0a. 
The Practice of Medicine. 
BY 
>3ohn Floyd Banton, ffl.D 
SECOND EDITION. 
The Happiness of Han depends upon the Progress 
of Science. 
Quinine, Opium And Morphine to be Ban- 
ished from the Land. 
$50,000,000 Saved to the People Yearly, 
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. 
1 8 8 S. 
CHICAGO: 
Review Printing and Publishing Co. 
79 and 81 Wabash Ave. 
PRICE 25 CE^TTS. REVOLUTION 
IN 
THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE, 
BY 
JOHN FLOYD BANTON, M. D. 
SECOIsTD edition. 
AUTHOR OF 
VACCINATION REFUTED; PHYSICIANS A SCOURGE; NEW METHOD IN 
SURGICAL TREATMENT; CURE OF CONSUMPTION. 
2138 MICHIGAN AYE., COR. 22D ST., 
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. 
1885. Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1885, by 
JOHN FLOYD BANTON, M.D., 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. PREFATORY. 
MAN is man’s greatest enemy; and in no other position, occupation or 
profession do we find him so much to be feared and dreaded as in 
the practice of medicine, following the precepts and teachings of modern 
medical institutions. 
The profession of medicine to-day possesses not the knowledge of a 
single remedy or specific for the cure of one solitary disease, nor the 
causes engendering one of the many maladies that afflict the human body. 
It is obvious to all that he who labors in intellectual blindness, and 
walks in darkness, armed with poisonous arrows radiating in every direc- 
tion, must be very potent in the destruction of human life. 
Do you doubt it ? If so, take an hour in any cemetery, and there 
behold the white memorials of the dead, and read the record of the little 
ones, of the blooming youths and the middle aged, whose spark of life 
was extinguished by the “regular” physician’s hand, and sent to a pre- 
mature grave. 
The surgeon with much dexterity and skill in the manipulation of the 
knife and saw, lops off the limb of his victim with scientific arrogance ; 
performs various other “ brilliant ” and “ successful operations ” as quite 
frequently cost the patients their lives. ( “ Successful and brilliant ” opera- 
tions, nevertheless, scientifically considered.) 
Away with knife and saw that does such deplorable work in the hands of 
the “ skillful ” human butcher, together with his antiseptic sprays, carbon- 
ized bandages, plasters, etc., etc. Away with pernicious drugs, as mercurials, 
antimonials, arsenic, quinine, opium, morphine, carbolic acid, and alcohol 
the agents employed by the learned profession in the treatment of your ills > 
and you will find cause to rejoice. 
“ I have always thought it a greater happiness to discover a certain 
method of curing even the slightest disease than to accumulate the largest 
fortune ; and whoever compasses the former, I esteem not only happier, 
but wiser and better, too.”—Sydenham. 
The curability of all diseases is a fact that I hold myself in readiness 
to demonstrate. Nature cures disease ; the intelligent physician is her 
assistant. 
J. FLOYD BANTON, M.D. 
2138 Michigan Avenue, corner 22d St., Chicago, 111. PREFATORY. 
(SECOND EDITION.) 
Human Life Conserved.— A burden of more than $50,000,000 and 
thousands of human lives saved yearly. The former by prohibiting the 
use of quinine, opium and morphine ; the latter by enlightening the whole 
people and discovering to them the dangers of pernicious drugs in the 
hands of the “ regular ” physician. 
We are in the enjoyment of blessings inherited from the inventions and 
■discoveries of man through past ages and generations of advancing prog- 
ress and civilization. 
We know that generation after generation of human tbeings will con- 
tinue to live on this earth, and the possibility of vanquishing the great evils 
of the race should be sufficient to move us to the mightiest efforts of our 
lives, for the transforming of old conditions so conducive to mischief and 
suffering to humanity, and banish the deadly hosts of disease and social 
wretchedness from the face of this marvelous earth, that life may be made 
worth living to the many as ’tis to the few. 
Does it not seem like a mockery in a Christian civilization, to bless little 
children, and say, “ Of such is the kingdom of Heaven,” while we allow one- 
half of the dear little ones to die before the age of five years, from causes 
easily prevented. 
Infanticide.—We can destroy the body, but we cannot destroy the soul 
Infanticide in utero is the arch sin of our nation. It not only in less than a 
score of years wrongfully takes from our children the land of their birth 
and all power therein, giving full control of government into the hands of 
foreigners, and causing to be forged in high heaven the thunderbolts of 
sorrow such as a just and avenging God determines for our punishment and 
indiscribable anguish and annihilation. Physicians are the authors of this 
terrible extermination. We shall violate one of the sacred duties we owe to 
our Creator and to posterity should we fail to leave the world better than 
we found it. 
Men of America! will you continue to exist in supine indifference and 
mental lethargy, floating down the river of time as purposeless as the 
straws and sticks on the bosom of great rivers of pure waters that mocks 
your nothingness, or will you rouse yourselves to manly deeds and the 
performance of the noble functions for which you were created, striking 
down the fiend to humanity, wherever and in whatever guise he may be 
found, and justify the name of man, humanity and Christianity. 
J. F. BANTON, M.D. REVOLUTION 
IN THE 
PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AN IMPERATIVE NECESSITY. 
Man the Destroyer of Men.—“ Our medicines have destroyed 
more lives than war, pestilence and famine combined.”—John 
Mason Good, M.D. 
We live in a world full of great questions and absorbing 
interests, which inspire our daily existence and mark our anx- 
ious pursuit; but the most important of all questions, and the 
most vital of all interests, the one great kindling thought that 
should have a preponderating influence in every heart, and para- 
mount to all others, save that of the Christian religion, is the 
care and protection of human life and body. 
“ The whole nation is groaning under the present practice of 
the medical profession, which fosters disease more than it cures 
it, and debases or ruins our constitutions.”—Morison. 
There is not a truth of more vital importance to mankind, 
and one that needs to be more frequently inculcated and brought 
home to the mind and heart of man in general than that which 
teaches the sad but truthful lesson that human life is a constant 
sacrifice to professional ignorance. 
Today, the “regular” medical faculties, professors, teachers 
and demonstrators, ensconced within the walls of costly and 
imposing structures, made attractive to bribe the general public 
to accept the opinions that they may advance, and open wide 
their purses and pav well for the imposition practiced upon 
them, are totally unable to enlighten or endow their pupils with 8 
REVOLUTION IN THE PRACTICE OF 
the knowledge of a single remedy or specific for the cure of any 
one of the many maladies whose mortality is great, causing grief 
and sorrow to destroy that tranquility of our existence which 
should abide in the bosom of all. 
WILLING VICTIMS. 
It does seem unaccountably strange that people are so indif- 
ferent to their best interests that they will work earnestly to 
sustain baseless institutions and exploded theories that accom- 
plish their own ruin. 
Why will invalids so frequently and persistently submit to 
the treatment of a “regular practitioner” week after week, 
month after month, indeed, year after year, without relief or 
permanent cure, and doubtless without a suspicion that they are 
being improperly treated, audaciously imposed upon? Why will 
they continue in swallowing nauseating and poisonous drugs; 
submit their bodies to be tortured with the absurd implements 
of surgery. 
The family physician is very punctual in making his morning 
■call (but always for a consideration); his countenance radiating 
sycophantic smiles; his voice yields mendacious assumption 
(however, ’tis highly consoling to the perpetual patient). Per- 
haps, knowledge being sorrow ’twere folly to be wise. 
The fact is, we are creatures of education and habit. We 
adapt ourselves to the most outrageous customs, and to habits 
that are both degrading and destructive. Custom and fashion 
form a standard that governs the action of the masses. By this 
criterion the indpendent man and the true woman are judged by 
modern society. On such authority must well-developed women 
cramp and compress their bodies into unnatural limits and pro- 
portions, as to become monstrosities. And often men, from 
similar causes, so degrade themselves that they sink below the 
unreasoning brutes. 
NEW METHODS IN TREATMENT. 
UNPARALLELED SUCCESS. 
But no new theory, system or practice, can become popular 
with the masses until the accredited doctors have sanctioned it 9 
MEDICINE AN IMPERATIVE NECESSITY. 
When this is done, any system will succeed, however great and 
hideous may be its inconsistencies and outward deformities. 
Here it is that we discover the grand secret of the success of the 
old systems of practice. It surely is nowhere to be found in 
their power of renovating or curing disease. The most fool- 
hardy experiments (even extending to the pollution of the dumb 
brutes, whose bodies are food for men, by inoculation, as prac- 
ticed by the Frenchman, Pasteur), and the basest of quackery, if 
they bear the proper stamp, readily pass for truth and science. 
The fact that a theory or system has received the sanction of 
great names, and become popular with the people, does not by 
any means establish its merits on any reliable foundation, since 
many great absurdities and monstrous evils have been endorsed 
by authority and imposed upon the people. 
The rapid progress of modern discovery and invention, and the 
general diffusion of knowledge, should, ere this, have enabled the 
thinking minds to emancipate themselves from the evils of the 
wily serpent that is sure death. But the fact is quite otherwise. 
The minds of the conservative classes are closed against the 
influences of any important or revolutionary ideas. The multi- 
tude is still in bondage. Dwarfed by an unnatural education, 
and molded like soft wax by the force of public opinion, they 
quietly submit to their masters. They are, however, unconscious 
of the fact—obedient slaves; they meekly kiss the hand that 
scourges them; they cherish their chains and they are satisfied. 
O Temporal O Mores! 
I Believe in Medicine.—I believe that in the woods and for- 
ests, upon the mountain’s side and hill-tops, in the valleys and 
upon the vast plains of our own native country, the Almighty 
has provided the elements which will cure our ills, and aid the 
vital forces in their greatest emergencies. 
CONSUMPTION. 
Instance, for example, that dire malady, consumption; the 
“ regular ” treatment of this universal disease consists in the use 
of Cod-liver Oil (stuff unfit for dogs), quinine, opium, phos- 
phates, hypophosphites and whisky, etc., etc., and never known 10 
REVOLUTION IN THE PRACTICE OF 
to have cured a single case. The ultimatum of this course of 
treatment is, go to , go to Colorado, Texas, Mexico, Florida 
—go anywhere that he may rid himself of the object which so 
vividly reminds him of his unfitness and inability to successfully 
combat diseases. Did the compunction he feels drive him out of 
the profession of medicine, into other and more appropriate 
fields of labor, we could justly say, amen. 
A Boon to Humanity—Is the wonderful discovery of a course 
of treatment that positively cures that dire malady, consumption, 
which claims numberless victims every year. Myself a sufferer 
from this dread disease, seven years ago; wfith abscesses in left 
lung, expectorated blood, pus and typical tubercular matter; 
body emaciated, and the prognosis of able physicians in New 
York and Philadelphia was, that I had but a short time to spend 
with friends or others on earth, a state not pleasant to contem- 
plate, and at a time of other misfortunes and mental anxieties to 
aggravate the affliction; in trouble, trials double; necessity 
and emergency, the prime source of invention; love of life, 
which is common to all, aided by kind Providence and an acci- 
dent occurring in the office of a young physician;—I made a dis- 
covery that culminated in a course of treatment which restored 
to me health, and I must say, happiness. 
The Most Important Discovery Ever Made in Practical Medi- 
cine.—My treatment consists in the use of medicine, and the 
hydropathic bandage and silk jacket; medicines prepared from 
the vegetable kingdom; no use for poisonous minerals, opiates, 
nor decayed cod-liver productions. Pathology and etiology of 
modern authority teaches that consumption, phthisis pulmonalis, 
is a disease of the lungs, the prime cause resting with those 
organs. Consequently the regular treatment of consumption is 
based on that theory, ivhich is erroneous, as their inability to 
cure the malady proves beyond a doubt. I boldly make the 
assertion that consumption is not a disease of the lungs; that 
the affected organs are the result of the disease, secondary; the 
source of consumption rests in the nervous system—an abnormal 
condition of the nerve-centers and ganglia. The success of my 
treatment verifies the statement, proving my theories to be cor- 
rect by curing, and restoring the patient to health in advanced 11 
MEDICINE AN IMPERATIVE NECESSITY. 
cases; even, healing large abscesses on the lungs, and arresting 
the disease after a lobe or part is destroyed. 
Do not follow the advice of your physician to seek a warm 
climate if you really have consumption. You ask why. Because 
all elements are naturally expanded by heat; the atmosphere we 
breathe expands; thus, as each inspiration furnishes less life- 
giving element or oxygen, together with lung capacity lessened, 
hastens to death. 
HAS THE GREATEST MORTALITY. 
I have called your attention to that disease, consumption, 
which cuts down more human bodies than any other malady. I 
have endeavored to say enough to rouse you and set you to 
thinking ; would that I could say enough to break your heads, 
that you might see clearly and think easily. I would much pre- 
fer to break your heads with knowledge, than break your hearts 
in burying your dead. 
Consumption has increased in ratio which is really astound- 
ing since the introduction of vaccination. Is not vaccination or 
inoculating the human system with virus or very seed or germ 
of tuberculosis the most idiotic act that has ever emanated from 
the human brain ? Why does not the learned physician cure 
small-pox ? Why will human beings expose their bodies, and the 
bodies of innocent and helpless little ones, to be polluted with 
loathsome diseases by inoculation ? Does not vaccination some- 
times kill? Is not death sufficient evidence of the wrong? We 
think it is; and, to minds that even death itself does not convince, 
argument avail eth nothing. 
SMALL-POX. 
In justice to truth I am constrained to write a few words in 
regard to small-pox, although to you it may seemingly be para- 
doxical. Small-pox appears as the only disease among the whole 
category of ills afflicting man which is of a salutary or eliminat- 
ing nature. The whole course and process of small-pox seems to 
be renovating, cleansing, and a general purging of the blood of 
all its impurities, leaving the body healthy, a characteristic of no 
other disease. It may be considered as a grave malady to the 12 
REVOLUTION IN THE PRACTICE OF 
timid, and to persons whose blood is surcharged with corruption. 
In such cases death results from lack of vital force or power un- 
equal to the labor of eliminating or carting out of the garbage, 
as it were. Might we not say that death results from weakness 
of body, rather than condemn the disease invited by the un- 
wholesome state of the house we live in, to do a dirty job for us ? 
Streams are bridged, strength of structure estimated safe in sus- 
taining a certain weight. We double the weight, the bridge goes 
down, a life goes out: will we condemn the bridge? 
VACCINATION—SMALL-POX MORTALITY. 
“Forty-five years of Registration Statistics, Proving Vaccina- 
nation to be both useless and dangerous..” The above declaration 
we find upon the title-page of a pamphlet, lately received by us, 
and coming from London, England, by Alfred R. Wallace, 
L.L.D., of the same place, an author of many scientific works. 
We propose to reproduce, for your serious consideration, a few 
extracts from his pamphlet, and trust that you will be profited 
by so doing. 
“ Having been led to enquire for myself as to the effects of 
vaccination in preventing or diminishing small-pox, I have 
arrived at results as unexpected as they appear to be conclusive. 
The question is one which affects our personal liberty as well as the 
health and even lives of thousands; it therefore becomes a duty 
to endeavor to make the truth known to all, and especially to 
those who, on the faith of false or misleading statements, have 
enforced the practice of vaccination by penal laws.” 
Mr. W allace has established the following important facts, by 
means of official statistics, and other available sources of aid. 
These statements are as follows : 
(1.) That during the forty-five years of the registration of 
deaths and their causes, small-pox mortality has very slightly 
diminished, while an exceedingly severe small-pox epidemic 
occurred within the last twelve years of the period. “ Mark well 
that an exceedingly severe epidemic ” was experienced after so 
long a period of vaccination; this is significant and very sugges- 
tive to the enlightened mind. MEDICINE AN IMPERATIVE NECESSITY. 
13 
(2.) That there is no evidence to show that the slightest decrease 
of small-pox mortality is due to vaccination.” 
Nothing to the credit of vaccination. The great improvements 
of modern sanitation are highly favorable to the mitigation of 
epidemic diseases, no one will deny. 
(3.) “ The severity of small-pox as a disease has not been 
mitigated by vaccination.” 
No, the disease has not only not been rendered less po- 
tent, but has become so changed by amalgamation and the per- 
verted and unnatural state of the human body, as to defy 
detection by the most skilled physicians, in its first appearance 
in any locality. On the other hand, other afflictions have been 
erroneously designated as small-pox. Horse thieves have been 
liberated or placed in a condition favorable to escape, by ap- 
propriating and riding off a neighbor’s horse in the night, 
through the use of a little croton oil rubbed on the face, which 
produces an eruption, and the same time a pall hinting small- 
pox, thus wickedly deceiving the “ scientific ” physician and 
Jailor Dixon—I think Dixon is the right name—but for full 
particulars apply to Dr. John H. Rauch, Secretary of the State 
Board of Health, of this state. You should have the minute 
details of this interesting case. How the jailor’s family was 
hustled off into the country; bow red flags were flung out, etc., 
etc. It is a lucid exemplification of the ability of some of the 
shining lights and leading medical men, sustained at government 
expense. 
(4.) “That several inoculable diseases have increased to an 
alarming extent coincidently with enforced vaccination.” 
I have elsewhere mentioned the prodigious increase of cancer- 
ous, tubercular, (consumption) and all strumous diseases, and 
will not recapitulate them at this time. The Registrar-Gener- 
al’s reports from 1838 to 1882 of London, England, will fully 
verify the above statements. 
VACCINATION HAS NOT DIMINISHED SMALL-POX. 
We find in his diagram, exhibiting the deaths from small-pox 
in London, for every year from 1838 to 1882 that, while vaccina- 
tion had been thoroughly enforced for so many years, that in 1871 
was the most destructive epidemic in the whole period of time. 14 
BE VOLUTION IN THE JPEACTICE OF 
VACCINATION ITSELF A CAUSE OF DISEASE AND DEATH. 
Mr. Wallace shows clearly in his pamphlet that vaccination 
is quite powerless either to prevent or mitigate small-pox. But 
this is not all, for there are good grounds for believing that it is 
itself the cause of much disease and serious mortality. 
“The increased deaths from disease caused by vaccination 
from 1855 to 1880 exceeds the total deaths from small-pox during 
the same period! So that even if the latter disease had been 
totally abolished by vaccination, the general mortality would have 
been increased.” 
CONCLUSION FROM THE EVIDENCE. 
The result of his enquiry is thus summarized: 
(2). “Vaccination does not diminish small-pox mortality, as 
shown by the forty-five years of the Registrar-General’s statistics 
and by the deaths from small-pox of our re-vaccinates, 1 soldiers 
and sailors being as numerous as those of the male population of 
the same ages of several of our large towns, although the former 
are picked men, while the latter include many thousands living 
under the most unsanitary conditions.’ 
(2) “ While thus utterly powerless for good, vaccination is a 
certain cause of disease and death in many cases, and is the 
probable cause of about ten thousand deaths annually by five 
inoculable diseases of the most terrible and disgusting charac- 
ter, which have increased to this extent, year by year, since vac- 
cination has been enforced by penal laws.” 
(3) “ The hospital statistics, showing a greater mortality of 
the unvaccinated than of the vaccinated, have been proved to be 
untrustworthy ; while the conclusions drawn from them are shown 
to be necessarily false.” 
If these facts are true, or anywhere near the truth, which 
truth and common sense declares them to be, it is a cruel an 
unnatural act to vaccinate any being, nothwithstanding it would 
undermine the base and foundation of the lucrative and genteel 
profession of medicine. Vaccination alone is worth to the physi- 
cians of London about two millions of dollars a year—the most 
successful impostors the world has known or ever will know. 15 
MEDICINE AN IMPERATIVE NECESSITY. 
OUR DUTY. 
We feel it our duty toward God and man to protest and pro- 
claim against this nefarious practice of vaccination—a practice 
so unnatural, irrational, inhuman, and barbarous—the great and 
grand channel for corrupting, polluting, and degenerating the 
human family, physically, mentally, and morally. 
Vaccination is the act of introducing into the human system 
a specific poison, the very quintesscence of corruption and putre- 
faction, which we are endeavoring to prevent by the best sani 
tary means known. I may safely and truthfully say, that the 
man has never existed, nor can exist, possessed of a sagacity and 
power sufficient to frame a sentence from the words of any known 
vocabulary in support of the vile practice of vaccination that 
would stand for a moment when approached by intelligence and 
truths as revealed by nature, the creation of an infinite wisdom, 
where man has never been able, and never will be able, to dis- 
cover a single error. 
No, it is impossible for man, in his wonderful weakness and 
insignificance, to overthrow the truths and teachings of divine 
creation, as manifested in the infallible book of Nature. Nature 
is a sublime and impressive teacher—teaching and speaking with 
sublime tranquility, in tongues comprehensive to all peoples and 
all nations alike. Nature teaches great and noble truths; if we 
fail to embrace them, lamentable is our condition. 
How innumerable the noble inspirations we might draw from 
nature, as revealed by the divine hand, did we possess the powers 
of thought unperverted. Our impoverished, distracted and weak- 
ened intellections are slightly manifested and realized, when we 
make an effort toward conclusions by a course of reasoning based 
on common sense. Then it is that we catch a glimmer of the 
many absurdities which surround us on every side. We behold 
man resorting to every possible means for his own destruction, 
and the prostitution of all virtues, thus casting a shadow over 
the future destiny of man, causing us to fear death, as eternity 
appears a blank and darkness lies spread out before us. This 
world, how beautiful! Its magnificent splendors and beauties no 
art of man can depict—few, we feel, that ever behold them. 16 
REVOLUTION IN THE PRACTICE OF 
Such reflections are sad, but too true. Vice conceals the beauties 
of the world, as virtue alone can reveal them. 
Vice mars man’s existence, and causes him to despise life, 
curse God and hate the world. He is miserable just in pro- 
portion to the intensities of his vices; each vice, or wrong indul- 
gence, dims the vision to all that is sublime. “Many have eyes, 
but see not.” 
Small-pox, a disease not so much to be dreaded as we are wont 
to believe, leaving the system in a much healthier condition than 
most other diseases which afflict the human family, and are treated 
very indifferently by the majority of men. It is a recognized fact, 
and universally conceded, that the mortality of small-pox is largely 
due to fear in its victims. Let me ask, what kind of a man is the 
man that would poison your system, predispose it to disease, by 
the inoculation of the lymph of any disease? What would be 
the result of the reasonings and teachings of such a man if placed 
on the scales of intellection—weighed and measured by the stand- 
ard of divine truth, as revealed in various ways by the All Powerful 
and never-erring God. By what authority does he tamper with 
human life, by promulgating and inculcating any art or practice 
of inoculating a disease into the human system ? 
It behooves us to look well into the open book of Nature, and 
there study the lessons as revealed in perfection, as manifested in 
all organic systems. In the animal kingdom we behold a wonder- 
ful exhibition of animal instinct in the brute creation which man 
may study profitably, and it would not be strange if we should 
ask ourselves the question whether animal instinct had not really 
become superior to the greatest attribute divinely bestowed on 
man, reason. It is not improbable that we should ask ourselves 
how it was possible for our reason to become so perverted and 
base, that we, as human beings, could resort to the terrible prac- 
tice of introducing poison, inoculating the human system with 
the deadly virus of diseases, and thus imposing on God by im- 
pairing this sacred tenement of the soul while on its earthly 
mission. May we not seek redemption? 
The brute creation*—what valuable conclusions may be arrived 
at from animals, as the result of animal instinct. The bodies of MEDICINE AN IMPERATIVE NECESSITY. 
17 
the brute creation are complicated and wonderfully made, as are 
those of the human race. All animated existences are nourished 
and sustained in the same way, and by the same means; composed 
of the same elements physically; breathing the same air as the 
human being; but are we compelled to say, superior to man in 
respect to bodily comfort, perfection and preservation ? Who ever 
heard or knew of animals inoculating themselves or others with 
loathsome diseases! Fortunate, indeed, are animals for the pos- 
session of an instinct which protects them from having the germs 
of diseases forced into their bodies by others, or predisposing 
themselves by irrational and human methods of creating and 
generating diseases. 
Is it not true that each and every act which conflicts with, or 
is in opposition to nature’s methods, are destructive and highly 
injurious to all organic forms? Does not the vegetable kingdom 
give us great enlightenment, in many respects, if we will but 
behold them in reason ? Instance the fruit of a tree, specked 
and otherwise imperfectly formed, resulting from causes seem- 
ingly very trivial, as the sting of an insect upon its body, or 
possibly a decaying spot in some remote or obscure part of its 
trunk. The sugar tree is tapped for its sap to gratify the palate 
of man ; the wound is soon healed, and is hidden from view, no 
harm apparently having been done ; but, alas! not so ; in due 
time a great injury is revealed by the premature decay of some 
distant members ; and upon examination, you will find a diseased 
body, the result of a slight injury years before, doing the work 
of destruction very insidiously. This idea of interfering with 
nature’s ways in any organized system is productive of much 
mischief ; this impairing the tissues and vital forces cannot be 
ignored. 
Vaccination, like many other vices, as practiced, may rarely 
prove fatal at the time ; nevertheless, like its allies, alcohol and 
tobacco, does at times destroy human life very quickly ; but how 
often do we observe its victims dragging out a miserable exist- 
ence when death would have been a blessing. Millions of eyes are 
blinded to this great wrong by the insidious and gradual sapping 
of the vital forces that brings the body to a premature grave—- 
the results of vaccination, through its secret and hidden channels. 18 
REVOLUTION IN THE PRACTICE OE 
Could we remove the covering of the tomb, and know what 
a sacrifice of human life and happiness vaccination has caused, 
we would wonder how man, made after the likeness of God, 
endowed with reason, could thus destroy himself, both physi- 
cally and mentally. How inhuman and unjust is our conduct 
toward the coming generations of the world ! “Can a corrupt 
tree bring forth good fruit?” Bodily perfection is requisite for 
a clear intellect and pure moral propensities ; disease alienates 
intellection, and fathers weak principles and strong passions and 
all crime. 
Vaccination is a very prolific means of the great infantile 
mortality that we are forced to recognize, in shame and disgrace 
to ourselves as human beings. One in ten infants born only 
attain the age of ten years ; does it not behoove us to look well 
at such a picture ; mark well the wholesale slaughter of human 
souls, accompanied by untold grief and misery! Let us look into 
some of the causes of this great mortality, and begin at the 
beginning. I like to begin as near the beginning as possible, 
and by so doing that we may convey more clearly our meaning 
to the reader, I will begin by asking a question: “Do men 
gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles ?” Certainly not. A 
tree is known by its fruits, and the same is true of human beings. 
As is the parent, so will the child be, to a great extent; the child 
portrays the character of its parents, or more remote ancestors 
invariably. Vicious and diseased parents are not only liable, but 
quite likely to beget vicious and diseased offspring. 
How many families there are living in the shadow of a curse, 
in the form of hereditary disease. Many are the human beings 
who are compelled to watch within themselves the dismal signs 
of the approaching doom which has already overtaken other 
members of the same circle, feeling and realizing the sad fact 
that there is no possible escape, except through death’s door, to 
a premature grave. Such a terrible existence and departure, all 
resulting from the black deeds and criminal conduct of their pro- 
genitors. What a world of criminals do we behold, criminals 
from ignorance, in a great measure; nevertheless the crime 
remains as black, the deed charged to our account, to be met in 
the last and great final settlement at the judgment seat. MEDICINE AN IMPERATIVE NECESSITY. 
19 
Man, with the Bible at hand, verified by the great book of 
Nature, himself endowed with reason, cannot lay any claim to 
ignorance as an excuse for his many ungodly deeds. What a divine 
responsibility rests upon us all in this matter, and most urgently 
it rests upon those who are just entering upon manhood and 
womanhood. I ask all such to bear in mind that they are the 
fathers and mothers of the coming generation. Every excess, of 
whatever kind ; every sin against one’s own body; all immoral 
indulgences, record themselves indelibly upon us. The great 
evil they work upon us in our own person is multiplied and 
intensified, is still more strongly and certainly impressed upon 
our offspring. To all appearance the adult may appear healthy, 
who has drained off his stock of vitality by excess ; but his chil- 
dren will be puny and dwarfed, both in mind and body, and 
premature old age will remind him of the sins of his youth. 
Self-abuse, sexual excesses, or a perversion of the sexual act, 
are large factors to the mortality of infants. If the functions 
and powers with which our Creator has endowed us, are perverted 
to the use of mere animalism, a swift and terrible retribution 
awaits. Then it is that our own dearest, most tender and best 
emotions are made the instruments of our own punishment, and 
our dead children rise up in judgment against'us. A great 
percentage of diseases in children are due to vices or defects in 
the parents. The true number is never known. 
Tobacco and Liquor are prolific sources that entails disease 
and death upon generations yet unborn. The effects of Tobacco 
and Liquor upon the parents are that he takes his place in the 
nation as a deteriorating element, a national depressent and de- 
stroyer. On his offspring he stamps a pre-disposition to brain 
diseases, epilepsy, idiocy, mania, and dipsomania. 
If there was wanting any proof to show that the laws of 
nature are the laws of God, it may be found in the illustration of 
the mortality of infants that the sins of the father usually are 
transmitted to the infants, to the third and fourth generation. 
There is a great and peculiar significance, too, in the fact, 
which has been proved on a large scale, that drunkenness tends, 
after producing in its fatal course through each succeeding 
generation, mania, melancholy, paralysis and suicide, to end in 20 
REVOLUTION IN THE PRACTICE OF 
complete idiocy and extinction of the family in the fourth genera- 
tion. How many innocent but enfeebled lives go down before 
the final obscuration and destruction of the stocks, it may be 
painful, but it will certainly be useful, to reflect upon, if from 
reflection we can lay to our hearts an effectual warning against 
sensual pleasures in any and every form. 
I ask that you particularly notice the wonderful wisdom dis- 
played and manifested in man by the wise and great Creator, for 
the salvation of the human family, in a complete extinction or 
wiping out of a family, or line of debauchees, in the fourth 
generation, thus placing a limit to its depravity, and avoiding a 
world peopled with idiots. What a field for thought and serious 
study. What a picture to hang up in full view of the drunkard, 
the degraded libertine, and all who are given to vicious indul- 
gences. But no, their eyes are blinded by vice, they are totally 
unable to behold things in their true light, and thus the wisdom 
in the act of a wise God by the extinction of their line in the 
fourth generation. 
THE GREAT TEACHER. 
The physician who does not model his thoughts and acts in 
conforming to the teachings of his God—the only infallible 
Instructor, cannot but be a human fiend. He is to study well the 
great truths as revealed in nature, and be guided by the same 
rather than the vile teachings of the finite minds of men. The 
province of the physician is the guardianship of human health 
and happiness. But when he resorts to vaccination or inoculation 
of the human body with any corruption, and employs pernicious 
drugs in the treatment of disease, he violates the tenets of his 
profession, and occupies the position of a curse to man; and by 
the law of transmission, through which, to generations yet unborn? 
a destroyer of all that can make homes happy, and endow the 
sacred bonds of marriage with offspring, intelligent and vigorous, 
perfect and sprightly, loving and lovable, beautiful rose-buds of 
the divine union of hearts—angels of the mundane world—the 
noblest and most sublime of all the handiwork of a designing 
Creator. The abode of man without children is nought but a 
prison, a farce and a mockery, cold and dismal, and holds its MEDICINE AN IMPERATIVE NECESSITY. 
21 
victims of sorrow and anguish, however well it may be concealed 
from the eye of the passer-by, a sad reproach on civilization. 
CHOLERA, ASIATIC. ' 
The dreab of cholera and the obvious unnecessary scare: 
Perhaps no disease fills the public mind with more alarm and 
apprehension than this malignant epidemic. The strong and the 
weak hearted alike seem equally appalled. Cholera! The very 
word seemingly brings associations of a sickening and terrible 
nature before the mind. One of the scourges the Almighty em- 
ploys to destroy millions of the human family; a scavenger of 
heaven for the purging of the race. It, like the vulture and 
other animal scavengers, swoops down upon the dead and putrid 
carcasses of the battle-fields, attracted by the scent of putrefac- 
tion. Cholera does its work also among the dead; those dead to 
all that pertains to humanity—the corrupt in body and spirit— 
the predisposing cause of epidemic scourges. By examination 
of the records of different races of men, particularly so of the 
Hebrew or Jew, we discover that there have been times and 
seasons of nations, as well as individuals, when the cup of their 
iniquity were more than full; seemingly a time when the Supreme 
Ruler of the world could no longer mitigate or hold his an- 
ger. The pestilence is most emphatically His weapon for the 
destruction of the vile. Pharaoh and the kings of the Jewish 
nations, together with their peoples, furnishes ample and complete 
evidences of the power of the Divine hand in all their lamenta- 
tions and miseries of a nature terrible and almost incredible. 
When the chosen people of God were so sorely punished for 
their disobedience of His commands, shall we think or expect to 
be exempt from the penalties and escape the full punishment 
prescribed by His laws. In the inflictions of suffering we expe- 
rience from attacks of common diseases, we can trace to their 
source or cause; that is, the violation of nature’s laws—laws such 
as are at the control of our will or the dictation of the heart. 
Pestilences are fully realized by the sons of God (that is, men 
of understanding) to be the result of Divine laws ignored and 
trod upon by man. The mind or reason of man, only, can have 
any relations or connections with God, as the soul of man, being 22 
REVOLUTION IN THE PRACTICE OF 
a part of our Creator, and through which reason comes. Hence, 
wars, pestilences and famines, the cause of which men do not 
generally understand, are the work of Divine providence—-a 
just retribution for the sins of the world. 
The epidemic character and nature of all pestilential afflic- 
tions are highly striking and suggestive to the thinking mind, 
and adds proof of its frightful source, and feel that men have 
cause to tremble, as did Felix before the words of St. Paul. 
Cholera occurs on board of ships at sea which had not touched 
at any place where it prevailed. Troops have also been attacked 
while marching through an open country, and officers and men in 
their boats, far from any scene of contagion, have been taken and 
died of the disease. 
Cholera first made its appearance in the United States on the 
24th day of June, 1832. New York and New Orleans suffered 
severely from its attack. Again, in the years of 1849 and 1850, 
this disease was very destructive in the States, and now the signal 
of this approaching scourge is flung to the gaze of our people, 
and doubtless the field is “ ripe for the harvest.” Now is the time 
standing us in hand to look after the condition of our domicile. 
Not in a sanitary view, altogether, as we have seen, but more 
particularly spiritually. Well, let us see how we stand, and what 
our chances are, as a whole, and what the probable results of an 
epidemic of cholera. Are the bodies and souls of the populace 
predisposed for the attack of this purging scourge? Yes; we 
find a goodly number of churches (but many of them are spire- 
less), great numbers of most excellent people, but the good must 
suffer, in a measure, for the consequences of the vile. 
Well, on the other hand, we find between three and four thou- 
sand saloons or pestilential springs; whole streets given up to 
houses of prostitution, and these, too, right in the heart of this 
great and —— city. Now, we will say no more respecting the 
state of humanity in this place, but what is your opinion of the 
result of an attack of cholera this year, or even next, as for that 
little matter of time ? Which way do the preponderating in- 
fluences point? Well, fate, that can neither be avoided nor defied, 
will certainly decide the problem, and in a way, perhaps, not 
quite satisfactory to us. 23 
MEDICINE AN IMPERATIVE NECESSITY. 
Cholera, not contagious, as we may justly conclude, I think, 
from the succeeding facts in relation to the question of transmis- 
sion from one person’s body to another. In hospitals, those 
persons attending the sick rarely took or had the disease. Phy- 
sicians who remained days and nights in various hospitals, over- 
worked and worn down from fatigue and want of sleep, escaped. 
In one hospital having one hundred and one attendants, but one 
was attacked with the disease. Says an old physician: “I have 
seen the friends and relations lift the sick into and out of the 
bath, and frequently seen them covered with the fluid vomited 
np by the patients, and even performing offices which delicacy 
forbids me to mention, during the'progress of the disease, 
and in no instance were they affected. A remarkable example 
of the truth of its being non-contagious occurred in France* 
During the prevalence of the epidemic at Marseilles not less 
than 10,000 inhabitants fled to Lyons, and notwithstanding 
constant intercourse was kept up between the two cities, the 
latter remained exempt from the cholera. And again, during 
an epidemic in Moscow, 40,000 inhabitants left the city, and 
not a single case is on record of the cholera being trans- 
ferred. A strict investigation was made in the first four cases 
that occurred in Moscow, when it was fully proved that the pa- 
tients had neither themselves been in any infected place, nor had 
communication with any coming from such a place. The fact of 
the disease not spreading among the attendants of the sick, is 
fully confirmed by the official report of the extraordinary com- 
mittee of physicians assembled at Moscow by order of the Em- 
peror, who reported; that this disease is not contagious. Report 
also states that convalescents continued to wear the clothes they 
wore during the disease, even fur, without having been purified, 
and they never had a relapse. “At the opening of bodies of 
persons who have died of the cholera, to the minute inspection 
of which four hours a day for nearly a month were devoted, 
neither those who attended to these dissections nor any one of 
the assisting physicians, nor of the attendants, caught the dis- 
ease, although, with the exception of the first day, scarcely any 
precautions were used. In fourteen hospitals not a physician, 
pupil, assistant or nurse was attacked with cholera, although con- 24 
REVOLUTION IN THE PRACTICE OF 
stantly employed in their duties, so that they were compelled to 
be constantly breathing the exhalations from the bodies and 
clothes of the sick. The washerwomen of the hospitals escaped 
also, who, it is well known, are extremely apt to suffer from dis- 
eases actually contagious.” 
Dr. Albers, in his report to the Prussian Government, observes 
that there have been cases fully authenticated where nurses, to 
quiet timid females laboring under the disease, have shared their 
beds during the night, and they, notwithstanding, have escaped 
uninjured. 
Further and positive proof that cholera is not contagious, is to 
be found in the following report of the medical committee es- 
tablished by the Emperor of Russia, which states that a physi- 
cian who had received several wounds in dissecting the bodies of 
those who had fallen victim to the cholera continued his opera- 
tions in various hospitals and did not take the disease. Dr. Fay, 
an eminent physician of Warsaw, in a letter to the Royal Acad- 
emy of Science, at Paris, states that he exposed himself in every 
manner possible to the infection. He infused into his veins blood 
of an individual who was dying of cholera; inhaled the breath 
patients suffering under the disease, and tasted the matter 
vomited from the stomach, without sustaining any injury from 
the experiment beyond a slight sickness at the stomach and 
slight headache.” 
But many more facts of the same nature may be produced ; 
but we sincerely feel that enough has been given to sufficiently 
convince any unprejudiced reader as to entirely remove every fear 
and apprehension and doubt in relation to the contagious nature 
of cholera. One of the great predisposing causes of this disease 
is fear; unquestionably thousands have fallen victims from fear. 
Hence, it is quite obvious to all, we feel that, those who are 
wholesome and clean, in soul and body, have little to fear, but 
fear itself. But those that are vile, must go when cholera calls 
in their locality; they can offer no possible excuse; they have no 
shield to protect themselves wdthal. 
Ho, ho! Now what have we discovered? Why, we find 
that Dr. Koch and Professors Reitsch and Nikats, eminent 
scientists, and holding forth away over across the Great Pond, MEDICINE AN IMPERATIVE NECESSITY. 
25 
in some place has discovered the cause of cholera (mark right 
here that there is nothing said about the cure of cholera) in the 
so-called “ comma-bacillus.” Well, now, my dear reader, these 
wonderful comma-bacilli is a natural constituent of the mouth. 
But, says Dr. Koch, “the normal comma-bacilli of the mouth 
differ from those of cholera in regard to the condition favorable 
to their artificial cultivation.” Whew ! Well, I don’t think that 
we will cultivate the cholera kind. Surely it1 is quite possible to 
find almost anything at all, in the human mouth or anywhere 
else, by the aid of a good microscope. Why, bring the magni- 
fying power of the microscope to bear on the food you eat, and 
the water you drink, and you would have no further use for 
either: you would despair, and “ give up the ghost” at once, 
and square on the spot, that is the fastiduous part of the com- 
munity. No, we will regard not the wonderful and mysterious 
discoveries of the “great” men. Well, the comma-bacillus has 
about as much to do with cholera as the frogs and fishes, the 
natural inhabitants of the waters we drink, do, and no more. 
Now the truth of the matter is this: “ Physicians and other great 
scientists ” have a pretty hard time in sustaining their imaginary 
‘ greatness ’ before the people. They pick up a hobby and ride 
it till the people tire from it, then a new one is hatched. Yes, 
it is a hard struggle with them, to keep the wool pulled well over 
the eyes of the public, that they may easily finger the money 
bags. They must necessarily make wonderful and mysterious 
discoveries, and handle them in terms that are highly ‘ scientific ’ 
and very curious to the masses. Now, I sincerely believe that 
the growing intelligence of this age will very soon vanquish 
these hosts of frauds, criminals and impostors, whose turpitude 
and unblushing deeds of villainy stands without a parallel in the 
history of the human race ; and all under the cloak of science. 
Discover to me one single physician of good standing, of sound 
judgment, of the regular school of medicine, and believes that 
there is a God, and such an institution as the Christian religion, 
that will asseverate to the knowledge of the cause of a single 
disease, and cure or specific for the same, and I will pay you 
$1,000 for your trouble and wonderf ul discovery. 
Dr. Shippen, one of the most distinguished medical men of 26 
REVOLUTION IN THE PRACTICE OF 
Philadelphia, and a master of medicine in the old medical col- 
lege of that city for more than forty years, besides an extensive 
practice, said on his death-bed, “If you find it necessary to have 
recourse to medicine, there are three kinds which you may make 
use of with safety, viz.: a tranquil mind, exercise and a temper- 
ate diet.” These are the words of that venerable and most ex- 
perienced of physicians. The celebrated French physician, 
Dumoulin, on his deathbed, when surrounded by three of the 
most distinguished medical men of Paris, who were regretting 
the loss the profession wrould sustain in his death, said : “ My 
friends, I leave behind me three physicians much greater than 
myself.” Being much pressed to name them (each of the doc- 
tors supposing himself to be one of them) he answered, “ water, 
exercise and diet.” The distinguished Dr. Badcliffe said that 
“the whole mystery of physic might be written on half a sheet 
of paper.” The opinions of the greatest and most profound 
medical men who have ever lived should be sufficient evidence 
of the imposition practiced on mankind by the so-called scientific 
physicians, and convince all people that Burns wTas right when 
he said : 
“ But human bodies are sic fools, 
For all their colleges and schools.” 
Now, let us supplicate the Almighty for reason to come down 
and take possession of the minds of men, and raise them out of 
and extricate them from the ocean of ignorance ; illuminate 
man’s mind to perceive, contemplate and understand the truth 
which ignorance has so long deprived him of. 
TESTIMONY OF EMINENT MEN. 
“ The practice of medicine is based on a huge mass of learned 
ignorance and assumption.”—Andrew Jackson Davis. 
“An appropriate inscription upon three-fourths of the tomb- 
stones in our cemeteries would be ‘ quietly slaughtered in the 
sick-room.’ ”—Dr, Franke. 
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, in his “Border Lines of Knowl- 
edge,” says: “ The disgrace of medicine is that colossal system of 
self-deception in obedience to which mines have been emptied of 
their cankering minerals, the entrails of animals taxed for their 27 
MEDICINE AN IMPERATIVE NECESSITY. 
impurties, the poison bags of reptiles drained of their venom, 
and all the inconceivable absurdities thus obtained thrust down 
the throats of human beings suffering from some want of organ- 
ization, nourishment or vital stimulation.” 
“Every dose diminishes the patient’s vitality.”—Alonzo 
Clark, M.D. 
“ The drugs which are administered for the cure of scarlet 
fever and measles kill far more than the diseases.”—Prof. B. F. 
Baker, M.D. 
“Perhaps bread-pills would cure as many as medicines.”—J. 
W. Carson, M.D. 
“ Mercury, when introduced into the system, always acts as a 
poison.”—Prof. A. Dean, LL.D. 
“If there were not a drug upon the face of the earth, there 
would be less sickness and less mortality than now prevail.”— 
James Johnston, M.D., F.R.S. 
“Oh! that man would stop to learn, or at least cease to de- 
stroy.”—Stokes, Practice. 
“ The physician is a fortunate man if positively he does not 
injure his patient.”—Boerhaave. 
“No physician whose works I have read, no professor of medi- 
cine whom I have ever heard speak on the nature of diseases, has 
ever discovered or even hinted at the nature and cure of fevers; 
all have delivered theories which amount to open acknowledg- 
ment of their ignorance.”—Donaldson. 
“ The science of medicine has been cultivated for more than 
two thousand years. The most devoted and greatest talents have 
been exercised. Yet upon no subject has the wild spirit of 
imagination been more wildly displayed. We know nothing of 
the cause of disease.”—Dr. Good. 
“It is not less certain, but still more deplorable, that the 
majority of the people are yet a prey to medical credulity, super- 
stition and delusion.”—Prof. Rafinesque. 
“Both surgery and medicine can and will, in the present 
astonishing strides of human intellect, be forced to pass a rigid 
scrutiny and undergo a radical improvement.”—Smead. 
“ Medicine is as yet in a very imperfect state. The philosophy 
of diseased action is very little known.”—Prof. Nunnely. 28 
REVOLUTION IN THE PRACTICE OF 
“Very few of the valuable discoveries in medicine have been 
made by physicians. They have either been the effect of chance 
or necessity, and have been opposed by the faculty till every one 
else was convinced of their importance. An implicit faith in the 
opinions of teachers and an attachment to systems and established 
forms will always operate on those who follow medicine as a 
trade. ”—Buchan. 
“ Taking the general run of physicians, we can convince our- 
selves that most of them exercise nothing but the rudest em- 
piricy under the cloak of science.”—Prof. Hartman. 
“I have long enough been tossed on the sea of unfounded 
hypothesis to feel convinced that absolute darkness prevails in 
the medical practice.”—Beil. 
“ What a mass of credulity and error has actually accumu- 
lated in medicine from the presumptuous attempt to grasp ob- 
jects, and makes hasty and dangerous application of them in 
practice! When we cast our eyes upon the shelves loaded with 
volumes, few of them containing any genuine profitable knowledge, 
the greater part of them composed chiefly either nugatory, errone- 
ous, inapplicable or mischievous, in which the dear-bought grain 
is to be sought in the bushel of chaff, may it not be questioned 
whether such researches have not tended more to retard and 
corrupt than to advance and improve practical medicine.”—Sir 
Gilbert Blane. 
“ Many individuals are blessed from their birth with such a 
powerful constitution that they are able to resist the worst kind of 
medical treatment.”—Krueger Hansen. 
“ The refusal in universities to tolerate any opinion in the pri- 
vate or public exercises of candidates for degrees in medicine, 
which is not taught or believed by their professors, is restraining 
a spirit of inquiry in that period of life which is most distin- 
guished for ardor and invention in our science.”—Bush. 
“ Physicians have been tinkering the constitution for about 
two thousand years. The "result of their discoveries is that brim- 
stone and mercury are the only specifics. Diseases remain what 
they ever were. ”—Coleman. 
“Except we adopt reform system, we shall lose our practice.” 
—Prof. Jackson. MEDICINE AN IMPERATIVE NECESSITY. 
29 
“ Minerals are the most destructive to animal bodies that 
malice can invent.”—Dr. Cheyne. 
“ If God will not impart to man the secrets of medicine, it is 
right to consult the devil.”—Paracelsus. 
(This is the inaugurator of the mercurial practice in medi- 
cine.) 
“ The whole nation is groaning under the present practice of 
the medical profession, which fosters disease more than it cures 
it, and debases or ruins our constitutions.”—Nicrisen. 
“Of all sciences, medicine is the most uncertain.”—Prof. 
Alonzo Clark. 
“ The science of medicine is founded upon conjecture, improved 
by murder.”—Sir Anthony Carlisle. 
“ The reason why quacks accumulate fortunes is because regu- 
lar physicians are so generally unsuccessful.”—Mutter. 
“ I was a dogmatic at twenty, an observer at thirty, an em- 
piric at forty, and now at fifty I mqlonger have any system.”— 
Berden. 
“I give all kinds of medicine in all kinds of doses.”—Dr. W. 
H. Holcomb. 
“I am sick of learned quackery.”—Prof. Waterhouse. 
“ Few are the remedies whose virtues and operations are cer- 
tain. Many are those which are doubtful, suspicious, fallacious, 
false. ”—Hoffman. 
“ Universities are but dull repositories of exploded opinions.” 
—Dr. Adam Smith. 
“ An undue attachment to great names.—Hippocrates, Galen, 
Anvantens, among the ancient; Boerhaave, Guilin, Brown, Brous- 
sads among the modern—have in their turn established a despo- 
tism in medicine by the popularity of their names, which has 
imposed a restraint upon free inquiry and thereby checked the 
progress of medicine.”— Burk. 
“The people are a goose, and I’m going to pluck it.”—Brule. 
“ If there were not a drug upon the face of the earth there 
would be less sickness and less mortality than now prevails.”— 
James Johnson, M.D., F.R. S. 
On the occasion of an old King of France being very ill, the 
Countess of Bousellou happened to meet an old Lord, Lafen, just 30 
REVOLUTION IN THE PRACTICE OP 
as he had returned from the apartments of the sick king; and whose 
face shone with the light of hope at least so much as to inspire 
the Countess to inquire after the state of condition of the King, 
says to the old lord: “ What hope is there of his majesty’s amend- 
ment?” Answer: “He hath abandoned his physicians, madam, 
under whose practices he hath persecuted time with hope, and 
finds no other advantage but only the losing of hope by time.” 
Now I may safely venture the assertion, that not a single ex- 
ception will occur in the many whose eyes may fall on these lines 
but have themselves or knowledge of others whose experience has 
been analogous to that of the old king. Have despaired of drugging 
—discharged their physician, and their health immediately im- 
proved. 
The above testimonials are samples of tens of thousands that 
may be produced from all parts of the world, not only from the 
ablest physicians who had an existence hundreds of years ago, 
down to the present age, but from all classes of men profound 
in learning and wisdom. 
CREDULOUS PEOPLE. 
Now I am intent on adhering to the truth; ’tis said that to 
advocate truths is the noblest act of man. Well, I now wish to 
say a good word, and extend my thanks to hundreds of the lead- 
ing physicians of our Union that I have approached respecting 
the much-needed medical reformation. In no instance have I 
received anything but courteous treatment, and that my claims 
against the profession of medicine were well founded: “ that 
medicine as taught and practiced is injurious and destructive to 
life.” But always with this supplement: (“ We can do nothing 
toward agitating a reformation in medicine, as the support of our 
families depends upon our practice, and more, physicians are held 
in great distrust by the people in general already. The time was 
when physicians were looked up to with much respect and con- 
sideration. But things are very much changed to-day, and the 
least said the better ’tis for us.”) Now it is seemingly strange; 
but the only persons that I come in contact with, who proclaims 
great things in medicines; the wonderful skill of Doctor so and 
so; the great necessity of having physician at a moment’s call; MEDICINE AN IMPERATIVE NECESSITY. 
31 
“the great good that doctors do,” as a lady said to us but a few 
days ago. I didn’t ask her how or wherein because I knew she 
“ didn’t know.” Why, every day you hear persons say that Dr. 
Jones or Brown or some other doctor is the best doctor in the 
place. Ask them why they think so. Why, Johnnie or Tommy, 
or father or mother was very sick and would have certainly died 
had it not been for Doctor , he is such a skillful physician, 
such a noble man; so pleasant and so jolly. Happy folk are the 
blind, being ignorant of the pernicious drugs that were adminis- 
tered, and their injurious effects on the system, doing much 
more mischief than the disease. Well, where ignorance is bliss 
’twere folly to be wise. People entirely unacquainted with the 
science of medicine or the arrangement of the physical system, 
not even knowing the number of bones in their body, lionize doc- 
tors, swallow their poisons and tail up the profession in general, 
entailing upon themselves poor health, poverty, and even lay 
down their lives, all in support of the greatest imposition ever 
inaugurated by man. 
Well, this just brings to mind a good illustration of the sub- 
ject-matter, doctor and patient. ’Tis the two Irishmen that were 
going through a piece of timber or woods, one walking in advance 
of the other. Their names were Pat and Mike. (The former the 
doctor, the latter the patient, as you will presently see.) By the 
side of the path stood a staddling, the top having been previously 
removed. Patrick in passing grasped hold of this stump, bending 
it forward as he went, finally letting go his hold just in time for 
Michael to receive the full force of this staddling in its rebound- 
ing, upon the forehead, felling him to the ground and producing 
unconsciousness for a moment. The sound of the blow on poor 
Mike’s head caused Pat to turn and rush to the aid of his patient. 
After assisting Mike to his feet, and as soon as he regained the 
power of speech—no, you are mistaken; he did nothing of the 
kind; he could not in his great and noble heart, find words suffi- 
ciently expressive to convey the gratitude and love that he should 
ever owe Pat, for the saving of his life. “ Ah! Patrick, may God 
bless you, for I should surely have been killed had you not held on 
to the thing.” Yes, this is a good illustration of physician and pa- 
tients. You will hear persons, telling about Dr.— saving their 32 
EEVOLUTION IN THE PEACTICE OF 
life. The doctor all the time knowing to the contrary. Well, you 
know what the philosopher and scholar Carlyle said about the 
people of England. He said England contained a population 
composed of 500 wise men and 19,000,000 fools. Oh well, that 
might be true of old England, but we Americans are not fools, not 
much. No, it takes a pretty wise man to know he is a fool. Igno- 
rance can’t comprehend solid facts. 
“Oh no! we Americans don’t spend our money for faith cures, 
nor for magnetic jackets, belts and shoes, etc., etc., we know better 
than to believe all those would-be healers say; we don’t believe 
that faith can make the blind see, nor the halt supple as a lamb. 
Nor we don’t believe in iron or electric jackets either. You may in- 
stil iron jackets and belts and shoes with electricity, but you can’t 
make us believe ’tis like the electricity of the body; nor that it can 
be assimilated or has any curative properties, any farther than a 
local stimulant; and that we can get much easier and in a much 
more sensible way. You might get the English people to. buy 
such nonsense, but not us Americans. My! you might as well 
try to palm off on the people water colored red for genuine and 
life generating blood. Such things don’t take in America.” 
Faith cures, electric jackets, patent medicines, all have a certain 
effect on the human system; brought about by the operations of 
the mind upon a soft spot in the brain of man, and produces 
favorable results till the credulity or folly of the patient tires; 
after this stage they usually sink, by the recoiling of the vital 
force from a fictitious strain, into a condition much worse than 
before—may be likened to a man working by the aid of stimu- 
lants, or drinking to drown trouble, which invariably adds crime 
to folly. 
No, we want nothing to do with foolishness when we come to 
the consideration of our health and life itself. We are fast learn- 
ing that diseases can be cured, and in a common sense way, by 
using medicines prepared from vegetation, and from plants and 
shrubs at home. We find no place in our bodies for quinine, 
opium, mercury, arsenic, nor any of your old poisons. 
By prohibiting the use of quinine, opium and morphine, arch- 
destroyers of man, and daily wielded by the puissant hand of the 
physician, and alarmingly potent for the destruction of human MEDICINE AN IMPERATIVE NECESSITY. 
33 
life and happiness, more than $50,000,000 would be saved to our 
people yearly; a burden vanquished; sorrows lessened; pleasures 
multiplied, and life to man made a reality. A blessing too great 
even to hope for; a good to mankind of such magnitude that 
words would be too feeble to express. Not a single grain of those 
vile agents should be used in the treatment of any disease. The 
harm, the misery, the sad consequences resulting from their use 
I need not expatiate upon. A woe-worn people have experienced 
and fully realized that too well. But, you ask, how get along 
without opium or morphine in painful diseases, or surgical opera- 
tions ? To the former I answer, that the true and able physician 
will remove the cause for pain; the pain removes itself. Treat 
causes, not results, which is quite too frequently the case. To 
the latter, ether and chloroform may be employed, avoiding the 
danger to patient of contracting a deadly habit. 
TYPHOID FEVER. 
(enteric fever.) 
This fever brings with it a feeling of grave apprehension, not 
only to the patient, but to the attending physician and friends. 
My attention being called to the treatment of this fever by an 
article in the Medical News, a weekly medical journal published 
by Henry C. Lea’s Son & Co., Philadelphia, a world-renowned 
concern for the publication of medical works of the “regular 
school.” 
In the number now before us of date Nov. 22, 1884, I find 
the following words: “ The abortive treatment by calomel is 
still regarded with favor, and this is the only treatment which 
can be considered etiological or causal. For the rest, the treat- 
ment must be symptomatic.” 
Sad indeed, are these words; words, the meaning of which 
implies death to the poor victim that is subjected to this treat- 
ment. Let us see; possibly we are wrong in our strong asser- 
tion; let us analyze a case of tyhoid fever and see what the 
results will be. 
Well, in typhoid fever the poison seems to be most potent on 
the small intestines and mesenteric glands. Peyer’s patches and 34 
REVOLUTION IN THE PRACTICE OF 
the corresponding mesenteric glands are invariably diseased, the 
spleen also is affected and generally enlarged. The first morbid 
change observed in enteric fever is in the intestines, a swelling of 
the mucous membrane covering the glands of the alimentary 
canal, succeeded by a deposit of typhus matter, which speedily 
leads or ends in ulceration and sloughing of the parts; perfora- 
tion and death 
Well, we now have a fair understanding of the nature of 
typhoid fever, in but few words, but quite clear to the ordinary 
mind, we trust. 
Now let us examine the nature of the remedy; should we find 
the remedy to be worse than the disease, what then ? I’ll tell 
you what then! We’ll avoid the learned physician; specially 
when we are sick. Our remedy is calomel; what is calomel? 
Yes, calomel is one of the many forms of preparation of mercury, 
a polymorphic agent. Next, what effect will calomel have upon 
the unfortunate being who becomes a victim to its powers? It 
causes inflammation of the entire alimentary canal, followed by 
ulceration. And! do you believe it; it will loosen the teeth, and 
destroy them, and even the entire human frame is injured, our 
bones ache, and the doctor says we have got rheumatism. (He 
should say mercurialism.) Too many of you know the meaning 
of this examination in a way quite differently than from a word 
picture. Your pains and aches remind you too often of the 
results of calomel. 
Now, I will take the responsibility in passing judgment, and 
render the following verdict: that the remedy is worse than the 
complaint. 
Our treatment of typhoid fever is curative. In typhoid fever 
the blood becomes altered in its composition, bearing a poison 
which has a strong affinity for the mucous membrane of the intes- 
tines. This poison in the blood we expect to eliminate through 
the depuratory organs, directing its force from its most vital field, 
or natural working ground. Also by the proper remedies im- 
prove the vitality of the mucous membrane and glands of the 
intestines; thus attacking the foe in two lines of fire, as it were, 
and gaining a victory in almost ninety-nine cases out of a hun- 
dred; and, the shot we fire does not leave our patients in the con- 35 
MEDICINE AN IMPERATIVE NECESSITY. 
dition of the Irishman who said he was sick a long time after he 
got well; we would judge he had been taking calomel. I feel 
warranted in stating that any fever irrespective of name, should 
and can be aborted, abridging time and mitigating all symptoms. 
The olden idea of a run of fever from one to five weeks, is or 
should be held as a criminal offense: physician responsible. 
OPIUM. 
Opiates in the hands of the physician are equivalent to the 
sand-bag in the hands of the midnight marauder. The latter 
fells his victim to the ground, without sound of blow to attract 
the policeman; rifles your pockets, and is gone with your valu- 
ables. The former quietly administers an opiate; subdues your 
pain by stupefying or paralyzing your sensibilities, leaving nature 
and time to remove the cause, while he enjoys his fees; and you 
unwittingly forming a habit, and forging the chains of serfdom 
that binds you to slavery, the agonies of which far excel the tor- 
tures of hell as depicted by the boldest hand. You are not alone; 
you are within the ranks of an army composed of thousands of 
pitiful subjects, and the fascinating influence of opiates brings 
new recruits daily. I doubt the justification of administering 
opiates to remove pain, when death itself is inevitable. Should 
we not have the full benefit of our reason, even at the “ eleventh 
hour?” A good field for thought, is it not? 
Opiates used in malignant diseases, such as cancer, consump- 
tion, etc., etc., will produce pleasing results for the time being. 
But in all such cases shortens life through its potent effects on 
the secernent system of the economy, causing retention of effete 
matter 
MOTHERS, TAKE WARNING. 
SOOTHING SYRUPS, 
Nine out of every ten have dangerous opiates for a base. 
For example: a lady of my acquaintance, residing in one of 
the beautiful towns of central New York, being fond of dress 
and social entertainments, after becoming a mother, could not 
well sacrifice pleasures for the sacred duties devolving on her; 
hence, her child, a boy, was deserted and left to the care of 
nurse and a goodly quantity of soothing syrups, on many an 36 
REVOLUTION IN THE PRACTICE OF 
occasion of some social attractions. Consequently, to-day finds 
the once gay mother old and prematurely grey; he that was a 
troublesome baby (from causes over which he had no control) 
is to-day a man—a man in years, in intellect a fool; an object of 
ridicule for the vulgar; a charge and care to a mother, of a nature 
which I leave for your own fancy to paint. Mothers! you cannot 
make too great sacrifices, nor give too much of your personal 
attention to the care of your offspring. In proportion to the 
care you give your little ones, will the declining years of your 
life be made smooth and happy, from the kind and humane hands 
of sons and daughters whose characters were fashioned and 
moulded by your own hands and mind. 
“ Opium forms the basis of innumerable remedies, and very 
effective remedies, sold under titles altogether reassuring and 
misleading. Nearly all soothing syrups and powders, for 
example, “mothers’ blessings” and infants’ curses, are really 
opiates. These are known or suspected by most well-informed 
people. What is less generally known is, that nine in ten of 
the popular remedies for catarrh, bronchitis, cough, cold and 
asthma are also opiates. So powerful, indeed, is the effect of 
opium upon the lining membrane of the lungs and air passages, 
so difficult is it to find an effective substitute, that the efficacy, 
at least the certain and rapid efficacy, of any specific remedy for 
cold whose exact nature is not known affords strong ground for 
suspecting the presence of opium. Many chemists are culpably, 
almost criminally, reckless; and not a few culpably ignorant in 
this matter. An experienced man bought from a fashionable 
west-end shop a box of cough lozenges, pleasant to the taste and 
relieving a severe cough with wonderful rapidity. Familiar with the 
influence of opium on the stomach and spirits, he was sure before 
he had sucked half a dozen of the lozenges that he had taken a 
dose powerful enough to affect his accustomed system, and strong 
enough to poison a child and do serious harm to a sensitive 
adult. Yet the lozenges were sold without warning or indication 
of their character; few people would have taken any special pre- 
caution to keep them out of the way of children, and the box, 
falling into the hands of a heedless or disobedient child, might 
have poisoned a whole nursery.”—National Review. 37 
MEDICINE AN IMPERATIVE NECESSITY. 
THE INCURABLE CURED. 
The so-called incurable cases—and in fact are incurable, 
when depending on the old method of treatment at the hands 
of the so-called regular physicians. But I am prepared to state, 
to prove, and to demonstrate, that from 50 to 75 per cent, of 
the so-called incurable cases may and can be restored to health 
and usefulness (provided that they are disposed to usefulness). 
PERNICIOUS DRUGGING. 
There cannot be found any pathological condition of the 
human system where poisonous and deleterious drugs may be 
used with benefit nor without causing harm. The following are 
some of the pernicious remedies used daily by the almost entire 
fraternity of regular medicine, and in the treatment of the entire 
list of diseases named in nosological classification: Mercurials, 
antimonials, arsenic, quinine, opium,' morphine, carbolic acid, 
and alcoholic liquors—with many more in the same category. 
Hark—we will hear what Mr. A. has to say. “Doctor, you 
are wrong ; I am older than you are, and have always taken 
mercury when I feel bad; I always keep a box of blue-mass pills 
in the house.” “Indeed! but, Mr. A., I observe that you wear 
false teeth and a cane.” “Yes, Doctor, my teeth commenced to get 
loose and decay much sooner than they ought to by good rights, 
and then I carry this cane, for I have had rheumatism more or 
less for years. Doctor, this is my neighbor Mr. B. Yes, we 
jine farms.” “Well, Mr. B., I hope you are well and happy.” 
“Yes; been pretty well since I got home from the war and got 
picking up agin.” “Mr. B., I am glad that you lived to return to 
your family so well preserved in body and so free from scars.” 
“ Thank you, Doctor, I feel pretty fortinate to get back alive, 
and I didn’t get struck with a single bullet, neither. But, 
Doctor, my nearest neighbor, Mr. C., didn’t fare so well; poor 
fellow ! he got shot and killed about the first fight we was in.” 
“ Gentlemen, this is the train for Chicago. I will bid you good- 
bye.” “Good-bye, Doctor, Good-bye, Doctor, hope we’ll meet 
agin.” 
Dear reader, I regret that I did not have a few minutes 38 
REVOLUTION IN THE PRACTICE OF 
more with, my country friends at the depot. Consequently, I 
must ask your opinion of the subject-matter. 
Well, what do you think Mr. B.’s answer would have been 
if I had asked him if powdjer and ball was a destroyer of human 
life. It is very evident what his answer would have been, be- 
cause he saw his neighbor fall in battle. 
Mr. A. has witnessed the fall of many friends in peace. 
But, let me ask Mr. A. why his teeth loosened, decayed and 
fell out of place, or why his limbs were stiff, and the bones dis- 
eased; he could give no intelligent answer to the question. 
He dropped his blue-mass pills down his throat; but he could 
not see the mercury ramify and poison the entire system, its work 
is so subtle and carefully hidden from view to the unsophisticated 
mind, hence the great danger to human life. Powder and ball 
men can see and avoid. There is no disease known that is so 
destructive to human life and body as mercury. Pernicious 
drugs alone throw the teeth from their sockets, and rot the bones 
in the body. 
It would require much time and labor to acquaint you of the 
many dangers which surround you in the guise of the so-called 
family physician. The supine indifference so generally mani- 
fested by mankind respecting their life and body and the welfare 
of their offspring, would not warrant the undertaking of a full 
exposition of physicians and drugs. 
QUINIA, OR QUININE. 
(.Peruvian Bark.) 
Quinine is an alkaloid obtained from cinchona, or Peruvian 
hark. It is an expensive and poisonous drug, destructive to the 
auditory organs, which are highly complicated and delicate in 
structure; from the congestion it produces in the parts, which is 
obvious to all who have had recourse to its use; by the noises, as 
roaring, ringing and buzzing sounds in the head and ultimately 
loss of hearing. Quinine, also, from its poisonous effects on the 
the organism of man, gives rise to febris quinia, a form of fever, 
exceeding all others in its augmented state of each and every 
symptom common to fevers, and usually proves fatal through the 
ignorance of physicians, by adding fuel to the tire in their folly MEDICINE AN IMPERATIVE NECESSITY. 
39 
of increasing the dose, and thus unwittingly, through their folly 
and ignorance, destroy the life in the unfortunate victim of their 
imposition. 
Peruvian bark may be used as a tonic with favorable results, 
but we have many agents equally good, if not superior, that is 
indigenous to our climate and country, and consequently less 
expensive.—“Good morning, madam; be seated, please.” “Is 
this Dr. Banton?” “Madam, I am the doctor.” “Well, doctor, 
I am Mrs. S , number — Vernon avenue; you see, I have in 
my hand one of your pamphlets; my husband brought it home 
last evening, and upon our x-eading it, we observed that it contained 
a good deal of common-sense and many ideas entirely new to us.” 
“Thank you, Mrs. S., for the compliment; but doubtless many 
will look upon my theories as mere abstractions and entirely with- 
out any practical bearings.” “Doctor, that is very true; and I 
take exceptions to some of your assex-tions.” “Mrs. S., that’s 
very good in you, as I rather enjoy myself in being criticised, 
as it affords an opportunity to demonstrate, or for an argument 
at least, and I like talking when I am forced to it.” “Now, 
Doctor, I want to know how you get along without using quinine; 
my husband always keeps quinine pills in the house.” “ Certainly 
so! Mrs. S., your husband is only one of tens of thousands that 
do the same thing. But, Mrs. S., how many of such persons have 
any idea of what they are doing, of the nature of the remedy 
they are taking, or the sad effects it produces in the economy.” 
“ I admit that very few act in the matter, but 
rely on the advice of their physicians, and that is just why I wish 
to know why you do not use quinine and why it is injurious.” 
“Well, Mrs. S., really I am pleased to find you warming up on 
this subject.” “ Well, Doctor, I feel that it is time some one 
should get warmed up about doctors and their nasty medicines. 
I have been l’unning after them for years, and what am I but simply 
a wi’eck, and sometimes wish I was entirely wrecked.” “Indeed! 
Mrs. S., I sincerely regret that you do not enjoy poor health; for 
really I believe that a gi'eat part of human beings enjoy being 
tortured and imposed upon by physicians, or doctors would not 
be in such good demand.” “Doctor, I can assure you that I 
for one do not like being sick. I have too much energy for that 40 
REVOLUTION IN THE PRACTICE OF 
kind of life, and find so much in the world worth living for, and 
without health there can be no pleasure in anything.” 
“You speak correctly, Mrs. S., but let me inquire after the 
condition of your husband, as he is a disciple of ‘ regular medi- 
cine,’ that is quinine, blue-mass and possibly opium. Always 
keeping a supply of quinine at hand? Mrs. S., what is the age 
of your husband ? (of course I would not ask that question if he 
were a woman.) 
“He is 53 years old; and I don’t think he would deny the 
fact, even if he was a woman.” 
“Thank you, Mrs. S.; I have myself great respect for the 
veracity of ladies, and rarely ask their age so that I may retain 
that good opinion of them. But, Mrs. S., please tell me the 
state of your husband’s health in general.” 
“Doctor, truth compels me to admit that his general health is 
poor; quinine pills ever at hand noth withstanding.” 
“Sad, indeed! with quinine, quinine pills always on guard 
against the subtle approach of grim disease (yet disease has 
entered that temple of animated clay and produced confusion and 
dismay). Mrs. S., let me ask if your husband uses glasses when 
he attempts reading ?” 
“ Yes, Doctor, he has used glasses for some time, and at times 
he is troubled with sharp pains darting through his eyes, and they 
weep a great deal at times.” 
“Oh, well, Mrs. S., that is only significant of the effects of 
quinine; determination of blood to the head, writh excitation or 
irritation of the delicate and sensitive nerves of the head—its 
organs of the senses. Quinine not unfrequently produces 
Amatirosis, blindness from paralysis of the optic nerve and loss 
of hearing from similar causes on the organ of hearing.” 
“ Doctor Banton, you frighten me. I am afraid of every doctor, 
and I can’t except you, either. I only wonder that I am alive so 
long.” 
“Mrs. S., I beg you to compose yourself and not be concerned 
on my account; and as regards quinine, I trust you will be philo- 
sophical and rational. Let me ask you to explain what the con- 
dition of society would be without quinine and doctors? Banish MEDICINE AN IMPERATIVE NECESSITY. 
41 
quinine and how could Prof. Olin, and other eye and ear physi- 
cians, afford to spend the winter with their families in Florida, 
Texas or Mexico?” 
“Vanquish quinine, and people would not be compelled to 
patronize physicians or specialists in the treatment of the ear, 
eye and nervous diseases. Why! do away with quinine, and you 
would do away with many fast horses, fine houses, and bring 
sorrow and lamentation into many now happy homes. Is it not 
in accordance with human nature that the multitudes shall suffer 
for the glory of the few ? I think mankind are about the same 
as they were in the days of the Prophet Samuel, when the Israel- 
ites were displeased with the guiding and protecting hand of God 
over them, and appealed to Samuel to provide them with a human 
king, which was done, and Saul was annointed by Samuel to rule 
over them, and they found cause to sorrow. No, human being will 
cry for health, but repel and reject it when it is offered. 
But this is got by casting pearl to hogs, 
That howl for freedom in their senseless mood, 
And still revolt, when truth would set them free.—Milton. 
Pardon, but those words of Milton’s seem apropos.” 
“ Doctor, I am now convinced that I am a fool, and shall tell 
my husband so when I reach home, and more, that he is a greater 
one. We have spent much time and money in running after 
doctors all these years and now find that we have been deceived; 
that we have been swallowing those miserable and nasty drugs 
which have no other result but to destroy our health and conse- 
quently render us miserable; fool that I am.” 
“Mrs. S., please not censure yourself so rashly; bear in mind 
that there are but few people of middle or advanced age who are 
blessed with good health. Health in the aged is invariably the 
result of wisdom, in steering clear of physicians, thus avoiding 
pernicious and destructive drugs. Now don’t take my word for 
this assertion; take nothing for granted that is susceptible of 
proof. The first robust man or healthy woman you meet, ask of 
them their opinion of physicians.” 
“Doctor, I am really glad for this occasion and talk; surely 
I shall put my thinking-cap on when I get home and try and get 
some wisdom out of my past follies, with the hope of becoming 42 
REVOLUTION IN THE PRACTICE OF 
healthier and wiser, as well as vanquishing the credulousness 
from the brain of my husband.” 
“Why, Mrs. S., I think you will do well in the practice of 
your former proposition, but in the latter you will establish a 
precedent highly destructive to thousands of ‘ good ’ physicians, 
and compel their dear wives to take roomers and boarders. Why, 
just give the matter a little thought and examination, and surely 
you will find that credulity of the people makes feasts and happi- 
ness for physicians and wealth for undertakers.” 
“Well, Doctor, I must say that I feel confused in mind; this 
will bring me into new channels of thought. But, Doctor, in the 
beginning of our talk did you not say that the bark was good for 
a tonic; now isn’t quinine made from the same bark; if so how 
can it be such a poison as you make it out to be ?” 
“Yes, Mrs. S., the bark is good; but you will recollect that I 
claimed that we had many other agents at home, and superior to 
Peruvian bark. Quinine, I repeat, is a poisonous alkaloid; ’tis 
found in the bark to be sure, but may not poison and vileness 
result from the union of things that in themselves are whole- 
some and pure? For example: Glycerine, a substance bland and 
useful; nitric acid, an excellent agent or remedy in the treatment 
of diseases; but from their union comes nitro-glycerine—destruc- 
tion. Corn, the staff of life; from corn comes death—King Alco- 
hol, a poisonous narcotic, the very opposite of bread. The use 
of alcohol and its results needs no words of condemnation from 
me; the tears and sorrows of millions of women and children are 
constant appeals to Heaven to avenge the wrongs of alcohol.” 
“ Doctor, you are right; it is quite easy to make good bad. I 
think doctors do wrong in prescribing brandy, wine and beer to 
patients.” 
“Mrs. S., you are quite right about prescribing stimulants for 
patients; thousands will attest ’twas their ruin. But recollect, 
conscientious and intelligent men never prescribe alcohol in the 
treatment of any disease; can’t see how good can come from 
serving the devil.” 
Should the people abandon the use of quinine, the gain to 
themselves would be prodigious, not only in the augmenting of 
the general health of the inhabitants, but in the annihilation of a MEDICINE AN IMPERATIVE NECESSITY. 
43 
tax or burden amounting to millions of dollars in each and every 
succeeding year thereafter. 
SURGICAL CASES. 
In the treatment of operative surgical cases, I most emphat- 
ically deprecate the use of carbolic acid, the antiseptic spray, 
carbolized bandages, plasters, and all the highfangled accoutre- 
ments employed with arrogant display. By having recourse to 
the method of treatment originating with myself—and which will 
ultimately prove a blessing to all mankind—the mortality now 
resulting from surgical operations will be very much lessened ; 
the loss of limbs or members of the unfortunate victims of acci- 
dent or disease, in the care of the progressive surgeon will be of 
rare occurrence; also the danger in all, as compared with the 
old and vague methods of treatment, will be limited. Suppura- 
tion subsequent to operation will seldom take place; hence, no 
blood-poisoning, erysipelas, gangrene, mortification and death. 
The lymph corpuscles, which are provided by nature and 
thrown out in abundance in any case of injury for the reparation 
of the part injured, become organized, forming new capillary 
vessels, nerves, tissue and bone. Pus is the result of disintegra- 
tion or breaking-down of the lymph corpuscles, the destruction 
of which is brought about by the use of carbolic acid and other 
poisons used in dressing wounds, as they are brought in conjunc- 
tion with these delicate cells, killing them, and thus causing 
inflammation, suppuration, blood-poisoning and death. 
WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 
Diseases incident to our superior sex, the dear and delicate 
women, usually denominated the weaker; yet, are really the 
hidden power that forces man through the busy highways of 
active life and makes him what he is: a power not fully recog- 
nized by either. Make man what he should be and you will 
make wives of your daughters rather than clerks. Man’s obliga- 
tions to woman are immense ; and alas ! he is too often found 
lamentably short in canceling this debt, which is of a grave and 
high nature. 44 
REVOLUTION IN THE PRACTICE OF 
But from no other source in life have women met with so 
deadly a foe as the “dear” family physician of the “good old 
school.” Ladies! good, old and tried husbands are to be cher- 
ished; but old systems and practices in art and science are not 
so; avoid them. Progress in the art of curing disease is an 
imperative demand, and we are fast advancing in the line of 
battle, compelling our old-school opponents to seek the aid of 
Municipal, State and Governmental authority to protect them in 
their assaults upon your life and the lives of your dear little ones. 
Search the mortality records of your city, and behold the 
astounding sacrifice of your babies therein revealed. The great 
majority of the deaths of children is accredited to Cholera Infan- 
tum. The treatment of this disease incident to the young, con- 
sists almost universal in the use of calomel, prepared chalk and 
opium. 
This, the old methods of prescribing, and the fatal results of 
the complaint, are full and ample proof of the wrong. While 
the progressive physician with his new method of prescribing 
the proper remedies loses but few of his little patients. In the 
treatment of diseases of women, the employment of artificial 
and mechanical supports, etc., etc., made of glass, rubber and 
metal, is highly injurious, besides being barbarous and cruel; and 
this great wrong in the treatment of ladies, brings tears to the 
eye, and a sigh of sorrow from the sympathetic and enlightened 
physician. The delicate organs of the human body, with their 
attachments and muscular supports, must not in any case be 
deprived artificially, which is quite too common by the too offi- 
cious physician, in the full enjoyment and performance of their 
natural functions. The wrong that has been inflicted upon 
females by the medical fraternity is great, its enormity could not 
be believed, even where it possible to be fully revealed. Whole- 
some activity of body and mind brings health and knowledge. 
Organs in the body kept in place by muscles, must have exercise 
to give tonicity of muscle. Sling up the arm to the side: it 
weakens, withers and becomes useless. 
MAN NOT PERFECT IN HIMSELF. 
No well developed man can be perfect in himself. Woman 
must stand by his side, guide and direct, co-operating with him MEDICINE AN IMPERATIVE NECESSITY. 
45 
in all things; otherwise he must remain a wanderer, a homeless 
wu-etch without true manhood. Each is dependent on the other 
for the construction, the upbuilding of the most beautiful, grand 
and noble superstructure known to the world. The home, the 
harmonious human family, the foundation of nations, the justi- 
fication of the name of man, and Christian civilization. Perhaps 
there is no sight so grand and sublime as that of a man, his wife, 
circumscribed by a goodly number of little ones, attesting to the 
virtue and godliness of the parents. To be the author of a human 
soul, makes man co-partner and worker with his Creator—the 
lord of creation in the earth, master of land and sea, of beasts 
and birds. 
Mother! the very sound of this word is music to the ear of 
every true woman; to become such is the grand desire and hope 
of all women; ’tis the strongest emotion of the female bosom; 
and sad is the lot and misery must be the experience of every 
woman otherwise constituted. To mother, every human being 
owes his existence; let none become unmindful of the divine 
obligations due to her—and cherish, respect, and honor all women, 
in virtue of their sex, regardless of social status. 
Man is responsible for the conduct of women. The young 
women that fall are the daughters of libidinous men. Men hav- 
ing revolted wives, may justly take the blame. But few men are 
fit to have wives; owing to their ignorance, stupidity and youth- 
ful indiscretions. Every man should be properly educated and 
instructed by one who is fully capable of so great a duty, before 
he thinks of embracing matrimony; hence, divorce mills and 
domestic hells would cease to be predominating institutions of 
our land. 
INFANTICIDE IN UTERO. 
Infanticide is the arch-crime, and the blackest and the most 
ignominious practice extant, amongst any people. But America 
stands to-day without a parallel among the nations of the world 
for the wholesale murder of human souls. 
The Hindoo women did cast their offspring to the waters of 
the river Ganges; but this was the result of ignorance and 
superstition; their babes were offered as a sacrifice to the gods 46 
REVOLUTION IN THE PRACTICE OF 
of their worship. But the women of our country murder their 
little ones purely from their vile concupiscence; and this 
terrible crime is inflicted on the victims, while yet imprisoned 
within the womb of one perverted and changed from a human 
being to a fiend. Let me say to all men that the woman who can 
thus destroy the life of one nourished by her own blood; and 
protected by the walls of her own womb in a manner marvelous 
and beyond the comprehension of man. Such a creature, though 
fair to look upon; and charming with entertainments, would 
much more easily take your life, did circumstances arise, giving 
birth to the idea in the brain; the hand would not be constrained. 
Infanticide is the most vital, and the most serious of all prob- 
lems that can interest the whole people. It not only threatens 
every Christian institution of civilization with destruction, but 
it gives the full control of our government and country to the 
foreigner in less than a score of years, thus wronging our children, 
taking from them the greatest of human rights, and causing 
to be forged in high heaven the thunderbolts of anguish to 
descend and fill the land with mourning and sorrow, to avenge 
the wrongs to so many millions of human souls forbidden to see 
the light of the world. But says the murderer, infanticide is not 
a crime; don’t so foolishly deceive yourself. God’s laics are 
greater than man’s. 
This diabolical desire of women to commit foeticide, but fails 
in the act, impresses the condition upon the embryo; if the off- 
spring does not die, it takes on the condition in after life of a 
criminal, and it is from this source that our prisons are filled. 
Let our young people be taught the meaning of marriage; 
that ’tis a divine institution; that it means offspring. Marriage 
does not mean leisure and pleasure; but devotion, cares, trials, 
and labor. Let our young folks be impressed that they are 
the fathers and mothers of the coming generations. Fathers 
the bread-winners, and mothers the nurses and care-takers of their 
suckling children. We all have duties to perform, and each in 
his or her own sphere, in our homes, and so to live as not to 
endanger each other’s lives. Each human being has great respon- 
sibilities to discharge; though many are seemingly oblivious of 
the fact. MEDICINE AN IMPERATIVE NECESSITY. 
47 
I will now picture a single illustration for your consideration, 
from a world full of the wonderful and prodigious influence of a 
mother’s imagination on the unborn infant. This influence pro- 
duces and extends all through life, traits of character, peculiar in 
themselves, as well as disease and bodily deformity. 
Mr. A., of New York State, married a lady of an adjoining 
state. Pecuniary circumstances (or in plain English, poverty,) 
at that time, rendered offspring undesirable, (what a vague idea 
this man had of marriage to not know that true marriage means 
offspring,) and he even expressed the wish to have no children 
until their circumstances became better. (What an ungodly 
wish; and how costly it proved to him, as you will see.) In a 
little time, however, it became evident that she was in the family 
way; on expressing her fears to her husband, she was sorely dis- 
tressed at the dissatisfaction he (brute) appeared to feel on receiv- 
ing this information. Taking his hat he left the house, and was 
absent for near an hour. 
He was, however, much distressed on his return to find his 
wife in tears. He then assured her immediately, that he was 
rejoiced to learn the probable realization of her announcement, 
and sought every means in his power to comfort her. The poor 
wife dried her tears, but expressed the conviction that, in some 
way, her expected offspring would suffer from her agitation. The 
husband tried to banish all apprehensions by gentle and affec- 
tionate ridicule. But her fears continued during her early months, 
and gradually increased as gestation or pregnancy advanced. 
Relief of the parents was great at the birth of a healthy 
and well formed boy. “No peculiarity of conduct in the child 
was observed, till several months had elapsed, and then their 
fears were renewed by its extreme unwillingness to approach the 
father. This gradually increased, until its dissatisfaction was 
manifested by loud and continual screaming when brought near 
him. As age advanced, the most persevering effort was made to 
overcome this repugnance; the utmost degree of persuasiveness 
and kindness toward it; gifts and sports, and every ingenuity 
were tried in vain. 
The child never could bear the sight of its father, and this 
utter disgust and dislike increased as it grew up, and so contin 48 
REVOLUTION IN THE PRACTICE OF 
ued. The son, now an active and rising member of the bar, had 
never been able to speak to his father, though the most painful 
efforts were made. The feelings of the father may be judged by 
parents, for he was, and is, an exceedingly affectionate man.” 
Let this case be the means of drawing your mind into this all- 
important field of thought. People are but little or nothing 
taught in these things, that are of the greatest importance; not 
only to the now living generations, but for all generations to fol- 
low. Give this matter its due thought and study, and you will 
wonder that humanity is as high as ’tis. Possibly you may dis- 
cover that the character of the future man in his relations to the 
world is marked out for him before he sees the light of the sun. 
That no power in the hands of man can change his true innate 
character. By cultivation, education and surroundings, he becomes 
adept in concealing his failing; but covering up well, never 
changes in his true nature, though St. Paul demonstrated it pos- 
sible for man so to do. We always experience a feeling of regret, 
sorrow and sympathy for those men we sometimes hear in 
prayer-meeting, relating their experience in the indulgence of 
the vices of the world, as we think that there are too few who 
have succeeded as did St. Paul, in eradicating the “old Adam ” 
from the household of the soul. “ What is bred in the bone, will 
manifest itself in the flesh.” Hence, let us learn to sow wisely, 
that we may reap perfection in all nature. Let us learn to make 
the will subservient to wisdom; then our conduct will be pure 
and justify our claim in the likeness of our Creator. Let us 
never dare to forget our individuality and our responsibilities, 
thereby escaping the fatal discipleship of the ignominious pro- 
jectors and promulgators of “Vicarious Atonement.” 
FATAL RESULTS. 
In the misapplication of drugs, the allopath, or regular physi- 
cian, has caused an appalling waste of human life and happiness; 
besides, that system, with all its institutions, is rotten to the core. 
The homoeopath, in his haven of expectancy, permits disease to 
run its course, living or dying, depending altogether on the vital- 
ity of the patient. But men who have the intellectual capacity MEDICINE AN IMPERATIVE NECESSITY. 
49 
and true philosophic spirit to investigate for themselves, when 
they proclaim truths which emancipate the people from profes- 
sional monopoly, must be prepared to encounter the rancorous 
vituperation of envious and malicious men, who care nothing 
about truth, and never dream even of forming an independent 
opinion, and detest those who do. They entertain little or no 
interest in advancing the science of curing disease any farther 
than bringing themselves before the public by hammering a grain 
of truth into a sheet of infinite platitude, by deceitful smiles, 
counterfeit skill, and fictitious assumptions, for ignoble and mer- 
cenary ends. The boasted science of medicine has not to-day a 
single specific for the cure of one single disease. Shame to the 
profession of medicine. Progress in medical art, like all else, 
must be brought about by the demand of the people. 
TO THE RESCUE. 
When the body is laboring and staggering under the depress- 
ing effects of disease with a deficiency of vital force to throw it 
off, then it is that the true physician may come to the rescue of 
human life. The means employed must in every instance work 
in harmony with nature’s ways. 
In the prevention of treatment of a disease, our science cul- 
minates and become an art. And unless we can accomplish 
one or the other of these ends, the world would do as well with- 
out as with our aid. It is of little value to know the probabil- 
ities of our state, and has no significance if by this knowledge 
we can do nothing- either to ward off, alleviate or cure dis 
ease. We might prepare some people for the worst, and dispel 
some groundless fear ; but the mission of the physician is to 
do more than this—we must cure the curable and comfort the 
incurable. 
LET US BE JUDGED BY OUR WORKS. 
A common method of determining the merits of certain doc- 
tors is to refer to the glory of their Alma Mater and to the num- 
ber of honorary degrees that may have been conferred upon them 
by American and foreign institutions. But it is neither right nor 
safe to determine one’s qualifications to practice the healing art 50 
REVOLUTION IN THE PRACTICE OF 
by such criteria. The truth is, many a name is buried in titles 
while the man has accomplished little or nothing worth mention- 
ing. A convergence of favoring circumstances and the interpo- 
sition of strong friends, rather than distinguished merit, often 
secures the highest university honors. A retentive memory and 
unnecessary use of the technical nomenclature of the profession, 
an assumed dignity and magnetic presence, often win such 
honors, when a profound comprehension of principles and a mas- 
terly success in overcoming the most aggravated forms of disease 
may not command similar recognition. 
OUR RELATIONS WITH THE PEOPLE. 
It is well to have an occasional understanding with people to 
whom we sustain business and other important relations. Each 
should know what the other has been doing, and why it was done; 
also what has been omitted, and what reasons may be assigned 
for such neglect. This examination might be extended with 
profit to all the activities and interests of life, but our purpose is 
limited, and we shall confine our observations to whatever touches 
the somewhat irregular line of our profession. We may remark, 
in transitu, that the term regular—in its application to medical 
men and theories—is so generally understood to represent a sys- 
tem that refuses all light from new sources, and resists all rational 
progress, that we think it not only desirable, but eminently hon- 
orable to be irregular. If to be regular requires a blind adher- 
ence to old theories and exploded opinions, stereotyped science 
and an unchanging method, we not only have been all along, but 
shall forever continue to be, extremely irregular. 
NO QUARTER. 
We ask no exemption from any ordeal, however searching; 
we demand no special legislative protection of our claims and 
interests; we never learned to subsist upon empty honors; we 
have no disposition to lean on a special charter; nor are we pre- 
pared to sacrifice principle or conviction for expediency or policy, 
nor to compromise with regulars who might be pleased to respect 
our rights if we would compliment their dogmas. Our respect MED* 
for truth, and duty to humanity, are first to be considered. We 
require no human institution—conceived in conscious weakness 
and consummated by acts of injustice—to uphold a tottering sys- 
tem and to preserve the fleeting bubble of a failing reputation. 
We stand on a foundation of natural laws and demonstrated 
facts. Our theories and systems are produced in the light of 
reason, and founded on the rock of truth; not to be undermined 
by the floods from weeping eyes, nor the blood of slaughtered 
victims, a sacrifice to poisonous drugs. 
THEY DO NOT CUKE. 
No one will scarcely have the temerity to pretend that medi- 
cine, as ordinarily practiced, has achieved the character of a pos- 
itive science. At this . late day its results are quite too uncertain 
to warrant either the professional dogmatism of the faculty, or 
the unreasoning confidence of the public. It is a fact susceptible 
of the clearest proof, that few family physicians succeed in curing 
any of the more aggravated forms of disease. They have chronic 
patients on their hands year after year, without in any way im- 
proving their condition. They make friendly morning calls on 
the poor sufferers, and watch the long conflict between nature 
and the disease. If the constitution conquers, they claim the 
credit of the cure; if the disease triumphs, they ascribe the re- 
sult to the will of Providence. 
The demonstrative proofs of their success are not seen in the 
counting-room, the market-place, the work-shop and the field. 
If you would witness the most impressive illustrative exhibition 
it would be well to go to Bosehill, Oakwood, or spend an hour in 
any cemetery among the pale memorials of the dead, and there 
read the record of the young in whom the light of life was pre- 
maturely extinguished. 
Why, in spite of doctors and all that by courtesy we denom- 
inate medical science, half the human race die before they fairly 
cut their teeth. 
PROFESSIONAL PRIDE. 
These are some of the mournful consequences of scholastic 
pride, of that egotism that can learn nothing new; of a blind ad 
herence to old errors to which men cling because they constitute their only inheritance, and of the stupid unwillingness to recog- 
nize the new discoveries in the healing art. How few have lived 
long, and alas! how many have died young under the old system? 
Millions have been devoted to it even unto death, like the poor 
man on whose tombstone was the following epitaph: “I teas 
quite well; I tried to do better; and I am here." 
By Our Neiv Method Diseases are Cured.—Now, while the 
physicians of the regular school have too often been found unequal 
to the task of arresting disease, it is a fact, demonstrated by every 
day’s experience, that physicians of different reform schools, and 
many so-called quacks are daily curing hundreds of people who 
had been given up to die. We realize the full significance of this 
language. We are always ready to cite the witnesses to the suc- 
cess of the new method of treatment, and it is a pride and con- 
solation to know that we can always find said witnesses without 
disturbing the slumbers of the dead. Now, what does the sick 
man care about the science that mocks his hopes and coolly specu- 
lates in his misfortunes ? All day long he is tortured with cease 
less pain; through the long night he is tossing from side to side 
praying in vain for relief and rest, and yet it comes not. I repeat, 
what should we care for the pedantic dignitaries who experiment 
upon him for a liberal price, and prate about their superior 
science while he is writhing in the terrible embrace of his mortal 
enemy? What he wants is some power to relax the coil of the 
monster disease before life is extinguished. 
Now, that power is found in the natural productions of the 
earth; in the vegetable kingdom; in medicines prepared from 
herbs, shrubs, and plants which can be assimilated by the human 
system, and supplying the deficiencies in certain parts of the 
economy, distinguished by skillful observation and interpretation 
of the wonderful workings of the complex machine, the body of 
man. These agents administered according to our new method, 
the physician can successfully combat disease, and cure any mal- 
ady before the necrological or dead cells hold the balance of 
power in the body of the patient over the vital or formative or 
life-renewing cells. 53 
MEDICINE AN IMPERATIVE NECESSITY. 
INNOVATIONS. 
No innovation productive of good results is readily accepted 
by the masses. The discoverer of the telescope died in a strange 
land from starvation; the inventor of the microscope was cast into 
a dungeon; the man who discovered the circulatory movement of 
the blood was denounced by the medical fraternity, persecuted 
and denominated crack-brained; to-day would be termed a crank. 
Well, crank is not bad after all; ’tis the most forcible paid of any 
machine, and even in the physical economy of man does set weak 
minds and light brains a-whirling. In London the physician who 
first employed that valuable medicinal herb lobelia in his practice 
was put into jail. To-day the physician who from assiduity and 
a natural adaptability in the art of healing disease, discovers the 
errors of ancient and modern practices, proclaims to you truths 
and methods of vital importance, will meet with a cold reception 
from the people, and the envious vituperation and bitter denun- 
ciation of the medical fraternity. The spirit of opposition to 
progress in art and science still lingers in the bosom of men ; they 
are ever ready to pounce upon, tear down and smother the light 
of reason that happens to be in advance of their comprehension, 
too brilliant for their sight. 
In times of peace, prepare for war; in health declare war on 
disease. You are strong and robust to-day, but alas! what may 
the morrow bring to you ! We are all subject to accident, and 
quite too much disposed to violate nature’s laws. Injury and 
disease necessitates the presence of the physician and surgeon. 
For example, you contract a cold, the sequel of which is pneu- 
monia, inflammation of the lungs. What follows? Why, the 
regular physician prescribes wine of antimony, calomel, blisters 
to the chest, etc., etc.; and the depressing and destructive effects 
of these agents will kill the patient, unless he possesses an iron 
constitution. With no medicine at all few die of this dreaded 
malady, as has been positively demonstrated in hospitals of Paris, 
Edinburgh and London. Accident compels you to call in the 
surgeon, the amputation of a member follows unless you are 
of a strong will ; the remedies he employs in dressing wounds 54 
REVOLUTION IN THE PRACTICE OF 
set up inflammation and endanger life ; by the proper treat- 
ment of injuries and wounds inflammatory processes are 
avoided. 
Now, in the name of reason and humanity, why will an en- 
lightened people employ a man to destroy them, just because he 
happens to be a good man; a dear friend; a member of the same 
church, and his wife a charming lady ? 
His house is well kept and very hospitable, his clothes are of 
the finest material; he is always so friendly and meek. 
Yes, dear reader, this is all very fine ; but are they not bids 
and bribes for your money; the mortal foe that leads us on to 
our own ruin, lulls and charms us on the way by necromantic 
art and display. 
BOLD ASSUMPTION. 
I freely admit the bold and somewhat unique position in 
which I have committed myself, and trust that some will have 
the boldness and humanity to give me the opportunity to verify 
my statements and vindicate my claims for the benefit of a mul- 
titude of poor invalids, and a nation of woe-worn and belabored 
people. • 
JOHN FLOYD BANTON, M.D. 
2138 Michigan Avenue. 
Chicago, 111., March, 1885. 
N.B.—Let not the prejudice from long formed habits and 
ideas prevent examination and consideration of new and pro- 
gressive ideas and methods in the treatment of your ills. The 
sad inability and deficiencies of the old or regular practice of 
medicine to cure disease have for generations firmly impressed 
the human mind with the idea that death is the inevitable sequel 
to many maladies. To break this terrible delusion will require 
an earnest exertion on your part. We can all realize the power 
of habit, its tenacity and strong hold upon the mind of man. 
Continuance in old methods of treatment increases the probabili- 
ties of perpetual ills. 
We agitate medical reformation not from a desire to op- 
pose nor love of combat; but rainier from force of an over- MEDICINE AN IMPERATIVE NECESSITY. 
55 
powering conviction. To protect human life and perfect every 
function of man, should be the aim of all. Sound bodies and 
healthy minds are requisite to morality, Christianity and 
humanity. Nations are great and powerful in a degree commen- 
surate to the development of these three qualities. 
Do not mistake us in thinking our course solicitous of your 
patronage. We desire but few patients, and those of sufficient 
understanding to realize life. But demand of every man hispid 
in the protection of the lives of the good and credulous ; the 
much abused women and little children ; the latter of which are 
cut down by physicians, as little and delicate flowers are 
touched, withered and destroyed by the hoary frosts. Make 
physicians such as the name implies, or cease to be. Their 
imposition as practiced is a damnable audacity. 
A “science” possessed of a great mass of meaningless 
generalities ! A “ science ” possessed of illimitable and veritable 
knowledge; and withal, destitute of ivisdom and ability to cure a 
single disease. 
Knowledge without wisdom, is like a ship at sea without a 
rudder, unable to accomplish a point. Yet, for all we can say 
or do, the weak in mind will in their folly persist. While the 
strong, the naturally wise, will gather wisdom from every wrong 
exposed. 
“ The ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the 
wise.” 
“ He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul ; but he 
that heareth reproof getteth understanding.”—Prov. xv, 31-32. 
J. F. B., M.D.