A\889o 1845 "•IIW!-,..;!ll«|!':'lli!"'!!!,ll

iiiuiiitiiiiiiillliuiiil|llijijiiii| I/,.....••••^'•iiil-fri!«!!ifi!!p|||j)|f m; ■' *t liiill..lM;y..tl,iHli' .iiiiil « A CONCISE EXPOSITION OF THE ABSURDITY OF THE OLD-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF PRACTICE IN MEDICINE; CONTAINING AN EPITOME OF THE REGULAR PRACTICE, WITH THE CHARACTER OF THE MOST IMPORTANT REMEDIES EMPLOYED; WITH A COMPLETE COMPENDIUM OF EBERLE'S MEDICAL PRACTICE, PREPARED WITH GREAT LABOR AND CARE; AND THE DENUNCIATIONS OF THE ALLOPATHIC PRACTICE, BY THE MOST POPULAR AUTHORS. ALSO, A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THE ALLOPATHIC AND BOTANIC OR THOMSONIAN SYS- TEMS OF PRACTICE, SHOWING THEIR COMPARATIVE MERITS ; WITH AN ADDRESS TO THE REFORMED OR NEW-SCHOOL PRACTITIONERS. BY BRYANT MORTON, M. D. PORTLAND: PRINTED BY THURSTON & COMPANY. 1848. V Entered according to Act of Congress, in the Year 1848, BY BRYANT MORTON, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Maine. Stereotyped by THURSTON & CO., Portland. i r TO THE PUBLIC. The slur, "Quack! Quackery! Ignorance!" &x., from the Allopathists and their friends, has prompted me to investigate more thoroughly the most popular works on the Allopathic System, and see where all the ignorance, quackery and absurdities belong. And I find their most ac- credited authors a perfect chaos, strewed with disjointed material; and their System to be based upon a false and rotten foundation. I think the public ought to be made acquaint- ed with these facts; and that the best way to effect this is to have them arranged and brought into a small work, and published in a cheap form, so that it may be sold, or given away to those who-will not buy. I do not condemn the motives or intentions of any one of that Profession ; for many of them are noble, high-minded men, who would do any thing—make any sacrifice—ride by night or IV day, through wet or cold— to relieve suffering humanity. I wish only to show that their prac- tice is based upon a false principle — namely, to create another disease in order to cure that which exists; a practice which frequently results in producing a worse disease, and in sowing the seeds of misery and death. Do NOT CONDEMN ME UNTIL YOU HAVE READ ME THROUGH. introduction; CONTAINING AN EPITOME OF THE REGULAR PRACTICE, WITH THE CHARACTER OF THE MOST IMPORTANT REMEDIES EMPLOYED. In the introduction to the American Gentlemen's Medical Pocket Book, prepared by high authority in the city of Philadelphia, we are told that, " All diseases might with great propriety, be arranged under three heads, viz: 1. Inflammatory Diseases, or those attended by increased action, as shown by a quick, full, hard or strong pulse, great thirst and heat, white or red tongue — flushed face, blood-shot eyes, &c, &c. 2. Diseases of Debility, accompanied and marked by a small, soft, feeble, slow or intermitting pulse — a shining, white or dark tongue — languor and weakness — cold, clammy, or burn- ing skin, and an internal sense of sinking. 3. Diseases of increased or diminished action, producing partic- ular effects, and requiring particular remedies." The above, it is said," give rise to the (following) great leading principles or rules which should govern us in the management of all diseases." " Rule 1. In every complaint, whatever it may be called, if you find the pulse quick, hard, full and strong — the head ache, tongue foul, skin hot, or those marks which denote it of an in- flammatory nature ; remembei-the plan is to reduce it by bleeding, purging, [abominable! ] low diet, drinking plentifully of cold water and lemonade, rest, &c. [Good practice.] 6 RULES OF THE REGULAR PRACTICE. Rule 2. If on the contrary, the pulse be small, soft, feeble and intermitting, the tongue dark, and great debility or weakness is evident, reverse the whole plan ; the diet must be generous and nourishing, the bowels opened with gentle laxatives, and tht; strength supported by bark, sulphate of quinine, wine and tonics of various kinds. [Good principle, but bad practice.] Rule 3. If in addition to those symptoms mentioned in the second Rule, the tongue be covered with a black coat, foul and dark-looking sores form about the gums and inside of the cheeks, the breath be offensive, &c, the same class of remedies is to be vigorously employed, with a free use of acids and other antisep- tic articles. [Mixture of good and evil.] Rule 4. Severe local pains, as in the head, side, &c, require the use of the lancet and purging, and blisters to the part. [Abominable!] Rule 5. Incessant and earnest entreaties by the sick, for any particular article of diet, if steadily persevered in, may be safely indulged, whether the use of it agrees or not with our precon- ceived ideas on'the subject. [This is an excellent rule.] Rule 6. In all fevers where the pulse is full, quick and strong, the skin burns to the touch, and there is no perspiration, dash cold water over the head and shoulders of the patient; wipe him dry, and put him to bed. [Not a bad plan if skillfully done.] If, in consequence of this, a chill be experienced, and the pulse sink, give warm wine, &c, and omit the water for the future. Should a pleasant glow over the whole frame follow the affusion and the patient feel relieved by it, repeat it as often as it may be necessary. [Empiricism.] Rule 7. Observe carefully the effects of various articles of food as well as physic, upon your own body, and choose that which experience proves to agree best with you. It is a vulgar but true saying, that what is one's meat is another's poison [Good.] F Rule 8. Keep the sick room always well ventilated. Plenty of fresh ah- is an important remedial agent in all diseases. [Good.] REMEDIES EMPLOYED. 7 REMEDLES EMPLOYED, AND THEIR USE. BLEEDING is used to relieve arterial action in fevers —to prevent or reduce local inflammations — to relax the system in spasms,and for the luxation of bones—to prevent metastasis to internal organs, [which it directly favors, EberW] — to prevent and subdue hemorrhage — to cure vertigo!—to prevent or reduce plethora—to aid in parturition! &c, in all which cases, it directly "reduces the vitality of the system," by taking away a vital fluid, by depriving the body of its nourishment, and of its power to expand the vascular system, and to stimulate the whole to a healthy action, and by destroying forever afterward the equilibrium of the circulation, — thus producing cold feet and hands, a pale and blue surface, palpitation at the heart, exhaustion of breath, head-ache, weakness of the loinsj knees and ankles, dropsy, and often insanity, &c, &c. Leeching and cupping aid bleeding, but are not so mischievous, as they are "indicat- ed " only to remove the extravasated or congested blood from an injured or inflamed part. BLISTERS are used to remove inflammation from an internal organ to the surface—to cause vital action in low grades of fever, and to relieve strangury, which they generally produce. CANTHARIDES is used internally to promote diure- sis, and to remove spinal irritation and insanity. In either way they produce strangury and favor mortifica- tion. OPIUM and other narcotics are used to subdue nervous excitement—to relieve irritability—to lull pain— 8 REMEDIES EMPLOYED to promote sleep; all which they do by destroying nervous sensibility. "MERCURY" (in the form of CALOMEL, Blue Pills, Corrosive.Sublimate, $c. frc.) "is used in almost all diseases, too often empirically, without the guidance of any recognized therapeutic principle," (U. S. JDisp., p. 361)—for physic—to promote salivation—to stimulate the liver — to " regulate all the secretions "(Prof. Harrison) — to " substitute its own peculiar action for that of the dis- ease." (Disp.) (The diseases it produces are worse than those it cures, Prof. Muse.) In all which cases, it proves itself to be an article in its nature inimical to the human constitution, which, instead of conveying health to the weak and enervated, is made to scatter wide the seeds of disease of the worst kind, in every age and condition, and cause its victims to "groan under the miseries of its protracted action," (Prof. Graham) " making a plenty of business for the administration" (Prof. Chapman) " till death, in a few years, with a friendly stroke, puts a period to their sufferings!" (Dr. Good.) An active course of mercury is " a barbarous practice, the inconsis- tency, folly and injury of which no words can sufficiently describe." (Prof. Graham.) " It is quackery — unwar- rantable, murderous quackery." (Prof. Chapman, of the University of Pennsylvania, the greatest Medical School in America.) ANTIMONY, TARTAR EMETIC, is given to act as a sedative of the circulation—to relax the system—to promote the secretions, [quite useless where calomel can be had !] purgation, emesis, &c. —aids the lancet in produc- ing relaxation, relieving internal inflammations, and both in the regular practice. 9 internally and in plasters as a counter irritant, in which case it often " produces painful, deep seated ulcerations, difficult to heal." (Dispensatory.) " If given too freely, burning pain in the stomach, colic, frequent stools, faint- ing, contracted and accelerated pulse, cold skin, difficult respiration, loss of sense, convulsive movements, very pain- ful cramps in the legs, prostration and death." (U. S. Disp. page 797.) ARSENIC is used to cure the agues, chorea, or St. Vitus's dance, periodical headache, cutaneous eruptions, and " foul ulcers produced by mercury." (Disp. page 821.) An over-dose given internally, or applied exter- nally, acts with very great energy, and generally destroys Ufe in a very short time. (Disp. p. 20.) " Destroys the vitality of the organized structure." (Disp. p. 21.) QUININE is used between the paroxysms to subdue the chills in intermittents. It produces nausea and oppression in the head, giddiness, &c. "Its high price has led to various attempts at adulteration. Sulphate*of lime, sugar, monnite, starch and stearin, are among the substances which have been fraudulently added." (Disp. pp 10, 31.) " The dose varies exceedingly, according to the circumstances of the patient and the object to accom- plish. " (lb. 10,32.) LEAD, Sub-Acetate or Sugar of, is used internally to prevent or stop hemorrhage — to quiet nervous excitement — to subdue inflammation arising from sprams, bruises, blisters, &c, and to check salivations produced by mer- Its natural tendency is to check vitality and pro cury 10 REMARKS. duce paralysis, which very often follows its use. See Colica Pictonum, page 43. PHYSIC. This is composed of various articles, many of which are enumerated above ; but a free use of even the most innocent of them is objectionable, as it invites the action inward, checks perspiration, debilitates the stomach and bowels, impedes digestion, and, of course, every healthy operation. Enemas are far better, and almost always sufficient. REMARKS. Though when the Mineralites have a " hard case " that will not get well in spite of their regular, systematic course of bleeding, blistering, physicking, poisoning, freezing and starving, they " quack" upon him with " all manner of poisons," and even venture sometimes to give him valu- able remedies, as capsicum, lobelia, &c, (see in table hereafter)—yet it is true, that they seldom use more than five to twenty articles of their Materia Medica. Thus, in 134 forms of disease enumerated by Eberle, he rec- ommends mercury in 105, (for salivation 27) [forgot to "regulate the secretions" in 32!—perhaps they were local injuries where the secretions were not deranged] bleeding in 107, physic in 87, opium in 83, blisters in 78, antimony in 76, leeching in 71, warm bath [excellent] in 57, emetics (antimony, ipecac, copper or zinc) in 46, ammonia in 41, quinine in 23, capsicum in 15, effervescing draughts in 10, arsenic in 8, diet and exercise alone in 1. But the chart hereafter gives every curative means he recommends, in the order in which he directs it. We give an analysis of his work, not because of its cereal REMARKS. 11 superiority over others, but because it is the produc- tion of a man who was an honored and influential teacher in Philadelphia, Cincinnati and Lexington, Ky., and this work is " good authority" all over the United States; and because we think it will do good execution against the " unwarrantable, murderous quackery" that pervades the land, and redeem our character from the charge of Prof. Harrison, that we (the Thomsonians) are doing " nothing to enlighten the people." We hope he will join us, and spend a part of his fat salary in spread- ing this work, or something similar, before the " deluded steamers" and the gulled community. The Mineral Doctors accuse us of " curing all diseases with lobelia, pepper and steam;" these they call our " one remedy." Admit bleeding, calomel and opium to be their " one remedy," and the following table will show that they cure (?) or rather doctor, as many diseases with their one remedy as we do with ours. The letters B. M. 0., &c, will show the most of the cases in which blood-let- ting, mercury and opium are used, but not all, for some are to be leeched or cupped, that are not to be bled; many to have blue pills and other forms of mercury un- der the names of physic, alteratives, liniment, &c, that are to have no calomel; and not a few must have mor- phine, laudanum, paregoric, anodynes, carminatives, &c, that are to have no " opium." (See Styrax Pills, U. S. Disp., 4th Edition, page 994.) 12 COMPENDIUM of REMEDIES RECOMMENDED BY DR. EBERLE,* IN THE TREATMENT OF DISEASE. ONE REMEDY. B. C. 0. B. C*. 0. GENERAL FEVER. 1. Intermitting Fever. Cause — Koino, or marsh miasmata. Symptoms — Inflammation, congestion, gas- tric irritation, putrescence, chills and lassitude. Treatment — Emetics, opium, blood-letting, nitre, camphor, sulphuric ether, magnesia, calomel and jalap, cinchona, quinine, potash, cloves, leeches, blisters, arsenic, sulphate of zinc, black pepper, salivation. 2. Remitting Fever. Cause— The same as former. Symptoms—Languor, drowsiness, anxiety, aching pains in the back, head and extrem- ities. Treatment — Blood-letting, cathartics, calo- mel and jalap, ipecac, nitre, salivation, epsom salts, castor oil, magnesia, opium, antimony, ammonia, cold water, leeches, blisters, balsam copaiva, sinapisms, warm bath, enemas, lemon- ade, quinine, gentian, serpentaria. •In this arrangement, our first object was, to present only the practice of medicine as exhibited by Dr. Eberle. But after finding there would be some htF^t7h?M0ne,RTedy'uB'C-,aor B-M.O,W« not recommend™ by Eberle, the idea struck us, that, if we were to take from other authors equally eminent, as Dr Dewees, Dunglison, Drake, Gross, Wilkin! Hosac™ Thacher, &c. we might fill up nearly every case with the B. CO In a &?st„anc|rsthls ^s been done; and the small capital letter D stands for Dunglison &c ands with E stands for salivations recommended by Dr Eberle In Eberle's Notes, we found Bleeding. Mercury andOpium Scorn: »^ ^KCaSeSWher?1Vva8 omitted' and even objected to inThe other Work. These are marked x. Those with a star eomi from other authors bberle's medical practice. 18 rfmihw ^' Yello^v Fever. Cause — Idio miasmata. Symptoms — Giddiness, pain in the back, loins and extremities, slight creeping chills, and nausea. B. Cs. 0. Treatment — Blood-letting, calomel, saliva- tion, enemata, epsom salts, sponge with cold water, leeches, blisters, aperients, diaphoretics, quinine, wine, ammonia. 4. Synocha,or simple continued. Cause — Cold, high solar heat, &c. Symptoms—Hardness, quickness and ten- sion of the pulse. B. C. 0. Treatment—Blood-letting, purgatives, soda, magnesia, antimony, jalap, cream of tartar, calomel, diaphoretics, nitre, James' powder, digitalis, salivation, ipecac, sponging with cold water, blisters, cupping, leeching, enemata. £. Synochus Fever. Cause —The same as the latter. Symptoms — Pulse active, full, frequent and compressible. B. C. 0. Treatment—Same as Synocha, throughout. 6. Typhus Fever. Cause — Idio miasmata, contagious. Symptoms — Want of appetite, giddiness, nausea, pale, shrunken and dejected counte- nance, tremors, weariness. B. Cs. 0. Treatment—Emetics, ipecac, calomel, gentle purgatives, castor oil, enemata, epsom salts, 14 COMPENDIUM of ONE REMEDY. B.Cn.On. B.C.Od. B*.M. 0. croton oil, salivation, blood-letting, affusion of cold water, diaphoretics, laudanum, nitre, wine, ammonia, camphor, opium, quinine, blisters, capsicum, serpentaria, camomile. FEVER CONNECTED WITH OR PRODUCED BY INFLAMMATION. 7. Glossitis, Inflammation of the Tongue. Cause — Cold, bruises, wounds, &c. Symptoms — Tongue hot, dry, red, and swollen. Treatment—Blood-letting, leeches, scari- fying, incisions with scalpel, laxative enemata, blisters on the back of the neck. 8. Tonsilitis, Quinsy. Cause — Cold, fumes of arsenic, mercury. Symptoms — Slight chills, high grade of febrile reaction, an uneasy feeling in the face, painful deglutition. Treatment — Blood-letting, scarifying the tonsils, cupping, an active purge, mild aperients, calomel, enemata, nitre, antimony, ammonia, liquorice, blisters, spirits of turpentine, emol- lient poultice. 9. Parotitis, Mumps. Cause — Contagious. Symptoms — Slight febrile symptoms, stiff ness of the jaws, swelling and pain in both of the parotid glands. Treatment — Keep the bowels open, diaph- oretics, blisters, mercurial ointment, camphor, rubefacient liniments. eberle'S MEDICAL practice. 15 ONE REMEDY. B. C. 0. L. C. 0. B. C. 0. 10. Acute Gastritis. Cause — Irritating substances, cold water, &c Symptoms—Indigestion, acidity, flatulence, oppression after eating, eructations, slight pains in the stomach. , Treatment—Bleeding, leeches, blisters, mer- curial ointment, mucilaginous drinks, vegeta- ble acids, laxative enemata, opium, calomel. 11. Chronic Gastritis. Cause—Protracted irritation, alcohol, &c. Symptoms—The same as acute throughout. Treatment — Leeching or cupping, blisters, tartar emetic ointment, sulphate of iron, hyos- cyamus, morphia, nitrate of silver, borax, Do- ver's powders, balsam copaiva, sirup of poppies, purgative enemata. 12. Peritoneal Enteritis. Cause — Spasm, injuries, hernia, drastic purgatives. Symptoms — Uneasiness in the abdomen, terminating in a fixed aching pain in the umbil- ical region. Treatment — Blood-letting, purgatives, laxa- tive enema, calomel, castor oil, opium, spirits turpentine, blisters, emollient poultice, digitalis, wine. 13. Dysentery. Cause —Cold, koino or marsh miasmata. Symptoms — Lassitude, want of appetite, de- pressed pulse, slight chills, flushes of heat, thirst, dry skin, griping. 16 t COMPENDIUM of ONE REMEDY. B. Cs. 0. Treatment — Bleeding, purgatives, castor oil, calomel, laudanum, emetics, ipecac, dia- phoretics, salivation, mucilaginous liquids, nitrous acid, sugar of lead, leeches, blisters, emollient poultices, balsam copaiva, turpentine, enemata, dogwood bark, diet, rice, barley. 14. Chronic Enteritis. Cause—Indigest- ible food, cold, drastic purgatives. Symptoms — Languor, weakness of the mus- cular system, pulse small, weak and sharp, or corded. Treatment — Proper diet, castor oil, lauda- num, leeches, blisters, tartar emetic ointment, calomel, balsam copaiva, spirits turpentine, sulphate of iron, nitrate of silver, hyoscyamus, elm bark. 15. Acute Peritonitis. Cause—Injuries, cold, parturition, contagion. Symptoms--Lassitude, pain in the limbs, creeping chills, flushes of heat, headache, uneasiness in the epigastrium. Treatment — Blood-letting, leeches, emol- lient poultices, active cathartics, castor oil, spirits turpentine, calomel, jalap, cremor tar- tar, blisters, leeches, salivation, opium, digitalis, wine. Cold, 16. Chronic Peritonitis. Cause injuries, &c, the same as the former. Symptoms — Uneasiness and tenderness in EBERLE'S MEDICAL PRACTICE. 17 ONE REMEDY L. M. 0. B.Ms.O B.Ms. B. M. 0. the abdomen, soreness in the umbilical region, pain not acute. Treatment — Leeching, blisters, mercurial ointment, tartar emetic ointment, emollient poultices, warm bath, castor oil or cremor tar- tar, Dover's powders. 17. Acute Hepatitis. Cause — Miasmata, cold, errors in diet. Symptoms—Tightness across the abdomen, difficult respiration, pain in the clavicle and shoulder of the right side. Treatment — Blood-letting, mercury, castor oil, leeches, salivation, blisters, antimony, opi- um, nitre, warm bath, nitro-muriatic acid, cicuta, tonic bitters, nitric acid, extract of conium. 18. Chronic Hepatitis. Cause —Marsh miasmata, (Mercury, d.) Symptoms — Irregular appetite, impaired digestion, acidity, flatulence, slight colic pains, occasional nausea and vomiting. Treatment — Bleeding, leeches, emollient poultices, mercury, salivation, blue-pill, conium, laxatives, epsom salts, gentian, columbo, nitro- muriatic-acid,blisters, white precipitate, setons. 19. Splenetus. Cause — Unknown. Symptoms — Heavy pain under the left false ribs increased by pressure, left hypochon- drium fuller than natural. * Treatment — Blood-letting, purgatives, coun- ter irritants, warm bath, leeches, tartar emetic, 18 COMPENDIUM OF ONE REMEDY mercury, setons, hyoscyamus (or henbane), diaphoretics, antimony, muriate of ammonia, ipecacuanha, iodine. PHLEGMASIA OF THE NERVES. 20. PJtrenitis, Phrensy. Cause — Un- known. Symptoms — Pain and fullness of the head, nausea and vomiting, red and sparkling eyes, delirium, and furious mania. Treatment — Blood-letting, leeches, cold water, or ice, active purgatives, calomel, senna, blisters, nitre, antimony, digitalis. 21. Arachnitis, Hydrocephalus. Cause — Unknown. Symptoms — Repugnance to strong light. violent screaming, expression of terror in the countenance. Treatment — Laxatives, calomel, blue pill, castor oil, blood-letting, leeches, manna, laxa tive enemata, spigelia, ipecac, salivation, mer curial ointment, blisters, ice, tartar emetic ointment, James'and Dover's powders. 22. Cerebritis, Softening of the Brain. Cause — (Authors say, Mercury, c.) Symptoms — Fixed and violent pain in the head, vertigo, loss of memory, hearing dull, coma and convulsions. . Treatment—Blood-letting, sinapisms, opium, cold to the head, blisters, calomel, salivation. EBERLE'S MEDICAL PRACTICE. 19 ONE REMEDY, B. C. 0. B. C. 0. B.M.O. PHLEGMASIA OF THE RESPIRATORY ORGANS. 23. Pleuritis, Pleurisy. Cause — Cold, miasmata. Symptoms—Violent and pungent pain in the chest, respiration is hurried and short, skin hot and dry. Treatment — Blood-letting, calomel, opium. 24. Peripneumonia, Inflammation of both Lungs and the Pleura. Cause — Cold, mias- mata. Symptoms — Breathing oppressed, obtuse pain in the chest, viscid expectoration, mixed with blood. Treatment — Bleeding, leeches, digitalis, nitre, castor oil, emetics, cooling diaphoretics, muriate of ammonia, antimony, calomel, opium, camphor, ipecacuanha, expectorants, blisters, squills, tartar emetic ointments, setons, conium. - 25. Pneumonia Biliosa. Cause — Cold, miasmata. Symptoms — Pain in the back and extrem- ities, skin tinged with bile, flushed face, urine yellow or bilious. Treatment— Blood-letting,mercury, opium. 26. Cynonche, Laryngea—Laryngitis. Symptoms — Soreness in the fauces, unea- siness in swallowing, voice attended with a hoarse, dull, hollow sound. 20 COMPENDIUM OF ONE REMEDY. B.C. B. CS. 0, B. C. 0. B. Cs. 0. Treatment — Blood letting, leeches, emol- lient poultices, blisters, emetics, calomel, sina- pisms to the feet, lunar caustic, alum, bronchot- omy. » 27. Cynonche Trachealis, Croup. Cause— Hereditary, cold. Symptoms — A dry hoarse cough, slight difficulty of breathing, a change of the voice, pain in the larynx. Treatment — Bleeding, blisters, emetics, warm bath, mercurial purgatives, antimony, enemata, salivation, ipecac, frictions with tur- pentine, poly gala senega. 28. Acute Bronchitis. Cause—Hereditary, cold, &c. Symptoms — Lassitude, chilliness, slight cough, wheezing, rattling sound, pain across the forehead. Treatment — Blood-letting, enemata, castor oil, emetics, tartar emetics, ipecacuanha, squills, expectorants, opium, calomel, blisters, leeches, emollient poultices, warm bath, columbo, gen- tian. 29. Chronic Bronchitis, Bron. Consumption. Cause — Cold. Symptoms—Expectorants viscid, thick and opaque, not yellow, containing a viscid, grayish, translucent mucus, white, sinks in water. Treatment—Bleeding, leeches, warm cli- EBERLE'S MEDICAL PRACTICE. 21 mate, tartar emetic ointment, emollient poulti- ces, emetics, digitalis, antimony, squills, balsam copaiva, quinine, conium, opium, ipecac, prus- sic acid, sugar of lead, blue pill or calomel, salivation. 30. Phthisis Pulmonalis. Cause—Hered- itary. Symptoms —Voice indistinct, hoarse, feeble and whispering, irritable, fever, night-sweats, cough, emaciation, &c. Treatment—Blood-letting, digitalis, tartar emetic, blisters, issues and setons, gum arabic, prussic acid, acetate of lead, opium, uva-ursa, expectorants, muriate of ammonia, tartar emetic ointment, salivation, squills. PHLEGMASIA OF THE URINARY AND GENI- TAL APPARATUS. 31. Nephritis. Cause—Cold, cantharides, turpentine. Symptoms — Slight chills, flushes of heat, pain in the loins, acute pressing pain in the right or left lumbar region. Treatment-Blood-letting,cupping or leeches, active cathartics, calomel, castor oil, enemata, emollient poultices, blisters, diaphoretics, anti- mony, steam-bath, Dover's powders, uva-ursi, opium, conium, lime-water, balsam copaiva. 32. Cystitis, Inflammation of Urinary Bladder. Cause—Irritation, cantharides, tur- pentine. 22 COMPENDIUM OF Symptoms — Violent burning, lancinating or throbbing pain in the region of the bladder, urine tinged with blood. Treatment — Bleeding, leeches, emollient poultices, gentle laxatives, enemata, opium, introduction of the catheter, steam bath, anti- mony, calomel. 33. Chronic Cystitis. Cause—Much the same as the former. Symptoms — Slight lancinating heat or burn- ing in the region of the bladder, emaciation and exhaustion. Treatment— Cupping, leeches, blood-letting, castor oil, magnesia, caustic issues on the thigh, muriated tincture of iron, with beech leaves, uva ursi, elm bark injected into the bladder. 34. Hysteritis. Cause — Parturition, in- juries, &c. Symptoms — Fixed, continuous, lancinating, or dull aching pain in the pelvis, bearing down in the perineum. Treatment—Bleeding, leeching, emollient poultices, calomel, epsom salts, injecting warm emollient fluids into the vagina, blisters, nitre, antimony, opium. 35. Chronic Hysteritis. Cause — Instru- mental labor, venereal indulgence. Symptoms — Heat with slight soreness in lower part of the pelvis, leucorrhceal discharges, pain in back and loins. EBERLE'S MEDICAL PRACTICE. 23 ONE REMEDY. B. Ms. 0 B. Cs. 0. Treatment—Blood-letting, purgatives, leech- es, cupping, blisters, emollient injections, warm bath, mercury, antimony, balsam copaiva, mu- riate of ammonia, liquorice. THE HEART. 36. Pericarditis. Cause -*- Metastasis of rheumatism and gout, cold. Symptoms — Sudden, severe, lancinating pain in the centre or cordial region of the chest, palpitation of the heart. Treatment — Calomel, opium, salivation, bleeding, leeches, blisters, cremor tartar, diu- retics, squills, pustulation with tartar emetic ointment, or a caustic issue over the region of the heart. PHLEGMASIA OF THE FIBRES & MUSCLES. 37. Acute Rheumatism. Cause — Cold, gonorrhoea, mercury. Symptoms — The parts affected are swollen, red, and extremely pamful, excruciating pain on slight pressure. Treatment — Blood-letting, purgatives, cal- omel, epsom salts, emetics, antimony, opium, diaphoretics, salivation, quinine, colchicum, magnesia, strammonium, leeches, blisters. 38. Chronic Rheumatism. Cause—Cold, gonorrhoea, mercury. Symptoms — Pain wanders, fixing itself by turns in the head, shoulders, knees, wrists, fingers, hips, loins, &c. 24 COMPENDIUM OF ONE REMEDY. Treatment —Mercury, rhubarb, quinine, antimony, salivation, sarsaparilla, vapor bath, sulphate of zinc, strammonium, colchicum, ar- senic, leeches, cups, blisters, spirits turpentine, capsicum, camphor, warm bath. 39. Gout. Cause —Hereditary, intemper- ance, mercury. Symptoms — External local inflammation of the fibrous structures, and fever of the syno- chal grade. Treatment — Bleeding, cathartics, emetics, calomel, ipecac, opium, eupatorium perfoliatum, colchicum, magnesia, blue pill, camphor, ginger, savin, laudanum, sinapism, enemata, cupping, leeching. PHLEGMASIA OF THE EYES. 40. Catarrha Ophthalmia. Cause — Cold. Symptoms — Constant sensation of sand in the eyes, with redness. Treatment — Scarifying, antimony, calomel, jalap, emollient applications, opium, solution of zinc, nitrate of silver, corrosive sublimate, ipecac, blisters, lunar caustic, quinine, bark, arsenic. 41. Rheumatic Ophthalmia. Cause__Cold mercury. Symptoms —Circumorbital pain extending to the temple, teeth, lower jaw, and external ear. EBERLE'S MEDICAL PRACTICE. 25 ONE REMEDY. B. CO. B. C. 0. L. C. 0. Ms. Treatment—Bleeding, antimony, opium, calomel, Dover's powders, blisters, cupping, puncturing the cornea, aqueous solution of opium. 42. Purulent Ophthalmia. Cause — Irri- tation, cold. Symptoms — Severe darting pains in the eye, the eye-lids swell rapidly, pain in the head and extremities severe. Treatment — Blood-letting, leeches, opium, or decoction of poppy head, calomel, ipecac, antimony, castor oil, blisters, emollient fomen- tations, lime, nitrate of silver, quinine, nitric acid. 43. Scrofulous Ophthalmia. Cause — Same. Symptoms — Extreme sensibility of the retina to light, minute vesicles scattered over cornea and conjunctiva. Treatment — Leeches, purgatives, calomel, castor oil, rhubarb, emetics, antimony, Dover's powders, sarsaparilla, quinine, barytes, iodine, nitrate of silver. 44. Syphilitic and Stramous Iritis. Cause — Syphilis. Symptoms —A vascular zone around the margin of cornea, limited and slight motion of jthe pupil, red, sluggish. Treatment—Mercury, antimony, jalap, sal- 26 COMPENDIUM OF ONE REMEDY. B. C. 0. B. C. 0. B.C.O. ivation, belladonna, precipitate, ointment, chalk, quinine, setons in the nape of the neck. OF THE CUTANEOUS PHLEGMASIA — EX- ANTHEMATA. 45. Variola, Small Pox. Cause — Conta- gious. Symptoms — Pustules, elevated, distended and circular, scattered over the body; pustules depressed and confluent. Treatment — Blood-letting, purgatives, cal- omel, emetics, diaphoretics, nitre, antimony, ammonia, cooling regimen, wine, camphor, quinine, opium, blisters, scarifications, chalk, ipecac, warm bath. 46. Rubiola Morilla, Measles. Cause — Contagious. Symptoms — A slight tenderness and red- ness of the eyes, catarrhal symptoms, nausea, vomiting, high fever, delirium. Treatment — Mild laxatives, diaphoretics, sage, elder blossoms, balm, eupatorium, bleed- ing, antimony, nitre, warm bath, stimulating frictions, sinapisms, camphor, ammonia, opium, blisters, calomel, squills, serpentaria. 47. Scarlatina. Cause — Contagious. Symptoms — Peculiar exanthema and in- flammation in the fauces, terminating in ulcer- ation and sloughing. Treatment — Gentle aperients, cool or tepid EBERLE'S MEDICAL PRACTICE. 27 drinks, emetic, brisk mercurial purges, warm bath, nitre, antimony, ammonia, sulphuric acid, cold water to the surface, blisters, blood-letting, camphor, calomel, opium, sinapisms, wine, quinine, capsicum, enemata, serpentaria. 48. Erysipelas. Cause—Various. Symptoms — Diffusive, cutaneous inflamma- tion on some part of body, redness, burning heat, swelling, vesication. Treatment — Blood-letting, purgatives, cal- omel, emetics, diaphoretics, antimony, ipecac- uanha, magnesia, castor oil, warm bathing, bark, wine, opium, camphor, cupping, blisters, enemata, corrosive sublimate, nitrate of silver, incisions in the inflamed skin. 49. Herpes Phlyctenodes. Cause — Cold. Symptoms — Assemblage of vesicles in sep- arate clusters; small, transparent vesicles make their appearance. Treatment — Gentle aperients, simple diet, diaphoretics, calomel, ipecac, warm bath, bleed- ing, Dover's powders, lunar caustic. 50. Herpes Labialis. Cause — Critical. Symptoms —Eruption on the upper and lower lips. Treatment —Fomentations of white poppy heads, acetate of lead. 51. Preputialis Herpes. Cause — Irrita- tion, uncleanliness. 28 COMPENDIUM 0* ONE REMEDY Symptoms — It begins with one red spot or more on the prepuse. Treatment — A solution of borax, nitrate of silver, chloride of soda in solution. 52. Pemphigus. Cause — Unknown. Symptoms — Large transparent vesicles, having red inflamed bases. Treatment — Mild laxatives, rest, tepid bathing, bleeding, diuretics, calomel, Fowler's arsenical solution, opium, quinine, sulphuric acid. 53. Urticaria, Nettle-rash. Cause — Con- stitutional predisposition. Symptoms— Hard elevation of the cuticle, of irregular forms, with a pale or whitish centre, intolerable itching. Treatment — Emetics, ipecac, mild laxa- tives, simple diet, cooling drinks, rest, magne- sia, quinine, sulphuric acid, iron, Fowler's solu- tion, tepid bath. 54. Miliaria, Miliary Fever. Cause—Mal- practice. Symptoms—Eruption of acuminated vesi- cles, of the shape and size of a millet seed scattered over surface of body. Treatment — Ipecac, emetics, warm bathing, diaphoretics, Dover's powders, ammonia, ser- pentaria, camphor, opiates. 55. Lichen, Cutaneous Eruption. Cause__ (High temperature, mental affections. EBERLE'S MEDICAL PRACTICE. 29 Symptoms — Minute firm elevations or pim- ples, appearing in clusters, usually white, sometimes red, and very itchy. Treatment — Tepid bathing, mild aperients, diluent acidulated drinks, cream, calomel, un- salted butter, sulphuric acid, bleeding, Fow- ler's solution, laxatives, low diet. 56. Eczema, Painful Eruption. Cause — Mercury. Symptoms — Innumerable small, closely ap- proximated, transparent vesicles, without any surrounding inflammation. Treatment — Sulphur ointment, tepid bath- ing, mild laxatives, nitre, tartar emetic, Dover's powders, calomel, nitric acid, soda, sarsaparilla, camphor, opium, strammonium, borax, canthar- ides, arsenic, Fowler's solution. 57. Herpes Zoster, Shingles, Cause — Cold. Symptoms — Characterized by a band of vesicles, seated on a red or inflamed surface, in-the lumbar region. Treatment — Gentle aperients, simple diet, diaphoretics, calomel, ipecac, warm bath, bleed- ing, Dover's powders, lunar caustic. 58. Herpes Circinatus, Ringworm. Symptoms — Slight redness and itching, succeeded by a circle of minute globular ves- icles, closely set together. 80 COMPENDIUM OF x ONE REMEDY. C. [ Treatment—Alkaline washes, sulphate of [ copper or zinc, ointment of narrow-leaf dock, mild laxatives. 59. Erythema. Cause — Irritation, men- strual irregularities. Symptoms — Slight superficial irregularity, circumscribed redness of some portion of the skin. Treatment— Light diet, gentle diaphoretics, mineral acids, warm bath, tepid ablutions, borax, acetate of lead, opium. 60. Roseola. Cause — Cold. Symptoms — Rose-colored spot, without swelling or elevation of the skin or papilse, febrile symptoms. Treatment — Rest, mild aperients, acidula- ted cooling diluents, simple diet, refrigerant diaphoretics. 61, Hemorrhcea Petechialis. Cause—Not known. Symptoms —Spots or patches of a livid, inclining to a purple hue. Treatment — Tonics, cinchona, serpentaria, sulphuric acid, wine, nitrate of silver, spirits of turpentine, blood-letting, purgatives, calomel and jalap, oil of turpentine, bathing the sur- face with a decoction of oak bark. VASCULAR IRRITATION with CONGESTION. 62. Hemorrhages. Cause—Predisposition, wounds, &c. EBERLE'S medical practice. 81 Symptoms — Sanguinous effusion or extrav- asation. Treatment — Blood-letting, digitalis, cold- blisters, sinapisms, warmth, sugar of lead, alum, muriated tincture of iron. 63. Epistaxis, Bleeding from the Nose. Cause—j Copious sanguineous evacuations. Symptoms are given in the name. Treatment—Bleeding, cold drinks, laxa- tives, nitre, cold water applied to the head, neck and genital organs, sugar of lead, gallic acid, blisters to the nape of the neck, warm pediluvium, sinapisms to the feet. 64. Hematemesis, Bleeding from the Stom- ach. Cause — Cantharides, spirits turpentine, &c. Symptoms are given in the name. Treatment — Blood-letting, sinapisms to the epigastric and hypochondriac regions, cupping, warm bath, laxatives, enemata, active purga- tives, emetics of ipecac, sugar of lead, spirits of turpentine, castor oil, tincture of iron, juice of common nettle. 65. Hematuria, Bleeding from Urinary Organs. Cause — The same as the former and last. Symptoms are given in the name. Treatment—Bleeding, warm bath, opium, sugar of lead, cupping, sinapisms over the kid- 32 COMPENDIUM OF ONE REMEDY. B. C 0. B.O. neys, muriated tincture of iron, mucilaginous drink, alum, ipecac, decoction of logwood, cold water to the genitals, injection, cold solutions of sugar of lead. 6Q. Hemoptysis, Bleeding from Lwng$. Cause—Various. Symptoms — Spitting of blood. Treatment — Blood-letting, common salt, sugar of lead, cupping, sinapisms on the breast, cooling drinks, laxative enemata, nitrate of potash, opium, calomel, emetics, capsicum, digitalis, caustic issues, setons, leeches to the anus, camphor, ipecac, cantharides, warm hip bath. 67. Menorrhagia, Uterine Hemorrhage. Cause — Debilitating agents. Symptoms—Bloody discharges from the vagina. Treatment — Bleeding, opium, sugar of lead, ipecac, camphor, cinnamon, alum, nitre, astrin- gent injections into the vagina, elixir of vitriol, ' tampans, emetics, valerian, prussiate of iron' ergot, savin. PHLEGMASIA. — LYMPHATIC SYSTEM. 68. Phlegmasia Dolens. Cause — Unset- tled. Symptoms—A pale, tense, elastic, and ex- tremely tender swelling of one of the inferior extremities. eberle's medical practice. 88 Treatment — Blood-letting, leeches, purga- tives, magnesia, colchicum, antimony, calomel, opium, ipecac, nitre, frictions with dry flannel, fomentations with hot vinegar and water. CHRONIC NERVOUS DISEASE. 69. Apoplexy. Cause — Predisposition. Symptoms — Vertigo, a dull, deep-seated pain, confusion, flashes of light. Treatment — Copious blood-letting, cold water to the head, fomentations, sinapisms or tincture of capsicum to the feet,* cupping, active purgatives, calomel and colocynth, cro- ton oil, castor oil and turpentine, enemata, aloes, antimony, emetics, zinc, blisters, issues. PARALYSIS — PALSY. 70. Hemiplegia, Palsy of one Side. Cause — Pressure on the brain, apoplexy. Symptoms— Want of sensibility and motion, more or less distinctly marked with apoplectic symptoms. Treatment—The same as apoplexy. 71. Paraphlegia, Palsy of the Legs. Cause — Cerebral diseases, local injury of a nerve. Symptoms — Want of sensibility and motion in the lower extremities. Treatment — Purgatives, salts, aloes, cal- omel, scammony, colocynth, capsicum, emetics, blisters to the neck, sinapisms to the ankles, stimulating enemata,frictions, stimulating baths, 3 34 COMPENDIUM OF ONE REMEDY. B. Cs. B.M.O. B. M. 0. electricity, galvanism, strichnine, salivation, warm bath, iodine. 72. Paralysis Partialis, Local. Cause — Cold, worms, lead, &c. Symptoms — Paralysis of a particular or- gan. Treatment — The same as palsy. 73. Epilepsy. Cause—Hereditary in some. Symptoms — Wandering mind, giddiness, dimness of sight, flashes of light. Treatment — Bleeding, cold water in large draughts, emetics of ipecac, calomel, diapho- retics, warm bath, antimony, camphor, issues, setons, emetics, spirits of turpentine, castor oil, oil of turpentine, quackery, misletoe, oxide of zinc, nitrate of silver, tin, lead. 74. Catalepsy. Cause — Mental affections, disappointed love. Symptoms — Suspension of consciousness, sensorial powers and volition. Treatment — Sulphuric ether, stimulating applications to the feet, enemata, bleeding, purgative, galvanism, electricity, country air, regular exercise, tepid bathing, blue pill, cam- phor, tepid shower bath, zinc, valerian, musk, castor oil, opium — besides lots of quackery. 75. Chorea, St. Vitus's Dance. Cause — Strammonium, worms, mercury. Symptoms — Vertigo, anxiety, slight trem- ors, palpitations, visual illusion. EBERLE'S MEDICAL PRACTICE. 35 ONE REMEDY. B. M. 0. B. C. 0. B. M. 0. Treatment—Purgative, mercury, quinine, aloes, bleeding, vegetable diet, Dover's pow- ders, magnesia, valerian, asafoetida, hyoscy- amus, camphor, opium, turpentine, warm ped- iluvium, blisters, savin, iron, leeches, antimony, warm bath, sulphur, issues, tartar emetic oint- ment, &c. 76. Convulsive Affections of Infants. Cause Worms, dentition, cerebral irritation. Treatment —Emetics of ipecac, purgatives, enemata, infusion of savin and spigelia, bleed- ing, calomel, warm pediluvium, cold water to the head, blisters, asafoetida, musk, opium, Dover's powder, warm bath, setons, issues, sul- phur. 77. Hysteria. Cause — Anger, terror, grief, jealousy, envy, &c. Symptoms — Flatulency, weight and burn- ing in the region of the uterus. Treatment — Bleeding, sinapisms, emetics sulphate of zinc, ipecac, opium, asafoetida musk, sulphuric ether, castor oil, enemata warm pediluvium, turpentine, enemata, cam phor, ammonia, valerian, ictodes foetida, anti mony, mercury, iron, cold shower bath, &c. 78. Puerperal Convulsions. Cause — Preg- nancy. Symptoms — Vertigo, ringing in the ears, temporary blindness. COMPENDIUM OF B.M.Od, Treatment — Blood-letting, sinapisms to the feet, purgative enemata, cupping, cold water to the head, active cathartics, calomel, jalap, aloes, abortion. 79. Tetanus. Cause — Mechanical inju- ries, cold. Symptoms — Violent tonic spasms of the voluntary muscles. Treatment — Quacking in the start, bleed- ing, leeches, opium, mercury, warm bath, pur- gatives, castor oil, spirits of turpentine, wine, prussic acid, cold affusions. 80. Hydrophobia. Cause—Bite of a rabid animal. Symptoms — Furious mania, with an insur- mountable horror of water. Treatment—Local applications to the wound, wash the wound with warm water, excision, cautery, cupping, glysters, ligatures, quacking, belladonna, water, plantain, vinegar, cantharl des, mercury, cold bathing, copious bleeding. CHRONIC CEREBRAL AFFECTION. 82. Mania. Cause — Hereditary, epilepsy, injuries of the head, congenital, syphilis, onan- ism. Symptoms — Rapid succession of incohe- rent ideas. Treatment — The same as Hydrophobia. ONE REMEDY. B.M.Od. B.M.Od Bd. M. 0 Ld.Md.Od. EBERLE'S MEDICAL PRACTICE. 37 83. Monomania. Cause — The same as Mania. Symptoms — Partial insanity, insane upon certain subjects. Treatment — Blood-letting, leeches, purga- tives, mercury, castor oil, jalap, spigelia, tur- pentine, emetics, regimen, exercise, Avarm bath, cold bath, blisters, circular swing, music. 84. Dementia. Cause — Imprudent use of mercury, intoxication. Symptoms — Ideas collected together with- out order. Treatment—The same as Monomania. 85. Idiotism. Cause — Worms, grief, love, want. Symptoms—Total loss of the intellectual faculties. Treatment — The same as the latter disease. 86. Delirium Tremens. Cause — Spiritous* liquors, opium. Symptoms — Inquietude, tremor, continued watchfulness. Treatment — Opium the sheet anchor, cas- tor oil, laxatives, enemata, cupping, emetics of tartar emetic, ipecacuanha, cold and tepid af- fusions, ammonia, asafoetida, camphor, Hoff- man's anodyne. 87. Neuralgia. Cause-Koino miasmata, intestinal irritation* 38 COMPENDIUM OF ONE REMEDY Symptoms — Pain extremely acute, darts like lightning, spasms. Treatment — Divide the nerve Avith a scal- pel, quinine, arsenic, carbonate of iron, stram- monium, frictions with the extract of belladonna, oil of turpentine, leeches, moxa, strong mag- net, lobelia, zinc, leeches to the anus, aloes. 88. Amaurosis. Cause — Structural dis- ease of the eye. Symptoms — A diminution or total loss of sight. Treatment — Bleeding, free purging with calomel, epsom salts, antimony, salivation, bel- ladonna, blisters, setons on the neck, leeches to the temples, blue pill, ipecac, sarsaparilla, arsenic, bark, cold bath, capsicum, opium, emetics, leeching around the anus. RESPIRATORY. 89. Asthma. Cause—Hereditary. Symptoms — Great difficulty of breathing, tightness across the breast. Treatment — Blood-letting, hyoscyamus, strammonium, emetics of ipecac, squills, vine- gar, digitalis, opium, skunk cabbage, lobelia inflata, galvanism, tonics, bark,quinine, arsenic, carbonate of iron, blue pill, tepid shower bath, warm bath. 90. Hooping Cough. contagion. Cause — Specific EBERLE'S MEDICAL PRACTICE. 39 Symptoms — Cough dry, ringing and con- vulsive. Treatment — Bleeding, leeches, calomel, rhubarb, sulphate of soda or magnesia, emet- ics of zinc, ipecac, sirup of squills, antimony, asafoetida, belladonna, quinine, arsenic, lobelia inflata, tartar emetic ointment, leeches, balsam copaiva. SUSPENDED ANIMATION. 91. Asphyxia from Drowning: Cause — Drowning. Symptoms — Total suspension of the func- tion of respiration. Treatment—Artificial inflation of the lungs, gradual warmth, frictions with a dry flannel, mustard and capsicum, stimulating injections, warm wine, weak brandy, toddy, infusions of balm, sage or catnip. 92. Asphyxia from Electricity. Cause — Electricity. Symptoms —Red streaks .of zigzag form on breast and arms, hair singed, &c. Treatment — Cold water copiously dashed over the whole body, frictions with the flesh brush. 93. Asphyxia from Mephitic Gases. Cause —Mephitic gases. Symptoms—Vertigo, fainting, insensibility, asphyxia or death. 40 COMPENDIUM OF ONE REMEDY B. | Treatment — Dashing cold water on the face and breast, dry friction to the extremi- ties, cold Avine, cold shower bath at short in- tervals, flesh brush, ammonia, stimulating injections, artificial respiration, abstraction of blood, warm Avine, galvanism. 94. Asphyxia from Cold. Cause — Cold. Symptoms — Surface pale and contracted, respiration oppressed, irresistible desire to sleep. Treatment — Gradual communication of warmth to the body, immersion in spring water continued forty minutes, gentle frictions with flannel, artificial respiration, gentle stimulants such as balm, sage, warm Avine, &c. 95. Pneumo Thorax. Cause—Fistulous opening in the bronchise. Symptoms — Distressing effects on the ac- tion of the lungs and heart. Treatment — Blistering, tartar emetic oint- ment, cupping, moxa, issues, setons, &c; par- acentesis thoracica is of doubtful propriety. DISEASES OF THE HEART. 96. Hypertrophy of the Heart. Cause — Predisposition, transition of rheumatism, gout, &c. Symptoms — Violent beating of the heart against the chest. Treatment — The same as the latter disease. EBERLE'S MEDICAL PRACTICE. 41 B.M.O. 97. Dilation of the Ventricles. Symptoms — Palpitations of the heart feeble and distinct. Treatment — Bleeding, low diet, starvation and venesection, diuretics, squills, nitre, digi- talis, purgatives, antimony, valerian, catnip, orange flowers, mercury, castor oil, blue pill, tepid shower bath. 98. Aneurism of the Aorta. Symptoms — Rattling noise in the throat. Treatment — The same as Dilation of Ven- tricles. 99. Sympathetic Affection of the Heart. Caused by other affections. Symptoms — Heart liable to be excited in- to vehement and tumultuous action. Treatment — Gentle aperients, tepid bath, gentle tonics, bitters, iron, bleeding, warm pediluvium, digitalis. 100. Angina Pectoris. Cause—Unsettled. Symptoms — Paroxysms of pain at the lower part of the sternum. Treatment — Bleeding, ether, camphor, opi- um, hyoscyamus, ammonia, draughts of cold water, emetics, leeches, sinapisms to the legs, mild diet, blue pill, tepid or cold bathing. CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE ALIMENTARY CANAL. 101. Indigestion. Cause tication, condiments. • Imperfect mas- 42 COMPENDIUM OF ONE REMEDY. L. C. 0. L. CO. CO. Symptoms — Sallow and anxious countenance. Treatment — Diet, gentle aperients, mild tonics, regular exercise, rhubarb, aloes, soda, ipecac, hyoscyamus, boneset, mild tonics, al- kalies, calomel, gentian, iron, white mustard seed, mercury, antimony, nitro-muriatic acid bath, opium, ammonia, nitre, potash, leeches, blisters. 102. Diarrhoea. Cause — Irritation in the stomach and intestines. Symptoms — Frequent copious liquid stools of a purulent character. Treatment — Mild purgatives, calomel, cas- tor oil, ipecac, laudanum, chalk, warm bath, leeches, Dover's powders, acetate of lead, bal- sam copaiAra, sulphate of copper, injections of malloAvs, flax-seed or barley water, with sul- phuric acid. 103. Cholera. Cause — Torpor of the liver. Symptoms—Violent vomiting and purging, with severe tormina. Treatment—Opium, sinapisms to the region of the stomach and liver, free use of bland drinks, frictions with spirits of turpentine, cal- omel, warm bath, tincture of capsicum to the extremities, camphor in vitriolic ether, mucila- ges in a warm state, ipecac, columbo, chamo- mile, ammonia. 104. Cholera Infantum. Cause — Not ful- ly understood, dentition. EBERLE'S MEDICAL PRACTICE. 43 ONE Symptoms—Diarrhoea and vomiting, skm REMEDY., i, r dry and harsh. L. C 0. Treatment — Leeches to the temples, calo- jmel, poultices over the abdomen, blisters be- hind the ears, ipecac, mild laxatives, castor oil, warm bath, spirits, Dover's powder, mag- nesia, tartrate of iron, charcoal, wine whey, milk punch, ammonia, common soot. 105. Flatulent Colic. Cause — Indigesti- ble articles of food. Symptoms—Distention and uneasiness in the stomach. Treatment—Rapid frictions with the flesh brush, camphor, laudanum, vitriolic ether, oil of juniper, emetics of ipecac, essence of pep- permint, cathartics, enemata, castor oil, tur- pentine, laudanum, bleeding, leeches, blisters. 106. Bilious Colic. Cause —Koino, or marsh miasmata. Symptoms — Nausea and bilious vomiting. Treatment —Emetics, eupatorium or cham- omile tea, antimony, calomel, sinapisms or epi- spastics to the epigastrium, castor oil, enemata of castor oil and turpentine, opium, salivation, blood-letting, calomel, magnesia, warm bath. 107. Colica Pictonum. Cause—Fumes of lead. Symptoms — Foul eructations, languor, slight nausea, constipation, &c. Treatment — Blood-letting, opium, calomel, 44 COMPENDIUM OF salivation, purgatives, castor oil with spirits of turpentine, purgative enemata, glauber salts, flax-seed tea, blister, leeches, tartar emetic ointment, warm bath, senna, alum. 108. Ilius. Cause — Drastic cathartics, emetics, unripe fruit, &c. Symptoms — Violent spasmodic and parox- ysmal pain in the abdomen. Treatment — Bleeding, cupping, leeches, opium, purgatives, castor oil, enemata of Avarm water, tobacco, cold AATater, &c, cold affusions, crude mercury in one or two pound doses, tincture of rhubarb and aloes. 109. Constipation. Cause — Sedentary and indolent life. Symptoms — Offensive breath. Treatment — Proper diet, active exercise, regular attempts at stool, calomel, rhubarb, aloes, jalap, enemata, blue pill, aloes and anti. mony, castor oil, oil of turpentine, salivation. 110. Intestinal Worms. Cause—Unknown. Symptoms — Bluish semi-circle around the lower eye-lids. Treatment — Spare and liquid diet, mild purgatives, epsom salts, spigelia followed by calomel and jalap, tin filings, spirits of turpen- tine, camphor, valerian, injections of aloes, spirits of turpentine, male fern, pomegranate root. EBERLE'S MEDICAL PRACTICE. 45 B. M. 0. B. M. 0. 111. Hemorrhoids, Piles. Cause — Her- editary, a studious and sedentary life. Symptoms — Uneasiness in the boAvels, con- stipation, flatulent pains. Treatment — Light vegetable diet, bleeding, sulphur, cream of tartar, blue mass, nitre, cupping, sinapisms, blisters, injections of cold water, acetate of lead, quinine, opium, cinna- mon, aloes, ipecac, astringent injections, excis- ion of tumors, balsam copaiva, oil turpentine, aloe tic purgative. 112. Jaundice. Cause — Obstructed gall ducts, mercury. Symptoms—Yellow eyes and skin, clay- colored faeces. Treatment—Opium, warm bath, leeching, frictions, emollient applications to the epigas- trium, bleeding, purgatives, enemata, emetics, ipecac, mercury, mercurial frictions, nitro-mu- riatic acid bath, proper diet. CHRONIC DISEASES OF URINARY ORGANS. 113. Diabetes Mellitus. Cause—Unsatis- factory. Symptoms — Copious discharges of urine, emaciation. Treatment—Bleeding, leeching, cupping, opium, lime water, alum, uva ursi, active exer- cise, frictions with flannel, carbonate of ammo- nia, blisters, quinine, exclusive animal diet. 40 COMPENDIUM OF ONE REMEDY BN.M.O B.C. 0. M. 0. 114. Diabetes Insipidus. Cause— Spiritu- ous drinks, mercury. Symptoms — Frequent and distressing de- sire to pass urine. Treatment — Tonics, alkalies, opium, quin- ine, bicarbonate of soda, mercury, ipecac, magnesia and rhubarb, lime water, uva ursi, hyoscyamus, camphor, gum arabic, mineral acids, quinine, iron, burgundy pitch, galbanum and turpentine to the loins, castor oil. 115. Lithic Acid Diathesis. Cause —Errors in diet. Symptoms—Pain, uneasiness, irritation and heat at the neck of the bladder. Treatment — Proper diet, mild aperients, alkalies, bitters, vegetable tonics, calomel, an- timony, magnesia and soda, saleratus, gentian, columbo, warm bath, opium, hyoscyamus, veg- etable diuretics, bleeding, cupping, colchicum. 116. Phosphatic Diathesis. Cause — Inju- ries of the back, irritation in the bladder. Symptoms — Phosphates in the urine. Treatment — Opium, tonics, mineral acids, cinchona, uva ursi, pitch, soap or galbanum, plaster to the kidneys, issues in the back, hyos- cyamus, country air, exercise. 117. Ischuria Renalis. Cause—Inflamma- tion or paralysis of the kidneys. Symptoms —Function of the kidneys more or less suspended. EBERLE'S MEDICAL PRACTICE. 47 ONE REMEDY. B. C 0. 0. Treatment — Bleeding, cupping, leeching, warm bath, blisters, stimulating diuretics, spir- its of turpentine, castor oil, balsam copaiva, juniper oil, nitre and laudanum, mercury. 118. Retention of the Urine. Cause — Paralysis or inflammation of the bladder. Symptoms — Complete retention of the urine. Treatment—Introduction of catheter, can- tharides, camphor, blisters to the pubic region, spirits of turpentine, juniper, oil apple, Peru- vian balsam, cold Avater to the pubic region, blood-letting,leeches, enSDllient clysters, fomen- tations, mild purgatives, antimony, Avarm bath, calomel, opium. 119. Dysuria, Pain in voiding Urine. Cause j— Cantharides, turpentine. | Symptoms — Difficulty and pain in making water. | Treatment—Mild laxatives, flax-seed tea, gum arabic, Dover's powders, castor oil, rhu- barb, calomel, ipecac, lunar caustic, borax, citron ointment, zinc or alum injection into the vagina, diluents, opiates,fomentations, anodyne, enemata, flax-seed tea. 120. Enuresis, Incontinence of Urine. Cause — Various. Symptoms—The urine passes off volunta- | Treatment —Alum, cantharides, uva ursi, 48 COMPENDIUM OF ONE I iron, cold shower bath, electricity, stimulating REMFDY frictions, cupping the perineum, blisters, ano- dyne, enemata, Dover's powder, strammonium, iron, tonics, quinine, oxyde of zinc, spirits of turpentine. DROPSY. 121. Hydrothorax. Cause — Scarlatina, measles, mercury, cold. Symptoms — Effusion and accumulation of | fluids. Treatment—Same as the latter disease. 122. Ascites. Cause — Parturition, enter- itis, organic diseases. Symptoms — The same as Hydrothorax. . Treatment — Blood-letting, cups, leeches, blisters, setons, drastic purgatives, cremor tar- tar, elaterian, gamboge, dueretics, squills, digitalis, acetate of potash, nitrate of potash, cantharides, juniper berries, colchicum, spirits of turpentine, erigeron heterophyllum and parsley, calomel. 123. Anasarca of the Heart and Liver. Cause —Arsenic. Symptoms — Effusion and accumulation of fluids. Treatment — The same as Ascites. LYM. 124. Scrofula. Cause — Hereditary, im- pure air. EBERLE'S MEDICAL PRACTICE. 49 Bd. C. 0 Symptoms—Dull, lead-colored circle around the mouth. Treatment — Diet and regimen, pure air, calomel, blue mass, aperients, rhubarb, tonic vegetable bitters, gentian, quinine, leeches, saturnine solutions, nitrate of silver, sulphate of copper, corrosive sublimate, sarsaparilla, conium, antimony, setons. 125. Bronchocele, Goitre. Cause — En- demic. Symptoms — Preternatural enlargement of the thyroid gland. Treatment — Iodine, burnt sponge, calcined egg-shells, sea Avater, squills, kermes mineral, belladonna, conium, digitalis, mercury, anti- mony, blistering, cataplasms, mercurial oint- ment. . ALIM. 126. Scorbutus, Scurvy. Cause — Innutri- tious aliment. Symptoms — Countenance pale and sallow, or lead-colored. Treatment—Fresh vegetable and animal food, lemon juice and vinegar, nitre, tonics, iron, cinchona, muriate of lime, lunar caustic. AFFECTIONS OF THE GENITAL ORGANS. 127. Clorasis. Cause — Sedentary habits, leucorrhoea. Symptoms—Lips bloodless, eye-lids SAVollen. Treatment—Exercise, purgatives, aloes, ^-~—NOV 20'44 50 COMPENDIUM OF rhubarb, calomel, ipecac, hyoscyamus, Dover's powder, diet, sea bathing, tepid shower bath, tonics, iron. 128. Gonorrhoea, Clap. Cause — Conta- gious. Symptoms — Discharge of purulent matter from the urethra. Treatment—Blood-letting, saline purgatives, nitre, antimony, gum arabic, warm fomentations, opium, camphor, balsam copaiva, cubebs, spir- its of turpentine, injections of sulphate of zinc and sulphate of copper, nitrate of silver, can- tharides, lunar caustic, sarsaparilla, mercury. 129. Syphilis. Cause — Contagious. Symptoms — Characterized by pimples, ex- coriations or ulcers. Treatment—Mercury, emollient poultices, lead, sulphate of copper, citron ointment, cor- rosive sublimate, lunar caustic, bleeding, anti- mony, zinc, nitre, quinine, opium, hyoscyamus, cicuta, nitre, silver, Venice turpentine, balsam copaiva, myrrh, red precipitate ointment, sali- vation, warm bath, guaiacum. 130. Buboes. Cause — Absorption of vene- real virus. Symptoms — Tumors in the groins, &c Treatment — Mercurial frictions, emollient poultices, hydriodate ointment, bleeding, pur- gatives, antimony, lead water, blisters, opium, sarsaparilla, cinchona, copper, corrosive subli- EBERLE'S MEDICAL PRACTICE. 51 mate, galbanum, cicuta, carrot poultices, nitric acid, hyoscyamus. 131. Amenorrhoea. Cause—Cold, grief, terror, anger. Symptoms — Languor, debility, sickly ex- pression, swelled ancles. Treatment—Blood-letting, opium, ether, active carthartics, purgatives, enemata, sina- pisms, warm pediluvium, camphor, ergot, blis- ters, warm bath, antimonials, iron, aloes, ipecac, castor oil, balsam copaiva, spirits of turpen- tine, cantharides. 132. Dismenorrhoea. Cause — Uncertain. Symptoms — Painful and imperfect men- struation. Treatment — Camphor, Dover's powder, elder blossoms, eupatorium tea, opium, ipecac, warm bathing, bleeding, aperients, blue pill, ipecac emetics, antimony, guaiacum, sulphur, strammonium. 133. Leucorrhcea, Fluor Albus. Cause — Various. Symptoms —Muco-purulent discharge from the vagina. Treatment-Bleeding, purgatives, antimony, blue pill, injections of warm water and sugar of lead into the vagina, cantharides, balsam copaiva, turpentine, alum, ipecac, astringent injections such, as zinc, copper, alum, oak bark, sulphuric acid, and nitrate of silver. 52 CAUSES OF DISEASE. ONE 134. Cholera Asphyxia. Cause — Unset- REMEDY. „ _ r * tied. Symptoms — Cramp, diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, and expression of horror. B. C 0. Treatment— Calomel, opium, camphor, sul- phuric ether, mild purgatives, rhubarb or cas- tor oil, sinapism, alcohol, vapor bath, blood- letting, cupping, leeches, frictions with tincture of capsicum, brandy, ammonia, turpentine, sugar of lead, mustard emetics. 81. Mental Derangement was inadvertently omitted. The Allopathistsbeing generally anti-neurologists, they know but little about the physiology, pathology, or treat- ment of the Nervous System, but still they use their bleeding, calomel and opium. CAUSES OF DISEASE. Eberle says in general, whatever tends to debilitate the system, may be a cause of disease, and it is gener- ally admitted that " all poisons rapfdly diminish the vitali- ty of the system." (B. M. $ S. Journal, vol. 1, p. 43.) Of course, all the poisons recommended in Eberle's or any other work, are causes of disease. We find in the new work of Prof. Dunglison, the causes of the following forms of disease set down as follows; and yet all these causes are recommended by him and Eberle, as excellent medicine! Disease. Inflammation of Tongue, Inflammation of Stomach, Colica Pictonum, Inflammation of Larynx, Inflammation of Heart, Cause. Mercury, vol. 1, page 38. Corrosive and Active Poisons. Lead. Mercury, vol. 1, p. 237. Arsenic, " « 477. CAUSES OF DISEASE. 53 Disease. Cause. Palpitation of Heart, Tobacco. Dyspepsia, Tobacco. Anemia, Blood-letting. Inflammation of Arteries, Mercury, Sciale cornutum, p.505. Ossification of Arteries, Mercury, p. 507. Spontaneous Ptyalism, Arsenic, Copper, Antimony, &c. Mercurial Ptyalism, Mercury, vol. 2, p. 19. Inflammation of Kidney, Cantharides. Glandular disease of Kidney, Mercury, Cantharides. Inflammation of Bladder, Cantharides. Irritability of Bladder, Cantharides. Bloody Urine, Cantharides. Eczema, Mercurial Frictions. Cerebral Congestion, Opium. Augmentation of Sensibility, Blood-letting. Privation of Sensibility, Lead. Convulsions of Children, Loss of Blood. Tremors, Mercury, Opium. Tetanus, Nux Vomica, Strychnia brucia. Delirium, Narcotics. Delirium Tremens, Alcohol, Opium. Mental Alienation, Mercury, Loss of Blood. Neuritis, Puncture with lancet. Partial Paralysis, Lead, Mercury, Arsenic. Periostitis, Mercury. The reader will perceive, that Dunglison and Eberle both, in giving the causes of a large portion of the dis- eases that human flesh is heir to, state that the most of their popular remedial agents are the primary or most fruitful causes of those diseases; and yet, neither they, nor any other author, of any medical work, have stated or can state with propriety, that any one of our remedial agents, recommended by the professors of the Botanic Medical Colleges in the United States, or in any of our popular works, is the cause of, or will produce, any of the diseases mentioned in the schedule above. 54 QUACKERY, ETC. QUACKERY OR EMPIRICISM. " Prof. Harrison says, (Lecture on Empiricism,^gQ 3,) " It moves in steps marked with blood." Prof. Chapman says, it consists in "resigning a patient to calomel." Prof. Eberle says, it is dosing with that " treacherous palliative," opium, by which "innumerable infants are sacrificed;" and Prof. Gallop quotes with approbation the saying that opium is "the Bohon Upas" of medicine, " more destructive than the serpent of Eden." With these data you need go but to the " one remedy" column in the foregoing compendium, to get fairly and safely on the track of this hideous monster, and sticking closely to the " steps marked with blood," you will soon overtake its professors and practitioners. Out of their own mouths you may judge them; Avhat need ye of further witness ? It. is a sober and aAvful reality, that the sword of the war- rior, drenched, as it often has been, in human gore, has not spilled a drop in the bucket compared with the streams that have gushed out after the point of that glittering steel, the lancet! And all to little purpose, but the final ruin of the constitution, if not the present destruction of its victims! Had we taken from other authors equally eminent, we might have filled nearly all Dr. Eberle's blanks in the one remedy column. A few of the cases in the treatment do not contain quite all the articles recommended, but they contain poison enough, in all conscience. DESCRIPTION OF OTHER REMEDIES. The following contains a further description of the principal poisons, recommended as remedies in the treat- ment of disease, by Eberle and others. The numbers REMEDIES. 55 show the disease in which they are first recommended. They are so often recommended that it would be a waste of paper to specify the whole. By these descriptions of Dr. Eberle's remedies, taken from the most eminent authors, it will be perceived that nearly all are active poisons, and themselves require a remedy; and by the antidotes to them, it will be further seen, that even these must generally be poison. Poison, then, is both our bane and antidote. L CAMPHOR. " Narcotic, diaphoretic and sedative." {Dung- lison.) "Affects the brain and nerves." (U. S. Disp., 151.) "In moderate doses, it occasions nausea, vomiting, anxiety, faintness, vertigo, delirium, insensibility, coma, convulsions, and sometimes death." {lb. 152.) " Yet in a great number of spasmodic and nervous disorders, it has been very extensively employed." Antidote. The injurious effects of an over-dose are to be coun- teracted by opium, after clearing out the stomach. {lb.) 1. QUININE. This substance is a chemical preparation from Peruvian bark or cinchona. Administered in large doses it pro- duces fullness and distressing pain in the head, and paralyzes the brain so as to diminish the senses, paiticularly the sight. But these effects are so gradual, that they are generally seen and the administration stopped, before any serious mischief occurs. 1. CINCHONA. Peruvian bark, formerly used extensively in intermittent fevers, now nearly supplanted by quinine. 1. SULPHURIC ETHER. A powerful stimulant, used to rouse the system when oppressed either by disease or depletion. Brandy, wine, camphor and ammonia are used for the same pur- pose. All considered poisons. 1. JALAP is used when a drastic hydragogue cathartic is wanted. It is often adulterated Avith Bryony root, or impaired by long keeping. See Ipecac. 1. SULPHATE OF ZINC. "This poison produces violent vom- iting, astringent taste, burning pain in the stomach, pale counte- nance, cold extremities, dull eyes, fluttering pulse." {Dunghsons 56 DESCRIPTION OF Did.) " Sour taste, extreme vomiting, and severe pains in the stomach and bowels, diarrhoea, laborious respiration," &c, " pro- ducing inflammation and gangrene of the mucous coat." {Coley.) Antidote. Milk and the whites of eggs, carbonate of soda. (76.) 1. NITRE is used as a cooling article in fevers, to relax, stim- ulate, and promote diuresis and diaphoresis. It is used in the form of nitric acid as a caustic ; diluted as a drink; and most com- monly in the form of sweet spirit of nitre, a fluid distilled from a mixture of nitric acid and alcohol. (See U. S. Disp., Dunglison on Poisons, Colefs Toxocology, Chrisiston, and others.) NITRATE OF POTASH. These articles, both single and combined, produce distressing nausea and vomiting, and pain in the stomach, boAvels, lungs; convulsions and death. {Coley.) They tend directly to destroy the mucous membrane. {lb.) 1. SALIVATION. See Chapman. " Cannot the veriest fool in Christendom give calomel and salivate ?" Antidote. " Who of us can stop the career of calomel." 2. IPECAC. An acro-narcoticpoison, "producing, when taken into the system or applied to a wound, stupor, numbness, heavi- ness in the head; desire to vomit, at first slight, afterwards insup- portable ; a sort of intoxication, stupid air, dilation of the pupil of the eye, lively or furious delirium, sometimes pain ; convul- sions of different parts of the body, or palsy of the limbs. The pulse is variable; but, at first, generally strong and full- the breathing quick, great anxiety and dejection, which if not speed- ily relieved, soon ends in death." {Dunglisorts Die. pp. 489-490 ) This description may, for aught Ave know, be true of Ipecac • but Dr. D. has classed under it many vegetables which produce'verv different effects from those here enumerated. Of course we cannot recommend his table as a guide to the learner. Antidote. He recommends " tartar emetic, sulphate of zinc warm water, and tickling of the throat with a feather, till vomit- ing » produced, then active purgatives, hot coffee, bleeding blis- tering, frictions. Bromine, chlorine and iodine, are said to be antidotes to the alkaloids generally." (/&. 490.) 2. EPSOM SALTS. A cooling alkaline' cathartic, U8ed i„ fevers and visceral inflammations. REMEDIES. 57 2. CASTOR OIL. A vegetable oil obtained by compressing the seeds of the Palma Christi. A mild cathartic. Dunglison places it among the " Irritant Poisons," which he says produce " an acrid, pungent taste, with more or less of bitterness, excessive heat, great dryness of the mouth and throat, with sense of tight- ness there; violent vomiting, the efforts being continued after the stomach is emptied; purging, with great pain in the stomach and bowels ; pulse strong, frequent and regular ; breathing often quick and difficult; appearance of intoxication, dilated pupil, insensibility resembling death. The pulse becomes low and loses force, and death closes the scene." Antidote. Much the same as above, with vinegar, camphor, ether, &c. Blood-letting, &c, when inflammation is produced or feared. ACIDS. Of the acids, acetic, citric, muriatic, nitric, sulphu- ric, tartaric, and oxalic, Prof Dunglison says, {Die. p. 483) " The acids generally, are strong corrosive poisons," they produce " a sour, acid taste, burning in the throat, which is increased by pressure, swallowing or coughing; eructation and excruciating pain in the stomach; more or less corrugation of the lining mem- branes of the mouth and prima? viae, excoriation of the parts touched. The countenance becomes glazed, the extremities cold and clammy," then come " convulsions and death." They all produce inflammation and gangrene. Antidote. For the acetic, citric, muriatic, sulphuric, and tar- taric acids, the carbonates of soda, potassa, lime and magnesia; also calcined magnesia. For the nitric and oxalic, the carbonates of only magnesia and lime can be used with safety. For sul- phuric acid, no water should be given, on account of the great beat produced by their mixture. Subsequent inflammation treat- ed on the antiphlogistic plan, of blood-letting, cooling, physick- ing, &c. {Dunglison on Poisons.) 2 COPAIBA or COPAIVA BALSAM. Stimulant and diuret- ic ; in large doses, purgative. {Dunglison.) Acts on the mucous membranes, particularly of the urethra. 2 ANTIMONY. Of this article generally it is said, It vomiting do not occur promptly, violent, irritating effects are pro- duced. Burning pain in the pit of the stomach, purging, colic 58 DESCRIPTION OF pains, sense of tightness in the throat; violent cramps." {Dungli- son, Coley.) Antidote. Tickle the fauces, give copious draughts of warm water, infusions of astringents, &c. {lb.) 4. CREMOR TARTAR. Superacetate of potash, "mildly purgative, refrigerant and diuretic," — given as a cooling and cleansing beverage in febrile diseases. 4. JAMES'S POWDER. Antimony prepared with harts- horn, and reduced to powder. Used as a diaphoretic, dose 3 to 8 grains. The U. S. Dispensatory says: "It is impossible to give precise directions as to the dose, as it sometimes proves violently emetic, and at other times is without any effect, even in doses of 10 grains." 4. DIGITALIS, Foxglove. A narcotic poison which checks the action of the heart and arteries. Coley says it produces K extreme nausea, vertigo, indistinct visions, tremors, chilliness and stupor, violent sickness, excessive debility, syncope, delirium, convulsions, and death." Antidote. "Rouse the vital energies by every means at com- mand. Spirits and water, ammonia, coffee, blister to the stom- ach, sinapisms to the feet, opium !" {lb.) 6. CROTON OIL, expressed from the seeds of the croton tiglium. "A most powerful drastic cathartic. Dose, from half a drop to three drops." {Dung. 172.) 7. SCARIFYING. The cutting of an inflamed part with a lancet or scalpel. As the inflammation is caused by the obstruc- tion of the circulation in the part, it seems strange philosophy to suppose that cutting off the vessels would hasten it in its course or that the prevention of the blood from flowing into the part, with them, will preserve it from mortification. 8. SPIRITS OF TURPENTINE. Irritates the nmcousmem- brane of the intestines and other parts. Given for worms and as a diuretic. In moderate doses, useful in these cases 9. MERCURIAL OINTMENT. Is often absorbed into the system and produces salivation. {Harrison's Essays ) II. TARTAR EMETIC OINTMENT is absorbed and produces the same effect as when given internally. See Anti mony. REMEDIES. 59 11. HYOSCYAMUS. "Inflames the stomach and intestines, engorges with blood the brain, and sometimes the lungs-; produces extreme sickness, lassitude, and stupor, dimness of sight, a hard, quick pulse, dilation of the pupils, delirium, coma and death." [Coley.) An " acro-narcotic;" see description under Ipecac. Antidote. Oily and mucilaginous fluids, acidulous and stimu- lant draughts, the lancet. {Coley.) 11. NITRATE OF SILVER, Lamar Caustic. Produces the effects of other irritant poisons. {Dunglison.) See Acids. Antidote. Common salt, muriate of soda. {lb.) Nitrate of Silver produces inflammation and gangrene of the mucous membrane of the stomach and bowels, is some- times absorbed and gives a purple color to the rete mucosum. Symptoms, acrid taste and corrosion of the throat and stomach, fullness and choking, vomiting, diarrhoea, syncope, cramps, bloody mucous, tenesimus, convulsions and death. {Coley.) Antidote. Salt and Avater, ipecac, sulphate of zinc, blood-let- ting, &c. {lb.) Yet Prof. Dunglison says, Die. p. 323, "the most powerful (remedy!) in epilepsy is the argenti nitras, given regu- larly and continued for months, if necessary." What a valuable medicine! 11 DOVER'S POWDERS. Pulvis ipecacuanha, opii el sul- phas-potassa:. Powders of opium, ipecac, and potash. Ipecac, combined with the opium " to counteract its tendency to operate injuriously on the brain." {U. S. Disp.) 11 SIRUP OF POPPIES. See Opium. Antidote to Opium. A powerful emetic of the sulphates of zincandcopperandthe vomiting encouragedby frequent draughts nf ™ water. If these fail, from stupor and depression, ad- ^r^muLte by the stomach pump, and afterwards water Tdutted^ ^bwS spirts of terpentine, and move the patient about. Rem- edy quite as bad as the disease. See zinc and copper. iq MlTROUS ACID, also nitric, sulphuric and muriatic, see uac^'SoTy gives 'near.y the same account of them that acids Coley g ^^ ^ the moutn 60 DESCRIPTION OE Antidotes. The antidotes are milk, poAvdered chalk or magne- Bia, soap'and water, solutions of potash and soda, &c. {Coley.) 13. SUGAR OF LEAD, Acetate of Lead. White lead, red lead, litharge, wines sweetened with lead, lead water, acid fruits kept in earthen vessels glazed with lead, are all deadly poisons, pro- ducing " spasms, paralysis, colic, obstinate constipation, giddiness, torpor, coma, convulsions and death." {Dunglison.) Antidote. Sulphate of magnesia and phosphate of soda, dilute sulphuric acid, anodynes, venesection, (blood-letting,) and strychnine! (76.) 14. SULPHATE OF IRON, Copperas, Green Vitriol. "An irritant poison. Produces colic pains, constant vomiting and purg- ing, violent pain in the throat, tension of the epigastrium, cold- ness of the skin and feebleness of the pulse." {Dunglison, 487.) Antidote. Carbonate of soda, mucilaginous drinks. {lb.) 17. CICUTA, Conium. " Acro-narcotic." See Ipecac. 19. SETONS. Strings run through a part of the flesh to pro- duce and continue suppuration ; as a revulsion from an internal part. Antidote. Steam, lobelia, &c. (C.) 19. IODINE, Hidriodate of Potassa. Produces " burning pain in the throat, lacerating pain in the stomach, and fruidess efforts to vomit: suffused eyes, excessive pain and tenderness in the epigastrium." {Dunglison.) Antidote. Starch, Avheat flour, warm water, &c. " Hidriodate of potassa has no antidote." {lb.) 20. ACTIVE PURGATIVES. Tend to produce h-regularity of the bowels, costiveness, piles, intermittent and congestive levers, and repercussion of cutaneous eruptions. (C) Antidote. Warm and vapor bath, emetics and enemas JjMl. SENNA AND MANNA. Purgative, See preceding 21. ICE. A powerful astringent and sedative, rarely proper as a med.cine, often very impropei,y used by the p *P1°P£ hemorrhages, congestions, &c. y' 21. SPIGELIA. A vermifuge. "Acro-narcotic." {Dunglison.) REMEDIES. 61 24. SQUILLS. An anti-spasmodic and expectorant. " Acro- narcotic." 26. ALUM. A poAverful astringent, very improperly used here. 26. BRONCHOTOMY. Cutting open the bronchia?! 29. WARM CLIMATES. A polite way of sending a patient off to die. It is far less expensive, more comfortable, easier, more speedy and effectual, to keep a patient in a warm room at home, where his friends can administer to his wants and cheer him in his sufierings, and where he can be saved, if any thing can save him. He can be carried in the open air Avhen the tem- perature is suitable. 29. PRUSSIC ACID. Oil of bitter almonds, laurel water; a sedative poison, [acting on the nervous system] producing nau- sea, giddiness, debility, hurried pulse, weight and pain in the head; spasms, tetanus, contracted pupil; convulsions, death." [Dunglison.) Antidote. Ammonia, liquid chlorine, cold shower bath, {lb.) « The strong acid kills small animals instantly ; even a drop of it applied to the eye of a dog is fatal. A German chemist is re- ported to have lost his life by receiving a drop of it upon his arm." {Silliman's Chem. vol. ii. p. 594.) 31. STEAMBATH, CALOMEL. Two sworn enemies, alto- gether " incompatible." We have seen the former drive out the latter, after an undisturbed possession of thirteen years and all periods short of that. But sometimes the calomel gets so strong a hold that even the steam cannot eradicate it. (C.) 33. CAUSTIC ISSUE. See Seton. 37. COLCHICUM, STRAYIMONIUM. " Acro-narcotics." 43. BARYTES, carbonate, muriate and nitrate of. Produces violent burning in the stomach, vomiting, gripes, diarrhoea, ex- cessive muscular debility, headache, convulsions, death. {Dungh- Antidote. Sulplfete of soda und magnesia, phosphate of soda, fixed oils, &c. {Dunglison.) 44. BELLADONNA, atropa. An "acro-narcotic." Produ- 62 A REFORM NEEDED. ces "violent headache over the orbits, redness of the eyes, dila- tion of the pupils, redness over the body, painful but fruitless micturtion, delirium, convulsions, coma, death." {Coley.) After death the body swells and rapidly putrefies. {lb.) 67. ERGOT. An "acro-narcotic." Produces "heart-burn pain in the stomach and bowels, vertigo, cramps in the limbs, spasm about the heart and stomach, delirium, stupor, convulsions, death." {Coley.) Determines to the heart, brain and alimentary canal. {lb.) A EEFOEM NEEDED. In presenting myself before the public as an advocate of Medical Reform, it is my duty, first, to prove that medicine, as it has been and still is taught, understood and practiced, amongst our Allopathic brethren, is not what it should be. The evidence on which I may safely rest, are the declarations of the most enlightened practi- tioners and professors that the world can boast of, and the innumerable failures in practice daily witnessed by us all, in cases Avhere Ave ought to expect success. The denunciations of Medical professors and practi- tioners are both general and particular. I will present a few examples of each class — some that have not already been presented in this work. DENUNCIATIONS. Sydenham. "Physic," says Sydenham, "has ever, been pestered with hypotheses, the multitude and preca- riousness whereof, have only served to render the art DENUNCIATIONS: BROWN. 63 uncertain, fluctuating, fallacious, mysterious, and in a ritanner unintelligible." " Certain it is, that not a single medicine has been discovered by their assistance, since their introduction into physic, above two hundred years ago ; nor have they let the least light into the affair of administering medicines properly in particular circum- stances ; but rather served to bewilder us, to perplex prac- tice and create disputes that are never to be decided without recourse to experience, the true test of opinions in physic." (Pref. p. 5.) " Our misfortune proceeds from our having long since forsaken our skillful guide, Hippocrates, and the ancient method of cure, founded upon the knowledge of conjunct causes that plainly appear, insomuch that the art which is this day practiced, being invented by superficial reasoners, is rather the art of talking than of healing." (lb. p. 14.) Dr. Broavn, who studied under the famous Dr. Wm. Cullen, of Edinburgh, lived in his family and lectured on his system, (a system that has had as many advocates and practitioners as any other of modern times,) says, in his preface to his own work, " The author of this Avork has •spent more than tAventy years in learning, scrutinizing and teaching others every part of medicine. The first five years. passed aAvay in hearing others, in studying what I had heard, implicitly believing it, and entering up- on the possession as a rich inheritance. The next five I was employed in explaining, refining the several particu- lars, and bestowing on them a higher and nicer polish. During the succeeding years, nothing having prospered according to my satisfaction, I greAV indifferent to the sub- ject ; and, with many eminent men, and even the very vulgar, began to deplore the healing art, as altogether 64 DENUNCIATIONS : uncertain and incomprehensible. All this time passed away without that Avhich,of all things, is the most agree- able to the mind, the light of truth; and so great and precious a portion of the short and perishable life of man Avas totally lost. Here I Avas, in this period, in the situa- tion of a traveler in an unknown country, who after los- ing every trace of his way, wanders in the shades of night." I cannot admit Avith Dr. BroAvn, that he "had spent all that time Avithout the acquisition of any advan- tage." He had discovered many a valuable fact for future use. If he had not learned, directly, Avhat medicine was, he had discovered, indirectly, Avhat it Avas not; and thus narroAved the limits of his fruitless researches, as well as stored up experience as the foundation of his future med- ical philosophy. Dr. J. Abercrombie, Fellow of the Royal Society of England, of the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh, and first Physician to His Majesty in Scotland, says, " There has been much difference of opinion among phi- losophers, in regard to the place which medicine is entitled to hold among the physical sciences; for, while one has maintained that ' it rests upon an eternal basis, and has, within it the power of rising to perfection,' another has distinctly asserted that almost the only resource of med- icine is the art of conjecturing." D'Alembert. " The folkwing apologue," says D'Al- embert, "made by a physician, a man of wit and philoso- ophy, represents very Avell the state of that science. ' Nature is fighting Avith Disease ; a blind man comes in armed with a club, thatis, a physician comes to settle the difference. He first tries to make peace. When he cannot accomplish this, he lifts his club, and strikes at GRAHAM, GREGORY. 65 random. If he strikes the disease, he kills the disease ; if he strikes nature, he kills nature." " An eminent physician," says the same writer, " renouncing a practice which he had exercised for thirty years, said, "I am weary of guessing." Dr. Abercrombie continues, "The uncertainty of medicine, which is thus a theme for the philosopher and the humorist, is deeply felt by the prac- tical physician in the daily exercise of his art." Dr. James Graham, the celebrated Medico-Electrician of London, says of medicine, " It hath been very rich in theory, but poor, very poor in the practical application of it. Indeed, the tinsel glitter of fine-spun theory, or favorite hypothesis, which prevails wherever medicine hath been taught, so dazzles, flatters and charms human vanity and folly, that so far from contributing to the cer- tain and speedy cure of diseases, it hath, in every age, proved the bane and disgrace of the healing art." (p. 15.) Gregory. " All the vagaries of Medical Theory," says Dr. Gregory, of London, "like the absurdities once advanced to explain the nature of gravitation, from Hip- pocrates to Broussais, have been believed to be sufficient to explain the phenomena of disease ; yet they have all proved unsatisfactory." (Prac. p. 81.) "The science of medicine has been cultivated more than two thousand years," continues Gregory. " The most devoted indus- try and the greatest talents have been exercised upon it; and, though there have been great improvements, and there is much to be remembered, yet, upon no subject have the wild spirit and the eccentric dispositions of the imagination been more widely displayed. * * * Men of extensive fame, glory in pretending to see deeper into \j{) DENUNCIATIONS: the recesses of nature than nature herself ever intended; they invent hypotheses, they build theories, and distort facts to suit their aerial creations. The celebrity of many of the most prominent characters of the last century, will, ere long, be discovered only in the libraries of the curious, and recollected only by the learned." (p. 29.) I would here add that Dr. Gregory's statements re- specting medical theories are supported by Professor Pot- ter, of the University of Maryland, and S. Calhoun, M. D., Professor in Jefferson Medical College, Pennsylva- nia. They are therefore sanctioned by the famous schools of Baltimore and Pennsylvania, each claiming the highest honors of any Medical College in the United States. Of the theories,Dr. Eberle says, (vol. l,p. 6,) "The judicious and unprejudiced physician Avill neither con- demn nor adopt unreservedly any of the leading doctrines in modern times." Professor Abercrombie says," Med- icine has been called the art of conjecturing— the science of guessing." Prof. Bigelow calls it an " ineffectual speculation." Dr. T. J. Todd says, " Medicine has never yet knoAvn the fertilizing influence of the inductive logic." Hannemann. In Germany the most intelligent and ex- perienced physicians have been long convinced that the administration of heroic medicines, is not the true art. of preventing and curing disease; and their late Avriters, among whom Hannemann stands preeminent, have under- taken to reform the old practice, so far as to administer with a cowardly instead of a heroic hand, the ten-mil- lionth part of a grain of poison, instead of two hundred and fifty grains. Lieutaud. Of the Parisian School, in the last centu- ry, Dr. Joseph Lieutaud, Physician to Louis the 16th, LIEUTAUD, PATTIS0N, ETC. 67 &c, said, in his Synopsis of Medicine, page 1, that in what had been written before his day, he found it" difficult to disengage certainty from uncertainty, and to separate the useful from the trivial. Hence many of no mean rank have doubted whether it Avould not be better to give up the undertaking, and confine themselves to new obser- vations, out of which, when AYell investigated and arranged, there might be produced a sounder theory. I will leave this to the more learned, and only candidly and briefly publish Avhat I have collected from a practice of thirty years." For such opinions and actions, Professor Potter in his translation, (memory serves,) says, " I am not Avorthy to hold a candle to him." But even this synopsis did not answer, and many new theories have lately been formed in that school, among which one of the latest and most celebrated is that of M. Broussais. But even of this, which condemned all its predecessors, as others had done before it, Professor G. S. Pattison, of the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, says, " This fact," (that M. An- dral can believe in somnambulism, which at one time could see only the state of the internal organs of the body ; at another only that of fluids) "is worthy of being noticed; it teaches us that the mind which is credulous enough to give credit to animal magnetism, will believe any absurdity, even the greatest of all absurdities, the 'Physiological System' of M. Broussais. The student whose mind becomes infatuated by being taught to believe in the specious but most fallacious doctrines of Broussais, on entering his profession, becomes a most dangerous character, Tnd, unless he is induced to pause and discard his system, after the sacrifice of victims at its shrine, the 68 denunciations : desolation he will produce in the district in which he prac- tices, will be incalculable." "It may be said, 'Surely, a few leeches and a little gum water Avill kill nobody.' Let the physician never forget that it is his duty to cure his patients, and that, should he lose them by trifling and inert remedies, when they might have been saved by an energetic and vigorous system of treatment, he becomes really and truly their destroyer." [No, Dr. Pattison, not so bad as that.] " We do hope and trust," says this editor, " that the intelligent practitioners of this country, whose extensive practical knowledge of their profession, must have convinced them that the diseases of the Uni- ted States are generally of the most acute character, and such as require for their cure the most\rigorous treatment, will exert themselves to put down the ' physiological sys- tem' of M. Broussais, which, we are sorry to find, is attempted to be inculcated and made fashionable, by1 the publication of that author and by teaching his doctrines. (Reg. $ Lib., vol. 1, p. 7.) I cannot forbear remarking here, that, under my own observation, those practitioners who followed, during the prevalence of the Asiatic Cholera, in 1832, the " vigor- ous treatment" laid down by this same Dr. Pattison, in a letter of instructions, " produced a desolation" not indeed "incalculable," for it was easily embodied in the single word " universal," while the more cautious practitioners who did little or nothing — a practice more like that of Hannemann and Broussais — lost but very few. Dr. Benjamin Wateriiouse, of Harvard University, at Cambridge, near Boston, Massachusetts, who Avas one of the three first Professors appointed in the Medical Department of that Institution, after lecturing in it for THATCHER, BIGELOW, MITCHELL. 69 tAventy years, retired, saying of all he had been so long and so zealously teaching, " I am sick of learned quack- ery." Dr. James Thatcher, author of the "American New Dispensatory," of " The American Modern Practice," "The Biography of American Medical Men," &c, says, " The melancholy triumph of disease over its victims, and the numerous reproachful examples of medical impotency, clearly evince that the combined stock of ancient and modern learning is greatly insufficient to perfect our sci- ence. * * Far indeed, beneath the standard of perfection, it is still fraught Avith deficiencies, and altogether inade- quate to our desires." (Mod. Practice, p. 8.) Dr. Jacob Bigelow, Professor in Harvard University, says, in his annual address before the Medical Society in 1835, " The premature death of medical men, brings with it the humiliating conclusion, that while the other sciences have been carried forward AYithin our OAvn time and almost under our OAvn eyes, to a degree of unprece- dented advancement, medicine, in regard to some of its professed and important objects, (the cure of disease,) is still an ineffectual speculation." Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell, late Professor in the Med- ical College in New-York City, in his preface to " Darwin's Zoonomia," says, " After the different projects for meth- odizing this department of knowledge, (medicine,) which have successively been offered to the public, with so little advancement to true science, the friends of medical improvement will joyfully accept something that promises to lead them from an arbitrary system to a natural method." (p. 29.) Of this " natural method," according to Dr. Mitchell, 70 denunciations : the late learned Dr. Mason Good, Professor, &c, in London says, " Hoav deeply is it to be regretted that so much genius and learning, so much valuable time and la- bor, and, above all, such lofty hopes and predictions, should have been productive of so small a result." While Darwin expresses the hope that he has laid the founda- tion of Medical Science on a basis " which shall stand unimpaired, like the Newtonian philosophy, a rock amid the waste of ages," Dr. Good declares, (Nosology, page 29,) " No generous spirit can read this passage without a sigh; none probably without exclaiming in the words of Pope — ' Oh, blindness to the future — kindly given.'" , And I have some where read a statement of a late learned Professor, that the learned, ingenious and volu- minous work of this same Dr. Good is Avorthy of a con- demnation as severe as that above bestowed on Dr. Dar- win. Dr. Eberle says, (Prac. Med., Preface, page 6,) "It is noAV generally and very justly believed that the artifi- cial, classic, ordinal and specific distinctions of nosology, (the forte of Dr. Good,) have an unfavorable influence on the progress of comprehensive and philosophical vieAvs of pathology! " Thus the whole foundation of that immense work, "The Studies of Medicine," is pronounc- ed not only useless, but pernicious! Dr. Rush says in his lectures in the University of Pennsylvania, "I am insensibly led to make an apology for the instability of the theories and practice of physic. Those physicians generally become the most eminent, who soonest emancipate themselves from the tyranny of the chapman. 71 schools of physic. Our want of success is owing to the following causes: 1st, Our ignorance of the disease ; 2d, Our ignorance of a suitable remedy." (p. 79. ) Dr. Chapman, Professor of the Institutes and Practice of Physic in the University of Pennsylvania, remarks, " Consulting the records of our science, we cannot help being disgusted with the multitude of hypotheses obtruded upon us at different times. No where is the imagination displayed to greater extent; and perhaps so ample an ex- hibition of human invention might gratify our vanity, if it were not more than counter-balanced by the humiliating view of so much absurdity, contradiction and falsehood." (Therapeutics, vol. 1, p. 47.) " To harmonize the contrarieties of medical doctrines, is indeed a task as impracticable as to arrange the fleeting vapors around us, to reconcile the fixed and repulsive an- tipathies of nature." (lb., page 23.) "As it is, we are plunged in a Dedalian labyrinth almost without a clue. Dark and perplexed, our devious career (to borrow the fine illustration of a favorite writer,) re- sembles the groping of Homer's Cyclops round his cave." "Not the slightest of the causes Avhich have conspired to retard the progress of physic, is the eagerness for rash, indiscreet generalization, by which, at all times, it has been distinguished. But if ever we are to strip our art of its 'glorious uncertainties,' (I should say more proper- ly ' its inglorious certamties,') and brmg into the practice of it something of exactness, it will be by pursuing a very different course. To effect so important a revolution, we must studiously examine the phenomena of disease, and with an attention no less unbiassed, observe the operation of medicines. Thus, perhaps, we shall ulti- 72 denunciations : mately learn to discriminate accurately the diversified shades of morbid action, and to apply to each its appro- priate remedies." (Therap.,vol. 1, p. 49.) "Availing ourselves of the privileges we possess, and animated by the noblest impulses, let us cordially cooperate to give medicine a new direction, and attempt those great improve- ments which it imperiously demands." (Therap., vol. 1, p. 51.) I perfectly agree with Prof. Chapman in the above statements respecting Avhat is taught in the schools of Medical Science, and will most cordially cooperate with him in effecting " so important a revolution" as " to bring into the practice, something of exactness." Prof. Jackson, of the University of Pennsylvania, tells us in the preface to his " Principles of Medicine," (p. 1,) that " The discovery of new facts, has shed a light which has changed the whole aspect of Medical Sci- ence, and the works which have served as guides, are impaired in importance and value ; they lead astray from the direction in which the science progresses, and neAY ones are demanded, to supply the position in Avhich they become faulty." "The want of a treatise on the practice of medicine, in the room of those usually placed in the hands of stu- dents and young practitioners, had long been felt. * * * At first I contemplated merely a practical book, compiled in the usual manner, founded on the experience of pre- ceding writers, compared with, and corrected and extend- ed by my oavu. I had made a considerable progress in this method, when I was arrested bj the conviction that it was essentially defective ; that it did not meet the spirit of the age; that it did not answer the purposes of rational eberle, whiting. 73 instruction; that it did not supply the deficiency I had felt to exist in the commencement of my profession; that it had been followed in a servile spirit, from the remotest eras of the science, and is, most probably, the cause that, af- ter so long a period after its cultivation, its practice still continues of uncertain and doubtful application." He therefore strikes out an entirely new path, and writes a large book, Avhich is no sooner out of the press -than Dr. J. V. C. Smith, of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, pounces upon it with severity almost equal to that of Dr. Pattison upon Broussais. So they . go. (Dr. Curtis.) = Dr. John Eberle, Professor successively in Philadel- phia, New York, Cincinnati, and Lexington, Ky., says of the fashionable theories of medicine, " The judicious and unprejudiced physician will neither condemn nor adopt unreservedly any of the leading doctrines advanc- ed in modern times." (Pref. to Prac, p. 1.) That is, not a tyro, mark it, but " the judicious and unprejudiced physician," the man who is best instructed in them, and the most capable of distinguishing between truth and falsehood, even such a man is not certain whether, not a few wild notions of some idle theorist, but «the leading doctrines," the fundamental principles of modern medicine, are right or wrong ! Shade of Dr. Eb- erle ! You surely will not haunt me for trying to deter- mine this unsettled question! Dr L M Whiting, in a Dissertation at an annual commencement in Pittefteld, Mass., said: "The very principles upon which most of what are called the theo- ries' involving medical questions, have been based, were never established. They are and always Averc false, and 74 denunciations : consequently, the superstructures built upon them were as ' the baseless fabric of a vision' — transient in their existence — passing away upon the introduction of new doctrines and hypotheses, like dew before the morning sun." (B. M. $ S. Journal, vol. 14, p. 183.) " Because all systems which have hitherto been pro- mulgated, have been false, and consequently, transient, it by no means follows that there may not be found one which will stand, a tower of strength, unharmed by the rude shock of opposition's bursting wave, through all succeeding time ; and such a theory, it is conceived, may and will be formed of disease." (lb. p. 186.) " Speculation has been the garb in which medicine has been arrayed, from that remote period when it was rock- ed in the cradle of its infancy, by the Egyptian priest- hood, down to the present day; its texture varying, to be sure, according to the power and skill of the manufac- turer, from the delicate, fine-spun, gossamer-like web of Darwin, to the more gross, uneven and unwieldy fabric of Hunter; its hue also changing by being dipped in dif- ferent dyes as often as it has become soiled by time and exposure. And Avhat has been the consequence ? Sys- tem after system has arisen, flourished, fallen and been forgotten, in rapid and melancholy succession, until the whole field is strewed with the disjointed materials in a perfect chaos — and amongst the rubbish, the philosophic mind _may search for ages, without being able to glean from it hardly one solitary well established fact." " If this is a true statement of the case, (and let him who doubts take up the history of medicine ;) if that enormous mass of matter which has been, time out of mind, accumulating, and which has been christened Med- WHITING. 75 ical Science, is, in fact, nothing but hypothesis piled on hypothesis ; who is there among us that would not exult in seeing it SAvept away at once by the besom of destruc- tion?" (lb. p. 187, 8.) For these sweeping denunciations of all the labors of his predecessors, Dr. Smith, of the Journal, pronounces Dr. Whiting an "original thinker," and his Dissertation an " effort to diffuse light in regions of darkness." I shall hereafter show, that I do not agree with Dr. Whit- ing, that in all these labors " the philosophic mind may search for ages without being able to glean from it hardly one solitary well established fact." I believe they have disclosed facts enough, if well understood, to establish the science of medicine on an immovable basis, and I am very far from desiring that all these facts should be " swept away at once by the besom of destruction." They have established many an important fact that I hope will never be forgotten. They have proved incontestibly that " a physician should be nature's servant;" that " bleeding tends directly to subdue nature's efforts;" that "all pois- ons, suddenly and rapidly extinguish a great proportion of the vitality of the system ;" that Avhatever be the quantity, use, or manner of application, all the influence they inherently possess is injurious, and that they are not fatal in every instance of their use, only because nature overpowers them — in short, they have tried, and proved false and mischievous, so many errors and combinations of errors in theory and practice, that he who would noAV come at the truth, if he do no more than merely avoid the repetition of their fruitless and ruinous experiments, will so far diminish the chances of error, that any new plan he may propose must approximate near, very near to the right. 76 denunciations : I might fill a folio of a thousand pages with similar " besom"-like denunciations of medicine as taught in the old schools ; but you, in the bitterness of your souls, must have cried out," Enough! enough!" Bear with me however a little longer, while I present another view of the same subject. PARTICULAR DENUNCIATIONS. It is sometimes said that the above and similar denun- ciations are too general in their character, and that they are the result of disappointment, and 'difficulties in dif- ferent cases; whereas the several branches of medical theory and practice are generally pretty well understood. Let us examine these questions. The important branches of the healing art must be the Theory of Disease and its diA'isions; of the action of organs under its influence, and the nature, use and modus operandi of remedies, &c, &c. "Disease" says Dr. Whiting, "has never, till lately, been investigated." (Dissertation.) Characters or Symptoms of Disease. Abercrombie. " Since medicine was first cultivated as a science, a leading object of attention has ever been to ascertain the characters or symptoms by which partic- ular internal diseases are indicated, and by Avhich they are distinguished from other diseases which resemble them. But, Avith the accumulated experience of ages bearing upon this important subject, our extended obser- vation has only served to convince us how deficient we are in this department, and hoAV often, even in the first step of our progress, we are left to conjecture. A writer chapman, abercrombie. 77 of high eminence, (Morgagni.) has even hazarded the assertion that those persons are most confident in regard to the characters of disease, Avhose knowledge is most limited, and that more extended observation generally leads to doubt.'.' (Intel. Pow., p. 294, 5.) Prof. Chapman says, " Perhaps we shall ultimately learn to discriminate accurately the diversified shades of morbid action, and apply to each its appropriate remedies. As it is, we are plunged into a Dedalian labyrinth almost without a clue. Dark and perplexed, our devious career, to borrow the fine illustration of a favorite writer, resem- bles the blind gropings of Homer's Cyclops round his cave." (Therap. vol. 1, p. 49.) Progress of Disease. Abercrombie. " If such uncertainty hangs over our knowledge of disease," says Abercrombie, " it will not be denied that at least an equal degree of uncertainty at- tends its progress. We have learned, for example, the various modes in Avhich internal inflammation terminates, as resolution, suppuration, gangrene, adhesion and effu- sion ; but, in regard to a particular case of inflammation before us, how little notion can we form of what will be its progress or how it will terminate!" (Intel. Pow. d 295.) Action of External Agents. " An equal or even a more remarkable degree of un- certainty attends all our researches into the action of external agents on the body, whether as causes of dis- eases or as remedies ; in both which respects, their action is fraught with the highest degree of uncertainty." (Intel Pow. p. 295.) " In regard to the action of external agents as causes 78 denunciations : of disease, we may take a single example in the effects of cold. Of six individuals who have been exposed to cold in the same degree, and, so far as we can judge, under the same circumstances, one may be seized with inflammation of the lungs, one with diarrhoea, and one Avith rheumatism, while three may escape without any in- jury. Not less remarkable is the uncertainty in regard to the action of remedies. One case appears to yield with readiness to the remedies that are employed; on another which we have every reason to believe to be of the same nature, no effect is produced in arresting its fatal progress ; while a third, Avhich threatened to be equally formidable, appears to cease without the operation of any remedy at all." (lb. p. 295-6. See also, p. 23.) Experience of little Value. Abercrombie. " When in the practice of medicine, we apply to new cases the knowledge acquired from others which we believe to have been of the same nature, the dif- ficulties are so great that it is doubtful whether in any case Ave can properly be said to act from experience, as we do in other departments of science." * * " The difficulties and sources of uncertainty which meet us at every stage of such investigations, are in fact, so numerous and great, that those who have had the most extensive opportunities of observation, will be the first to acknoAvledge that our pretended experience must, in general, sink into analogy, and even our analogy too often into conjecture." (Intel. Pow. p. 292.) Jackson. " What is called experience in medicine," says Prof. Jackson, " daily observation and reflection con- firm me in the conviction, is a fallacious guide not more JACKSON,GREGORY. 79 entitled to the explicit confidence claimed for it than when it was thus characterized by the father of the science—Fal lax experientia. In fact, experience cannot exist in medi- cine, such as it is in those arts in which experiments can be made under circumstances invariably the same," &c. And after proving what he had said, he adds, " But med- icine is a demonstrative science, and all its processes • should be proved by established principles, and be based on positive induction. That the proceedings of medicine are not of this character, is to be attributed to the man- ner of its cultivation, and not to the nature of the science itself." Hence, he " abandoned" his first " plan," and "attempted the establishment of (new) principles of general application," &c. Here we have the positive declarations of an. able and approved professor, that" the proceedings" of medicine are not science; that he be- lieves there is such a thing as medical science capable of demonstration, and that his book is an " indication to the line of march now taken up" towards* this demonstrative science, which he has not yet discovered. Surely Dr. Jackson Avill delight to see the efforts that are made by Botanic reformers to aid his own brilliant flambeau, in bringing into view this much desired, long sought, but Still, to him, eluding science. Fever. According to the doctrines of the old schools, fever, in its various forms, is one of the most common, the most obstinate, and often the most dangerous enemy with which they have to contend. But Avhat do they know of it? Hear their own declaration. Gregory "Fever is the most important, because the "mversal and the most fatal of all fe mor- 80 denunciations : bid affections of which the human body is susceptible." * * " The physician must always be prepared to expect its occurence. It is that by the presence or absence of which all his views of treatment are to be regulated; whose rise, progress and termination, he ahvays watches with the closest attention. [He surely ought to have learned something about it by this time, if he has watch- ed it for four thousand years.] " Some idea may be formed of the great mortality of fevers from the statement of Sydenham, who calculated that two-thirds of mankind die of acute diseases, proper- ly so called ; and two-thirds of the remainder, of that lingering febrile disease, consumption. Fever has prov- ed a fertile theme on which the ingenuity of physicians in all ages has been exerted; and a glance at the atten- tion which it has received from every medical author, both ancient and modern, would be sufficient to impress upon any one the importance of the doctrines it embraces. " Hoav difficult is the study of fever, may be inferred from this, that, though so much has been written concern- ing it, there is no one subject in the whole circle of med- ical science, Avhich still involves so many disputed points." Still, much as they are disputed, the Doctor adds, " The doctrines of fever are of paramount importance, and therefore constitute, with great propriety, the foundation of all pathological reasoning." (Greg. Prac. vol.1, p. 43-4.) " It has been a favorite topic of inquiry among all writers on fever, What is its nature ? In what particu- lar state of the fluids or solids does it consist. The sub- ject has been prosecuted with diligence, but the result of the investigation is very unsatisfactory. * * * All their THATCHER, EBERLE, ETC. 81 theories are open to many and strong objections." (lb. pp. 49, 50.) " The pathology of fever is so obscure, that it affords but little help in determining the plan of treat- ment." (p. 35.) Dr. Thatcher, the venerable author of the American New Dispensatory, says: "Notwithstanding the great prevalence of fever in all ages and in all climates, and the universal attention which it has excited among medi- cal observers ever since the days of Hippocrates, the disease still remains the subject of much discussion; and its essential nature, or the proximate cause of its symp- toms, is still a problem in medical science." (Thatcher's Prac. p. 198.) Eberle. " The history of practical medicine consists of little else than a review of the doctrines that have risen and sunk again, concerning the nature and treat- ment of fever." * * " It is in this department that obser- vation and research have been most industrious in accumulating materials, and that hypothesis has luxuriated inher Avildestexuberance." (Eberle's Prac. vol. l,p. 13.) Inflammation. Thatcher. " Numerous hypotheses or opinions respect- ing the true nature and cause of inflammation, have for acres been advanced, and for a time sustained; but even a* the present day the various doctrines appear to be con- sidered altogether problematical." (Practice, p. 279.) Numerous similar testimonies respecting pathology miaht be adduced, but time and space forbid Therefore we°will let a few more extracts suffice for the present. Mackintosh asks, "Who knows any thing abou disease ?" and he gives abundant cases to prove that not o 82 denunciations : a few of the most eminent physicians in all ages were ignorant on the subject. He asks what they knew, and answers for them — " Nothing — absolutely nothing !" True, he intimates that the " scalpel of the pathologist" will yet develop the matter; but Morgagni says, " They who have examined the most bodies are the most doubtful of the correctness of any information from them;" and Rush, still more bold, honest and candid, says: " Dissec- tions daily convince us of our ignorance of the seats of disease, and cause us to blush at our prescriptions." " What mischiefs have we done under the belief of false facts and false theories ! We have assisted in multiply- ing diseases ; we have done more — we have increased their mortality!" (Rob., p. 109.) Mackintosh gives prac- tical proofs of this in his account of surgical operations for dropsies and tumors in the pelvic region. Dr. Good says, " The language of medicine is an unintelligible jargon." (Nosology, pp. 35, 44.) Dr. Chapman says, " The Materia Medica is crude, wild and unregulated." (vol. 1, p. 31.) Bloqd-Letting. Thatcher. " We have no infallible index to direct us. It is impossible, from the state of the circulation in fever, to point to any certain criterion for the employment of the lancet; the state of the pulse is often ambiguous and deceptive. Circumstances require the nicest discrimina- tion, as the result is often very different in cases seem- ingly analogous. A precipitate decision is fraught with danger, and a mistake may be certain death." (Prac p. 208.) Mackintosh. " Some patients are bled who do not HUNTER, LOBSTIN, SALMON. 83 require it, and consequently are injured; others are bled who cannot bear it, and who ought to be treated by cor- dials, and the result is fatal." (p. 690.) " No physician, however wise and experienced, can tell what quantity of blood ought to be taken in any given case." (p. 418.) " In putrid fever, bleeding is not advisable. The loss of a few ounces of blood being equivalent to a sentence of death." (Gentlemen's Medical Pocket Book, p. 35.) Dr. Hunter said, "Blood-letting is one of the great- est weakeners, as we can kill thereby." Prof. J. F. Lobstin says, " So far from blood-letting being beneficial, it is productive of the most serious and fatal effects — a cruel practice — a scourge to humanity. How many thousands of our fellow citizens are sent [by it] to an untimely grave ! how many families are depriv- ed of their amiable children! how many husbands of their lovely wives! how many wives of their husbands! With- out blood there is no heat, no motion in the system — in the blood is the life. He who takes blood from the patient takes away not only an organ of life, but a part of life itself." (Essay on Blood-Letting.) Salmon. " So zealous are the blood-suckers of our age," says Salmon, in his Synopsis Medicinae," that they daily sacrifice hundreds to its omnipotence — who fall by its fury, like the children who, of old, passed through the fire of Moloch; and that without any pity left to com- miserate the inexplorable sufferings of their martyrs, or conscience of their crimes which may deter them in future from such villanies, the bare relation of which would make a man's ears tingle, which one cannot think of without grief, nor express without horror!" " An eminent physician says, that, after the practice 84 denunciations : of blood-letting Was introduced by Sydenham, during the course of one hundred years, more died of the lancet alone, than all Avho in the same period perished by war." (Rob. p. 121.) Deavees. " It would appear that the first, or inflam- matory stage of puerperal fever, the stage in which bleed- ing has been so eminently successful, has no discovered character by which it can be distinguished from the sec- ond, in which this operation is forbidden, after the lapse of a few hours." (Dewees* Females, p. 441.) " ^\Te would ask, what is the evidence that the first stage has run its course ? This is an important question, and one, from our present data, that cannot, we fear, be ansAvered satisfactorily. Hitherto this condition of the disease has been inferred rather than ascertained." (lb. p. 438.) The same author says, page 372, " Our bleedings are not always renewed from the arm, for, as soon as we get the pulse pretty well doAvn by this means, we have leech- es applied over the parts nearest to the seat of inflamma- tion, in such numbers as shall abstract at least eight or ten ounces of blood, and encourage their after bleeding by the application of moist warmth. Should these abstractions of blood not prove effective, and pain, fever and other unpleasant symptoms continue, but especially great pain and tenderness in the parts; if the pulse does not call for general bleeding, we repeat the leeching, nor stop until the end is answered, or until we are cominced our efforts will be unavailing, by the approach of the sec- ond stage, or by the addition of peritoneal inflammation." The immediate effect of profuse and repeated bleed- ing is exhaustion. While this exhaustion continues, there is diminution of action of every kind, and hence an impos- DEAVEES. 85 ing appearance of relief to the symptoms of disease, but it no sooner takes place than an instinctive effort is made by the vis medecatrix nature, to remedy the evil hereby produced, and to restore the system to its former balance of power. This balance is called a rallying or reaction of the living principle. The arteries contract to adapt themselves to the measure of blood that remains ; the sensorial organ is roused to the. secretion of a large pro- portion of nervous poAver to supply the inordinate drain that takes place during the general commotion, all is in a state of temporary hurry and urgency, and for the most part irregularity of action, Avhile the instinctive effort is proceeding. And hence, no sooner is the immediate effect of prostration, exhaustion or syncope overcome, than the heart palpitates, the pulse beats forcibly Avith a jerking bound, the head throbs, the eyes flash fire, and the ears ring Avith unusual sounds. Now it often happens that these concurrent signs are mistaken for proofs of latent or increased vigor, instead of being merely proofs of increased action ; and action, too, that adds as largely to the exhaustion as the depletion that produced it; and the unhappy patient is bled a second, a third, and even a fourth time, till no reaction follows, at which time it is strangely supposed that the entona, plethora, or inflam- matory diathesis is subdued and lulled into a calm, because the patient has been so far and fatally drained of his living principle, that there is no longer any rallying or reactive power remaining, and gives up the ghost, in a few hours, to the treatment, instead of the disease. We have the direction of Dr. Dewees to bleed as long as the unpleasant symptoms continue, and the declaration of Dr Good, and others, that those symptoms will con- §6 denunciations : tinue till the patient has been so far and fatally drained of his living principle,,that there is no longer any rally- vciv or reactive power remaining, and the patient falls a prey to the treatment, instead of the disease. Hence, to bleed scientifically, as taught in Philadelphia and London, and wherever else these text books of the highest authority are adopted, is to bleed till the patient gives signs of Avoe that all is lost. Or, in plain English, it is to commit willful murder. Purgatives. " Many patients are over purged with drastic medicines to the aggravation of the disease, while others are bunged up with opium." (Mackintosh's Pathology, p. 690.) " Purgatives besides being uncertain and uncontrollable, often kill from the dangerous debility they produce." (Gregory's Prac. of Physic, p. 94.) " Such is the diversity of circumstances in different examples of fever, and so great is the uncertainty of the effects of mercury on the system, that no precise rule for its administration can be given or regarded." (Thatcher's Prac. p. 214.) " Mercury, in some instances, exhibits at once all the phenomena of a poisonous action, productive of the most mischievous and sometimes even fatal consequences." (Chapman's Therapeutics, vol. 2, p. 258.) "Mercury," says Dr. Rush, "is the Goliath of Medi- cine." It is certainly a Goliath to destroy; it is the uncircumcised Philistine of medical science, who defies the armies of the living God. The numbers slain by his arm, let India, Europe, America and the world witness. The multitude of the valley of Hamon Gog would not eberle, etc. 87 equal their countless hosts, if mustered on the field of battle." (Curtis's Led.) " The ' heroic medicines,' as they are emphatically called, deserve, indeed, a considerable share of the praise of the Caesars and Alexanders of the world ; powerful to destroy, heroic in blood, and havoc, and desolation! It was the boast of Alexander, ' I have made Asia a desert, I have trampled down its inhabitants, and prostrated its ancient renoAvn.' " Poisons have done more. Opiates. " The habitual use of the destructive palliatives," is condemned by Dr. Eberle, as " never failing to operate perniciously on the whole organization." Poisons in general. " Notwithstanding the various modes of their action, and the difference in many of their symptoms, they all agree in the sudden and rapid extinction of a great pro- portion of the vitality of the system." (Med. £ Surg. Journal, vol. 9, p. 43.) Hooper says, "The most active poisons in small doses form the most valuable medicine." ^ Barton says, " Poisons are, in general, good medicine. (Medical Botany.) # ' I have no doubt that "the lancet and poisons, as many eminent physicians have declared, « have destroyed more lives than the sword, pestilence and famine. _ let these are the articles of medicine most relied upon in .he treatment of disease by our Allopathic brethren. I remark again, that a folio might have been written on this head, but I trust enough has been given to justify ss denunciations : Dr. Whiting in the declaration, " We may apply to Therapeutics, so far as the Materia Medica is concerned, the same SAveeping phrase which we have already had the temerity to introduce with regard to pathology — that it is a perfect chaos." (B. M. $ S. J. vol. 14, p. 189.) Popular Medicine not Science. I might assign, as another reason Avhy I am an advo- cate of Medical Reform, the fact that medicine, as taught in the old schools, is not science. Dr. Abercrombie says, (page 24) "The object of all science is to ascertain the established relations of things, or the tendency of certain events to be uniformly followed by certain other events." But on page 293, he proves medicine to be the " art of conjecturing," the " science of guessing." Dr. Gregory says, (Practice, vol. 1, page 34,) " The perfection of every science consists in the exact assign- ment of effects to their causes, and the expression of their operation in intelligible language." But on page 29, he says, "Upon no subject have the Avild spirit and eccen- tric disposition of the imagination been more Avidely dis- played than in the history of medicine." Drs. Gregory, Bigelow, Hooper, Hays, and others, say that " The object of medical science is to prevent and cure disease." But I have proved by the testimo- nies above, that the art of preventing and curing disease is neither taught nor understood in the old schools of medicine. Dr. Jackson says, (Principles, page 11,) " The true science of medicine is a demonstrative science, and all its processes shoidd proceed from established principles, JACKSON, CURTIS. 89 and be based on positive inductions. That the proceed- ings of medicine are not of this character, is to be attrib- uted to the manner of its cultivation, not to the nature of the science itself." * * " Let medical science be prosecuted in the spirit, and its investigations be conduct- ed under the precepts of a positive philosophy, and there can be no hesitation in believing that a degree of certain- ty will attach to the calculations and attend the practice of the science, [calculations of the science and the prac- tice of the art,] of which, at present, it is difficult to to form any comprehension." Here Ave have not only proof that we ought to be re- formers in medicine, but great encouragement to become such. Similar encouragement is given by Drs. Rush, Mitchell, Waterhouse, BigeloAv, and thousands of others, both dead and living. The same Dr. Whiting Avho said (Medical Journal, vol. 14, page 181) that " disease has never, until quite recently, been investigated," says also (page 185) that " there may and will be formed a sys- tem (or theory of medicine) which will stand a tower of strength, unharmed by the rude shocks of opposition's bursting wave, through all succeeding time." And, page 189 "A theory of therapeutics will be formed Avhich shall be as immutable as any other natural laAv." And he adds, too, that "this is to be done by simple observa- vation and experiment." Just as we are doing it in the Botanic practice. v Brother physicians of the New School, let us take courage and contend manfully for this glorious prize which is yet to be Avon. Dr. Curtis in his introductory lecture to the students of the BotanicaMedical Colleges, says, " After such an exhibition of the fruitless, the melancholy and often de- HO denunciations : s tractive and devastating results of medical theorizing and experimenting for four thousand years, is it a matter for reproach—nay, is it not praiseworthy, in any man to declare himself a friend to medical reform, improve- ment, or even revolution, if the art of healing cannot be acquired Avithout ? But I hasten to my proposition. It may be said that all the above are mere opinions—that the true healing art is understood and practiced by the great mass of enlightened physicians of the present clay. To this I oppose — " 1st, The testimony of those very men Avho most ar- dently and ably support it. Testimony against one's self, is admitted to be the strongest that can be adduced. If they understood the art, they would surely ' heal them- selves,' if no more. But what say they? — " ' The premature death of medical men,' says Bige- LOW,' brings with it the humiliating conclusion, that, while the other sciences have been carried forward within our OAvn time, and almost under our own eyes, to a degree of unprecedented advancement, medicine, in regard to some of its professed and most important objects, (the cure of disease,) is still an ineffectual speculation.' Rush ex- claims, ' We have assisted in multiplying diseases; we have done more—we have increased their mortality.' " Add to these the declarations above quoted, respecting the injurious influence of their heroic medicines; and if any thing more is Avanted, I refer to my third head, viz., " The devastation which disease is continually making under our own observation, in the health, comfort, consti- tutions and lives of our dear friends and neighbors, and society around us—(in charity I will say, notwithstand- ing the utmost efforts of the most intelligent and benevo- CURTIS. 91 lent physicians to stay his ruthless hand) — and noAV I ask if it be not praiseworthy in me, to stand up before you the fearless and uncompromising advocate of reform in the science of medicine ?" (Prof. Curtis's Lectures, -p. 16.) He still says, "If however you should still decide that there is neither merit nor justice in my conduct, then I answer — " I am one of six children, whom my parents raised to maturity without the aid of doctors or poisons, and sent out into the world with good constitutions in a healthy state. In process of time they were all attacked Avith disease, and five of the six applied for relief to the advo- cates of medicine as taught in the popular schools. Though in all these cases, the vital energies contended long and fiercely with the terrible Goliath of the art, yet eventually the envenomed fangs of that reptile system fastened so deeply upon their vitals, that four of the five, after ' lingering from four to eight years of miserable existence, in extreme debility and emaciation,' most heartily Avelcomed death as a ' friendly stroke to put a period to their sufferings,' Avhile the fifth, my worthy brother, Dr. Samuel Curtis, of the New York College of Physicians, is only lingering a little longer, (he has since died,) in consequence of having arrested the execution of the blow by a thorough and judicious use of ' nature's remedies.' " I, too, was sick, as well as they. I, too, was entreated by my medical friends, as well as others, to use the cura- tive means prescribed by the boasted science of medicine, and so anxious were the former to save what they called a useful life, that some of the most distinguished of them 92 DENUNCIATIONS : offered me their services without reward. But happily for me, I had studied too thoroughly before I needed their art, the books containing their science, to have any confidence in their ability to cure me. Hence it is doubt- less attributable to my total rejection of their heroic rem- edies, that I iioav stand before you, like the unscathed oak in the midst of the whirlwind's desolation. Yes, gentlemen, the poisonous darts of medical destruction have left me, like Logan, almost Avithout a mourner! in- somuch that, but for the hope of living to do something for the mitigation of the physical and moral evils that are spreading misery, desolation and death through the Avorld, like him, ' I Avould not turn upon my heel to save my life.' If, therefore, I repeat it, you or society in general, refuse to me any credit for my course, I here declare to you that in obedience to the dying commands of a long and sorely afflicted victim of medical poisoning, who of all others, was nearest to my heart, like Hannibal, I have sworn to ' wage an uncompromising and eternal warfare against quackery and every species of medical poisoning.' This vow shall be performed Avhile I have a voice to pro- claim the truth, or a hand to guide the pen to leave a trace that once I lived !" I was about to close these extracts of denunciations from popular authors of the old-school system of practice. But bear Avith me a little longer, for humanity's sake. Remark of Dr. Chapman. Speaking of dyspepsia or indigestion, " Tampering Avith medicines, [meaning, of course, poisons,] is very detrimental. Every ache or dis- comfort,real or imaginary, must be relieved by a recurrence to some supposed remedy, till finally the powers of the chapman. 93 stomach are worn out, and derangements, either func- tional or structural, take place. It would be salutary were such people to bear in mind the epitaph of the Italian Count Avho fell a victim to this habit — ' I wfis well, Wished to be better, Took physic, and died.' " Nor can the profession escape the imputation of hav- ing contributed to this mischief. Called to a case of disease of such obscurity that no distinct notion can be formed of it, we go on groping in the dark, pouring down drugs empirically, till the stomach gives way, and its derangements are added to the pre-existing affection, by which a case is made of greater complexity, and of enhanced difficulty of cure. It is not easy to avoid this course, from the ignorance or prejudice of mankind. The predominant estimate of the profession, even among the most enlightened people, leads to the delusive suppo- sition that the materia medica has a remedy for every disease, and that the Avant of success, under any given circumstances, is owing to the poverty of resource of the practitioner in attendance. Confidence is soon withdrawn should he intermit his exertions, which perceiving, he too often multiplies his administrations, to avoid a dismissal, or to have imposed on him some one of the fraternity, who, it is expected, will bring forth fresh supplies. The consultation taking place, the new armory of weapons is opened and applied, with only an exasperation of the case. Not satisfied, however, further trials of others are made,__there is a repetition of a similar proceeding, and the catastrophe is complete. 94 DENUNCIATIONS : " This, which might by some be suspected as a sketch of fancy, is a faithful and unexaggerated delineation of reality I have frequently seen and deplored. Convinced that he Avas falling a victim to this very practice, the emperor Hadrian deliberately prepared as an inscription for his tomb — ' It Avas the multitude of physicians that killed the emperor.' " The same might be said of the great and good Wash- ington and Harrison. In his Therapeutics, Dr. Chapman observes, " Certainly the annals of medicine, already sufficiently crowded and deformed Avith the abortions of theory, ought to moderate our ardor, and create in future some degree of restraint and circumspection." Alluding to the " spirit of speculation, or what is termed reasoning on medicine," he says, " Nothing has been more prejudicial than the abuse of this noble pre- rogative. Consulting the records of our science, we can- not help being disgusted Avith the multitude of hypotheses which have been obtruded upon us at different times. Nowhere is the imagination displayed to a greater extent; and perhaps, says an eloquent writer, so ample an exhi- bition of the resources of human invention might gratify our vanity, if it Avere not more than counter-balanced by ;he humiliating view of so much absurdity, contradiction and falsehood." Dr. Good says, " The science of medicine is a barba- rous jargon, and the effects of our medicine on the human system are in the highest degree uncertain, except, indeed, that they have already destroyed more lives than war' pestilence and famine combined." TIZARS. 95 John Tizars, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, and lecturer on Anatomy and Physiology in Edinburg, makes the following remarks on the present state of the old-school practice of physic. " Let any one read the medical journals, or investigate the reports of the hospi- tals, and reconcile to his feelings the fatal blunders Avhich are daily committed both by physicians and surgeons. How many are treated for colic, and die of inflammation of the boAvels ! Hoav many are treated for Ioav nervous fever, or typhus, and die of acute inflammation! Hoav many are tortured on the operating table, for stone in the bladder, or for aneurism, (enlargement of an artery,) and die on the same or following day of hemorrhage, or inflammation produced by the unhalloAved hands of the surgeon! ' Enter his chamber, view his breathless corpse, And comment then upon his sudden death.' " The next question," he says, " which may naturally be asked is, does the same lamentable evil exist in private practice? and the answer is as naturally,—undoubtedly it does. This very day I have operated on a gentleman for fistula in perineo, whose urethra Avas destroyed by one of the medical practitioners of the country, attempt- ing to introduce the catheter, about three years ago. I have been obliged to lay the urethra open from the bulb to the bladder, or rather I have been compelled to make a new urethra; for every vestige of the former one was obliterated by sinuses; and I here candidly confess, that all operations for puncturing the bladder which I have performed, and these have not been few, have been in 96 denunciations. consequence of practitioners injuring the urinary canal by the introduction of the catheter. Dr. Hall, in his work on Loss of Blood, p. 76, says, " I may observe that of the whole number of fatal cases of disease in infancy, a great proportion occur from the inappropriate or undue application of exhausting remedies. This observation may have a salutary effect in checking the ardor of many young practitioners, who are apt to think that if they have only bled, and purged, and given calomel enough, they have done their duty; when, in fact, in subduing a former, they have excited a new dis- ease, which they have not understood, and which has led to the fatal result." Dropsy of the Brain. " This disease, in children," observes Dr. Ware, of Harvard University, to his class, "is so generally fatal, that medical treatment is not thought to be of any avail. We are justified in such cases in trying experiments, until time shall develope a mode of cure ; but I know of no experiments yet that have proved successful." Yet many of our would-be wise sons of Esculapius, if they are called to treat a case of inflammation of the brain, will call it dropsy of the brain; and I would ask Avhy ? Because, if their patient gets well, they will gain popularity for making a great cure, or on the other hand, if the patient dies, the doc- tor is not to blame — it was an incurable disease ; or they may not have foresight enough to determine between dropsy of the brain, and inflammation of the brain, or a determination of blood to that or^an. NEW DISCOVERIES NOT TO BE SPURNED. 97 REMARKS. From all the foregoing considerations, and from the fact that the healing art, as taught in the old schools of physic, is yet in its infancy, by the confession of its most success- ful and celebrated practitioners— (the great and venerable Dr. Rush compares it to an unroofed temple, uncovered at the top, and cracked at the foundation, unless you admit his own theory of animal life as a sure and solid basis; for he scatters, like atoms in the sunbeam, all the systems of pathology,) — we ought to deeply ponder per- adventures which Providence may elicit, by any means, to diminish the sum of human misery, before we spurn from us what has been discovered, tried, and found effectual. After bewailing the defects and disasters of medical science, Dr. Rush consoled himself with the animating prospects of that hope, Avhich he often proclaimed from his desk, that the day would arrive, Avhen medical knoAvl- edge should have attained to that apex of perfection, that it would be able to remove all the diseases of man; and leave not for life a single outlet, a single door of retreat, but old age ; " for such is my confidence," said he, " in the benevolence of the Deity, that he has placed on'earth remedies for all the maladies of man." The influence of this hope, so feelingly expressed, and deeply felt by every noble mind, that all diseases shall yet yield to the power of medicine, in its perfect state, ouo-ht to be abundantly sufficient to determine us to examine with candor every new discovery, that is pre- sented by the care and experience of man, whatever may be his state or condition in life. Great men are not 98 REMARKS. always wise ; and the very meanest is not beneath the care of a kind Providence, nor the influence of his Holy Spirit. " For thy kind heavenly Father bends his eye On the least Aving that flits across the sky." Dr. Robinson, in his lectures on Thomson's Medical Practice, says, " If perchance the grand panacea shall be at last found, that Moly of the Egyptians, and Elixir of the Greeks, who would not deem himself more honor- ed by contributing the smallest item to the great discov- ery for relieving the wretchedness of the human race, than if he had bestoAved upon him the empire of the world? I saw one fever rage and prostrate its victim, over winch the physician's skill had no influence. To have saved that life, to me so precious, I would have given the universe, had I possessed it, and would have considered it but dust in the balance. No doubt others feel as I do. And if the day shall arrive, when the heart-strings shall no more be torn and lacerated, who would not exult in the joyful anticipation of that coming day ? And this dream of a universal medicine, which has pervaded the nations of the earth, since the days of Isis and Osiris, is not all a dream, for the days shall come, saith the Lord, when there shall be nothing to hurt or annoy in my holy mountain. No pain to hurt, nor sickness to annoy." " But whether diseases shall be banished from the globe, in that glorious period of the Millennium, or the grand catholicon be discovered to remove them, the data do not determine. But this we know, the earth shall have health and peace; and Dr. Rush's hope will be ful- LABORS OF PREDECESSORS NOT USELESS. 99 filled, even beyond the limits of his most sanguine ex- pectations ; for the child shall die an hundred years old." I have now presented to the public what I deem eAi- dence abundantly sufficient to justify me in the course I have taken. I have already hinted, however, that I can- not join the authors I have quoted, in their SAveeping denunciations of all the labors of all their predecessors, as presenting " nothing, absolutely nothing, that is useful to the physician." In my opinion, it cannot be that a body of men so numerous, talented, learned, scientific, benevolent, observing and thinking, as they that have been denominated, par excellence, the medical profession, have labored incessantly four thousand years to no purpose. No! they must have discovered something useful to the physician. I go further, and express the opinion that he must be a miserable philosopher, that cannot derive much valuable instruction from the immense mass of facts they have accumulated, the countless variety of experiments they have instituted, and the results of which they have so minutely recorded. I can clearly discern, amidst the " confusion," though I am free to confess that they are enveloped in much "rubbish," both the corner stones and the ornamental gems of medical science, Avhich need only be extricated from the " chaos," carved and polished, and arranged according to their relative fitness, to consti- tute the firm foundation and the brilliant decorations of the rich and beautiful temple of true medical science. To make this declaration clear and conclusive, I pro- ceed to point out some of the principal reasons why the healing art has never yet derived much if any improve- ment from all the various labors which the faculty have bestowed upon it. 100 REMARKS. It must be self-evident, to «very reflecting mind, that the science and art of healing, involve several important fundamental principles, Avhich are so inseparably connect- ed, and indispensably necessary to the ultimate perfection of the Avhole, that all must be included in every calcula- tion respecting the final result of their combined operations, whether Ave understand their nature, character and con- nections, or not. To my mind, it is very clear, that, to prevent disease, Ave must use, in a proper manner, the means that are calculated to oppose the introduction of its causes into the system, or expel them after they have entered. These means must be suited to the demands of the system, whether we knoAV the nature and locality of those demands or not. Now it is evident, that, if we knew ever so much about the cause, seat and character of disease, and the nature of the vital operations, so as to perceive clearly the indications of cure, and yet knew no remedy suitable to the case, or these wants and indications, we should fail to cure as certainly as if we knew " nothing, absolutely nothing," of the matter. Or should Ave kno\v the true remedies, and. be ignorant of the quantity and proper application of them, Ave should fail in our efforts to do all the good of Avhich the means were capable, even if we did not do mischief. But if, even by mere chance, if you please, Ave should use the right means in the right manner, it is evident that their action would harmonize just as Avell with all the principles and indications, though AYe knoAY not one of them, as if we were acquainted with the whole. This is the reason why " empiricism often blunders into impor. PRINCIPLES OP MEDICAL SCIENCE. 101 tant cures, while the efforts of the regular educated phy- . sician have as often proved ineffectual," the latter having used improper articles " under the guidance of false therapeutic principles." It Avould appear then, that the mere experimenter, A?ho confines his prescriptions to the use of a few good reme- dies, the action of which is uniform and well known, is far more successful than the fluctuating theorizer, a\4io is con- stantly changing his remedies to accommodate his favorite hypotheses. « But it is quite evident that he who understands all these matters, will be a better physician than either of the other persons whom I have just characterized. The great fault of physicians, in estimating the value of the labors of their predecessors, has ever been, that they either received or condemned, almost by Avholesale, every preAious system—abandoning the truth Avith the errors — casting away the diamonds Avith the " rubbish," and subjecting themselves to the necessity of traveling over the whole ground again, with confidence still further and further impaired in their ability ever to arrive^ at simple truth. Every reflecting man will agree with me, that the art of preventing and curing 'disease, the principles of Avhich are called medical science, involves a greater or less de- gree of accurate knowledge of the following subjects : ' 1st. The location, proportion, form and structure of the several parts of the human body. This is called Anatomy. 2nd. The functions of these parts —that is, the offices they perform in a healthy state; in other words, the nature of healthy vital action. This is called Physiology. 102 REMARKS. 3d. The means by Avhich any checks or destructions of those actions or functions may be effected, which means are the causes of disease ; and also the results of the partial or total cessation of those actions, which results may be considered disease itself. To these add the characteristics of the checked or deranged actions, or symptoms of disease, and Ave have Avhatis usually included in the term Pathology. 4th. The character of the actions necessary to restora- tion, and the indentical articles and processes adapted to produce them ; and this is styled Therapeutics. I freely admit that, of the propositions, the last is far the most important; yet, as all distinguished medical men have acknowledged that they are important and indispen- sable (differences of opinion being, not whether this knoAvI- edge is proper, but whether we actually have it, and in AA'hat it consists,) let us consider them as settled, and then apply them as tests by which to try all the principal systems of medicine that, have appeared in the world. It Avas not Anatomy, Physiology nor Pathology, but the discovery and use of something that would relieve present suffering, that first drew the attention of men to medicine as a profession. The first thing, then, Avas to discover and use for the regulation of the system, that which Avould best promote its healthy operations. They saAv themselves surrounded with innumerable objects, of many of which they were told they might freely eat, and which of course they regarded as food, or something nec- essary to supply the wants of those organs during the whole course of their active state. In process of time, however, it was discovered that some things did more harm than good to their bodies, HIPPOCRATES. 103 deranging instead of promoting Avhat they termed healthy action. These substances Avere justly considered injuri- ous to the system, termed poisons, and carefully avoided, as enemies to health. .It Avas soon after discovered that some other substances possessed the poAver to restore a healthy action after it had been deranged. These were properly termed medicines. Their sensible qualities were minutely examined, and their effects upon the body were carefully recorded and remembered. Hysop Avas early found to be an excellent remedy to purify the blood, (" purge me with hysop," said David, " and I shall be clean") or a lump of figs Avas, as it still is, no less valua- ble to remove a' boil. In short, though some of them proved injurious, yet it Avas soon found that, in general, the leaves of the trees were appointed for the healing of the nations. Among the earliest records of the rational use of substantial remedies, we find it admitted, as a general principle, that, to be justly entitled to the appel- lation of medicine, an article should be capable, even when given in smaltquantities,of exciting and increasing the natural and healthy action of the physical organs, without either destroying or diminishing their power. This principle, deduced from experience and observa- tion, was then correct, has been ever since, and will ever continue to the end of time, although the whole world may oppose it. Hippocrates, the earliest systematic writer on medicine, whose Avorks have been preserved to our time, discovered in the human body, by long and careful observation, the exist- ence of a principle which he styled nature, to Avhich he ascrib- ed the superintendence and direction of all our corporal ac- tions and movements. To this principle, he attributed a * 104 REMARKS. species of intelligence, and conceived that one of its most important offices is to attach to the body Avhat is benefi- cial, and to reject from it what would prove injurious; " an hypothesis," says Bostock, (Phys. p. 2.) " Avhich, although expressed in different ways, and clothed in a more or less mysterious form, has continued to be a popular doctrine to the present day." A truth, I affirm, which all expe- rience has contributed to establish, and which no fact or solid argument that has ever been advanced can disprove. True, he did not know its ultimate essence, which he erroneously imagined to be heat; but he knew its exist- ence, and distinguished many of its specific effects, as certainly as we distinguished those of gravitation and magnetism. He imagined disease to be only a disturbance of the animal economy, " with which (disturbance) nature was perfectly at variance, and (of which she was) using her utmost endeavors to expel the offending cause." " In his treatment of disease," says Thatcher, p. 4, he studied and copied nature with the greatest care and assiduity, as the only sure basis of medical science ; and so extensive was his knowledge and so accurate Avere his observations, that he has been constantly held in venera- tion through succeeding generations." His opinion Avas that " nature cures diseases," and that all a physician should do, is to watch her operations and to second her intentions. In this doctrine he was unquestionably right. All the most experienced and judicious practitioners since his time, have arrived at the same abstract conclusions. Their only bone of contention has been, what are her in* HIPPOCRATES. 105 tentions ? and vrith what means and in what manner shall we second them ? To this I reply, while Hippocrates adhered in practice to his correct principles, that nature should be aided by means and processes which act in harmony with her in- tentions, his practice was universally successful. While he vomited his patients with vegetable emetics, cleansed the bowels with enemas, opened the surface with a warm bath, and promoted perspiration by a free use of the pure (not alcholic) wines of Naxos, he was perfect mas- ter of even the terrible plague of Athens. " But," say his opponents, " he often failed in cases where it Avas rea- sonable to expect success." I answer — true ; and the reason is, he sometimes, like our modern practitioners began to fear that nature had become delirious and Avas no longer capable of conducting her own operations; and therefore, in his superior wisdom, he attempted to coun- teract or check her desperate efforts against disease. Yes, with the correct principle, that remedies were to be innocuous, and act in harmony with vital operations, he even bled his patients, and gave opium and other poisons ! and, therefore, as I have already said, however correct might have been his theory of what he ought to do, the bleeding and poisons acted just as they do in the hands of our modern practitioners. They opposed nature till they drove her from her temple. Occasionally, too, he lost a patient through inefficiency in correct practice. But death cannot be justly charged to account of a prac- tice which was not faithfully applied. Because of these few failures in his practice, many successive leaders in medical improvement, as they call it, have rejected the fundamental doctrines of Hippocrates, which were true ; 106 DR. THOMSON'S REMEDIES. and not a feAv have built entire systems on the few and fatal errors he embraced, and put in practice but occa- sionally. I might go on and give a further account of the rise and progress of medicine, but I must let the past suffice. A VIEW OF SOME OF DR. THOMSON'S REMEDIES. " Fever, of every description," says Dr. Chapman," has its origin in local irritation, which is spread more or less, according to circumstances." " The stomach, however, from its central position, and extraordinary sympathies, seems to be the organ most commonly at first affected ; and when the morbid action is not at once arrested, it diffuses itself by multiplying trains of associations, till the disease becomes general, involving in a greater or less degree, every part of the animal economy." In this way, he remarks, diseased impressions made on the stomach, are imparted generally, in the first place, to the chylopoietic viscera, to the heart, to the arteries, to the brain, until they embrace within their scope the whole animal machine. Now, from this very theory, the great utility of Thom- son's medicine is clearly established. According to this system, the beginning of fever is irritation in the stomach, affecting the organs of 'chyle, the heart and arteries, and ending in the capillary vessels. The two first parts of Thomson's practice, are directed particularly to the first and last of these troubled organs; lobelia, to remove the disease and irritation from the stomach, and steaming and DR. THOMSON'S REMEDIES. 107 bathing, to remove the obstruction of the capillary ves- sels, and force the disease from the interior organs. Of the power of lobelia to cleanse and relieve the stomach and purify the internal organs — there is not its equal to be found in the materia medica. Lobelia inflata will pen- etrate the system, equalize the excitement, remove the obstructions, cleanse the stomach and bowels, purify the blood, remove diseases from the lungs and liver, in a manner far superior to what ever was accomplished by mercury, or any other article in the materia medica. While it possesses this advantage, which mercury never had, it acts in harmony with all the principles of life; leaves no taint, no disease, no racked and decaying bones, and deformed countenances. This simple fact, Avhatever may be said to the contrary, will set it at an immense distance, above all the fame that mercury ever can acquire. I think, as I am writing these words, of that aAvful and terrible day of decision and despair, when all the forms and faces Avhich mercury has mutilated, shall be arrayed against the system of practice ; but against lobelia, not one in all that countless multitude to show a decayed bone, or deformed feature. It is most powerful in removing disease, and safe in its operation. I have given it to infants not a day old, and from that to men of ninety years. It is innocent in its nature, going through the sys- tem like electricity, removing obstructions from every part, without regard to names of disease. " There are two cases where the medicine will not operate ; when the patient is dying, and when there is no disease. Where there is no enemy, there can be no war; in the healthy system it Avill be silent and harmless. It is calculated to remove the cause of disease, and nothing more, as food 108 DR. THOMSON'S REMEDIES. removes hunger." Of the value of steam, nature herself will teach man ; it being one of the most important chan- nels, perspiration, by which she throws off the morbific matter, which weighs down to the grave the oppressed and exhausted system. It has been long since remarked by physicians, that a profuse SAveat and calm sleep were the harbingers of returning health to their patients; they indicated the crisis of the disease. Our medicines produce these signs of gentle health returning, immediately; a£ soon as the operation of the lobelia and steam has ceased, the patient sinks into a quiet slumber, and rouses only to demand food, to the great astonishment of all, Avho have not Avit- nessed the fact before, (with but yery few exceptions,) but have only been acquainted with the vomits of tartar- emetic and their results. The source of the disease being thus removed, the heart and arteries are at once restored to their healthy action ; the fever ceases, and strength and activity are restored. The man himself is amazed at the sudden change. " In treatment of fever," says Dr. Chapman, " vene- section, puking and purging, are resorted to, to relieve the general circulation. But the capillaries being af- fected, we must resort to medicines acting more imme- diately on this set of vessels ; as blisters, diaphoretics and mercury, which last is of universal operation, pervad- ing every part, and entering every recess of the body." Noav, the first of Dr. Thomson's, or the Botanic remedies will accomplish more than this all-powerful mercury ; and steaming will act on the capillaries. Here are six reme- dies enumerated by Dr. Chapman, to remove fever; three for the internal structure, and three for the exter- dr. Thomson's remedies. 109 nal; but one of the latter, mercury, acts universally on both. Noav, of all the six remedies, four, tartar-emetic, mercury, purges and blisters, increase the cause of fever, which Dr. Chapman says, is irritation; the fifth, vene- section, diminishes the poAver of life and weakens the force of vital action; the sixth and last, diaphoretics, may be considered as the only one of the six Avhich does not exasperate the cause of fever and inritation. And this is, no doubt, the reason, why fevers are so long in continuance before they are broken, in the common lan- guage of practitioners. You may perceive the fever at the beginning, small; no particular excitement to be regarded dangerous ; but after a feAV doses of the reme- dies, the irritation is so increased as to threaten life; you are then told, the disease is hastening to a crisis. But it is strange that the remedy should not arrest the disease, instead of awaiting the crisis. It is at once con- ceding that the remedies have no poAver over the disease ; they cannot stay its progress. Then they are not proper remedies, nor fit to be relied on, by those who have in charge the protection of human fife. The remedies of the neAV system of practice can be relied on Avith a confidence derived from an experience of more than fifty years, in which they have never been known to fail in removing fever. This gives confidence to the practitioner, and warrants the assertion that they are superior to any thing now employed by the Allopathic physicians; this, the community have only to make a fair trial, to determine for themselves. To relax the excretories, in removing disease, Dr. Cullen considered of the greatest moment. Steaming, and the medicines received into the stomach in Thomson's practice, relax 110 DR. THOMSON'S REMEDIES. the organs by producing a solution of all the external and internal obstructions, and have a power of expelling fever which was never before knoAvn. The vitiated humors and putrefactions caused by morbid action, are at once purged out of the system ; a tone of health, and anima- tion, and serenity of mind ensue, of which a person can hardly conceive the amount, who has not Antnessed the operation, and its consequences. The more we examine Thomson's system, the more we find its principal features agree with the most popular and received opinions of ancient and modern times. " An opinion universally received," says Dr. Cullen, "is, that noxious matter introduced into, or generated in the body, is the proximate cause of disease ; and that the increased action of the heart and arteries, which makes so great a part of fever, is an effort of the vis medecatrix nature to expel this morbific matter, and particularly to change or concoct it, so as to render it either altogether innocent, or at least, fit for being more easily thrown out of the body." This doctrine, of as great antiquity as the first records of medicine, has been received by almost every school of physic, down to the present day; and even those who have rejected it are obliged to speak of the vitiated humors expelled by the capillary vessels. Now the very essence of the Botanic system is to expel those morbid humors, together with the corruption and putre- faction of internal diseased organs ; and in accomplishing this it has no parallel. The coagulated and congealed pus, and purulent matter, thrown off by this medicine from the system, would perfectly astonish a stranger to its operation and efficacy. Whether, therefore, we consider diseases to be occa- DR. THOMSON'S REMEDIES. HI sioned by diminished energy of the brain; by general debility, direct or indirect; by spasm in the extreme arteries; by lentor, viscidity, tenuity, acid, or alkaline acrimony in the mass of the blood; or morbific matter taken into, or generated in, the system; or impressions on the nerves adverse to life ; it is no matter which of all these be the cause of the disease, the remedy here rec- ommended is equally powerful to expel it; because its operation is universal over all the organs, healthy and diseased, to strengthen the one, and purify and restore the other. I know it may look, to those who do not think deeply, like quack boasting, to say so much in praise of this safe and simple remedy. But let it be understood, that those Physicians who call themselves Thomsonians, or Botanic physicians, who wish to sail under these colors for the sake of practice, and at the same time will tell you that lobelia will do in some cases, but it will not do for you; that it is a dangerous article or remedy, and that it is too powerful for weak patients-let it be understood,I say, that such physicians are not Thomsonian or Botanic phy- sicians of the New School; for such doctrines are not taught there. And furthermore, they are either ignora- nces or knaves; either indolent, or wanting sufficien moral courage to stem the current of opposition. In the first place, They do not fully understand the modus oper- andi the medicine, or its precise effects upon the human body • or if they do understand the properties and effects of lobelia inflata, and do not give it, but employ an infe- rior article or one that has a deleterious effect upon the ♦ id also sneak of it as above, such physicians SX — Sle do not give it, when they know 112 DR. THOMSON'S REMEDIES. it is absolutely necessary, because they are too lazy. It is harder work for a physician to practice medicine on the Botanic or Thomsonian system as taught in the New Schools of Physic, and not so much of a money-making business as it is on the Allopathic system. But I am digressing from my subject; to return: Let those who are capable of thinking, and who will take the trouble to think, revolve the following facts. 1st. The medicine has been tried by an experience of upwards of fifty or sixty years; not on a few diseases, nor a feAV mild cases, but on every form of disease inci- dent to our country, and on cases the most dangerous and desperate ; on diseases absolutely incurable by the faculty, and given up as such by them! And yet, by the application of this all-powerful (yet innocent) medicine, they have been perfectly cured, or so far mitigated as to render life useful, and a blessing both to the patient him- self, and to his friends and family. 2d. This new practice has extended over all of the Eastern, Western, Middle and Southern States, or some parts of them ; and is still advancing in power and repu- tation. There are now no less than five chartered Colle- ges in these United States that teach this system. It is also spreading in the old countries. Even in child-bed delivery, a matter never to be forgotten, this practice has nearly removed from the daughters of Eve the pain and punishment threatened to our first progenitor, and entailed upon her offspring. Many ladies, of great and good sense, and without the least coloring of imagination, have said it was easier to have five or six children under the operation and influence of this new system of practice, than one, under the other management and medicine! DR. THOMSON'S REMEDIES. 113 These ladies had experience in both cases, and their testi- mony has been supported by every one who has followed their example.. 3d. The efficacy of this medicine has become a part of the public history of our country. The records of the Legislatures of New York, Maine, and many other States, have stamped upon it their high approbation. It will form an epoch in the medical science of the great Repub- lic of the Western world. Dr. Thomson's system, having been introduced very extensively into many of the States, and having met with unparalleled success, excited the fears and jealousies of the Allopathic physicians. They, in order to protect themselves, procured the passing of a law, the most unjust and unconstitutional that could be imagined, to arrest and extirpate this new practice, by preventing the practitioner from collecting his fees. This measure resulted, as might have been expected, or fore- seen, in a country of equal rights and privileges, in great excitement, and numerous petitions to the Legislatures to abolish the invidious law. The several Legislatures appointed appropriate committees of their members to examine into the merits of the case. The official reports of these committees are now on the records of the difler- ent Houses of Assembly, and become a part of the public history of the United States. These reports are too Ion- to be here quoted, but they contain these important particulars : " The practice of Dr. Thomson has, m a great many instances, proved beneficial and m no case deleterious! The petitions Avere sent m from all parts of these States, and were supported by the evidence of the most respectable and intelligent men. Now, when all these particulars are carefully weighed 114 dr. Thomson's remedies. and considered, it will be found, they bear with them a testimony as fully entitled to credence, as any thing that ever issued from the old schools of physic ; an evidence, such as quackery never could establish nor exhibit. Here are medicines, known, tried and described, in their efficacy of operation. The legislative wisdom of the first State of the Union, as well as other States, has, after the strictest scrutiny and investigation, by their committee, stamped upon them the seal of their testimony. The practice assumes a character altogether distinct from the arts and devices of deception; Avith the gravity of phi- losophy, and the attitude of truth apd benevolence, it stands before the world. The scrutiny of friends and enemies has searched it through, and there is yet no deci- sive testimony of its absolute failure, unless where death had laid his stern arrest on all the doors and passages of life. Physicians rely much upon the re-action of the system in the cure of disease. But in order to secure this re-action, it is necessary to preserve the vital powers of the system; for how can re-action take place in an ex- hausted, prostrated condition of the living powers ? The conservation of the vital powers, or as some have termed it, the conservative power of the animal life, ought to be cherished by every means, in the treatment of the sick; and that practice will ever be found best, which best pre- serves the conservative power of nature, a power that will, of itself, prevail over disease, if not overwhelmed by a too potent enemy. I know the advocates of poisonous drugs, or of the heroic medicines, (as they call them) " have called the timid and the cautious practice," " a meditation on death." But the facts speak for them- dr. Thomson's remedies. 115 selves; the "heroic medicines" have left behind them, if not a meditation on death, " a history of graves," suf- ficient to blast their reputation, exterminate their existence, and alarm every benevolent heart for the welfare of society. Dr. Cullen, in recounting the remote causes of fever, supposes cold to act in conjunction Avith the unsearchable qualities of the air, in promoting disease. In all its oper- ations, he remarks, cold seems to act more powerfully in proportion as the body, and particularly the circulation, lose their vigor, or are debilitated. The bird pepper, or the second, number of the new practice, and No. 6, have a more powerful effect, in counteracting this cold, and supporting the vital heat of the system, than any thing used in the old practice ; and it is perfectly harmless. There is a kind of what may be called the tyranny of fashion, in medicine, as in all other things. The " heroic medicines" have become so fashionable, that though they should kill and deface, it is of no account; still they are heroic medicines! and the patient, if he dies, dies hero- ically, or according to laAV and fashion. Were I to re- count the invaluable advantages of this new system, it might astonish the ignorant, and admonish the wise; while both would be drawn into an extensive field of re- mark and meditation. 1st. It measurably abolishes the intolerable lumber of Nosology, and symptoms, habits, temperaments, diathe- sis, prognostics, and critical days, about which volumes have been written, and millions of lives sacrificed. (Dr. Robinson's Lectures, p. 155.) 2d. It purges from the materia medica, all the use- 116 DR. THOMSON'S REMEDIES. less, and what is of infinitely more importance, the poisonous and pernicious remedies. 3d. It reduces the idle and endless details of patho- logical ingenuity, respecting the remote, exciting, pre- disposing, and proximate causes of disease, to one simple cause — morbid action, or obstruction. 4th. It has abolished the uncertainty of practice; which has always been evinced by the change of medi- cines, adopted "by the Allopathic practitioners; a tacit confession that they knew not what remedy would remove the disease. And when they thought they had discov- ered the proper remedy, it was but too often the messenger of death. The cold hand of the destroyer was upon the patient, which was mistaken for the departure of the fe- ver. I will instance the example of Dr. Rush, in the yellow fever ; he thought he had discovered, in blood-let- ting, an infallible specific, and proclaimed to the citizens of Philadelphia, that he had the fever reduced, under the practice, as completely as a common cold; that they might safely return to their homes. But, alas! look at the results ! Bleeding was certain death to the poor suf- fering patient; fife sunk in proportion as the vital stream was exhausted. They might have had a more easy bed, but they had certainly a more speedy death. Every one is noAV convinced of the fatal consequences of bleeding in that stage of fever; and yet, that venerable physician, so eminent for his skill and success in practice, believed it to be a sovereign remedy; at least, he never contra- dicted his former assertions. There is one criterion which physicians seem to have overlooked; that Avhen their practice aggravates the dis- ease, or hastens death, they may be sure it is wrong. DR. THOMSON'S REMEDIES. 117 And yet, this they seem never to have considered with due attention; ascribing to the disease, what they ought to attribute to the remedy. They appear to have lulled their consciences, and pursued their course, although it led doAvn to the chambers of death. Far be it from me, to impute the want of humanity, or a disposition to de- stroy, to a class of learned and respectable men. But certainly, we may affirm, in the spirit of charity, that Avhen they find a remedy not only failing to produce the desired effects, but absolutely producing deformity and death, it ought to be discarded. A remedy worse than the disease, is no remedy; it may hold the rank by pre- scription, but it is an authority as unhallowed as the tyranny of Eastern despots. The people are not to be blamed for their great caution in admitting the Thomsonian practice ; the only blame attaches to that kind of hostility and vengeance by which it has been pursued. The deceptions practiced upon socie- ty, under the name of remedies, require caution in the people, and warn the multitude to beware. But so far from showing hostility, the course which nature and com- mon sense prescribe, is to carefully listen to the narrative of the discoverer ; examine his medicine and his cures. Let every case be stated with candor and impartiality ; the state of the patient, the duration of his disease, the remedies he has used, and their effects upon him; his state when the new practice commenced with him, and its operation and consequences. This is but a fair speci- men of trial, and the way in which all the Allopathic physicians proceed; when called to difficult and doubtful cases, they write out an exact history of the patient and his disease, the course of treatment he has pursued, the 118 DR. THOMSON'S REMEDIES. state in which they find him, the plan of their own reme- dies, and their failure or success, as an admonition or encouragement for future practice. Noav, I am thoroughly convinced from all the informa- tion which I have been able to obtain on this subject, that were the Thomsonian Botanic system of practice submit- ted to the same fair and impartial trial, it would be found, I will not say a remedy for all diseases, but it would be found to alleviate the most inveterate, to cure the most doubtful and dangerous, to injure none ; and when it failed, it failed from the obvious reason, that death had already laid his cold and icy hand upon the life of the patient. There is nothing in the history of quackery, to be at all compared to Thomson's discoveries; every thing in his narrative carries with it the face and air of an honest man, acting for the good of his country, and desirous, like other men, to live by honest industry, in the profes- sion of a new system of curing disease — a profession which, if it shall be found on a universal trial to be as beneficial as its high and early promise has led us to hope, his country never can repay, nor the world calculate its value. It is not supposed that this system has arrived at per- fection ; or at all attained to that state of preeminent elevation, which it shall yet assume ; but we believe the foundation"is laid of a system of cure, susceptible of advancing, until it shall comprehend the wants and miseries of the human race, in the extent and compass of their diseases. Dr. Thomson had this opinion from the effects he hinv self had seen; and his narrative is convincing from its DR. THOMSON'S REMEDIES. 119 very form and features. He tells us he was illiterate, and he was poor; oppressed by a young, helpless, and sickly family; the practice pursued by the doctors did not agree -with their constitutions nor diseases; he was, from nature, inclined to try the virtue and operation of plants; the gift of healing, it was impressed upon his mind, God had given to him; necessity, when his family was dying, forced him to try; he was successful; success encouraged him to go on; his neighbors applied to him in the hour of calamity; he relieved their complaints, his time was consumed, his reward nothing ; he consulted with his wife and friends, whether he should abandon the practice, or abandon his farm and yield to these pursuits; he was counselled to follow his OAvn inclination. Still believing he had a call from Providence, and a degree from the God of nature, he commenced, in form, the heal- ino; art. His cause and claims are before the world; they have been sustained by the government of his country, and his remedies submitted to the experience of scientific men and eminent physicians. He has been tried by a jury of his country, for his cures, and even perjury could not substantiate a plea against him. This is something very different from all the pretensions to the healing art ever yet set up in the world. The observations on the treatment of disease by medi- cal writers, and the sad failures so often obvious in critical cases, and what are called new diseases, will* more than justify all that has been uttered by Dr. Thomson in praise of his remedies. He was drawn before the public eye, at a period Avhen a new disease threatened to desolate the country ; the physicians were not successful in their treatment; great alarm and excitement prevailed; he 120 dr. Thomson's remedies. exhibited his remedies, and Avas everywhere successful! The mortal rage of a Avide-spreading epidemic was arrest- ed in its course, and health re-visited the land. The alarming disease referred to above, was called the yellow fever, at Alstead and Walpole. The like has been done by other Thomsonian Botanic physicians a great many times, and can be done again at any time on a fair trial. The above epidemic continued forty days, the old-school physicians losing half their patients: Dr. Thomson lost not one! We are charged with using only two or three remedies for the cure of all diseases. The charge I repel, as ut- terly false, and without any foundation in truth. To be sure, I have only spoken of three or four remedies, and the reason is very obvious; I have neither room nor time. I have already lengthened out this work beyond my expectations when I commenced it. But I will here say, we have some four hundred articles already incor- porated into our materia medica; and we are not bound to stop here, but we have the hill and the dale, the moun- tains and forests, the fields and the plains spread out before us, where we can select such articles from the vegetable kingdom, as may prove to be innocent in their nature, not injurious to the constitution, and effectual in removing obstructions, by assisting nature or the organs to perform their healthy functions in their own way ; but discarding all poisonous plants of every description. This charge is, however, susceptible of two distinct solu- tions, besides the above, which, if they do not satisfy, will at least Aveigh deep in the balance, with every dis- passionate mind. The first is derived from Dr. Sydenham himself, who says the materia medica is swelled beyond dr. Thomson's remedies. 121 all reasonable bounds, and that two-thirds of its articles are worse than useless. Indeed, the eternal multiplica- tion of remedies, till the understanding is lost and con- founded in the mass, reminds one of Sir Anthony's devils. Twenty thousand tormented the good saint, but they were so small and intangible that the whole legion could dance a saraband on the finest point of a lady's needle, without involving or jostling each other! Of what avail can a vast, innumerable class of articles be to a practitioner, who must either relieve his patient imme- diately, or see him sink into the grave ? There is no time to try experiments, when life is ebbing with the rapidity of the fleeting minutes. No! the remedy must be sure, and speedy, and safe, or death is only hastened in his course. The second ansAver to this objection, I shall take from an authority no less than Dr. Rush himself. When lectur- ing on the infallible certainty of medical science, yet to be attainii, he remarked, Nature was simple in all her operations ! He had no doubt but the most simple rem- edies were to be discovered ; some lonely weed, trampled in the earth, might furnish a cure, which had baffled all the Avisdom of the schools. Bread and water were the simple aliment of food, not to this man or that man, but to the whole inhabitants of the earth; could not the God of nature, who placed the food and drink of man in low, simple elements, also place his medicine in some of the most untried plants or flowers of the field ? These answers are as full of wisdom as they are re- plete with experience. They were made by two of the most celebrated physicians of the age in which they lived, and still have common sense and experience upon their side. 122 dr. Thomson's remedies. Another ansAver might be here added, from the com- mon medical practice. It is well known to all practition- ers, that out of all the articles of the materia mediq*, very feAV are in general use ; six or seven remedies are about the extent of the general range of the physician's applications. (See Compendium of "Eberle's Practice in a former parjb of this Avork.) The heroic medicines are the chief and general resort in all diseases. Take from the Allopathic physician, mercury, opium and blood-letting, in their various forms, and but few of them would ever visit their patients again, but for some surgical operation. Yet they and their dupes are constantly charging us with using only two or three remedies,cayenne, steam and lobe- lia. Noav, I would ask where does this charge belong, if it can be considered such, after looking over Eberle's Practice ? What advantage, then, in point of fact, have the vol- umes of the materia medica over the simple numbers of Thomson ? There is something imposing in ,^he classic names and learned disquisitions of the recorded remedies of the schools; and so there is something very imposing in the splendor of an Eastern despot, compared with the plain and simple manners of the President of these United States ; but whether of these is the better man, the world will judge, and history on her true and faithful page will leave her infallible testimony. So of the Thomsonian remedies. It is useless to be angry, to decry, or rail against them; if the people find them useful and effectual in healing their diseases, science may fight against them in vain. If they are found not efficacious, it will not require art nor learning to put them down; they will Bink, like all other folly and imposition, by their OAvn dr. Thomson's remedies. 123 worthlessness. It is admitted on all hands, that medicine needs improvement; let it not then be rejected, though furnished by a humble instrument, and coming unadorned by the drapery of science. " The foolish things of the world " are sometimes chosen " to confound the Avise." The Thomsonian or Botanic system of practice is gain- ing ground Avith rapid strides, throughout the length and breadth of this Union. All we want is good men and true, well qualified to carry out the practice and defend it; true philanthropists, men that will not back out for a little opposition, but meet the enemy at any and every point, and contend for principle, not for popularity — sink or swim, let the winds blow high or low. The truth is mighty and will prevail, if we do not have too many deserters in our ranks. Let us come up to the work, one and all, and fight the battles of medical reform; for one back- slider from our principles, while he has a name to live amongst us, injures the cause of medical reform more than twenty of the old-school or Allopathic physicians possibly can. . Many of the old-school physicians, discouraged by their 111 success, are forsaking the old practice. Some have embraced the Thomsonian system; others the_ Hyciro- pathic,and meet with such success they laud it to the very heavens ; vdiile others still have espoused the prin- ciples of Homeopathy, and are succeeding much better han formerly, because, first, they employ a wholesome diet, and secondly, they use much less of the &^ son I am credibly informed that there are at this pre, ^time in these United States, more than two thousand « -dicine on some of the reformed systems. 124 dr. Thomson's remedies. Success to them! and may their number be rapidly increased, and the time speedily come when there shall not be found a Blood-sucker nor a Calomelite in all the land! Shall we go back to them, when they are coming over to us ? Again, almost every nook and corner of our land is supplied, and trebly supplied, with Allopathic physicians. The country is completely doctor-ridden; so that when a young graduate comes out from college, with his parch- ment, it is almost impossible for him to find a place for practice. If he, perchancevdoes find a place to locate himself, it is a long time before he finds employment. At length some epidemic takes its march through his vicini- ty ; the older practitioner is unsuccessful, or has more than he can do. The young physician is then called up- on, and commences his career of bloodshed and carnage ; sowing the seeds of sickness, pain and death ; laying the foundation for a future practice for life, in trying to cure the chronic diseases that he has caused by his depletive practice. On the other hand, the fields arc all white and ready for the harvest, to the well-qualified Thomsonian or Botanic practicioner. The Macedonian cry is, " Come over and help us." In every Botanic periodical that we receive, there are requests from individuals in different parts of the country, for good Botanic physicians to come and settle Avith them. They are obliged to employ the Allopathists, for the want of a Thomsonian. There are places in every part of our land, where good, well-quali- fied Thomsonian Botanic practitioners might obtain a thriving practice, and do well. " Truth is mighty and will prevail." " I am seeking after truth, and I care not where I am led, if. she is only my leader." * ADDRESS TO THE PHYSICIANS OF THE NEW-SCHOOL OR REFORMED MEDICAL PRACTICE. I hope our aspirations are of too high an order, to be satisfied with the mere title of Doctor; that our minds will strive 'to soar to the highest pinnacle of our profes- sion, and our high ambition will lead us to take our stand amidst the galaxy of those, Avho have adorned the science of medicine —there to shed a bright halo of glory around ourselves, and the glorious cause we are engaged in ! But he who would ascend the rugged and slippery path to the mount of Fame, and record his name in glittering characters in the temple of Medical Science, there-to dazzle,by its bright scintillations, unborn millions; or, by the unaided and innate vigor of his own intellect, soar through the untried, stormy regions of perilous adventure and discovery-the flight that giant minds do most delight to attempt-must trim the midnight lamp; must be no wast- er of time ; but must pass days and ^ts, ^h a fever- d brain and throbbing pulse, to ^T^^Z Which present themselves on every hand, like Goi0on heads, to dispirit the hopes and hinder the progress of h aspirant for wisdom and knowledge. He must possess tha nd mUable spirit, which weighs but lightly the presen obstructions, I comparison with the ^™« of his aspirations : this is the arrow of Abans nhcli win ^transport him in his trackless journey, and give him 126 ADDRESS TO power to impart oracles of wisdom and science to the wondering multitude beneath him. He Avho Avould rise above his present condition, must aspire to do so. " The man that can submit to trudge behind, wras never made to walk before." Like the mettled steeds of Actaeon, he must pursue the game, not only Avhere there are paths, but where there are none. We should remember, that should our minds be ena- bled to grasp all the revealed mysteries of science, still an immeasurable ocean of truth Avould be before us. The mind of man can set bounds to human knowledge and discovery, and say, " So far canst thou go, and no farther;" yet, like the eagle in soaring above the clouds, the higher it rises, the more vast and illimitable Avill be the trackless and etherial expanse presented to the view! Even should he be enabled to encompass the earth, nay, the very universe, and demonstrate the laws that govern all that is therein, and soar through immeasurable space to the very gates of Heaven, still his knoAvledge and power Avould be as a grain of sand, in comparison Avith that of Him, who, with one stroke of the magic wand of Omnipotence, brought worlds into existence ! Avho breathed the " fairy spirit of life " into atoms of inanimate clay, and impressed his image on the soul of man, and endowed him with reason, that he might approximate towards his* God, and be enabled to discover and adore the wisdom and power ,of his omnipotent Creator. " From the very nature of our immaterial structure, and every thing gleaned from its opera- tions," says a distinguished writer, " Ave are well assured that wisdom is progressive and eternal; that our highest nthimnsnts are but as the perception of infants crawling NEW-SCHOOL PHYSICIANS. 127 on the very threshold of being, in comparison Avith that knowledge of Jehovah, his Avorks and ways, that shall pour its radiance on the unclouded intellect of man, as he rises from the bio ay of death, and wings his mighty and majestic flight amidst the boundless splendors of the eter- nal Avorld — Avhere he shall look on that ineffable glory, Avhich eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it enter- ed into the heart of man to conceive the magnificence of its uncreated beams I" We have chosen, as a sphere of future action, one of the highest and most holy, yet one of the most respon- sible, the most arduous, and most unthankful callings which can call forth the energy of man —one Avhich requires the development of every principle of intellect and judg- ment, of every energy of mind and body, and " All feelings that refine and bless, All kindness, sweetness, gentleness." The gorgeous palace of the aristocrat and nabob, the d-!apidated°mit of the beggar, dependent and slave, will be equally the sphere of our action, and equally call forth our skill, judgment, anxiety and watchful care. We are and shall be called to witness the suffering of our fellow men in every form, situation and circumstance — among the high and the low, the rich and the poor, the old and the young, the learned and illiterate, the refined and the vulgar the lord and the servant, on the bed of down, and on the' pallet of straw-frequently the cold earth- amongst Christians and amongst the worst of mfidels; and too frequently without the power to relieve them. The edict will have gone forth, " Time to them shall be no more'" A power superior to man hath called them / 128 ADDRESS TO from this " vale of tears" to an eternal " state of weal or AVO !" We are caUed on to relieve the pain of the strong man, and soothe the sufferings of some angelic form. We hear the anathemas of HeU, and the soft and holy breathings of Heaven. We are caHed on to restrain the writhings and anguish of the mad-man, and to watch the hectic glow of the consumptive, as she descends step by step into the " cold tenement of clay." We are frequently called on to smo6th the downward patliAvay of the aged, and to vieAV the convulsive throb of the infant, as its soul seems unwilling to quit its earthly tabernacle so soon, even for the bright realities of a fairer and better world than this. We are called on to build up the broken down frame of some drunken brute, racked as it is, with all the Protean evils of the round of pathology, and to restore the sapped constitution of some gay and heedless butter- fly that sacrificed her health and happiness at the shrine of fashion! We may frequently be called on to mitigate the suffering of some poor laborer or servant, brought on by exposure to every vicissitude of Aveather, half-clothed and fed, and to physic the hypochondriacal nabob for the fancied round of pathology, brought on by surfeit and inactivity. And, finally, too frequently called on to renew the ruined body of some Avalking barometer, nervous and dropsical, Avho has fallen a victim to the "incendiary practice," and is the moving specter of the fell power of this mighty system of destruction. Our daily vocation is a peculiar one. - It tends "by the constant exhibi- tion of human pain and weakness, to awaken the best emotions of our nature, to foster the benevolent affec- tions, and to promote the charities of social life." It NEAV-SCHOOL PHYSICIANS. 129 is free from party turmoil and sectarian jealousy. " It regards no political differences, and the poor no less than the rich are embraced in its ministrations." Yes, the physician is an earthly Gabriel; ever willing to minister, to the loneliest of his Heavenly Father's children. Truly, his record is in heaven,] Like the good Samaritan, he is ever pouring oil in the wounds of the poor wayfarer — the Lazarus and the Dives are equally the objects of his solicitude and guardian care. Let me here say, if Ave show a preference in our pro- fessional capacity to any, let it be to the poor. They are the peculiar people of the Lord. " Whom he loveth he chasteneth ;" and " God will not hold him guiltless" who neglecteth one of these: for he hath said, " Verily, I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did not minister unto one of these, ye did not unto me — depart from me, ye cursed." The ministrations to the poor are like " bread cast on the waters ; it shall be found after many days." Should we receive no earthly recompence, yet when we have passed the " valley and shadow of death," verily we shall have our reward. When from amidst the bright cheruoim and archangels, who minister around the refulgent throne of the almighty One, His voice shall be heard, " like the sound of°many waters," far above the highest notes of acclamation and hallelujahs of the bright cherubim who sing continual songs of praise and adoration to Him who was, and is, and always will be, saying, " Come, thou blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for thee " for "I" was sick and ye visited me." Then we shall'receive our reward, far above the choicest rubies — nay fine gems. Ever bear in mind, then, the immortal sentimentof Boerhave, "The poor are the best patients, for 130 ADDRESS TO God is their pay-master." Look at the example of the venerable Rush; the poor were almost alone the objects . of his attention, during the prevalence of the epidemic of 1793. He once dreamed, soon after his recovery from an attack of the same, that a numerous crowd was gath- ered around his door imploring hi% aid and advice, and that he resisted their entreaties, and was' about to turn from them and hurry into his carriage, when a poor Avoman ran forward, and with outstretched hands, exclaimed, " 0 doctor! don't turn from the poor ! you were doomed to die of the yelloAv fever, but the prayers of the poor were heard by Heaven, and have saved your life !" Truly is the medical profession one of the highest and most holy — hallowed as it should be, by religious motives! Our mighty Creator himself, the Great Physician, went about doing aU manner of good, healing the sick, raising the dead, restoring the blind, relieving the lame and halt, and soothing the afflicted, " without money and without price." What an example for us ! Our profession points out to us, that, too frequently, bodily pain and suffering proceed directly or indirectly from evil courses — thus conveying to us the most salutary lessons and warnings. In them we behold the matchless workings of Providence to punish men for breaking the laAvs of nature, Avhich govern not only the universe but man — the chastisements Avhich are in mercy sent, to recall him from the strong allurements of vice and intemperance, and the slumbers of apparent perpetual prosperity'and ease, to Him who is long suffering and full^of forbearance, from whom they have Avidely strayed. " It is full, at the same time, of the most solemn warnings, and speaking to us day by day of death. It reminds us that Ufe is short, and death cer- NEAV-SCHOOL PHYSICIANS. 131 tain; and warns us to prepare for the dread realities of another Avorld than this. It teaches us to be meek and humble in life, and to look to a higher source than this Avorld for peace and happiness. It points out to us the debt of gratitude we owe to Him, who has watched over and protected us, while so many of our fellow-creatures feel the merciful hand of his displeasure. Our profession affords us an opportunity not.only to apply balm to the body, but to pour holy unction in the Avounds of the soul; to point out to the lonely sufferer the way which leads to eternal peace beyond the grave. Followed up in the true and Christian spirit of gratitude towards God, love and charity towards man, this noble profession is second to none in usefulness and dignity. When faithfully admin- istered, it will have its OAvn abundant reward. But, our profession is one of the most responsible be- neath the heavens. The life, health, peace and happiness of thousands of our fellow beings, may be placed in our hands, with a firm reliance on our skill; they are, like babes, under our protection, and obey our every wish and order; to us they look for aid in every time of bodily need. Can there be greater confidence reposed in man, than that of intrusting him with the life and health of them- selves, and all that is near and dear to them ? Yes, and we are admitted to the bed-rooms of Avives and daughters, as no other earthly friend would or can be; and many of their secrets are intrusted to us, to be kept inviolably. They are in our hands — ignorance, want of judgment or firmness, and formerly, (and at present with some,) the least mistake, and our patient's spirit will have winged its way to climes above. We are responsible for a clear and correct diagnosis ; as nothing so clearly distinguishes the 132 ADDRESS TO experienced and enlightened physician from the mere haphazard recipe quack and routinist, as his ability to properly estimate symptoms. We are responsible for a safe and judicious system of therapeutics, based upon this diagnosis. We are responsible for the modus oper- andi of our remedial agents. We are held responsible for every change in our patients, and we are looked to for, and expected to give, a correct prognosis. How necessa- ry, then, that the physician should have a correct and critical knowledge of his profession — of the anatomical and physiological structure and action of the different parts and organs of the human body, in its Pathology, Etiology and Semeology ; of his therapeutic agents, their properties and action; of Botany — as from the vegetable kingdom alone, his remedial agents should be procured. These are essentially necessary to a skillful and judicious practitioner; but he must likewise possess a sound, discriminating judgment; this is important in the practice of medicine; for upon this alone we have to de- pend in applying the principles of our profession. Skill and facility in applying these principles, must be acquired where they are most needed, at the bed-side of the sick. We are taught in colleges, books, &c, the general direc- tions for removing the morbid habit, and the proper rules for determining the local concentration, and to a certain extent we are enlightened as to the best remedial agent for counteracting it; but the adventitious contingencies de- pendent upon this local concentration, are so various and changeable, according to the extent and number of tissues involved, that we are necessarily forced to depend upon our own judgment and discrimination for determining and counteracting them. A man must be born a physician. NEW-SCHOOL PHYSICIANS. 133 I do not mean a seventh son — but he must have discrim- ination and judgment. • As these are so necessary, does it not behoove us to guard them Avith Argus eyes, if we have them? Hoav often are they perverted, and the mind destroyed, by that infernal system styled temperate dram- drinking ! Though much more common in other parts of this country than in . the New England States, it is practiced to a considerable extent even here, by physi- cians that are called, temperate. How many patients' lives have been sacrificed at the shrine of this hellish propensity, by some being, bearing the shape of a man, calling himself Doctor, A\iiose sense of responsibility is lulled, his mental faculties overthroAvn, and his judgment and discrimination destroyed by alcoholic poison. If any individual in the Avorld should eschew alcohol, it is the physician — for life or death depend upon the clearness of perception of his mental faculties. I have often been led to think, if there was one criminal any more guilty than another, it Avas the drunken or dram-drinking doctor. 0, let us shun it as we would the Bohon Upas. But the mind can be weakened and the judgment perverted by other species of intemperance than drinking — I allude more particularly to eating. While, then, we shun intem- perance in drinking, let not our bodies become a gor- mond's reservoir — but "be temperate in all things." Day after day, night after night, winter and summer, spring and fall, hot and cold, rain and shine, the physi- cian must minister to the wants of suffering humanity. He is public property. Other professions have their seasons of relaxation, repose and pleasure; but to the physician there is none. He is doomed to see humanity under the most unpropitious, and frequently ludicrous 184 ADDRESS TO circumstances — the cry of bodily suffering, the groan of mental agony, the maniac laugh, and the hysteric convul- sion. He witnesses the tears and anxiety of the husband, the Avife, the mother, the daughter, the father, the son, the brother, the sister. He is conversant with the lowest depths of poverty, degradation and Avant. He witnesses the dying agony of some poor lonely outcast, and watches the giddy multitude as they dance through life with the gay step, the light laugh, upon the very threshhold of death. His own ease and comfort, all the joys of home, pleas- ure, and social Ufe, are sacrificed to the welfare of his fellow men. He comes home late at night, wearied in mind and body — after days and nights spent in watching and mental anxiety at the bed-side of some poor sufferer gasping for his last breath — to seek a few minutes repose; and his mind is either too much impressed Avith his respon- sibility and his anxiety for his patient to admit of this heavenly balm, or he is aroused from his " thrice blessed slumbers," and hurried off to find some delectable female in a charming paroxysm of hysterics, or a child groaning with a slight belly-ache. To us, of the reformed school, the profession of medicine is still more arduous. We do not only have to bear with the troubles and anxieties attend- ing the practice of medicine in general, but notwithstand- ing our purity of purpose and honesty of motive, are compelled to encounter the most virulent and illiberal op- position, from the malicious aspersions of self-interested ignorance and senseless bigotry. Our names will be traduced and our practice vilified by that class of man- kind, who, "straining at gnats, swallow camels," and who are ever ready to condemn, without judge or jury, NEW-SCHOOL PHYSICIANS. 135 every thing which may happen to come in conflict with their preconceived opinions and self interested vieAvs. We have probably already discovered that it requires, under ordinary circumstances, no smaU share of " inde- pendence of character, firmness of purpose, and unshaken confidence in the truth and value of our principles, to as- sert and defend them;" more especially when they come in contact with the reigning doctrines of the times. Often after we have passed sleepless nights and anx- ious days, watching every change in our patients with a solicitude no tongue can express or heart appreciate — except his whose lot it is to be the constant witness of the exhibition of human suffering in all forms and under all circumstances — and shall have exerted our skill in vain, and our patient's spirit has "winged its flight to worlds on high," will the maledictions of his friends, and the malicious aspersions and anathemas of our opposers, fall in showers on our devoted heads. A poor recompense for a Ufe devoted to the best interest of man! But what tongue can express the gratification a physi- sician feels, when, by his skill, he has raised the form oi some poor lonely sufferer from a bed of languishing and wo nay, from the very threshhold of death, and receives the' thanks of that once despondent soul, which proceed from the pure and crystal fount of the heart! It is as holy unction to his soul. One such case as this, gives the conscientious physician more solid comfort and peace of mind than would the highest honors of this vam-glo- rious world' Then can he return thanks to that all-wise and good Being, who was pleased in His providence to or- dain him to be the simple instrument in His hands of con- veying health and joy to the bosom of the devoted family. 136 ADDRESS TO For several centuries after the attention of mankind had been turned to obtaining relief for their maladies, physicians were almost in utter ignorance of the mechan- ism of the system upon which they were operating. Hence they Avere frequently under the necessity of groping their way in darkness; although they were in possession of someJeAV principles, acquired by practice and observation, which served as guides in certain particulars; yet, not being able to draw deductions, or trace disease from its cause and primary lesions to its effects, their practice Avas chiefly empirical. But the same qualifications now essen- tial to practitioners of medicine (and which ever wiU be, until disease shall cease its inroads on the human family) were also then essential—the possession of a sound, dis- criminating judgment, connected with an investigating disposition, and a thorough knoAvledge of all that was previously knoAvn in medicine. And as the science is con- tinually advancing — never remaining stationary—the qualifications necessary to a physician must necessarily become more extensive. The permission for the dissection of cadavers, granted by the kings of Egypt, opened a new era in medical sci- ence. An extensive and intricate field was thus opened for investigation, and many entered into it with the utmost avidity. Physicians were enabled to examine the struc- ture, connection and functions of the human body or sys- tem, to trace the connection between existing lesions and symptoms. Every part wras carefuUy and minutely ex- amined, and many important facts were discovered, which led to the establishment of correct principles, and the eradicating of many erroneous theories received as correct fundamental doctrines. Anatomy and Physiology NEW-SCHOOL PHYSICIANS. 137 henceforth became essential and fundamental branches of sound medical education; and as such, it is a duty obligatory upon all, who Avould be esteemed as scientific physicians, to possess a critical knowledge of these branch- es. Physiological knowledge, especially, is of the utmost importance to the physician, as it will give him a clear idea of the healthy functions, and thus enable him to have distinct views of the nature of diseased action — and this knowledge cannot be obtained without a critical knowledge of Anatomy. But the removal of disease from the system requires something more than the mere knowledge of its nature and locality; it requires the application of certain agents which have the power to modify the functions of the dif- ferent parts, to correct or counteract disordered actions, and restore the lost balance of the human system. " These agents are to the physician as tools to a mechanic." They possess multiplied and varied powers, and sustain various relations to different organs. To understand fully their therapeutic operations, in different forms of disease, modified by constitution, age, sex, season, climate, and the different situations in life, is a task sufficient to engage the acutest intellect and most persevering industry. But upon this subject, much remains still hidden in the cave of Cyclops. What is known should undoubtedly be ac- auired by every medical aspirant. Experience has fully demonstrated the advantage de- rived from compounding medicines, and in a majori^ of • «. o^ the iudicious and well informed physician exhibits Msted^t combinations and nnxtures, rather than me"cln , that means the properties of remed,al -:ill« upon the sJStem nray he nrodined 138 ADDRESS to and varied, ad infinitum — in many instances totally changed. Unless the physician is acquainted Avith the different therapeutical and chemical relations Avhich these articles of the materia medica bear to each other, and to the organs and tissues of the body, he is unable to combine them judiciously, so as to meet the multiplied and ever varying forms of disease. If he be ignorant of this subject, and attempt such combinations, he is constantly liable to counteract his own intentions and op- erations. A knowledge of chemistry, then, to a certain extent, becomes an essential requisite in the qualifications of a skillful physician; it has usually been considered as merely a collateral branch of the science, but in point of importance and extent of application, it is a fundamental branch of the science. We might enlarge upon this sub- ject, but suffice it to say, that much of medical jurispru- dence is based on chemical science, and for its proper understanding a more or less general acquaintance with it is requisite. I have already made some slight allusion to the only source Avhence remedial agents should be obtained — the vegetable kingdom; and I here assert, Avithout success- ful contradiction, that it is the principal source of aU remedial agents. This is not only the case at the present day, but always has been the case, in all ages of the Avorld, since medicine assumed the form of a science. Why, then, it may be asked, do any despise or affect to despise botanical remedies ? The 'reason is obvious. There are thousands of ignoramuses scattered throughout the country, who are constantly exclaiming and publish- ing, " Botanic Medicines ! Botanic Medicines ! !" and preparing and vending secret nostrums, but who are as NEW-SCHOOL PHYSICIANS. 139 ignorant of the nature and therapeutical relations of these medicines as they are of the structure and functions of the system upon Avhich they blindly operate. Such exhi- bitions are well calculated to disgust every enlightened mind, and bring into disrepute even the best of causes. Let me warn you therefore against such men— they are not Thomsonian Botanies. We claim no identity with them. Yet they, from calling themselves such—though, in reality, mongrels — become the Upas of our system. " Botany is an extensive science, and a man may spend a whole Ufe in its investigation. It is not expected, hoAV- ever, that the student of medicine, while acquiring the elements of his profession, will become an adept in this most beautiful, interesting and important subject; but it is of the utmost importance that he should become thor- oughly acquainted with the principles of the science and the5 system of classification, so as to examine with facility the different productions of any locality. If this were the case, we should have but little if any occasion for imported drugs." Had physicians, for the last two hundred years, instead of relying upon the artificial pre- parations of a few minerals, turned their attention to investigating the properties and uses of the innumerable remedial agents, safe and efficacious in their action, spread in rich profusion around us, by the hand of Nature, and kept the science of Botany identified, as it formerly was, with their profession, Medical Science at this time would, without doubt, present quite a different aspect. It is for the purpose of restoring the science of m di- cine I true and proper base, and the p*^£ £ pristine sphere, Botimy ** a^em;f Mdical Reform, has been promulgated to the world. 140 ADDRESS TO system of Scientific Medical Reform, that I would now recommend to every physician and student, yea, to the whole human family. These reformed medical principles are not the faint glimmerings of an enthusiastic and dis- tempered mind, nor " the wakeful drSams of some vis- ionary speculator," nor " the fine-spun, gossamer-thread cogitations of some closet theorist," but the inductions of another and more hardy routine of study—the bed- side of the sick. There we learn truths the theorist can never reach. There alone can medical principles be established, perfected on a safe and judicious practice. Our system of Medical Reform was estabUshed by the unshaken and undeniable facts elicited in practice; it gained admirers by its safety and celerity in removing disease; all wno give it a fair and candid examination, are at once convinced of its merits to public confidence. Although its progress was opposed by the combined pha- lanxes of the Avould-be scientific, and the favored gentry, backed by legislators with their odious gag laws, it has continued its mighty and majestic course. Gaining new vigor from every opposition, it has, in the last fifteen years, progressed with a rapidity unequaled in the annals of important discoveries. It is safe—it is efficacious — it is speedy—it is simple; " for the more perfectly the morbid habit is understood, the fewer and more simple are the necessary remedial agents for its removal." It was the safety of the Thomsonian practice, which first gained it admirers; and now that this system of Medical Reform is found to be based on true physiological principles, adapted to correct pathology, and consonant with the operations of nature in her efforts to throw off disease, how long will it be before aU will bow to its benign NEW-SCHOOL PHYSICIANS. 141 and invigorating influences ? We would not eulogize this practice, nor Avould we promise that it will raise the dead or cure incurable cases, where death has already lain its relentless grasp. But I do say, if we skillfully apply the principles and practice, taught by the venerable founder of the system, and lately by our Botanico-Medical Colleges in the United States, we shall have no cause to regret a want of success. Nor shall we ever have cause to regret, from Avant of practice, our having espoused its principles ; and this is no small consideration in these days, when so many physicians, as a consequence of their too great anx- iety to be dubbed professional men, a-la-mode,&re doomed to pine away on the scanty support of a limited practice, and often in abject poverty. Look at the numerous old- school Medical Colleges, sending forth the manufactured, and frequently half-crude article, in threble proportion to the demand for the same. It is a rule in political econo- my, that when the supply is greater than the demand, the article must depreciate in value —and this holds equally good even in medicine. ' These Colleges send forth their catalogues and circulars as " decoy ducks," to lead thousands into inevitable ruin. Not so with the reform- ers ' the demand for the "manufactured article is now much greater than the supply ; and this demand is stead- ily increasing-consequently, this article, when substan- tial, must increase in value. The Thomsonian Botanic practice must contmue to spread and prosper. It commends itself to the common sense of mankind ; for who can go forth and view th Flora of our country, planted and nurtured by the hand of Nature, possessing every property essential to the re- moval of disease, and not.be impressed w>th the xdea that 142 ADDRESS TO there alone a beneficent Providence intended we should find panaceas for every ill? The broad expanse of Floral Nature is our Materia Medica. There we cuU safe, efficacious and speedy remedies; there we find abun- dant agents for fulfilling every indication in the treatment of disease. Our Materia Medica is not restricted to a few viruient mineral poisons I We ascend the mountains, we find there the gifts of a benevolent Creator ; we enter the valleys, we find them spread in rich profusion before us on the banks of the meandering stream, and they wave their heads invitingly towards us! Our Materia Medica is as broad and expansive as the earth. Enough has already been said, in this work, to show any candid mind, that the old-school practice is essentially deficient, and of course inadequate to the removal of dis- ease. It results from the neglect of the Dermoid Tissue. The advantages derived from attention to the surface, have already been pointed out sufficiently. The vapor bath, the alkaline bath, the saline bath, the astringent bath, the cold bath, and the shower bath, are all essen- tially necessary in the treatment of disease. There are also various articles Avhich have the power to relax and stimulate the cutaneous exhalents, and excite perspiration; these can be administered with advantage to aid the action of the baths, and assist in removing the morbid habit, &c. But the Allopathists pay very Uttle if any attention to the surface. They give calomel, that " great regulator of aU the secretions," bleed, then, perhaps, administer some Ught diaphoretic, and leave the patient to Uve or die. " Purge, excite the liver and the saUvary glands," is their cry, the surface is of less than secondary importance. Thus the patient is exhausted by bleeding, active purging, NEW-SCHOOL PHYSICIANS. 143 &c, but the most important of Nature's methods of re- moving disease is entirely overlooked or neglected. When will a redeeming spirit come over our AUopathic brethren, in regard to the treatment of disease ? When will they learn to follow the method pointed out by Nature, in the removal of disease ? The more closely we observe Nature, and follow and aid her in her indications, the more suc- cessful -will be our practice. Nature's operations are a polar star. \1* x 45 75