INTRODUCTORY LECTURE 
TO THE COURSE OF 
MATERIA MEDICA, 
DELIVERED IN THE 
UNIVERSITY OP PENNSYLVANIA, 
NOVEMBER 6, 1837. 
PHILADELPHIA: 
J. G. AUNER, 331 MARKET STREET. 
PRINTED BY L. R. BAILEY, 26 NORTH ElFTH STREET. 
1837. CORRESPONDENCE. 
University of Pennsylvania, November 13, 1837. 
Professor George B. Wood, 
Sir.—At a Meeting of the Medical Class of the University of 
Pennsylvania, held this day, it was unanimously resolved, that a copy 
of your very excellent and eloquent Introductory Address be re- 
quested for publication. 
As a Committee appointed for that purpose, permit us to entertain 
the hope that you will not be unwilling to comply with their solici- 
tations. 
With great respect and esteem, we are your’s, &c., 
Francis B. Carter, 
Philip A. Schuyler, 
George G. Noland, 
John E. Tucker, 
John A. Guion. 
Philadelphia, November 17, 1837. 
To Messrs. Francis B. Carter, PniLir A. Schuyler, George 
G. Noland, John E. Tucker, and John A. Guion : 
Gentlemen.—Valuing as I do the favourable opinion of the Medi- 
cal Class, I cannot but feel highly gratified by the evidence of it af- 
forded in the request which you have presented to me on their part. 
The Address is entirely at their disposal. I only wish that its merits 
were more nearly equal to their partial estimate. Convey to the 
Class the assurance of my affectionate interest, and believe me to be 
Your sincere friend, 
George B. Wood. INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. 
Gentlemen— 
I should be doing injustice to my feelings, were I to enter at 
once upon the business for which we are met together, without 
a kindly greeting to the many old friends whom I recognise 
among you, and a hearty welcome to those yet unknown to 
me, whom I hope to see no less my friends before we part. I 
can never consider the relation which is to subsist between us 
as one of mere sordid interest. You come to receive instruc- 
tion in an art which is to form the main business of your lives. 
We, who are to communicate this instruction, will therefore be 
associated, favourably or unfavourably, as the case may be, 
with your whole course of future thought. I, for one, cannot be 
indifferent to the character of this association. I cannot con- 
sent that unkind or disrespectful impressions of our intercourse 
should find a permanent place in your recollections. With such 
sentiments, how could I meet you with indifference? How could 
I hold out a finger to your grasp, and turn coldly to my allotted 
task? No, gentlemen—1 offer you frankly my whole hand; I 
welcome you cordially to our joint labours; and I can assure 
you, that the hope of your sympathy and co-operation renders 
cheering to me the prospect of duties which might otherwise 
be irksome. 
You are about to enter on a toilsome pursuit, and have ap- 
plied to our greater experience for aid and counsel. These it 
is our duty to afford you; and it becomes us to consider in what 
way they may be imparted most effectually for your good. It 
is not sufficient to lay before you the bare materials of know- 6 
ledge, to be connected and fashioned as your own taste and 
judgment may dictate. Nature, whether moral or physical, 
seldom presents her elements in an isolated state. She vari- 
ously combines them, arranges the results of her grand che- 
mistry in numberless shapes of use or ornament, invests each 
individual existence with infinitely diversified relations, and, by 
an invisible cord of union, binds all her vast materials, however 
apparently discordant, in one great and harmonious whole. 
Science is nothing more than the interpreter of nature. Each 
department of knowledge or of art is but one of the groups 
of her boundless dominion. Instruction, to be perfect, must 
be a copy of her works. The branches of study which are to 
engage your attention are all shoots of the same great trunk, 
and obedient to the same laws. In our endeavours, there- 
fore, to teach you, we should aim always at an approach to 
nature. We should present you writh the elements of knowledge; 
but we should also make you familiar, so far as our own short- 
sightedness can penetrate, with all their combinations and rela- 
tions having any bearing upon your pursuit. Such is the prin- 
ciple which will guide me in teaching Materia Medica. My 
intention is not only to introduce to your notice individual medi- 
cines; but also to treat of them in all their bearings—to give 
you a sketch at least of all those various courses of action and 
opinion in which they constitute essential objects. With these 
intentions, I cannot pass over unnoticed the abuses to which 
medicines are liable. 
It is the tendency of addiction to any one pursuit, to magnify 
its advantages, and, in an equal degree, to underrate its attend- 
ant evils. There is little danger that a teacher of Materia Me- 
dica will fail sufficiently to impress upon the student the import- 
ance of medicines; there may be some, that he will turn to his 
audience exclusively the bright side which he loves to contem- 
plate himself, and neglect to put them upon their guard against 
the perils to which they are exposed. I shall endeavour to avoid 
this error; and, though unwilling to damp your ardour by in- 
stilling unnecessary or fanciful apprehensions, shall not shrink 
from the duty of pointing out dangers, whenever I may myself 7 
be aware of their existence. Much that has relation to the 
misuse and abuse of medicines may be most advantageously 
reserved for the occasion when each medicine shall be indi- 
vidually considered; but I do not know that I can do better than 
avail myself of the present opportunity to offer some views of 
a general nature, which may possibly be found useful at the 
same time in guarding you against errors yourselves, and in 
enabling you to counteract, in some measure, the mischief re- 
sulting from the errors of others. In order to render the subject 
clearer and more impressive, I shall endeavour to arrange in a 
regular series the various sources of error in the employment 
of medicines, so far as I have been able to discover them, giving 
precedence to the least copious, and reserving for the close such 
as send forth their flood of evil most abundantly. 
Physicians, even though well instructed, particularly those 
young in the profession, are apt to attach undue importance to 
the influence of medicines, not sufficiently considering the cha- 
racter of the pathological condition, nor how impossible it often 
is to effect salutary changes in this condition by other means 
than the slow operations of nature. Administering a remedy 
in some complaint in which it may appear to be indicated, and 
not finding a degree of amendment equal to their impatience, 
they are tempted either to increase the dose too rapidly, and 
thereby incur the risk of seriously complicating the disease, or 
to resort prematurely to other really less eligible means. They 
are, moreover, under the constant inducement to prescribe me- 
dicines, where patience and the careful avoidance of perturbating 
agencies are all that is necessary to the cure; and there can be 
no doubt, that the thread of life has been often snapped by the 
officious hand of the physician, rashly thrust into the vital pro- 
cess, which required only time for a favourable issue. I believe, 
however, that this fountain of evil is daily diminishing under 
the brighter light which multiplied observation is pouring upon 
the field of pathological medicine. The age of heroic doses, 
like that of heroic deeds, is retreating before the march of sound 
reason and common sense. It is chiefly in the outskirts of the 
profession that the attempt is now made to take disease by 8 
storm. The number is comparatively few, who would choose 
to beat down defences by a shattering cannonade of calomel, 
which are ready to surrender on demand, or to yield uninjured 
to a gentle siege of starvation. Against the risk of a too fre- 
quent or too abundant recourse to medicines, there is no better 
safeguard than a diligent study of pathology in its present im- 
proved and improving condition; and this study I therefore urge 
upon you, with the caution, however, that you guard against 
its seductions, and remember that, though it is highly desirable 
to understand the nature of disease, it is still more so to be able 
to cure it. 
A disposition to employ medicines too profusely may some- 
times have its origin in another source. Over a large portion 
of our country, the physician supplies his patients with medicine 
as well as advice, and receives compensation for both. It thus 
becomes his interest, in a pecuniary point of view, to leave no 
opportunity for the insertion of a dose unimproved; and, though 
the great majority of practitioners are of a grade of morals 
above such an influence, it is yet not altogether unfelt, and pro- 
bably, in many instances, operates insensibly in giving a bias to 
the judgment. In England, where much of the medical practice 
is in the hands of the apothecaries, who until recently were 
allowed to charge only for medicines, and could demand no 
compensation for advice, the influence of this principle of self- 
interest over the consumption of drugs has been enormous. 
Imagine a case of disease, such as frequently occurs, requiring 
only a watchful guard against injurious influences; represent to 
yourselves the practitioner making his daily visit, and each 
time retiring with the consciousness that his services must re- 
main unrequited, unless he can find occasion for the employ- 
ment of medicine; is it in human nature to resist the tendency 
of such a position? Even where conscience is firm, will not the 
judgment almost inevitably yield to the constant solicitation of 
interest? Will not the almost certain result be the discovery of 
latent indications for some pill or potion, which, by going down 
the throat of the patient, may allow a fee to enter the pocket of 
his attendant? I have understood that it was formerly no un- 9 
Common practice with the apothecary in England, when 
sion was supposed to exist for some mild medicine, such, for 
example, as a dose of salts, to send it in half a dozen potions, to 
be taken at intervals, at the cost to the patient of one or two 
shillings for each dose. The system which led to such abuses 
was in the highest degree absurd, and, as I have been informed, 
has been so far modified as to allow the apothecary to make a 
charge for his advice; but the customs of prescribing to which 
it gave rise are still in existence; and the English continue to 
deserve the credit, which they have long enjoyed beyond all 
other nations of Europe, of being a drug consuming people* 
In consequence of this tendency to abuse, as well as for other 
very important reasons, it is highly desirable that the prescrip- 
tion and dispensing of medicines should be in different hands. 
In Philadelphia and some other of our larger towns, the sepa- 
ration has already been effected; and a movement towards the 
same result is observable in most parts of our country where 
the population is so distributed as to admit of it. I would strongly 
press on you the propriety of contributing your own efforts in 
forwarding this movement, when you shall have entered that 
practical career to which most of you are now looking forward. 
If the physician, in early life, is in danger of overvaluing 
medicines, and consequently of prescribing them too profusely, 
he is no less in danger, as he grows older in practice, of restrict- 
ing the number employed within too narrow limits. Disease 
often runs for a long time in particular channels, and requires 
particular courses of treatment. Medicines not calculated to 
answer the indications most frequently presented, are apt to 
escape the recollection of the practitioner, or leave but faint and 
ineffectual traces in his memory. He finds it irksome to main- 
tain by constant study a knowledge which is but of occasional 
application. The heavy armour with which he was loaded in 
the outset becomes fatiguing in the progress of his march, and 
finding portions of it of no use upon ordinary occasions, he in- 
dolently throws them away, and thus leaves himself destitute of 
the requisite means of offence against disease presenting itself 
in new and unexpected forms. He acquires a routine habit of 10 
prescribing certain medicines, which thus assume an undue 
prominence in his estimation, and present themselves on every 
occasion of emergency to the exclusion of others better adapted 
to the novel circumstances. A similar result frequently grows 
out of an indolent mental habit, which shuns on every occasion 
all labour of thought that is not absolutely essential. To con- 
sult, in the choice of medicines, the caprices of the palate or 
stomach, the prejudices of opinion, and the various contrarieties 
of a nervous or irritable temperament, though not unfrequently 
of great importance to the successful treatment of disease, re- 
quires an effort of memory and judgment which is too often 
avoided by practitioners not conscientiously alive to all the duties 
of their station. Numerous remedial substances, which may be 
considered as light troops to be employed in our skirmishes 
with disease, or as a reserve against sudden emergencies and 
peculiar danger, are thus entirely neglected, and become use- 
less in the conflict. You will agree with me in the opinion, that 
he who wishes to qualify himself best for the practical duties of 
our profession, should sedulously guard against these sources of 
error. For this purpose, he should not only as a student form 
an intimate acquaintance with the Materia Medica, but after- 
wards, on entering into practice, should resolutely determine to 
maintain and improve this acquaintance by a frequent reference 
to works upon the subject, even when no immediate call may 
exist for the practical application of the knowledge thus ac- 
quired. 
The influence of fashion and that of novelty are often felt in 
the use of medicines. A new remedy, or some new modification 
or application, or the simple revival of one before known, comes 
accidentally to the notice or suggests itself to the researches of 
an ardent practitioner, who is willing to believe what he hopes, 
and in his experimental investigations can see nothing but con- 
firmation of his belief. The world soon receives the benefit of 
his observations, which a sense of duty may have brought forth, 
but which lose none of their attractiveness in passing through 
the nursing hands of self-interest and love of distinction. The 
journals glow with the rapture of a new discovery. Excitable 11 
imaginations catch the sparks which scintillate from their pages, 
and kindle into enthusiasm. The flame spreads rapidly, till at 
length even sluggish natures are warmed into action; and the 
whole profession turns from its accustomed course to luxuriate 
in the new hopes which are opened before it. The medicine 
thus brought into vogue receives the stamp of fashion, which 
continues to give it general currency, till some other novelty is 
struck off, and by its bright freshness puts to shame the tarnished 
and worn out attractions of its predecessor. Thus, in the prac- 
tice of our profession, as in every thing else connected with the 
feelings and thoughts of men, one wave incessantly follows 
another; and the general welfare, instead of advancing smoothly 
upon an unruffled tide, is tossed about and retarded, and some- 
times almost w'recked in the surges of unstable opinion. It be- 
comes every practitioner to contribute all in his power towards 
a more equal and consistent progress. He should strengthen 
himself by the influence of judgment and discretion against the 
paroxysms of excitement to which we are all more or less ex- 
posed. Without absolutely rejecting every novelty which may 
float along the current of events, he should be careful not to 
endanger his balance by reaching out too far to seize it, and 
should never allow himself to be carried away by the flood of 
fashion from any well established and advantageous position. 
In this spirit, he should coolly examine the claims of alleged dis- 
coveries, trusting nothing to partial testimony, which in medi- 
cine is excessively deceptive, and having sifted out the truth 
by careful trial, should give it an appropriate place in his store- 
house of practical knowledge, without allowing it to disturb 
unnecessarily the general arrangement, or to displace any im- 
portant fact or principle from its due position. 
More injurious than either of the preceding sources of mis- 
chief, is the influence of false theory upon the employment of 
medicines. Almost from her birth, Materia Medica has been 
the sport of hypothesis. Tossed about from one medical creed 
to another, and sometimes almost torn asunder by the struggles 
of opposing parties, she has survived to the present time, to be 
still exposed to buffetings on the one hand and injudicious fond- 12 
ling on the other, from which all the efforts of sound judgment 
and common sense are requisite to save her unhurt. You may 
receive it as an indisputable truth, that any claim to your guid- 
ance in the use of medicines, founded upon an hypothesis as- 
suming to be of universal or even general application, is wholly 
groundless and futile. The facts of our science are yet far too 
limited to enable us to form a general theory of medicine upon 
the only true foundation—that of strict induction. IIow is it pos- 
sible for us to draw from our knowledge of the human system 
a doctrine explanatory of all its morbid actions, when we are 
almost wholly in the dark as to the nervous functions, and of 
the principle of life itself know scarcely more than its existence? 
We might as well attempt to form an accurate map of a country 
from our knowledge of a few of its prominent points, while ig- 
norant alike of its boundaries and its interior. Yet so pre- 
sumptuous is man, that he frequently undertakes the impossible 
task. With intellectual powers, which, in comparison with the 
object, are infinitely feeble, he strives to penetrate the secret 
counsels of Almighty wisdom. Like the giants of old, he heaps 
up his mountain upon mountain, and with audacious vanity 
hopes to seize upon heaven itself by violence. There is only one 
path to truth in science, and that is the straight but narrow and 
laborious path of observation and experience. It is true that 
false theories, if without practical bearing, may sometimes be 
useful as aids to the memory; but when they have relation to 
human life and happiness, they become engines of incalculable 
mischief. Systems of medicine, therefore, claiming to be uni- 
versal in tbeir scope, as they are necessarily false, must be of 
the most injurious practical influence, and, though often attrac- 
tive to the inexperienced by their apparent beauty and labour- 
saving promises, should be discarded as sweetened poisons 
poured into the very fountain of life. It is a most grateful re- 
flection, that the present tendency of the enlightened part of the 
profession is in an opposite direction. Medical men have at 
length begun to enter the Baconian path. It is now becoming 
the fashion to observe accurately and extensively, to collect 
facts abundantly, to sift these facts by a most rigid scrutiny, to 13 
compare them with the greatest care, and to draw no inference 
which is not so hedged round by various defences as to be al- 
most unassailable. Though this system has had numerous ad- 
vocates, no one has done more towards rendering it popular, 
and bringing it into extensive practical operation, than Mons. 
Louis, of Paris, whose works are models of scientific exploration 
applied to medicine, and whose pupils, both in France and this 
country, inspired by a zeal little inferior to his own, are labour- 
ing successfully in the same great cause. At present, therefore, 
we have, as a profession, less to fear from false theory than at 
any former period. 
It is true, that the Homceopathists or disciples of Hahnemann 
are said to be making considerable impression on the commu- 
nity, and some practitioners of that school are supposed to be 
reaping largely the fruits of public credulity; but the profession 
itself has not become contaminated, and none but a few of pe- 
culiarly excitable imaginations are ever likely to yield up their 
judgments to its monstrous absurdities. I feel that it is wholly 
unnecessary for me to guard you against a doctrine, which 
prescribes, for the cure of each particular disease, the medicine 
most closely imitative of the disease in its effects upon the sys- 
tem; and recognises the greatest curative efficiency in doses, 
no matter of what medicine, varying from the millionth to the 
decillionth of a grain. Luckily for the dupes of this imposture, 
the enormity of the first branch of the hypothesis is neutralized 
by the almost inconceivable folly of the second. Thus, upon 
the Homoeopathic doctrine, you ought to cure apoplexy by a 
blow upon the head; but the blow must be of no greater force 
than the millionth part of the weight of a feather: in other words, 
you do not kill your patient, because the means you employ are 
wholly inert. The fact is, that Homoeopathy is nothing more 
than a childish hallucination, which shakes its little fist at the 
giant of disease, and attributes die overthrow occasioned by the 
mighty hand of nature to its own Lilliputian blows. But, though 
it does little positive harm, it is the indirect cause of much evil 
by preventing positive good. It is desirable, therefore, that the 
community should be protected against its impositions; and it 14 
becomes the duty of the physician to do what lies in his power 
to disabuse those who may have been captivated by its pre- 
tensions. 
The only hold of Homoeopathy upon public favour is its ap- 
parent success. You may uncover its absurdities to the under- 
standing, and most persons of good sense will join with you in 
condemning it; but others will answer that they do not pretend 
to be capable of estimating medical theories, that they judge by 
the result, and that, in relation to the system in question, this is 
often favourable. Patients treated by the Homoeopathists get 
well; and sometimes they are asserted to have got well after 
the usual medical treatment had been fruitlessly exhausted. 
This is the strong hold of all irregular practice; and unless you 
can conquer it, argument and ridicule will equally fail to pro- 
duce an impression on the minds of many, whose imagination 
and capacity of belief are stronger than their judgment. Indeed, 
the minds of some persons are so constituted as to find attrac- 
tions in moral extravagance and absurdity; and, if they have 
the least apparent basis of fact to stand upon, will exhibit a faith 
equal to any possible emergency. In the absence, however, of 
even this slight footing, nothing short of insanity could with- 
stand the assault of reason and ridicule combined; and Homoeo- 
pathy must fall into immediate disgrace, if its claims to great 
practical success can be upset. 
It would be folly to deny that patients recover in the hands 
of the Homoeopathists; and I believe that a much larger propor- 
tion recover than under the treatment of irregular practitioners 
in general. Nay, I will go further and admit, that a disciple of 
Hahnemann may be more successful than a very ignorant and 
unskilful physician, even though the latter may take rank in the 
regular corps. But what is the real cause of this apparent suc- 
cess? I have too good an opinion of your common sense to 
suppose, that you can for a moment be disposed to ascribe it to 
the infinitesimal doses administered to the patient. Can any one 
of you possibly believe, that the decillionth of a grain of any 
medicine kept in the shops, a portion far too minute to be visible 
to the naked eye, and which the most powerfully magnifying 15 
microscope would be insufficient to detect, is capable of pro- 
ducing the slightest impression on the system? The truth is, 
that the success of the Homoeopathists is almost exclusively ne- 
gative. If their doses are too feeble to do good, they are equally 
incapable of doing harm, and the patient gets well in the natural 
progress of the complaint. The tendencies of the great ma- 
jority of diseases are towards health; and if no disturbing cause 
be allowed to interfere, they will sooner or later terminate in 
recovery. This fact cannot be too strongly impressed upon 
medical men, nor upon the community at large. It is a com- 
mon notion, that every complaint which ends favourably is 
cured by the means employed in its treatment. Physicians 
themselves often act as if they were under this impression, and, 
even when they know better, do not always take due pains to 
enlighten their patients on the subject. They are willing to reap 
the advantages of the credit ascribed to them, without duly 
considering, that by their acquiescence they are playing into 
the hands of irregular practitioners. If every case which gets 
well under the care of a physician is a cure, so is every case 
which terminates similarly in the management of a Homceo- 
pathist or a Thomsonian. Thus must the public reason; and 
as great efforts are made by every irregular aspirant to their 
favour to parade these cures before them, it is not at all sur- 
prising that they are frequently deceived, and yield their support 
where it is not deserved. Let people be taught the simple truth 
in relation to the natural progress of most diseases; let the phy- 
sician always be satisfied with the amount of credit really due 
to him, and take care that nature is not defrauded of hers; and 
it is scarcely doubtful that the common sense of the community 
will be able to estimate irregular pretensions at their real value. 
They, like ourselves, will see in the supposed cures of the Ho- 
mceopathist the real triumphs of nature, and in those of the more 
venturesome empiric, either the lucky blunders of ignorance, 
or the successful struggles of a good constitution alike against 
the disease and the medicine. Nor need we apprehend that they 
will not duly appreciate our own services. Though nature may 
cure most attacks of disease, yet there are many which are be- 16 
yond her unassisted powers; and there are still more in which 
her efforts may be materially assisted, and the amount of suf- 
fering to the patient vastly diminished by judicious medical 
interference. Let us rid ourselves of all false pretensions; let 
it be seen that we stand on the firm foundation of common 
sense, that our time and efforts have been directed to the search 
of truth, and that, having no interest distinct from that of the 
community, we can have no object in deceiving them; and 
there can be no doubt that we shall be consulted in disease, 
whenever there is pain to be relieved or supposed danger to be 
averted. 
But the apparent success of the Homceopathists is not ascrib- 
ablc, in all cases, to the natural progress of disease towards health. 
Much may also be attributed to the influence of new and strange 
processes upon the mind of the patient. In all purely nervous 
complaints, and in many others of a more complicated nature, 
the production of some profound impression on the feelings or 
imagination will often occasion a temporary if not a perfect 
cure. There is no difficulty in understanding this fact. The 
brain, which is the centre of all sensation, is also the seat of 
the intellect and passions. If the latter principles are excited 
into powerful action, the brain is necessarily affected; and we 
can easily conceive that it may be rendered incapable, by the 
new condition in which it is placed, of perceiving those derange- 
ments which before occasioned pain or gave rise to some irre- 
gular action. They who have suffered with toothach well know 
how often the pain entirely vanishes under the immediate ex- 
pectation of the interference of the dentist. When the complaint 
is a mere functional derangement, a permanent cure may often 
be effected by a repetition of impressions producing a continued 
revulsion to the brain. Now, with the Homceopathists, as with 
others of the same group of practitioners, it is customary to 
employ measures calculated to make a strong impression on 
patients of an excitable temperament. Their close examination 
into the condition of every function and every organ; their nu- 
merous inquiries as to the past history, sentiments, passions, and 
habits of the patient; the commission, in many instances, of all 17 
the information thus derived to paper, in order that it may be 
scrupulously examined; and then the solemn earnestness with 
which they advise the very careful smelling of an empty bottle, 
or prescribe one of their almost preternaturally small doses; all 
this excites and occupies the attention, calls the passions and 
imagination into play, and involves the mind in a kind of won- 
dering awe, admirably calculated to revolutionize the condition 
of the nervous system. That real cures are sometimes thus 
effected, and temporary alleviations still more frequently, can- 
not be doubted; but means of a similar tendency have produced 
the same results in all times and countries; and Homoeopathy, 
in this respect, may rank with the touch of a dead man’s hand, 
the pow-wowing of the Indian doctor, and the more refined 
charlatanry of animal magnetism. 
Still another cause of the occasional triumphs of the Homceo- 
pathist is the remaining influence of previous regular treatment. 
The remedies employed before the commencement of his attend- 
ance sometimes continue their favourable operation, or begin to 
operate, after the patient has fallen into his hands; and the cre- 
dit thus accrues to him which belongs properly to another. An 
instance has been related to me, in which a patient with ame- 
norrhcea, who had been for some time under regular treatment 
without apparent advantage, resorted to the advice of a Ho- 
moeopathist, and in less than twenty-four hours was gratified by 
a restoration of the suspended function; but the credit which 
the new attendant might have derived from this accident was 
prevented by an unfortunate declaration which he had made, on 
his first visit, that no good could be expected until the remedies 
of his predecessor should have been removed from the system, 
and that for two weeks at least his efforts would be directed to 
that end exclusively. 
Upon all these points it is important that the public should 
be enlightened. Let them understand the true ground of those 
successes which are so diligently paraded before them, and their 
understandings, extricated from the web of false inference in 
which they had been entangled, will judge correctly of the rela- 
tive value of pretensions to their approval and support. They 18 
will recognise, in the elaborate preliminary examination of the 
Homoeopathic physician, the mountain in labour, and in his infi- 
nitesimal doses, the ridiculous mouse. The whole system, which, 
viewed through the distorting medium of false assertion, seemed 
to be a real though mysterious and wonderful fabric, will to their 
unperverted vision appear what it actually is, the phantasm of 
an excited imaginations mere intellectual illusion, better adapted 
to the sphere of a lunatic asylum than to the purposes of com- 
mon life. 
The last and most prolific source of the abuse of medicines is 
the ignorance of those who undertake to employ them. Even 
within the limits of what is usually considered the regular pro- 
fession, there is unfortunately much presumptuous incompetence. 
The best informed physicians often have occasion to regret the 
inadequacy of their knowledge; how woful, then, must be the 
blunders of those who enter into the practice of medicine almost 
without preparation, who have merely gone through the ini- 
tiatory forms requisite for admission into our ranks, with as 
little previous expenditure as possible of time and study. The 
number, however, of badly instructed or wholly uninstructed 
physicians in this country is an evil incident to its comparative 
youth, and is daily diminishing with its increasing age. The 
establishment of medical schools, at various remote points, has 
tended to elevate the standard of attainment, by bringing instruc- 
tion within the reach of many who would otherwise have been 
content without it. The leaven of improvement has entered the 
profession, and will not cease to work till the whole mass is 
leavened. The time, I have little doubt, will come, when no 
one will undertake the practice of medicine without having 
availed himself of the advantages of the schools; and a degree 
will be as necessary a prerequisite in all parts of the country 
as it now is in our larger cities. The question will then be in 
medicine, as it must be in every thing connected with humanity, 
not between skill and utter incompetency, but between different 
degrees of knowledge; and the lowest grade will still be far 
above that of absolute ignorance. 
But it is in quackery that the source of abuse of which we 19 
are now speaking exhibits its most deleterious influence. This 
is an evil to which, in some one of its various forms, every na- 
tion, however well guarded by laws, is in a greater or less de- 
gree exposed; but in a country like ours, where liberty is almost 
riotous, and individual will is constantly pressing upon the pub- 
lic good, it is scarcely possible to fix restraints upon a practice 
which appeals so strongly to the hopes and fears of the ignorant 
multitude. As in our spiritual affairs, each claims the right of 
walking in his own path, his own interest only being concerned; 
so, in the care of our bodily health, we are unwilling to relinquish 
a similar privilege, even though, in the opinion of those best 
informed, our course may lead to destruction. Hence empi- 
ricism broods almost undisturbed, and her venomous offspring 
swarm in every corner of the land. It is not my intention to 
describe the various forms of her evil progeny. Even were the 
object worthy of the labour, time is not allowed me to enter 
into the disgusting detail; and I am entirely confident that not 
one of my auditors needs any warning to keep his own skirts 
clear from the contamination. The relation which every high 
principled medical man must bear to quackery is that of un- 
compromising hostility; and the considerations in regard to it 
which have the most interest for him are such as concern the 
defence of the public against its seductions. A few general ob- 
servations on this point, which, if time permitted, might be 
greatly extended, will close the present lecture. 
One of the most efficient means of successfully combating em- 
piricism, is to elevate the standard of attainment in the medical 
profession. Where this is low, it is not easy for the public to dis- 
tinguish between the pretensions of the regular and those of the 
irregular practitioner. Quackery triumphs when she sees herself 
reflected in the practice of physicians. Let the student leave no 
opportunity unimproved of qualifying himself for the discharge of 
his future duties; let the practitioner, so far from being content 
with the attainments of his youth, cherish studious habits, and aim 
at constantly increasing knowledge and skill; let all who have at 
heart the honour of the profession, encourage those only to enter 
it who are suitably gifted with talent and industry, and urge 20 
upon these the importance of ample preparation; and we shall 
soon establish so strong a line of distinction between regular 
practice and empiricism, that the dullest eye will scarcely fail 
to recognise it, and the dullest intellect to perceive on which 
side of it will be the greatest security. 
But above all other things, it is important that the physician 
should not in any way countenance quackery, or encourage it 
even in its least pretending forms. If, from facility of disposition, 
distrust of our own qualifications, interested views, or from any 
other cause, we afford the slightest opening for the insertion of 
its roots, it is sure to fix its parasitic growth upon us, and to 
flourish at our expense. Touch not, taste not, handle not—should 
be our motto in relation to this great evil. Is a secret remedy 
offered for our trial or approval?—we should firmly decline the 
insulting offer, and let it be clearly understood that we recog- 
nise no secrets in medicine. Does a patient ask our permission 
for the use of some nostrum whose character is unknown to us? 
—we should resolutely resist the solicitation, and yield up the 
case altogether rather than retreat from our position. It is not 
the mischief which might result in any particular instance that 
should influence us, so much as the danger of sanctioning a de- 
leterious principle. Should we incautiously recognise the effi- 
cacy of some empirical remedy in a single case, our stamp will 
be immediately placed upon it, and, in spite of subsequent re- 
monstrances, it will be made to pass current for whatever value 
its unprincipled circulator may find his interest in attaching to 
it. Should one of these nostrums be employed under our ob- 
servation, and the patient recover in spite of it, the cure will be 
ascribed to the medicine, and serve as the foundation of its less 
innocent use in other cases of supposed analogous character. 
There is no end to the mischief which may thus grow out 
of an inconsiderate act on the part of an influential physician. 
But if prohibited from giving our sanction, in the remotest de- 
gree, to the empiricism of others, how careful should we be to 
keep our own hands clean ! To put forth a secret remedy our- 
selves, or to permit our name to be attached to such a remedy, 
is to afford the strongest possible support of example to the 21 
cause of quackery. There are other practices which, though 
not strictly empirical in themselves, have acquired a suspicious 
character from association, and should therefore be carefully 
eschewed by the physician. To bring our successes or supposed 
successes in every possible way before the public, to support 
our own doubtful statements by the auxiliary certificates of 
volunteer or recruited witnesses, to proclaim our superiority 
over our fellow practitioners in some branch of the healing art 
to which we wish to have it believed that we have devoted par- 
ticular attention—these and other analogous modes of proceed- 
ing are so often put in practice by notorious quacks, that the 
physician who resorts to them cannot escape the imputation of 
countenancing these impostors, and must be content, while he 
aids their cause with the public, to take rank with them in the 
thoughts of his professional brethren. 
It is not by openly attacking empiricism before the public, 
that we can hope to overthrow it. Our arguments make little 
impression, as they are supposed to proceed from interest; and 
the sympathies of the multitude are drawn to the party assaulted 
by the cry of persecution. The privilege of reply is, moreover, 
made available for the purpose of puffing; the attention of the 
public is roused by the controversy; and great numbers become 
familiar with the wonders of the panacea, who might otherwise 
have never heard of its existence. Besides, in disputes of this 
kind, the party which has most self-respect is usually in the most 
disadvantageous position; as they feel under restraints in relation 
to the truth of assertion and the proprieties of language which 
are scorned by their opponents. The profession scarcely com- 
mits a greater error in originally yielding countenance to empi- 
rical pretensions, than in subsequently assaulting these preten- 
sions through the public press. The flame which might have 
expired without the first favouring breath, is increased into a 
conflagration by the blast intended to extinguish it. All that 
we can do with advantage is to bring occasionally before the 
public the adverse incidents in which empirical practice is ex- 
ceedingly fruitful, and placing them in their true light, without 22 
attempt at false colouring or exaggeration, to leave them to their 
legitimate operation upon the common sense of the community. 
But the same caution is not necessary in our private com- 
munications. Every physician has a certain circle within which 
he moves, and in which his professional opinions, duly expressed, 
cannot but have considerable weight. As circles of this kind 
make up, in the aggregate, almost the whole community, it fol- 
lows, that medical men, acting in unison, must have it in their 
power to produce a strong impression upon public sentiment in 
relation to all the concerns of health. Let us reason in the fol- 
lowing manner with our friends and patients.—You will admit 
that in any common art, they only are to be trusted who have 
made this art the object of especial culture. You would not go 
to a painter for instruction in music, nor to a musician for your 
portrait. In what does the art of medicine, in this respect, dif- 
fer from others? Who are most to be trusted, they who have 
endeavoured to make themselves acquainted by laborious study 
with all that has been learned in relation to disease and its treat- 
ment, or they whose only title to notice consists in their own 
assertions ? Is not some knowledge of the human system, in its 
healthy state, requisite for those who attempt to remedy its de- 
rangements? and yet what empiric will you find impudent 
enough to claim an acquaintance with anatomy? If these men 
have the skill they profess to have, it must have come by inspi- 
ration. Are they usually such in their lives and characters as 
to render it probable that they would be selected as recipients 
of so high a favour ? Empirical medicines are often proclaimed 
to be infallible, and especially in diseases commonly deemed in- 
curable. How does it happen, that the stigma of incurability 
still adheres to these diseases, notwithstanding the facility of re- 
sort to the remedy afforded by the philanthropy of its discoverer? 
The very essence of quackery is the ascription to particular 
medicines of a sovereign power over particular maladies. Now, 
no disease is the same under all circumstances. It differs in its 
degree of violence, in its stages, in the constitution of the patient, 
in its complication with other affections; so that the medicine 
which may prove remedial at one time, may act as a poison 23 
at another; and substances possessed of any power whatever 
can never be empirically employed without risk of mischief. 
Besides, admitting for a moment the applicability of a particular 
medicine to the same disease under all circumstances, how is a 
correct decision to be obtained in relation to the disease itself? 
The most experienced physicians often find great difficulty in 
ascertaining the precise character of cases which come under 
their notice: will not a person wholly uninformed be almost sure 
to err, and thus to use the medicine even where it may not be 
intended ? The aid of the regular practitioner cannot be sought 
for in forming the diagnosis, while the treatment is confided to 
the empiric. He knows too well what is due to himself, to the 
profession, and to the patient, to countenance in any way such 
vile impositions. It is true that quack remedies do not always 
destroy the patient; but should they therefore obtain the credit 
of the cure ? If I knock a sick man down with a club, and na- 
ture is still powerful enough to restore him, is the result ascri- 
bable to the blow ? The medicine may even accidentally do 
good. So will any drug on the shelves of the apothecary, if 
employed in all cases of disease. If every man who is unwell 
should take a dose of calomel, benefit would result in some in- 
stances ; but is that a sufficient reason for the indiscriminate use 
of calomel ? The cures, therefore, so abundantly paraded by 
the empiric, are false colours, stolen from nature or accident, 
and intended as lures to draw victims within his reach. The 
mischief which he does is left to the discovery of others, and is 
often concealed by the grave. 
These considerations, and many others which will readily 
suggest themselves to the physician, may be urged upon the 
good sense of those with whom he is socially or professionally 
connected, and will not be thrown away. Under such a course 
of proceeding, systematically and generally pursued, quackery 
would soon find itself excluded from the respectable walks of 
life. To eradicate the evil entirely will never be in our power. 
Its affinity for ignorance and folly is too strong to be overcome 
by any available force; and until human nature is regenerated, 
ignorance and folly will not become extinct. 24 
I have thus endeavoured to conduct you through the round 
of abuses to which medicines are liable. There may be some 
which have escaped my attention, and much more might be 
said on many points which I have been compelled to touch upon 
but lightly. You have, however, heard enough to satisfy you 
of the importance of attending to the subject. My design has 
been to point out the means not only of properly regulating your 
own habits of prescription, but also of correcting, so far as the 
circumstances of the several cases will admit of correction, 
those numerous abuses on the part of irregular and empirical 
practitioners to which the public is exposed. In the Course 
which is about to commence, I shall have abundant opportuni- 
ties of satisfying you, that medicines, properly employed, are 
of indispensable necessity to the best management of disease; 
and I apprehend, therefore, little danger, from the somewhat 
gloomy picture presented to you, of any permanently injurious 
impressions on your minds in relation to the value of the 
Materia Medica.