery of the body ; and that actions which take place after de- capitation, as described above, are in absolute contrast to reflex actions, being sensational, consentaneous, voluntary, and in other respects dissimilar" Is it any more Avonderful that the soul conduces to the phenomena of digestion, assimilation and appropriation, when the natural stimuli of these organs are presented to them, that sight is appreciated when the natural stimuli of the eye, the rays of light, are applied to this organ ? Is it any more singular that this spiritual stimulus should endow each structure with power to exclude all noxious substances, and select each its natural excitant, than that the- sense of hearing should only appreciate one voice in the midst of a hundred other Alices and instruments, whenever the will so directs ? In order to acquire a correct idea of the functions of life, it is neces- sary, in the first instance, to contemplate the body as a perfect machine —adapted in every part by a definite and special organization, to re- ceive different impressions according to the nature of the substances or excitants presented, and the offices which they are destined to per- form. Without doubt, chemical and mechanical forces exercise an important influence in the operations of this machine. The combustion of oxygen Avith the carbon at the lungs, and in other parts of the system, must develop heat, expansion and motive power, and mechanical causes may operate somewhat in adding to this force, yet all of these influences are wholly inadequate to accomplish and perpetuate the more com- plicated phenomena of life. It is then essential that another important agency should be everywhere present, in order to enable the organs to respond properly to their specific stimuli. Consequently we have " super- added to the body" an intelligence, Avhich affords a specific stimulus to every part; acting solely through each particular structure as it exists, and modified in its operation according to the modifications or altera- tions in the organs themselves. If the structure of the eye is injured an imperfect image will be formed upon the retina, the intelligence will manifest itself through this injured structure, and this sense will be altogether impaired. If the structure of other organs be altered so that their natural stimuli cannot be brought to bear as usual, the opera- tion of the spiritual stimulus will be modified in proportion, and dis- ordered function result. This mental or spiritual stimulus acts at each particular part speci- fically, and in a measure independently of other parts, causing irrita- bility of different grades in the muscular fibres, and exercising those peculiar properties every where. The influence likewise Avhich it NERVOUS FLUID. 71 exercises upon the body as a cause of disease has never yet been pro- perly appreciated. In the ordinary waking state, the operations of the soul are mani- fested directly through the media of all the physical structures, and these manifestations are limited in extent and variety, and subject to certain fixed laws, having reference to the structures and stimuli act- ing upon them. Thus, the power and extent of vision is determined by the physical condition of the eyes and brain, (which furnishes them Avith blood vessels and nerves,) and the number and intensity of the rays of light which strike the retina. Light, in this instance, is the material stimulus or rather the undulatory nerve-force, which passes through the structure of the eye in the same manner as it passes through an optical instrument, producing the reflection of images upon the retina in a manner analogous to images formed in the camera of the photographer. The soul takes immediate cognizance of these images upon the retina, in precisely the same manner that it recognizes the images in the camera obscura. It is Avorthy of note, that these images may be formed upon the retina, and yet the soul be entirely unconscious of them; so may an absent-minded man look into the ca- mera obscura, filled with reflected figures, and derive no impressions from them. Without this invisible, incomprehensible, and eternal soul, the eye would be but a mere optical instrument, perhaps taking the first rank among such instruments, but entirely on a par with them, and subject to similar laws. No imponderable agent, like electricity, magnetism, or galvanism, or what has been termed animal nervous fluid, could ever enable it to appreciate impressions, or perform a single act of intelligence. Every structure of the organism, whether situated within the cranium, chest, abdomen, or in any other part, is in a similar condition in rela- tion to the soul, and without its presence and influence, is subject only to the ordinary laAvs of matter. It is the office of the soul to preside over the necessities of the phy- sical man—to guard against and ward off injurious influences, and to respond to all impressions made upon the textures. So long as the normal physical condition exists, and no undue influence is exerted upon the mind, a spiritual or vital equilibrium is maintained through- out the system; but if a part be attacked by an enemy in the form of inflammation, or if an undue impression is made upon the mind, this equilibrium is disturbed,—the spiritual force is unequally distributed, and disordered action follows. We append a few examples to illustrate the influence of mental im- pressions in modifying the action of the tissues : an individual in per- fect health, and undisturbed by any external influence, finds himself in a gallery of paintings. At one point a devoted daughter is seen brav- 72 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. ing the horrors of a foul dungeon, to offer from her own breast suste- nance to an aged and starving father, and while we look, the lachrymal glands are excited, and unbidden tears flow freely. At an other point, an inhuman monster has seized an innocent child, and is in the act of dashing out its brains against the wall, and while we gaze, the blood mounts to the brain, the cheeks glow with indignation, and the heart throbs violently at the bare contemplation of the outrage. Another tableau meets the vieAV, and we see the executioners in the act of cast- ing a struggling criminal into a den of poisonous serpents, and, as we behold the reptiles coiled up for a deadly spring, with fiery eyes, and forked tongues, the blood forsakes the surface, the stomach sickens, the heart sinks, and a cold shudder steals over the Avhole system. An- other scene presents itself; we behold a table loaded with the most tempting viands and fruits, and an immediate change occurs in the sa- livary glands, the mouth fills with saliva, the stomach indicates its want, and a general perturbation of the digestive system ensues. The mere sight of an epileptic often induces a corresponding complaint in others ; the indulgence of bad habits in one member of a family like snuffling, distortion of the mouth, eyes, &c, frequently bring about the same habits in other members of the family. Violent emotions from sudden intelligence, whether good or bad, often induce diarrhoeas, syncope, catalepsy, apoplexy, mania, &c.; fear and apprehension are most powerful predisposing causes of disease, and when excessive, often act as exciting causes, particularly during the prevalence of epi- demic or contagious affections, as cholera asphyxia, small-pox, yellow and typhus fevers, &c. Protracted grief is a common cause of chronic diseases,like dyspepsia, jaundice, neuralgia, hypochondria, phthisis pulmonalis, &c. Intense and exclusive application to any subject, eventually causes disease of the brain and nervous system, and mental derangement. The hypochondriac, who suffers under the effects of morbid fancy, continues to feed his malady by pondering over his ima- ginary ailments ; the monomaniac, as he dwells upon his delusion, fans the flame that is consuming him. If an individual in the most perfect health be told by several different persons that he looks pale, hazard and sick, it is more than probable that the impression will exercise so poAverful an influence, that he will actually feel sick, and take to his bed; we have witnessed more than one example of this kind. The case of the criminal is often quoted, Avho died of fright by the simple flowing of tepid water over his limb, while the attendants made suitable remarks on the effects of the loss of blood, till fatal syncope was produced. Professor Bennett says, a butcher-was brought into the office of a druggist, suffering from a terrible accident. " The man on trying to hook up a heavy piece of meat over his head, slipped, and the sharp hook penetrated his arm so, that he was himself suspended. DYNAMIC INFLUENCE. 73 On being examined, he was pale, almost pulseless, and expressed him- self as suffering acute agony. The arm could not be moved without causing excessive pain, and in cutting off the sleeve, he frequently cried out; yet when the arm Avas exposed, it was found quite uninjured, the hook having only traversed the sleeve." In disease also, the manner, bearing, and expression of the physician, often exert the most surpriz- ing effects upon the patient, either in ameliorating or aggravating his malady. Most diseases are attended with an exalted state of the nervous system, and with a highly sensitive and irritable condition of the mental faculties. In this Condition, a doleful expression of counte- nance, or words of doubt, discouragement and sadness, are often capable of plunging the patient into the most profound state of mental and physical depression, and thus aggravating, to a serious extent, his ma- lady ; while on the other hand, a cheerful face, a lively and agreeable manner, and words of hope and encouragement usually exercise an influence of the most favorable character, and conduce very materially in bringing about a curative action of the organism. It should never be forgotten, that courage, hope, confidence, and a cheerful state of mind, are powerful tonics, and often enable the healthy system to resist the influence of contagious, epidemic, and other noxious impressions, and the sick organism to combat successfully the destructive effects of disease; Avhile fear, apprehension, grief, despair of recovery, sadness, and depression of spirits, by impairing the resisting powers of the eco- nomy, become both predisposing, and exciting causes of disease. Show me a physician who has attained a high reputation in the treatment of difficult, and dangerous cases of disease, and I will have confidence, that he is one who carries a cheerful face; who delights in dAvelling upon the bright and pleasant things of life, rather than upon those which are gloomy and dismal; and who does not fail to infuse into his patients, and all around him, confidence, hope, and comfort. The ex- pression and bearing of such a man always act as a beacon of hope, to arouse the sinking energies of the patient, and to encourage him to strive against the depressing influence of his malady. In these and other analogous instances, it is the intelligence alone which is operated on and which diffuses its influence, not over any vital properties of the organism, but upon the respiratory, circulatory, digestive, and nervous systems. We have, then, constantly operating upon the machine first, what may be termed the material or natural stimuli, and second, the immaterial or spiritual stimuli, both of which are absolutely essential to the continued performance of the functions. In some parts of the organ- ism, these material excitants, must be constantly present, in order that the system may be kept in operation. The heart and blood vessels, and the respiratory organs must be incessantly acted upon 1 y the 74 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. blood and atmospheric air, in order to ensure life. Other parts, like the stomach, lacteals, capillaries, &c, may be deprived of their natural stimuli for a length of time without causing death, but not without inducing derangement of function, or causing disease. These material stimuli, not only exercise a highly important influence in the pheno- mena of life, but it is upon them that morbific and other noxious im- pressions are often made in causing disease. According to Liebig, "the slightest action of a chemical agent upon the blood, exercises an injurious influence." Any material deviation, then, from the natural properties of the inspired air, or the other stimulants of the organism, must constitute a source of disease.' The other agency exerts a not less important influence over all parts of the body, and gives rise to its manifestations in accordance Avith the peculiar organization and modification of each structure. The operation of this intelligence upon the organs produces that peculiar state which enables them, when supplied Avith their material stimuli, to accomplish their functions. It manifests its poAver in the capillary system in enabling these vessels to exclude the red globules; over the lacteals, in enabling them to exclude all but the nutritious portions of food, over the organs of involuntary motion, in enabling them to respond with unformity and regularity to their material exci- tants; over the nerves of sensation and motion, in enabling them to take cognizance of injurious foreign impressions, and to exercise voluntary motions; over the organs of the special senses, in enabling them to appreciate sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. This spiritual in- fluence operates only through the medium of these organs and tissues, developing specific and harmonious manifestations, according to the peculiar use and structure of each part. Under its guidance the mole- cules are appropriated and become a part of the organism. Through the same influence the system is enabled to resist, to a certain extent morbific and other injurious impressions. It is this stimulus which endoAvs each tissue with its specific irritability, causing each part to recognize and respond to its own natural material excitant, and offer resistance to the application of all disturbing agencies. The soul does not leave the body, until the structures are so much injured, that the functions all cease operation. Many organs may be destroyed or rendered incapable of transmitting mental or spiritual impressions, yet the intelligence, entire and unaltered of itself will still pervade the remaining portions of the organism. It will still mani- fest itself just so far as it finds normal organs and tissues to operate through, or manifest an influence upon. The material parts alone may be impaired or obliterated, but so long as there is life, the immaterial part must pervade the body unaltered, although its manifestations may be entirely changed. PERVERSIONS OF HEALTH.—NATURE OF DISEASE. 75 PERVERSIONS OP HEALTH.—NATURE OF DISEASE. The boundary between health and disease, though in some degree familiar to all, is not easily defined. Health in perfection is perhaps never seen in such a world as ours. It is usually described as a con- dition of the organism, in which there is "freedom from pain and un- easy sensations, and freedom from all those changes in the structure of the body that endanger life, or impede the easy and effective exercise of the vital functions." Departures from this happy state of life present themselves to us both in form and degree in infinite variety. Disease consists in some deviation from a state of health. It may extend no farther than to some simple derangement of function, in which no alteration of structure is discovered or suspected; or may be at- tended with appreciable change of texture, and may run a longer or shorter course, with or without modification from medical treatment. The former of these grades of disease may often be properly assigned to the care of the hygienist, who, by dietetic regulations, by correct employment, food, drinks, temperature, and pure air, may restore the invalid to a state of health. The physician must also be a practical hygienist, and able to employ auxiliary agencies with scientific pro- priety, as well as to select with certainty the necessary specific remedy On the "nature of the relations of the sciences of Therapeutics and Hygiene," Dr. Dunham remarks : "That the province of Hygiene is, to discover whatever causes may have contributed to induce or perpetuate the diseased condition, and if possible to remove them. " That Hygiene alone is sufficient to restore many sick persons to health, and that it is in most cases an indispensable aid to Therapeutics. "That Therapeutics concerns herself only with the discovery and selection of an individually-specific remedy for each individual case of disease; which is done in accordance Avith a therapeutic law. This law may be the homoeopathic formula, or it may be some broader generalization,—but there can be but one law of this kind. " That in so far as Hygiene is concerned, homoeopathists and allo- paths occupy common ground,—the philosophy of the science being the same for both, however modified and shaded in practical application by the different therapeutics of the two schools. " That in Therapeutics alone, that is, in the discovery and selection of the individually-specific remedy for each individual case of disease, do we differ radically from the old school of medicine,—the allopaths having in fact no science of Therapeutics Avhatever, their philosophy of cure being an application of the principles of Hygiene to all dis- eased conditions* * Homoeopathy, the science of Therapeutics. 76 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. THERAPEUTICS. There are but three modes of treating disease. They are distin- guished as follows: 1. The Homoeopathic, which only is salutary and efficacious. It "alone leads in a direct way to a mild, sure and durable cure, without either injuring the patient, or diminishing his strength." 2. The Allopathic or Heteropathic. Without regarding what is really diseased in the body, it attacks those parts which are sound, in order to draw off the malady from another quarter, and direct it to- wards the latter. 3. The Antipathic or Fnantiopathic, which is merely palliative. This consists in paying attention to only a single symptom or feature of the disease,—that of Avhich the patient complains most loudly, and prescribes a remedy which may palliate that. For pains of every de- scription, Opium, which may benumb the senses and allay the pain. For diarrhoea, the same remedy to stop the peristaltic action, or an astringent to suppress the secretions. For insomnolence, the same remedy. For long-continued constipation, purgatives. For habitual debility, Wine. Of these different modes of treating disease, the first alone is truly efficient and salutary. The reason that this is true, and that all the others are pernicious, says Hahnemann, "is founded upon the dif- ference which exists between the primary action of every medicine and the reaction, or secondary effects, produced by the living organism (the vital power;." * fe & At the present time there exists no uniform or general system of therapeutics, because there is no theory of disease in which universal confidence is reposed. The medical world being divided into several distinct schools, each inculcating a different doctrine concerning patho- logy and the methods of cure, and all endeavoring to sustain their favorite systems, without much regard to accuracy respecting facts or to logic m their inductions, it is not surprising, that the science' of medicine is so often looked upon by the public with distrust and dis- respect. We behold the vitalist denouncing the doctrines of the chemist and mechanician, as inconsistent and highly dangerous in practical operation, while all agree in ridiculing that system which is alone founded on accurate observation of facts, homoeopathy It is doubtless true, that many new and valuable ideas may be dp nved from each of these conflicting schools by the medical philosopher whose sole object is truth. Indeed, the coincidence^ opinion between the father of homoeopathy and many of the most prominent advocate of the vital theory, like Paine, Bichat, Philip, fce^in regard to^h/sio * Hahnemann, Organon, § 63 THERAPEUTICS. 77 logy and pathology, is remarkable. These eminent authors not only agree, respecting the "properties and laAvs of healthy beings," but they concur as to the changes and modifications which take place in dis- eased states of the organism. Although they entertain totally different viewrs concerning the practical application of remedies, it will be ob- served, that the allopath often adopts the precept usimilia simdlibus," in effecting his cures. • Nor are there men wanting,—men, who stand high in the ranks of allopathy,—who unhesitatingly place the pathological and therapeutical doctrines of homoeopathy, far above those of either the chemical or physical schools. Thus Paine in his "Institutes of Medicine," observes : "It is due to truth (fiat justitia ruat ccelum), that the physiologist concedes to the homoeopath, that his hypothetical views may be directed by an enlight- ened understanding of the properties and laws of healthy beings. Upon this ground, indeed, his hopes can alone repose; and eA*en his doctrines in pathology and therapeutics are a thousandfold better, more rational, more consistent, more conducive to health and to life, than any or all of the tenets of the chemical or physical schools." We shall not be surprised at this concession, when the opinions of Hahnemann are contrasted with those of many allopathic authors who have written since his days. The vitalists hold, " that all disease consists in modification of the vital properties and a consequent change of function, and is, therefore, only a variation of the natural states, that the artificial cure consists in a restoration of these properties and functions, by making upon the former certain impressions, which enable them to obey their natural tendency to a state of health; that remedial agents of positive virtues operate like the truly morbific, but less profoundly in their therapeutical doses, and that the philosophy of their cure consists in establishing, in a direct manner, certain morbid alterations in the already diseased pro- perties and actions of life, which are more conducive to the natural tendency that exists in the vital properties to return from a morbid to their natural state." (Paine) Hahnemann, in his " Organon," says: " It is solely the morbidly af. fected vital principle which brings forth diseases : that in disease this spontaneous and immaterial vital principle, pervading the physical or- ganism, is primarily deranged by the dynamic influence of a morbific agent, Avhich is inimical to life. Only this principle, thus disturbed, can give to the organism its abnormal sensations and incline it to the irregular actions which we call disease." So also of the operation of remedies, Hahnemann has it, " that the brief operation of the artificial morbific powers Avhich are denominated medicinal, although they are stronger than natural diseases, renders it 78 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. possible that they may, nevertheless, be more easily overcome by the vital energies, than the latter, which are weaker. Natural diseases, simply because of their more tedious burdensome operation, can not be overcome by the unaided vital energies, until they are more strongly aroused by the physician, through the medium of a very similar, yet more powerful morbific agent, (a homoeopathic medicine). Such an agent, upon its administration, urges, as if were, the instinctive vital energies, and is substituted for the natural morbid affection hitherto existing. The vital energies now become affected by the medicine alone, yet transiently; because the medicinal disease is of short duration." The vitalists of both schools also suppose that natural, morbific and remedial agents, possess certain peculiar and distinct properties, which enable them to exercise an influence only on particular parts of the system through the means of particular nerves ; "passing over, in the fulfilment of this law, various intermediate nerves of more direct anatomical connection."— (Paine) Although we are not advocates of the vital theory thus stated, yet it must be conceded that this principle of elective affinity is so universal, as applied to the operation of the morbific and remedial agents, that the influence which any substance of either class exerts upon the or- ganism, may with propriety be denominated its specific effect. The miasms of plague, of intermittent, yelloAV, and certain other feArers; the infection of contagious diseases; the virus of hydrophobia, syphilis, gonorrhoea, &c, all produce peculiar and specific effects upon the sys- tem. Each of these substances possesses the property of selecting that tissue for which it has an affinity, and of expending its entire pri- mary action upon the particular part selected. It is owing to this specific laAV, that medical men have been able to classify diseases ; to predict with certainty, that the exposure to the influence of morbific agents, under certain circumstances, will give rise to abnormal action in certain parts, attended with a definite and uni- form train of symptoms. It is also in virtue of this specific law, that medicines may be admi- nistered which operate with certainty upon particular tissues and or- gans and effect those primary and sympathetic modifications in dis- eases of the organism, which enable nature to bring about safe and speedy cures. One of the chief objections urged against the therapeutical doctrines of homoeopathy is the supposed " fallacy of reasoning from the effects of remedial agents upon healthy to morbid conditions." (Paine's In- stitutes of Medicine.) The reason adduced for this opinion, is the fact that diseased parts become modified in their action, and far more susceptible to the operation of remedies than when healthy. This last THERAPEUTICS. 79 statement is doubtless true, and it stands, as we shall endeavor to show, at the foundation of the homoeopathic method of administering me- dicines. Although the axiom, " contraria contrariis opponenda,v is almost universally acknowledged as a principle of faith among the different schools of allopathia, so far as theory is concerned, yet in practice, the principle " similia similibus curanlur," is as we have before observed, not unfrequently adopted. In order that a clear understanding may be acquired of the manner in Avhich medicines operate, as exhibited by the old and new schools, we shall attempt to demonstrate:— 1. That most morbific and remedial agents operate specifically and with much uniformity, both in health and in disease, as causative and curative agents. 2. That all drugs produce upon the human body primary and se- condary effects, the first of Avhich appear speedily, and when the dose has not been excessive, are of short duration, and are then succeeded by the second, Avhich are of opposite character and permanent. 3. That in disease, the susceptibility of the affected parts to the action of remedies is vastly greater than of the same parts Avhen in health. 4. That medicines, when administered in crude form, and in large doses, according to the doctrines and ordinary practice of the old school, Avhether applied directly to the diseased organ or tissue, or to a healthy structure, remote from the diseased part, are not only incom- petent to eradicate disease in a safe and speedy manner, but generally serve to aggravate the already existing symptoms, and by superindu- cing additional medicinal disease, complicate, to a serious extent, the original natural affection. 5. That when a curable natural disease has been excited in the or- ganism, attended with a definite train of morbid symptoms, a medicine capable of causing (in large doses,) a similar series of symptoms, in health, will become speedily curative of such natural disease, if admi- nistered in the attenuated doses of homoeopathy. SPECIFIC EFFECTS OF MORBIFIC AND REMEDIAL AGENTS. All are aware that the natural poisons of certain animals, the virus of hydrophobia, syphilis, gonorrhoea, and sycosis ; the miasms of plague, and of yelloAv, typhus, and intermittent fevers ; the infection of con- tagious diseases, &c, Avhen introduced into the circulation, produce specific effects upon the human system, and give rise to definite and easily recognized symptoms. There arc other morbific agents, like intense and protracted heat and cold, atmospheric vicissitudes, excessive physical and mental exertion, 80 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. violent emotions, &c, that operate in a more general, but not less spe- cific manner. Their operation, when carried so far as to become mor- bific, induces debility of the nervous system ; loss of irritability in the capillary vessels, Avhich makes them incapable of excluding the red globules, and as a consequence, developing augmented heat, swelling, redness, and pain. The influence of almost every agent, whether morbific or medicinal, appears to possess a kind of elective affinity for some particular organ or structure of the organization." This fact is so apparent in regard to morbific agents, that it scarcely requires notice; but there are many authors who still entertain doubts respecting the specific action of me- dicines. An attentive examination of the following facts, must, how- ever, settle that question satisfactorily in the minds of all impartial inquirers. Remedial agents operate in the same specific manner, both in health and in disease; but Avith the difference that in the latter condition, only a very minute quantity of the specific agents is requisite to produce a salutary impres sion, on account of the augmented suspectibility to remedial impressions which diseased parts acquire. 1. " A medicine administered in certain doses, and during a certain period of time, can produce pathological lesions analogous to those that characterize certain diseases." 2. "This same medicine, given to a healthy individual, on the same principles, produces the characteristic symptoms of the diseases whose pathological lesions it gives rise to." 3. " This medicine is a specific in these same diseases." 4. " Specificity is not therefore an isolated fact, but the law which should guide medical treatment." (Des specifiques en medecine Paris; par L. J. J. Molin). The experiments of Magendie, Blake, Pereira, Rau, Liebig, Muller, Orfila, Griesselich, Molin, Matteucci, and Philip, prove conclusively, that most morbific and remedial agents, when given in massive doses produce their effects after having been absorbed into the blood. It has also been proved with equal certainty, that foreign substances, when absorbed into the circulation, are conveyed to those structures for which they have a special affinity, and there make a specific im- pression, which modifies the function of the part, according to the na- ture of the agent, and predisposition of the individual. &The l-0od serves as conducting medium merely, and if the absorbed substances do not possess the power of exercising an influence upon any tissue, they may continue to circulate through the lungs until inspired air gradually neutralizes them, or they may remain for an indefinite length of time (as sometimes happens in cases of hydrophobic virus* and fever miasms, without affecting the system), and yet retain their activity. SPECIFIC EFFECTS OF MORBIFIC AND REMEDIAL AGENTS. 81 The reason of this may be, that the tissues upon Avhich they act, are in so perfect a state of vigor as to be able to resist the poAver of the noxious agent, until some cause shall enfeeble the part to be affected, and thus predispose it to receive the injurious impression. It will not be denied, that both in healthy and diseased states of the organism, Cantharides, Copaibae, Cubebs, the Turpentines, Juniper, Squills, Colchicum, Digitalis, Apis-mel. Cajeputi, and most other diuretics, produce their effects by acting directly or specifically upon the kidneys, as topical irritants; that the preparations of Mercury, Nitric-acid, Iodine, &c, exercise a direct and specific action upon the glands, mucous membranes, and skin; that Senega, Phosphorus, Ipeca- cuanha, tartarized Antimony, (whether taken into the stomach, or in- jected into the veins), and many of the resins exercise a specific action upon the lungs; that Aloes, Gamboge, Colocynth act specifically upon the stomach and rectum, Avhile Senna, Rhubarb, Scammony, Jalap, and certain other cathartics, spend their effects upon all portions of the intestinal canal; that Ergot, Savin, Pulsatilla, Madder, Tansy, &c, operate specifically upon the uterus; that Belladonna, Opium, Stra- monium, Strychnine, Hyoscyamus, Conia, and Coffee impress specifi- cally some portion of the nervous system; and in a word, that almost every drug impresses certain tissues in preference to others, and that a knowledge of the manifestations to which these different impressions give rise, can alone enable us to combat diseases. That the above enumerated substances are actually absorbed, and exert a topical effect, is apparent from the fact, that they have often been detected in the blood, secretions, excretions, and even the solids of the body. It is asserted by Flourens, "that Opium acts specifically on the cerebral lobes; that Belladonna in a limited dose, affects the tubercula quadrigemina, and in a larger dose the cerebral lobes also; that Alco- hol, in a limited dose, acts exclusively on the cerebellum, but in a larger quantity, it affects also neighboring parts; and lastly, that Nux-vomica more particularly affects the medulla-oblongata." He also states, "that in birds, it is possible to observe, through the cranium, changes of color, (some alterations in the vascular condition of the parts) which these agents affect in the brain." Pereira, in his Materia Medica, also declares, that "the ammoniacal, empyreumatic and phosphoric stimu- lants, containing Ammonia and its salts, the empyreumatic oils, Phos- phorus, Musk, and Castoreum, all agree in producing a primary and specific effect on the nervous system, the energy and activity of whose functions they exalt. On account of their specific influence over the nervous system, they are administered in various spasmodic or con- Arulsive diseases, especially in hysteria, and also in epilepsy and chorea. The beneficial influence of some of the vegetable tonics, (as Cinchona), in intermittent diseases, should probably be referred to the specific Vol. !.—'>• 82 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. effects of these agents on the nervous system. The preparations of Arsenic, Silver, Copper, Bismuth,Zinc, &c, are usually, but I think most improperly, denominated tonics. They are agents, Avhich in small and repeated doses, as well as in large and poisonous doses, specifically affect the nervous system." We are also assured by Liebig, in his work on animal chemistry, that "we can by remedial agents exercise an influence on every part of an organ, by substances possessing a well-defined chemical action." It will be observed, that Ave have adopted, in part, the views of Miiller, in regard to the operation of morbific and remedial agents. This distinguished physiologist supposes, that the blood is only the "vehicle of introduction," and that as it passes through the tissues of different organs, the medical particles with which it is impregnated " act on one or more parts, which are endowed with a peculiar susceptibility to their influence." He also supposes, "that a change is effected in the composition of the organic matter of the parts acted on." That medicinal substances induce modifications in the functions of the organs by topical action, is proved, as we have before observed, from the fact, that medicinal particles are often found in the ex- cretions of the affected part. The inference must folloAv, from a careful consideration of all the facts bearing upon the subject, that the functions of the organism are generally morbidly altered by the direct action of noxious substances. (For further proofs respecting the doctrine of absorption and topical action of drugs, see the experiments of Miiller, Tiedemann, Gmelin, Magendie, Matteucci, Liebig, Rau, Flourens, Du- trochet, Blake, Hering, Mayer, Christison, Orfila, and Dumas). In regard to'the mode in which these substances operate, Ave suppose that their primary impression is made upon the sentient extremities of the nerves, impairing their integrity, and rendering them incapable of conducting the spiritual stimulus (which is an essential condition to irritability,) to the extreme vessels. It must be borne in mind, that in all inflammations, the capillaries are the "instruments of disease," that the primary impressions of all deleterious agents are made upon these delicate structures, and that all of our remedies must be directed Avith reference to the state of these vessels in curing disease, "upon these vessels, all remedial agents exert their curative effects, whether by their direct action, or through the instrumentality of the nervous power." (Paine). The extreme terminations of the nerves are so highly impressible that the very minutest quantity of a specific agent is capable of pro- ducing prompt and decided effects, while the same agent would prove powerless if applied to the larger nerves. Thus it is that imponderable substances and mental emotions are so often the causes of disease. Here we have one reason, also, why medicines, when administered ho- SPECIFIC EFFECTS OF MORBIFIC AND REMEDIAL AGENTS. 83 mceopathically, produce those happy modifications in the affected parts which dispose them so speedily to recovery. In connection with this, if we take into consideration the extreme sensibility which diseased parts acquire to the operation of medicinal agents, we shall be unable to doubt the propriety of administering medicines according to the homoeopathic method. Miiller supposes, that when impressions are made by specific sub- stances, "changes are effected in the composition of the organic matter of the parts acted on." Of this, however, there is no satisfactory evi- dence. On the contrary, we know positively, that very many cases of disease occur without giving rise to any change whatever in the organic construction of the parts affected. One of the first indications generally observable in an abnormal state of an organ or tissue, is a loss of tone, or irritability and perverted function of the capillary vessels. In the experiments performed on the blood by Philip, Alston and Gallois, it was observed, that the smaller vessels were the first to succumb to foreign influences, and then, if the potency of the agent wrere increased, the larger vessels would become affected. Noav, when we reflect, that irritability is dependent, 1., upon a nor- mal organization of parts; 2., a regular and uniform supply of natural material stimuli, the arterial blood, &c, and, 3., a healthy action of the mind, in order that the spiritual stimulus shall make its due im- pression, Ave can readily conceive, how slight a cause, moral or physical* morbific or remedial, may disturb or impair this irritability, and thus induce disease. " Every part of the organism depends for the per- formance of its proper functions on the receipt of arterial blood and of nervous influence; so alterations in the supply of either of these essen- tials may modify or even suspend the functions of a part." (Pereirah Materia Medica.) The nerves are simply the conductors of the intelligence, and so long as their integrity, tone or conducting power remains unimpaired, this essential condition of irritability will remain. If, however, any cause acts upon them in such a manner, as to injure or destroy this important property, the stimulus of the superintending spirit is not transmitted, and, as a consequence, disease must result from the absence of one of the important requisites of irritability or con- tractility. Injurious impressions may be made upon the extreme nerves either by deleterious matters absorbed into the blood, and brought into direct contact with them, or by certain external applications, like electricity, magnetism, heat, cold, exercise. Inflammation may be excited by the operation of either of these causes, by a primary effect upon the sentient extremities of the nerves, which induces 84 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. loss of tone and conducting power, and, as a consequence, loss of irritability and resisting power in the capillaries. This impression is not made, as some theorists would have it, upon an immaterial principle, but upon something material, tangible and demonstrable, viz., nerves themselves. Poisons and other noxious substances, when taken into the blood, are rapidly conveyed to all parts of the body; and when they ar- rive at the structures, upon which they have a specific action, nature makes an effort to expel them through these particular parts. If the substance be active in its effects, the impression which is made upon the minute nerves of the part, will be in a corresponding manner severe. The length of time required for foreign substances to produce their effects is extremely variable. Some articles, like several of the salts of Potash, Juniper, the Turpentines, Asparagus, Indigo, Madder, &c, are expelled through the urinary organs in a few moments, while other substances may remain in the blood for an indefinite period of time, or until some predisposing cause shall act upon the system in such a manner as to augment its suscepti- bility and place it in a condition to be affected by the morbific agent. In some instances, the morbific agent remains harmless in the circulation for months, and even years, when suddenly some tissue becoming enfeebled and incapable of resisting the action of the specific agent, the disease in all its A'iolence bursts forth. In cases like these, it is quite evident, that the injurious impressions can not be made upon the vital properties of parts, for the effects must be sooner propagated and rendered apparent. Neither can Ave suppose with the advocates of the chemical hypothesis, that the constituents of the blood become altered and contaminated with the peculiar miasms or virus, for such blood introduced into the circu- lation of a healthy individual gives rise to nothing like the original disorder. We again repeat, that the blood is simply the vehicle which conveys the poison, and that no effects are produced until the structure for Avhich the poison has the greatest affinity, has become ready from predisposing cause, to receive the impression of the deleterious agent, and thus is specifically affected. Why it is, that morbific and remedial agents select particular organs and tissues to exert their action upon, we. do not know ■ but that such is the fact, all medical observers will bear witness. Nor is it more surprising, than that some of the natural fluids, like the urine, gastric juice, bile, &c, remain with impunity in some parts of the body, while if they gain admission to other parts, as the cellular substance or peritoneum, they occasion inflammation, slouo-hing and death. Those substances in nature, which in certain modes of application to SPECIFIC EFFECTS OF MORBIFIC AND REMEDIAL AGENTS. 85 the living organism produce immediate death, and in other degrees of their power only derange the healthful operations and produce disease, are usually known under the name of poisons. Poisonous substances produce disease by three different modes: * 1. By local destruction or irritation of the living surface to which they are applied. 2. By producing changes in the composition of the blood. 3. By direct changes in the nervous system. I. The first class of poisons embraces all substances that produce their effects in accordance Avith the laws of organic chemistry: such as concentrated acids, alkalis, some salts and metallic oxides, also some kinds of acrid vegetable matter. The effects of these articles vary widely according to the quantity in which they are employed, and they become deadly poisons or beneficent remedies according to the conditions under which they are used. A small quantity of Arsenic taken into the stomach excites a severe inflammation, with vomiting and diarrhoea, by which the irritated organ endeavors to expel the offending substance. If we take the one-thousandth part of a grain, a series of phenomena of a different character will be elicited. The minute particles of the poison having been tolerated in the stomach, pass out of it Avith its other contents; and may be ab- sorbed with the chyle from the inner surface of the intestines and con- veyed into the general circulation without producing violent symptoms. Thus the effect of a corrosive poison is entirely changed by merely re- ducing the dose. We will hereafter see, that when the dose is reduced to a quantity sufficiently small and finely attenuated, the agent Avould produce no perceptible effect on a person in health ; but that the same dose, charged with the dynamic force, which is developed by the process of attenuation, is capable of exerting a curative influence in a patient affected by a disease which is similar to that which Arsenic is capable of causing. Of this dynamic force, which is developed by trituration, and succus- sion in the preparation of homoeopathic attenuations, Hahnemann says: The discovery by which this development of the medicinal powers of druo-s is effected " is of inexpressible value, and so undeniable, that those who, from a want of knowledge of the resources of nature, con- sider homoeopathic attenuations as mere mechanical divisions of the orio-inal drug, must be struck dumb when they consult experience." II. There are other substances whose particles in their ordinary state adhere so firmly together that in their unchanged condition they mani- fest no action upon the human organism except in their chemical rela- tions. Metallic gold, silver, tin, vegetable coal, silicea, &c, are en- tirely inert, even if taken in large quantities. But these apparently . * Dr. II Goullon. 86 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. powerless substances are, nevertheless, charged with a latent force, and by trituration with an inert substance, as sugar of milk, become changed into active medicinal agents. And the more perfectly their surface is atomized by trituration, i. e., their atoms are liberated, " the more their latent peculiar electricity is developed, and at the same time transmitted to another vehicle, as is done by every electric-machine." They have then become potentized, dynamized, having " their latent force ren- dered active through the solution of cohesion." In order that this con- cealed or latent poAver might be effectually developed, Hahnemann directed that in preparing the first triturations, two whole hours should be consumed. III. Substances, cliiefiy Vegetable, which are active in their na- tural state.—Of these the number is very large, and it is remarkable that the chemical composition of such as are feeble in their action, is almost the same as that of others which are virulent poisons. They are all active in their natural state; but, as remedies, they require to be used in small quantities, and they become highly useful in remov- ing diseases and symptoms, such as they are capable of producing. ALLOPATHY. It would be very difficult to give a correct definition of the above term. The axiom, which is adopted by a portion of the disciples of the allopathic school, and upon which their hypothetical doctrines are founded, is "contraria contrariis opponenda." Although distinctions are recognized between the antipathic or palliative, the allopathic or heteropathic, and the chemical methods of practice, yet in point of fact, they may all with propriety be resolved into one and the same school. All employ venesection, emetics, purgatives, diaphoretics, and alteratives, to reduce inflammations; opium to allay pain and suppress unnatural discharges ; bark, iron, and brandy, &c, as tonics ; blisters, setons, moxas, issues and escharotics to produce counter irritation ; re- vulsives, derivatives, and indeed all of those means, which are termed allopathic. Allopathists do not, however, uniformly adhere to any of the above doctrines, but often unconsciously encroach upon homoeopathic ground, and, by practicing according to the law of " similia similibus," effect their speediest and safest cures. Thus Rhubarb and Calomel, when administered in large doses during health, cause irritation or inflammation of the membranous tissue of the bowels, as is indicated by the griping pains, and discharges of watery or mucous fluids ; yet these are favorite allopathic remedies for diar- rhoea and dysentery; Copaiba, Cubebs, Turpentine, and Cantharides, ' when given in large doses in health, induce inflammation of the mucous membranes of the urino-genital apparatus; yet these specific medicines ALLOPATHY. 87 are almost invariably prescribed in the acute and chronic affections of these parts ; Ipecacuanha, in doses of twenty to thirty grains, is the most common emetic of the old school; yet this same school are constantly in the habit of administering this drug in doses of one-twelfth or one- sixteenth of a grain, in cases of obstinate nausea and vomiting, with the most happy results; inhalations also of the particles in Ipecacuanha cause asthma, cough, dyspnoea, &c.; yet it is a common remedy in small quantities for the cure of these complaints; excessive use of alco- holic liquors or opiates, often induces delirium tremens ; yet Opium and Brandy, which exercise the same specific effect upon the brain, are the principal allopathic resources in curing this dangerous malady ; the preparations of Mercury, when given in considerable quantities, cause ulceration and sometimes gangrene and sloughing of the mouth and throat, pains in the muscles and bones, eruptions upon the skin, and inflammation of the bowels, attended with tenesmus, and mucous and bloody stools ; yet for syphilitic and other ulcerations of the throat, pains in the limbs, eruptions, and bowel affections, the use of small doses of this mineral, in some form is deemed indispensable by the al- lopath. Sir Astley Cooper, in his Lectures observes : " Children often contract syphilis in utero, and within twenty-four hours after their en- trance into the world, have the palms of their hands, the soles of their feet, and the nates covered with copper-colored eruptions ; and the naila begin to peel off, and if care be not taken, the little patient will sink under the effects of disease. In these cases you give the mother a quantity of Mercury, the influence of Avhich is communicated to the child, through the medium of the milk, and it.becomes cured of the sy- philitic disease."—Cooper's Manual of Surgery by Castle.) This is excellent homoeopathic treatment; the Mercury in this in- stance is attenuated in the mother's milk to a very great extent—pro- bably to such a degree that no analysis can detect it, or any scales weigh it, and yet Sir Astley Cooper assures us, that the infinitesimal quantity of Mercury, Avhich finds its Avay to the milk of the mother, is sufficient to effect a speedy cure upon the child. In this instance nature, instead of art, attenuates the drug. Tartarized Antimony exer- cises a specific effect upon the lungs, stomach, and secretory organs, causing, according to Magcndie, an inflammation or engorgement of the two first named organs, whether taken into the stomach or injected into the veins; yet this is the sheet-anchor of allopathy in pneumonia, pleurisy, and in the first stages of gastric or bilious fevers. Arsenic, when taken in large doses, in health, has a specific influence upon the nervous system, heart, skin, and alimentary canal; and this is an im- portant old-school remedy in neuralgia, epilepsy, chorea, angina-pec- toris, cutaneous affections, and intermittent fevers. When nitrate of silver is absorbed in health, it makes a specific impression upon the nervous 88 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. system the brain, &c.; allopathists employ it in epilepsy, chorea, and morbid sensibility of the gastric and intestinal nerves. Large and re- peated doses of Nux-vomica or Strychnia, taken in health, produce "ri- gidity and convulsive contractions " of the muscles ; yet in cases of trau- matic tetanus, Strychnia has effected cures in the hands of allopathic physicians, in doses of one-fourteenth to one-twentieth of a grain.— (See Report of a case by Dr. Fell,—N- York Med. and Surg. Re- porter, No. 8.) The specific action of Nux-vomica under all circumstances is upon the cerebro-spinal system, and thence its efficacy when properly exhibited in tetanus, epilepsy, chorea, and hysteria. Belladonna, taken in health, gives rise to inflammation of the throat and a scarlet eruption upon the skin; and yet this remedy is highly extolled and extensively used as a prophylactic against scarlatina by many leading men opposed to homoeo- pathy. An eruption resembling psora is often produced by an exces- sive use of Sulphur and Iodine ; still these are the grand remedies in cu- taneous affections of this kind. Pereira prescribed Prussic-acid to a lady who had been suffering for months from gastrodynia; in a few hours, to the astonishment of every one, she was quite Avell. "It can hardly be imagined," says Pereira, " that irritation of the stomach can be rapidly removed by a substance which is itself an irritant." The direct application of blisters to surfaces affected with rheumatic, erysi- pelatous, and other natural cutaneous inflammations, is constantly recom- mended at the present time by the followers of Hippocrates. " Ery- sipelas and other cutaneous inflammations may be removed by the direct action of Cantharides upon the part inflamed. The remedial agent in these cases varies the mode of inflammation, and thus intro- duces a modification in which the properties of life are brought into recuperative action;" (Paine ]s Institutes of Medicine); yet they affect a superlative contempt for the law of "similia similibus curanturl" It is from experience alone, that the old-school physicians have learned, that Ipecac, in doses of one-twelfth to one-sixteenth of a grain, arrests, nausea and vomiting, and imparts tone and vigor to the Btomach; that Calomel, in doses of one-twentieth of a grain, is invalua- ble for the cure of inflammation of the mucous membranes of the bowels: " in cases of inflammation of the mucous tissue of the intestines attended with frequent watery discharges, there is nothing comparable with Calomel, in doses varying from the twentieth to the eighth of a grain once in four to twelve hours." (Paine'sInstitutes of Medicine) That Quinia, in doses of one-sixteenth or one-twentieth of a grain is more efficient in removing remittent and intermittent fevers, and as a general tonic in diseased states of the system, than when exhibited in quantities of from one to ten grains at a dose, is admitted by the best authors. "Quinia, in the dose of five to ten grains," says Dr. Payne, ALLOPATHY. 89 "may speedily arrest an intermittent fever by \\& febrifuge virtue; but this is bad practice, since, by its associate tonic virtue, it is likely to increase or to induce local congestions; thus leaving the patient im- perfectly cured, and subject to relapses: I have seen, in my own family, the most formidable grade of remittent fever, of long duration, and at- tended with the foregoing complications, ardent heat, thread-like pulse, loss of mind, &c, and where hope of recovery had been abandoned, yield to less than a grain of Quinine, divided into sixteen doses." (Institutes of Medicine). By experience also they have learned, that Strychnia in very minute quantities, will cure tetanus ; and that the class of remedies denominated alteratives, are capable of producing powerful effects upon the organism, and that too in a manner altogether unknown and imperceptible. But how do these physicians know that the virtues of these medi- cines cease at these points? Have they ever made honest trials of them in a pure form, and in doses of one-fiftieth, one-hundredth, or a still smaller proportion of a grain, and learned from actual observation, that they have then lost their power of impressing diseased structures? We venture to affirm, never, or they would long since have deserted the standard of allopathy. This leaning toAvards the modern theory is not altogether confined to the few practical cases, which we have cited, but some of their most eminent writers' have approached so near to the vieAvs of Hahnemann, that we are at a loss whether to rank their theoretical doctrines as ho- moeopathic or allopathic. Pereira in his Materia Medica, writes as follows: "Unguents and lotions are used in cutaneous diseases, ulcers, &c.; gargles in affections of the mouth and throat; Collyria in ophthalmic diseases, and injec- tions into the vagina and uterus in affections of the urino-genital or- gans. In all such cases, we can explain the therapeutical effect in no other way, than by assuming, that the medicine sets up a new kind of action in the part affected, and that the new action subsides when the use of the medicine is suspended or desisted from." This explanation is the true one. The medicines in these cases, as well as in all other instances where appropriate specific remedies are used, do "set up a new kind of action in the part affected, creating a medicinal disease, which supersedes the natural one." The only fault we have to urge against the allopathists in the treat- ment of these and analogous cases, is, that they give much too large doses, and thus create a far more violent medicinal disease, than is necessary to bring about their cures. NotAvithstanding, howeArer, their errors in exhibiting medicines in a crude and impure form, and in un- necessarily large doses, we must give them the credit, (fiat justicia 90 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. ruat coelum), of occasionally curing disease (although unwittingly) in a "rational and consistent manner." "When the intestinal mucous tissue," says Dr. Paine, "is affected with that condition of disease which results in a preternatural watery secretion and consequent evacuations, which is called diarrhoea, and Rhubarb is administered in a certain dose, this substance first impresses the membrane in such a way as to determine an increase of the peristaltic movement, but it simultaneously alters the morbid state of the intestinal mucous tissue in such a way, that the natural secre- tion is arrested. Whether, therefore, the Rhubarb purge, or prove astringent or tonic, a common principle and common laAVS are concerned throughout; and all the sensible results depend upon certain altera- tions, which the agent effects in the vital properties and actions of the vessels or tissues which are the seat of the morbid conditions, or in which the various phenomena may take place? (Institutes of Medicine.) The same principle directs the practitioners of the old school in the treatment of many other diseases, and yet they sneer at homoeo- pathy, and hold up their own inconsistent and uncertain doctrines as philosophical and correct! They thus constantly administer medicines after the mariner of the homoeopathist, abandoning their own theories, they practice upon the principles of our modern heresy. Gentlemen of the old school, where is your pride, Avhere your consistency? You have the boast of antiquity; you haA'e received your "bundle of ideas" from Hippocrates and Galen, to whom you pay reverence and alle- giance; you disdain innovations, and despise discoveries and improve- ments ; you have withstood the changes of more than two-thousand years, and by your powerful dicta have continually discouraged all original induction, and endeavored to crush in the bud every advance- ment in medical knowledge. Where is now your former pride, that you so often practically abandon your time-sacred axiom, "contraria con- trariis," and adopt the new heresy, "similia similihisl" Perhaps the light of modern science and discovery breaks, against your will, through the crevices of your unjointed and heterogeneous theories, or you are startled from your propriety by the overwhelming accumula- tions of fact vrhich Hahnemann and his disciples have displayed before the world; or, possibly, the disrespect and abuse of some of the most eminent and able of your caste, has impaired all confidence in and respect for, your own dogmas and their applications, and you are at sea in search of a system. Are we wrong! If so, we have excuse in the following from the late distinguished editor of the "British and Foreign Med. Chirur. Review? Dr. Forbes, who asserts: "1. That in a large proportion of the cases treated by allopathic physicians, the disease is cured by nature, and not by them." ALLOPATHY. 91 "2. That in a less, but still not in a small proportion, the disease is cured by nature in spite of them; in other Avords, their interference opposing instead of assisting the cure." "3. That, consequently, in a considerable proportion of diseases, it would fare as Avell or better with patients, in the actual condition of the medical art, as more generally practiced, if all remedies, at least all active remedies, especially drugs, Avere abandoned. We repeat our readiness to admit these inferences as just, and to abide the conse- quences of their adoption." We have thus far made allusion to that part only of the allopathic practice, which bears some approximation to the correct method. In most of the instances enumerated, specific medicines are employed,— medicines that produce a similar state when given in health, to that which they are to cure. Although large quantities of crude and im- pure drugs are used in these instances, and the medicinal diseases are thus rendered violent and complicated, still it must be admitted that occasional cures are accomplished. But we come now to a more interesting and momentous part of our subject. It becomes our duty to lay before our readers the doctrines and practice of allopathy, as they actually exist; to note their many in- consistencies, and to point out some of the innumerable evils Avhich they entail upon mankind. We have seen that in the treatment of disease, the old-school phy- sicians make an indiscriminate use of the palliative, heteropathic, and, in a feAV instances, to the homoeopathic methods of practice. A general idea prevails that all diseases consist in "local determi- nations of blood," and that no two affections of any consequence can exist in different parts of the same organism, at once. On this account it is that new diseases are created in healthy parts for the purpose of removing the primary natural one. Physicians have been led to adopt this mode of reasoning from ob- serving that the spontaneous appearance of cutaneous eruptions, dis- charges of blood, profuse perspirations, &c, occasionally afford relief to morbidly affected internal organs. Without reflecting that these re- sults are merely symptoms of the internal disorders, and that the causes upon which these signs depend are located in the blood, they at- tempt to annihilate diseases by imitating artificially these symptoms. In regard to the first position, we affirm that their premises are un- true. There are no facts, which Avarrant the statement, that " no tAvo excessiA*e determinations of blood can exist in the same individual at the same time." Neither is it true, that the appearance of cutaneous eruptions, spontaneous sweats, diarrhoea, and discharges of blood are invariably, or even generally, indications that the affected organ is in process of restoration, or that the system at large is recovering its lost 92 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. energy and vigor ; since it often occurs that the symptoms of the com- plaint are all aggravated upon the supervention of either of the above occurrences. Dr. Wilson observes, that " there is often a remarkable tendency to the worst species of haemorrhages from the bowels, towards the termina- tion of fatal cases of phrenitis." Dr. Eberle says, " on the day pre- ceding the fatal termination of a case of phrenitis, which came under my own observation, an exceedingly copious discharge of dissolved blood took place from the boAvels, and on the following morning the haemor- rhage occurred also from the mouth and gums."—(Practice of Physic.) Let us suppose a case of phrenitis. We have here an inflamma- tion, or a congested state of the capillaries of the brain. To relieve this inflammation and withdraw a portion of the fluid which is con- cerned in the congestion,bloodletting, both general and local, is resorted to as a primary and indispensable means of cure. By this means the general strength is reduced, the pulse increased or diminished in fre- quency, and the temperature of the skin is altered, but the congestion still continues, and the morbid and debilitated state of the extreme vessels (in which the disorder alone resides) remains the same as before. A resort is then made to revulsives and counter-irritants, in order that new inflammations may be created in healthy structures, which shall supersede' that already existing in the brain. To effect this object purgatives of the drastic kind are exhibited, and blisters applied to the head, neck, and lower extremities, in order that the intestinal canal and portions of the skin, shall be placed in a state of artificial inflam- mation. Let us understand the case clearly. We have a disease consisting solely in a loss of tone and irritability of the serous vessels of the brain, which prevents them from excluding the red blood, and of per- forming properly their functions. To obviate this condition, a quan- tity of blood is abstracted, and artificial or medicinal inflammations are caused in the intestinal canal, and upon different parts of the surface of the body. We now inquire in what manner these violent means can, by any possibility, reach the seat of the malady, and impart tone and vigor to the weakened capillaries, so as to enable them to exclude from their structure the red globules, and resume their healthy function * All will concede that inflammation consists in loss of tone and irrita- bility m these vessels, and that no cure can take place until this im paired irritability is restored. In inflammation, acco din, o P X Hastings Eberle, Wilson, and Allan, the capillaries of^part a fn a state oi debility and passive relaxation. The immediate excitin* cause of the inflammation may be either stimulant or sedative In both instances the impression is made upon the nervous filaments of the ALLOPATHY. 93 capillaries, and if the cause acts as a stimulant, the reaction Avhich must follow this augmented action will leave these delicate nerves in a state of debility proportionate to the amount of the previous excitement. If the primary cause is directly sedative, no reaction will occur but a similar state of relaxation will obtain as in the former instance. How then, we repeat, can venesection, catharsis, and blisters effect the necessary object? They do not certainly prevent the red blood from still entering the relaxed capillary tubes, for the whole remaining mass must continue to circulate through the brain, as well as other parts of the organism, every few minutes. By lessening the quantity of blood, Ave also abstract a portion of that natural stimulus of the organism, which is one of the essential condi- tions of irritability. " Every part of the organism depends for the per- formance of its proper functions, on the receipt of arterial blood and of nervous influence ; no alterations in the supply of either of these essentials may modify or even suspend the functions of apart" (Pereira,—Materia Medica.) How absurd and pernicious then, in inflammations, the very essence of Avhich is debility and loss of tone, to detract from one of those con- ditions upon which this very tone and vigor depends! As well mio-ht you remedy the breach through which the waters of a raging torrent .'are madly rushing, by turning off from its course some small tributary rivulet. As well attempt to suppress the leak of a storm-tossed vessel, by diverting from its proper channel a portion of the stream on which it floats. . It is not the blood which is at fault; but a portion of the organism; correct therefore the cause of the disturbance by direct and appro- priate specifics, and you may then, and not till then, effect cures, safely and philosophically. Seek not to deprive the system of that fluid, which is so essential to the organism, and on whose integrity its func- tions depend; for by so doing, the cause of the malady will remain untouched. It is very true, that when a large quantity of blood is abstracted, during inflammation, there will seem to be in some instances an appa- rent amelioration of all the symptoms, but this effect is only temporary; for as soon as the reaction comes on, the enfeebled capillaries again admit the destructive "carriers of oxygen" as before; the state of con- gestion and inflammation remains, while the system at large has lost a portion of that stimulus, which conduces so materially, not only to sustain the normal integrity of the functions in health, but to aid in the restoration of enfeebled and diseased parts. The remedies, Avhich stand next in importance in the old-school method of treating inflammation of the brain, are revulsives and counter- 94 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. irritants. It is supposed, that by exciting the intestinal exhalents, in- flaming the membrane of the bowels, and portions of the skin, the Cir- culation is diverted from the brain and directed especially to these parts. But by this means is the brain in reality relieved ? Is the whole mass of blood thus prevented from circulating as usual through this organ once in three or four minutes, or the character of its red globules changed ? By exhausting the energies and resisting force of distant healthy structures, and creating sympathetic symptoms throughout the body—thus complicating the already existing disease, and impairing the entire nervous and muscular energies—are the inflamed capillaries of the brain placed in a more favorable condition to recover their im- paired tone and irritability? Every man who has a correct idea of the Laws which govern the organism in health and disease, and who is willing to banish prejudice and be guided by common-sense and true philosophy, must answer in the negative. We object to these remedies, however, not only because they are in- competent to produce salutary impressions upon inflamed parts, but because of the evils of a positive character to which they give rise. The chief remedies of the old school are the preparations of Mer- cury, Opium, Antimony, and Bark. In a vast majority of all the cases treated by the practitioners of this school, one or more of these articles is made use of. Indeed scarcely a single malady of any moment can be named, in which one of these medicines is not considered in- dispensable. Let us then examine some of their effects, in allopathic doses, upon the healthy and diseased organism. , 1. Mercury.—This mineral is more uncertain in its action in all states of the system, than any other article in use. It possesses the poAver in different constitutions and under certain circumstances of af- fecting nearly every organ and tissue of the body; and it is not in the power of the most judicious physician to say beforehand, where, or in what manner, it will exert its force. Some of the more common deleterious effects of Mercury are: ex- cessive salivation and sloughing of the gums, mouth and throat, gastro-enteritis, mercurial erethism., dysentery, cutaneous eruptions, inflammation of the periosteum and bones, nodes, excessive de- rangement of the nervous system, paralysis, tremors, necroses of the maxillary and other bones, rheumatism and ophthalmia. When Mercury is administered, even in a moderate quantity, no human being can be at all certain that one or another of these evil consequences will not result. Indeed it is the direct object oftentimes to produce some of them to operate as counter-irritants. Whether it is employed in large or small quantities, solid, or in the ALLOPATHY. 95 form of vapor, it is of little importance, so far as its power of affecting the system is concerned. The following, from the editor of the Med. and Surg. Journ., illustrates the baneful influence of the vapor when inhaled: "In 1810 the Triumph, man-of-war, and Phipps, schooner, received on board several tons of quicksilver, saved from the wreck of a Aressel near Cadiz. In consequence of the rotting of the bags, the Mercury escaped, and the whole of. the crew became more or less affected. In the space of three Aveeks 200 men were salivated, two died, and all the animals, cats, dogs, sheep, fowls, a canary-bird,—nay, even the rats} mice, and cockroaches Avere destroyed." The following cases, resulting from the employment of Calomel, have come under our own observation, viz., three cases of necrosis of the in- ferior maxillary bones, requiring the removal of portions of the jaAv; several cases of gangrene and sloughing of the mouth and throat, Avhich have terminated fatally; a number of cases of mercurial palsy; numerous instances of ulceration of the nose, throat, &c, skin diseases, affections of the bones, nodes, rheumatic affections, &c, &c. Professor Chapman of Philadelphia, after descanting upon the woful effects, which have been so often produced by Calomel, and referring to many disgusting cases of mercurial disease, which had come under his OAvn observation, thus concludes: " Who is it, that can stop the career of Mercury at will, after it has taken the reins in its own destructiAre and ungovernable hands! He, who, for an ordinary cause, resigns the fate of his patient to Mercury, is a vile enemy to the sick;. and if he is tolerably popular, will in one successful season have paA*ed the Avay for the business of life; for he has enough to do ever afterwards to stop the mercurial breach of the constitutions of his dilapidated patients. He has thrown himself in fearful proximity to death, and has noAV to fight him at arm's length as long as the patient maintains a miserable existence." And this dreadful poison is the most common,—yes, the daily remedy of allopathy, for almost every disorder, whether^mild or severe, acute or chronic. This is the agent with which.artificial diseases are created in healthy parts, to cure primary or natural ones! This is the substance with Avhich unfortunate mortals are drugged, from the time they come into the Avorld until their Avretched and too ofen premature departure, with its well-known and generally-admitted evils and dangers,—from the contemplation of Avhich the well-instructed and experienced allopath shrinks Avith instinctive dread,—and from its questionable value in most instances of its prescription, it may justly detain our attention. Calomel and Opium are the common remedies in traditional practice for a large number of diseases. We will see to what extent they may be used in a practice that is philosophical. By glancing at the standard works on the practice of medicine, it m GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. will be observed, that there is scarcely a single malady, either acute or chronic, in which one or both of these articles is not recommended as an important, if not indispensible means of cure. The allopath is taught to believe, that Mercury excites the functions of all the organs,—acts specifically upon the liver, salivary glands, heart, lungs and nervous system,—and therefore that it may be ad- ministered almost universally. Regardless of the secondary sym- pathetic affections to which it usually gives rise, he attributes all of these sj-mptoms to the natural disorder, and if the patient succumbs before the combined attacks of the primary disease and the medicinal one, he consoles himself with the reflection that he has followed his authorities and prescribed as his predecessors have done for centuries before him. Ask him, what are his views concerning inflammation, and he answers, that it consists in a debilitated and congested state of the capillaries of the part affected. Ask him, what is the methodus me- dendi of Mercury in cure of inflammation,—how any of its effects can reach the seat of the malady, the congested capillaries, and restore to them their impaired tone and healthy functions,—and he either avows his ignorance, or offers an unsatisfactory explanation. 2. Opium.—If we except Calomel, this drug, and its preparations are more frequently used by the medical men of the old school, than any other article in the materia medica. Possessing the poAver, as it does in an eminent degree, when exhibited in large doses, of covering (not curing) symptoms, and of shutting the mouths of clamorous and inquiring patients, it is used constantly and indiscriminately in nearly all protracted maladies. Let us then briefly examine the effects of opium in health and dis- ease, and see if it possesses the wonderful property of reaching every structure, and of counteracting so many diverse and contradictory symptoms. Its effects upon the human system, in medium doses, are in the first instance stimulating, but in a short time this is followed by a condi- tion of diminished sensibility and desire to sleep. This state " continues from eight to twelve hours, and is followed by nausea, headache, tremors, and other symptoms of diminished and irregular nervous energy. All of the secretions, with the exception of that from the skin, are either suspended or diminished." ( Wood and Bache, U. S. Dispensatory.) These effects, with a very few exceptions, are uniform under all circumstances, so far as we can judo-e. How, then, is this substance applicable to the treatment of so many diseases? We have remarked, that in a large proportion of all known mala- dies, there exists an inflammation of an acute or sub-acute character in ALLOPATHY. 97^ some part of the organism, and it is the presence of this inflammation which maintains and perpetuates the disease. We have also observed that all inflammations consist in a congested state of the capillaries of * the part affected, caused and kept up by a loss of tone, resisting poAver, or irritability, which disables them from resisting the intromission of red blood. It is apparent, then, that in order to prove efficient, such remedies should be exhibited as are capable of acting upon the seat of the com- plaint, and of restoring the delicate capillary nerves to their normal State of integrity. Opium cannot accomplish this, for its operation tends to impair the nervous energy, instead of adding vigor, to dry up most of the secretions, instead of aiding nature to give Arent to the poisonous, and pent-up fluid; it induces nausea, headache, tremors, and many other medicinal symptoms of sufficient severity to make a healthy man sick, or to complicate to a serious extent any existing na- tural affection. If we have urged, that opiates have the power of allaying pain, while other more efficient measures are pursued-to effect the cures, we reply, that by covering up the pain, the real state of the case is con- cealed; other new syniptoms set in, which will be unnoticed by the' benumbed patient, while secondary sympathetic affections will be pro- pagated to every part of the body, aggravating and complicating the original disorder. Opium is highly extolled in low forms of fever and other complaints, where the powers of the system are in an exhausted condition. But let it be remembered, that the stimulating effect of this drug is of short duration, and that the corresponding reaction or depression Avill bear an exact ratio to the previous exaltation. This law is fundamen- tal ; for the system possesses but a definite and limited amount of vital power, and is capable of resisting only a limited degree of unnatural action or disease, so that we can readily perceive how opiates and stimulants must ultimately prove deleterious. It is true, that perspiration is promoted by the use of this narcotic, but this does not cure. Sweating is merely a symptom, and it may be favorable or otherwise. When excited artificially by medicine it is not productive of benefit, because this adds nothing towards invigorat- ing the weakened capillaries. "Perspiration," says Dr. Paine, "induced by medicine is of little mo- merit, unless the remedy simultaneously impresses, direct1 y or indi- rectly, the parts diseased; and then the salutary result, so far as the surface is concerned, depends upon special vital influences exerted by the remedy upon the skin and reacting sympathies. This is exempli- fied by the profound effects of tartarized Antimony, and Ipecacuanha, the uselessness of hot water, and the fequent pernicious results of Vou i.—7. v98 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. the compound powder of Ipecacuanha, when free perspiration may follow the administration of either. The effect, therefore, depends but very little upon the evacuation from the skin, as produced by what are called sudorifics." (Institutes of Medicine) It is proper to observe, that Opium may, and sometimes does effect cures in the hands of allopathists, Avhen given as a specific. Its cura- tive virtues in delirium tremens and intoxication, even in large doses, are well known. In these instances, the remedy impresses directly the part diseased, and cures homceopathicatty. It is quite true, that an infinitesimal quantity of the drug, properly prepared, will always prove more efficient, speedy and safe in accomplishing the object, and will not give rise to the unpleasant medicinal symptoms which ne- cessarily attend the employment of large doses; yet the fact must be conceded, that clumsy and unscientific cures are occasionally effected by the course alluded to. An interesting case is related by Pereira, illustrative of this: "Opium," says he, "is sometimes employed by drunkards to relieve in- toxication. I knew a medical man, addicted to drinking, and who for many years was accustomed to take a large dose of laudanum, Avhenever he was intoxicated and was called to see a patient." The specific effects of the alcoholic stimulants and opium given during health, are exerted as remarked elseAvhere, upon the same organ; and we should therefore expect that a malady caused by the excessive use of the one, might be cured by the specific action of the other. Tartarized Antimony.—This salt has been several times formally banished from the materia medica on account of its dangerous qualities, and as often restored after some accidental benefits were observed from its use. The faculty of medicine, at Paris, in 1566, and 1615, passed solemn decrees against it, as a virulent poison, and these decrees were even sanctioned by parliament, though afterwards formally reversed. ( Vale) Since this period, some have loudly extolled its virtues in the treat- ment of a great variety of diseases, while others have as earnestly con- demned its use, as deleterious in all cases. The distinguished professor Nathan Smith, in his essay on typhus fever, remarks: "I have seen many cases, in which persons in the early stages of this disease were moping about, not very sick, but far from being well, and who upon taking a dose of tartrate of Antimony, with the intention of breaking up the disease, have been immediately confined to their beds." He arrives at the conclusion after much experience, that " Tartar-emetic should not be used in this affection, even at its commencement, and in the latter stages of the disease that it is sometimes followed by fatal consequences." In emetic doses, tartarized Antimony irritates the stomach, causes ALLOPATHY. 99 congestion, and sometimes inflammation of the lungs, attended with more or less constitutional disturbance. When it fails to produce emesis speedily, it often acts violently upon the bowels, giving rise to severe griping pains and watery evacuations. The tenderness of the stomach and intestines, and the constitutional disturbance which succeeds its emetic and cathartic operation, indicates the injury which these delicate structures have sustained. The primary impression of Antimony is not the only objection against its employment; for, like Calomel and Opium, it gives rise to numerous secondary symptoms in remote parts, which tend to aggravate in a serious manner any natural affection which may be present; one of the most important of these secondary evils is dilatation of the ventricles of the heart. Having witnessed this result in several instances, one of which occurred in my own family, my attention has been particularly directed to the subject, and I am fully of opinion that cases of this description, from the use of Antimony, are by no means unfrequent. Cinchona.—In intermittent fevers, general debility, and in certain stages of most other affections, Peruvian-bark and its preparations are usually employed by the old school. For the cure of the former, es- pecially, Quinine is the remedy upon which universal reliance is placed ; possessing the property, when used in large and repeated doses, of speedily arresting the chills and fever, it is constantly prescribed for this riialady, without the slightest knowledge of its specific powers, and without any regard to the dangerous medicinal disorders, which it superinduces. All allopathists who have had much experience in the treatment of fever and ague, are aware that the mere suppression of the paroxysms by no means restores the patient to health; for in a great majority of instances, he lingers for months or even years in a diseased and mise- rable condition. In these cases it is probable that a medicinal affec- tion is induced by the remedy, so serious in its character, as to super- sede temporarily the primary one. This is evident, from the fact that after the effects of the medicine have somewhat subsided, the original disorder again generally makes its appearance. In some instances, hoAvever, the medicinal affection is so severe as to constitute a perma- nent disease, and thus entirely usurp the place of the fever. " Experience," says Dr. Paine, " shows that, though bark and its al- kaloids, in large doses, will often arrest intermittent fever suddenly, such doses are liable either to induce some congestion, especially of the liver or of the mucous tissue of the stomach, or will aggravate and es- tablish some co-existing congestion ; and thus while the patient is for the present relieved of the fever, he is dismissed with an insidious local complaint that not only renders him a permanent invalid, (re- sulting often from indurated enlargements,) but which local malady 100 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. may, and often does become, in process of time, the exciting cause of another attack of fever: In respect to relapses, it is not unfrequent that, when intermittents are suddenly stopped by a large dose of Qui- nine, the paroxysms return as soon as the patient begins to exercise much, or to take his ordinary food."—(Institutes of Medicine.) We should naturally suppose that these untoward results would deter practitioners from using so frequently these dangerous remedies; or at all events, as rarely and in as small quantities as possible. On the contrary it seems to be peculiar to allopathy, that her ad- vocates take credit to themselves, when they succeed in administering this, as well as other medicines, in larger doses than any of their con- temporaries, without destroying their patients. Indeed, so far has this destructive system been carried, of experimenting upon disease, that the enormous quantity of a scruple, and even half a drachm of Qui- nine has been exhibited at a dose, and repeated several times a day. These monstrous quantities create (say Wood and Bache) " gastro- enteritic irritation, nausea, griping, purging, head-ache, giddiness, fever, somnolency, in some cases delirium, in others stupor, &c." Paine as- serts that he has witnessed many of these effects " from five grains only ;" yet, as patients sometimes live in spite of this treatment, many persist in adhering to these desperate innovations. There are many other medicines employed by allopathy in the treat- ment of disease, besides those to which we have alluded, but in ge'heral they serve only as auxiliaries. In this list may be ranked diaphore- tics, diuretics, expectorants, refrigerants, emmenagogues, emollients, errhines, &c, but the articles belonging to each of these classes, in a crude state and in large doses are liable to important objections. The fault of those medicines which operate specifically, like diruetics, emmenagogues, &c, in the hands of allopathists, is the aggravation which they must necessarily cause, if the part acted upon be irritated or in- flamed. This objection will be clearly appreciated, when it is remem- bered how extremely sensitive to specific remedial impressions organs and tissues become during inflammation. The evils resulting from the use of those medicines which are not specifics, are, first, their inability to reach the seat of the disease, and secondly, the sympathetic derangement to which they give rise in various parts of the body, the direct tendency of which is to retard and counteract the recuperative efforts of nature. As an example of the first class, let us take the diuretic Copaibse as a remedy for gonorrhoea. In this example, the remedy doubtless im- presses directly the inflamed membrane of the urethra, but the impression is so violent, that either a decided increase of the inflammation ensues, or the discharge is suddenly suppressed, and some other organ, as the bladder, kidneys, testicles, or lungs, takes on diseased acikm. Indeed, ALLOPATHY. 101 we are decidedly of opinion, that not one genuine case of virulent go- norrhoea can be adduced, where a safe and permanent cure has been effected by large doses of this balsam. A not unfrequent effect of Copaibas in moderate quantities, is to ex- cite serious disorder of' the lungs. This consequence I have often witnessed, and I have a patient at this time, who assures me, that he is unable to take a single dose of it, without being afflicted with a pain in his chest and cough. Gastric and intestinal disturbance, also usually result from its use. In some instances, a troublesome eruption makes its appearance, ren- dering it necessary to discontinue its employment for a time. And yet, with all of these artificial consequences, the disease is very rarely, if ever, cured by this nauseous substance. Diaphoretics were introduced into practice by the advocates of the humoral pathology, under the supposition that their sweating qualities would aid nature in throwing off the morbid humors. When the hypo- thesis universally obtained, that fevers were caused by an excess of one of the four humors, blood, phlegm, and black and yellow bile, and that this superabundance must be expelled through the pores of the skin, kidneys, &c, it was a rational deduction that the employment of dia- phoretics and diuretics should conduce essentially to aid nature in the cure. But Avhen more correct ideas in regard to the nature and seat of diseases-were introduced, and medical men had learned that spontaneous sweating diuresis, discharges of blood, diarrhoea, &c, in the latter stages of diseases occurred in consequence of a natural amendment or a sud- den prostration in the powers of the affected parts, and not as an effect of the medicines, it is a matter of surprize that these uncertain reme- dies should have been retained. The late Prof. N. Smith says: " As there is more or less sweating in the decline of most febrile diseases, and, as a general perspiration is often accompanied with other symptoms of amendment, it has been looked upon as the natural cure of the disease. Under this impression, ithasbeena pretty universal practice to encourage SAveating; but with respect to the grounds upon Avhich this practice is founded, it is a ques- tion whether the effect has not, in this case, been mistaken for the cause; that is, whether the SAveating is not the effect of the amend- ment, rather than the cause of it; and, if so, it is still more question- able whether sweating, produced by art in the beginning of the disease, would be attended with good effects. In all cases, where I have seen this sweating regimen adopted, the practice has been obviously in* jurious." Many other eminent professors, as may be readily proved, entertain similar views in regard to this subject. 102 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. Physiology teaches us, that no unusual disturbance, no inflammation, and no functional derangement can accrue to any part of the body, whether by a moral, physical, morbific or medicinal agent, without be- ing followed by secondary sympathetic symptoms in remote parts, more or less severe according to the violence of the exciting cause. The stomach and bowels more especially, being the grand centre of junction of the ganglionic system of nerves, are so intimately connected with all parts of the economy, that disturbances at either of these points are reflected through the sympathetic nerves upon remote healthy struc- tures, thus complicating to a serious and often fatal extent, any dis- order which may already be present. There is scarcely any part of the machine, which is not called into morbid sympathetic action by derangements of the stomach and in- testines. Even the presence of bile or acid, in unusual quantities, causes pains in the head and limbs, nausea, and other affections of a distressing nature, until the offending substances are removed. All of the organs and tissues are so closely connected by the nervous system, that it may be laid down as a general rule, that no disorder can happen to one part without implicating more or less other parts, whether diseased or healthy. (Mutter's Physiology.) "A particular state of one organ, such as inflammation, or a secreting action in it, often causes the production of a similar state in other parts. The principle of the balance of sympathy teaches us, how we must avoid aggravating the morbid condition of one organ by the means we apply to another." How reasonable, then, to expect that artificial medicinal inflammations of the sensitive structures of the economy should give rise to secondary affections of a grave and permanent character. In conclusion, the theoretical and practical doctrines of allopathy may be briefly summed up as folloAvs : 1. In the rude ages of the world, when the arts and sciences were in their infancy,—when vague, indefinite and absurd notions were enter- tained respecting diseases,—when anatomy, chemistry, physiology* pathology, botany, and even correct methods of induction were entirely unknown,—when the imaginatians of men, instead of ascertained facts, were appealed to in establishing theories,—and when systems of prac- tice were founded upon merely fanciful conjectures,—then it was that blood-letting, cathartics, diaphoretics, diuretics, refrigerants, revulsives, derivatives, counter-irritants, and most-of the other remedies of allopathy made their first appearance. As the pathological doctrines of this period were all entirely erroneous, it is but fair to conclude, that their therapeutical inferences must have been equally incorrect. 2. Whatever may Have been the changes in respect to the theory of disease, from age to age, long established customs, the force of habit, ALLOPATHY. 103 education, prejudice, &c, have served to retain until our own period, most of the violent, unnatural and pernicious methods of treatment, in- vented and adopted by the founders of medicine. 3. At the present time, every thing pertaining to the theory and practice of the old school is indefinite, obscure and uncertain. Scarcely two different allopathists entertain the same views in regard to patho logy, and no one can determine beforehand with any kind of certainty precisely what effects his medicine will produce; yet in the treatment of nearly all cases, Venesection, Calomel, Opium, and Antim,ony are empirically, and we might almost say, universally employed, in quantities too great to be beneficial or safe. In those cases, where refrigerants, diuretics, expectorants, &c, are used, they can only be looked upon as auxiliaries, and are usually ad- ministered without any accurate knowledge as to whether they promote or retard the designs of nature. 4. Owing to the absence of any generally received or consistent theory of disease, allopathists are obliged to prescribe at random. They strike at the name, and not at the seat of the maladies, where alone re- medies can prove efficient. Thus it is, that patients are so often reduced to the lowest point by medicines, while the disease continues its pro- gress unchecked. 5. Lastly, there is every reason to believe, that the production of violent artificial diseases in healthy structures, for the suppression of natural maladies, is, upon the whole, far more productive of deleterious than of beneficial consequences. The effort, to discover specific remedies for individual diseases, is not yet abandoned; but it is restricted to the making of experiments upon the sick, and results only in infrequent cures, which are never satisfactory and which can not be repeated or imitated in subsequent cases. Hahnemann, in his essay, entitled: Examination of the Sources of the Common Materia Medica" (Lesser Writings, p. 748), with a masterly and irresistible logic, that has never been surpassed, shows that such experimentation is nothing but crude empiricism, and that, though it has been in vogue for some thousands of years, it has never yet given us a single reliable specific. A great part of the medicine, given with the pretence of curing dis- ease, is not expected to cure, but to palliate, to cover up the loud complaints that the organism is everyAvhere uttering for help. Dr Parrish, Lecturer on Pharmacy, (Philadelphia) said recently: " The prevailing doctrines among medical men at this time, direct, that a large per-centage of all the prescriptions now made contain Opium, Morphia, or Hyoscyamus." Five years ago, he ascertained, that his own prescrip- tions averaged thus: Opiates 24 per cent; Mercurials 23 per cent; 104 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. Iodine and Iodide of Potassium 6 per cent; Cinchona and its al- kaloids 9 per cent. These were the proportions in the written prescriptions. Of the unwritten prescriptions the proportion of Opium was larger, as Opium in some form was in every house. Second in importance is Hyoscyamus, Then, Conium, Belladonna, Stramonium, Cannabis-indica. Allopathy is a mere collective title of all the various modes of treat- ment not homoeopathic, and has no pretensions to a place among the definite curative modes by specifics. (Miiller.) The more recent theory of specific or substitutive action teaches, that diseases even widely dissimilar may supersede each other, or that one may supersede another: we have examples of such supersessions, and of a neAV and not similar disease complicating an old one, but not of removing it. "In fact, when the latter event takes place at all, it is only when the neAV disease approaches to the required degree of homceopathi- city. In fine, the real fact of the matter we apprehend is simply this, that the degree of homceopathicity that suffices for cure is not accurately fixed; and, as we recede from complete homceopathicity, a certain margin is left within which specifics given in more massive doses may still have curative effects." Within this margin may room enough be found for the spe- cifiers, Rademacherians and Trousseauist substitutivists. But beyond that we protest against allowing any such method as an allopathic alterative one any positive existence at all. The great discovery of Hahnemann, viz., the positive homoeopathic law of specifics must not be let down and diluted and refined aAvay, by giving it only a place as one of a sliding scale of specific actions, all on pretty much the same footing. No! if we are compelled to admit as matter of fact that there are other actions of medicine, Avhich we must on exceptional oc- casions make use of, such as the antipathic or revulsive, let us say so plainly, and not attempt to shade them off into the homoeopathic. (Mutter.) In view, therefore, of the present condition of the medical art, we most earnestly request the allopath to pause or reflect deeply and seriously, before he rejects finally the most important discoveries in the art of curing disease, that have been made in ancient or modern times. Let him remember that a high responsibility attaches to his po- sition,—that the welfare, happiness and lives of his patients hang upon his judgment and decision,—and that an improper exhibition of re- medies may so complicate and aggravate the natural disease, as to con- sign his patient to a premature grave. Let him look about, candidly and impartially, and see if there are really no improvements in the healing art since the times of Hippocrates and Galen. Let him submit new discoveries and new doctrines to a rigid practical test, and decide from the results,—from the cures effected,—what system is most correct H0M020PATHY. 105 and best calculated to promote the welfare of the human race. Let him no longer reverence ancient doctrines and ancient names, simply on account of their antiquity, but seek after truth alone, whether of ancient or modern discovery, and found his practice only upon this certain basis. HOMOEOPATHY. The Discovery of the Homoeopathic Mode of treating disease is thus announced by Hahnemann: * " By observation, reflection, and experiment, I discovered, that, in opposition to the old allopathic method, the true maxim; To effect a mild, rapid, certain, and permanent cure, choose in every case of disease, a medicine which can itself produce an affection similar (ofioiov -n&doc) to that sought to be cured. " Hitherto no one has ever taught this homoeopathic mode of cure, no one has practiced it. But if the truth is only to be found in this method, as I can prove it to be, we might expect that, even though it remained unperceived for thousands of years, distinct traces of it would yet be discovered in every age? "And such is the fact. In all ages, the patients who hiavebeenreatty, rapidly, permanently, and evidently cured by medicines, and who did not merely recover by some fortuitous circumstance, or by the acute disease having run its allotted course, or by the powers of the system having in the course of time gradually attained the preponderance, under allopathic and antagonistic treatment^ for being cured in a direct manner differs vastly from recovering in an indirect manner.—Such patients have been cured solely, (although without the knoAvledge of the physician), by means of a (homoeopathic) medicine, which possessed the power of producing a similar morbid state." When Hahnemann first promulgated to the world his pathological and therapeutical views, their novelty, their entire variance from all preconceived opinions, and their alleged superiority over all other systems, when applied to the practice of the healing art, induced physicians to suppose the man mad, and his ideas the offspring of a disordered imagination. It was difficult to conceive that acute maladies could be cured without venesection, emetics, cathartics, sudorifics, refrigerants, altera- tives, and counter-irritants and on this account the great discoveries of the father of homoeopathy were for many years coldly received, and his arguments answered only by impudent sneers or senseless ridicule. Like the illustrious Fulton, who—when he announced to his country- men the powers of steam, and first applied this agent to the propulsion * Organon.—Introduction. 106 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. of a vessel—was declared, even by his nearest friends insane, and his projects visionary: like Harvey, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood, who was bitterly assailed " by the bigotted abettors of old- established systems, with whispers, innuendoes, and controversial writ- ings*, and himself pronounced a reckless innovator, and unworthy of public confidence as a practitioner; like Galileo, who, after demonstrat- ing the truth of the Copernican system was persecuted by his rivals, and twice compelled by the inquisition to abjure a system which he knew to be correct; like Columbus, Newton, Locke, Jenner, and many other benefactors of the human race, Hahnemann has been aspersed, and his doctrines, like theirs, "have been ridiculed, misrepresented, and contemned: but time has cast all the columniators of Columbus, of Galileo, of Newton, of Locke, of Harvey, of Jenner, of Fulton, into a deserved oblivion, while the names of these eminent persons stand high on the roll of fame, and their discoveries remain to benefit the world. Brief Exposition of the Homoeopathic Method of Treating Dis- ease.—The following truths are established by reason and experience : 1. There is nothing for the physician to cure in disease but the suffer- ings of the patient. The changes in his state Avhich are perceptible to the senses comprise what is known by "the totality of the symptoms by which the disease points out the remedy it stands in need of." These changes are internal as well as external, and the physician takes into his enumeration of symptoms, not only all that appear upon the sur- face, but all the pathological changes which he knows to be going on internally. 2. Disease can not be converted into health but by the aid of medi- cines and agencies which are capable of producing similar disease- symptoms. The powers of a given remedy to produce similar symptoms are best learned through experiments on healthy individuals, so far as experimenting may safely go in such researches: where these neces- sarily terminate, we may learn their further powers from the accidental uses and abuses of the same agents in allopathic practice and cases of poisoning. 3. "According to every known fact," says Hahnemann, "it is impos- sible to cure a natural disease by the aid of medicines which have the faculty of producing a dissimilar artificial state or symptom in healthy persons. Therefore the allopathic method can never effect a real cure. Even nature never performs a cure or annihilates one disease byaddino* to it another that is dissimilar, be the intensity of the latter ever so great." 4. "Every fact serves to prove that a medicine capable of exciting in healthy persons a morbid symptom opposite to the disease to be cured, never affects any other than momentary relief in disease of long standing, without curing it, and suffers it to reappear after a certain HOMOEOPATHY. 107 interval more aggravated than ever. The antipathic and purely pallia- tive method is, therefore, wholly opposed to the object that is to be attained, where the disease is an important one, and of long standing." 5. The homoeopathic method which employs against the totality of the symptoms of a natural disease a medicine that is capable of exciting in healthy persons symptoms that closely resemble those of the disease itself, is the only salutary method. It always annihiliates disease, or the purely dynamic aberrations of the vital powers, in an easy, prompt, and perfect manner. In this respect nature herself furnishes the example, when by adding to an existing disease a new one, that resem- bles it, she cures it promptly and effectually. " A new and more intense disease suspends a prior and dissimilar one already existing in the body, only so long as the former continues, but it never cures it. If the new disease, which is dissimilar to the old be more powerful than the latter, it will then cause its suspension until the new disease has either performed its own course or is cured; but then the old disease reappears. We are informed by Tulpius (Obs. Lib. 1. Obs. 8.) that two children having contracted tinea, ceased to experience any further attacks of epilepsy to which they had till then been subject: but as soon as the eruption of the head was removed, they were again attacked as before. Schopf saw the itch disappear when scurvy manifested itself, and return again after the cure of the latter disease. (Hufel. Journ. XV. 2.) A violent typhus has suspended the progress of ulcerous phthisis, which resumed its march immediately after the cessation of the typhoid disease (Chevalier). When madness manifests itself during the pulmonary disease, it effaces the phthisis with all its symptoms; but then the pulmonary disease again rears its head and kills the patient. (Reil. Memorabilia). When measles and small-pox exist together, and have both attacked the same child, it is usual for the measles which have already declared them- selves, to be arrested by the small-pox which bursts forth, and not to resume their course until after the cure of the latter; on the other hand, Manget has also seen the small-pox, which had fully developed itself after inoculation, suspended during four days by the measles which intervened, and, after the desquamation of which, it revived again to run its course. The eruption of measles on the sixth day after inocula- tion has been known to arrest the inflammatory operation of the latter, and the small-pox did not break out until the other exanthemata had accomplished its seven days "course." (J. Hunter on the Venereal Disease) In like manner vaccine disease and scarlatina have been seen to suspend each other, the stronger of the two expelling for the time the other. " It is the same in all diseases that are dissimilar: the stronger one suspends the weaker (except in cases where they blend together, 108 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. which rarely occurs in acute diseases:) but they never cure each other reciprocally." " In the same manner, violent treatment with allopathic remedies never cures a chronic disease, but merely suspends it during the continuance of the powerful action of a medicine incapable of exciting symptoms similar to those of the disease: but afterwards the latter re- appears, even more intense than before." "Or the new disease, after having acted for a considerable time on the system, joins itself finally to the old one, which is dissimilar, and thence results a complication of two different maladies, either of which is incapable of annihilating or curing the other." In this case each occupies the particular region of the economy, installing itself in those organs with which it sympathizes, and abandoning the others to the diseases that are dissimilar. Thus venereal and psoric diseases, being dissimilar, " are incapable of annihilating or curing each other. The condition of the patient is worse under the two diseases than he would have been under either of them alone." (Organon § 40, p. 112.) When a medicinal disease is excited which is similar to the existing one, and is stronger than it, the new disease supersedes the old one. Two diseases, says Hahnemann, " that differ greatly in their species, but which bear a strong resemblance in their development and effects, —that is to say, in the symptoms which they produce, always mutually destroy each other when they meet together in the system. The stronger annihilates the weaker. Two dissimilar diseases may co-exist in the body, because their dissimilitude would allow of their occupying two distinct regions." But when the diseases are similar, the stronger disease exercises an influence upon the same parts as the old one, and even throws itself, in preference, upon those which have till now been attacked by the latter; so that the old disease, finding no other organ to act upon is necessarily extinguished. Or, to express it in other terms, as soon as the vital powers which have till then been deranged by a morbific cause, are attacked with greater energy by a new power very analogous to the former, but more intense, they no longer re- ceive any impression but from the latter, while the preceding one, re- duced to a state of mere dynamic power without matter, must cease to exist."—(§ 45.) " Of any two diseases which occur in the ordinary course of nature it is only that one whose symptoms are similar to the other which can cure or destroy it. This faculty never belongs to a dissimilar disease. Hence the physician may learn what are the remedies with which he can effect a certain cure, that is to say, with none but such as are homoeopathic." A remedy that is perfectly homoeopathic cures the disease with- out any accompanying ill effects; and a disease that is of no very HOMOEOPATHY. 109 long standing ordinarily yields, without any great degree of suffering, to a first dose of a well-selected remedy. When a perfectly homoeo- pathic remedy acts upon the body we see nothing more than symptoms analogous to those of the disease laboring to surmount and annihilate these latter symptoms by usurping their place. The remaining symp- toms, caused by the medicinal substance, which are often numerous, and correspond in no respect with the existing malady, scarcely ever show themselves, and the patient improves from hour to hour. The remedy having expended its force in those portions of the organism that were already a prey to existing disease, and in these parts exerted that specific action by which it extinguished the original disease. But there are a few exceptions to this general truth. "There is no homoeopathic remedy, however suitably chosen, that does not (espe- cially in a dose not small enough,) produce at least during its action, some slight inconveniences or fresh symptoms in very sensitive and ir- ritable patients. In fact it is scarcely possible for the symptoms of the medicine to cover those of the malady with as much precision as two triangles with equal sides and angles. But these differences, which are of little importance in a case that terminates in a short time, are easily effaced by the energy of the vital principle, and the patient does not perceive it himself, unless he is excessively delicate. The re- establishment of health goes forward, notwithstanding, unless impeded by the influence of heterogenous medicinal agents upon the patient, errors of regimen, or excitement of the passions.—(Hahnemann, § 156.) When a true homoeopathic remedy in small dose has been given, it quietly annihilates the acute disease which is analogous to it, Avithout exciting new and non-homoeopathic symptoms; but it often happens that it produces at the end of one or two hours (according to the dose), a state something less favorable, which resembles the original disease so closely, that the patient supposes the primitive affection aggravated. But in reality it is nothing more than a medicinal disease, extremely similiar to the primitive one, and rather more intense in its nature. This trifling homoeopathic aggravation of the malady during the first few hours may be accepted as a happy omen that the disease will soon be cured, perhaps even with the first dose. The medicinal disease is similar to the other, but more intense than the one it is intended to cure. The smaller the dose of the homoeopathic remedy, the slighter the apparent aggravation of the disease will be, and proportionably of shorter duration. In a discussion in the Societe Med. Homceop. de France, Feb. 20, 1860, M. Cretin thus stated what he called the double principle enun« ciated by Hahnemann. 1. The curative effect is so much the more uncertain and rare in 110 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. proportion as the dose induces more marked and more numerous patho- genetic symptoms. (Superior limit.) 2. The curative effect is so much the more sure and constant in pro- portion as the dose approaches that which would excite the slightest aggravation of existing symptoms. (Inferior limit.) The real nature of homoeopathic cures is thus explained by Fletcher on the Brunonian theory: The primary action of stimuli, and therefore of all specifics, as well as of all other positive agents, is in reality two- fold ; and in all organic diseases, such as inflammation and its conge- ners, fevers, increased secretion, &c,—consists in, first, a stage of ex- citement, with constriction of the capillary vessels, followed by indirect debility with dilatation of the capillaries, and increased secretion ac- cording to its kind. When the homoeopathic cure takes place, the disease is in the stage of indirect debility, and the medicine exerts upon it its action, viz., that of a stimulus, and thus the cure takes place by antipathic action. But this must not be confounded at all with that action in the sense of the allopathists, for it does not refer with them to this view of the ultimate nature of the action of medicine, but to its broad meaning as primary and secondary on the healthy body. t mn?mir » t J depending on the citemicai, affinity which exists between the drug and I. CU4.mil/AL., -j the T1SSCES of tne bodyt II. MECHANICAL., ( Consisting chiefly in violent efforts on the part of the organism to eject or Revolutionary, ( from its cavity the offending substance. III. DYNAMIC, A. GENERIC,- Common to all the members of a certain class Of DRUGS. B. SPECIFIC.— Resulting from the dynamic ac- tion of the drug. These are spe- cific, and pecu- liar to it. ARSENIC. CUPRUM. TARTAR-EM. VERATRUM. PRODUCE - [Primary. Secondary.] COLD sweats. CRAMPS of the EX- TREMITIES. DiAitKiicEA. Constipation. ARSENIC. MERCURY. COLD SWEATS, f CRAMPS of the EXTREM ITIES. 1 ARSENIC. Poisoning, as the speedy re- \ diarrh