.s^TnAjLAst^**^*- ^wA«^ m: ct- ( n AMERICAN ECLECTICISM: AN INTRODUCTORY LECTURE, DELIVERED AT THE ECLECTIC MEDICAL INSTITUTE, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4th, 1850. BY JOS. R. BUCHANAN, M. D., PROFESSOR OF MEDICAL CHEMISTRY AND CEREBRAL PHYSIOLOGY. Gentlemen:— p t f) , We have assembled to-night under impressive cir- cumstances. Of the corps of teachers of Eclectic Medicine who oc- cupied these halls last winter, all have not again assembled. The oldest veteran of our corps, who bore the heaviest responsibility of this great enterprise is no longer with us. In the midst of his noble labors, he has been called away. From this life, which he devoted to the good of mankind—to the redemption of his fellow beings from the evils of pernicious medical errors—he has been promoted to a higher sphere of existence. His spirit will not be weighed down by any pressure of remorse in contemplating his past life. On the contrary he will look back to a long series of good deeds—to thou- sands restored to life and health by his wise ministrations, and to the healing knowledge widely diffused by his pupils. He has carried with him a vast fund of happiness in the contemplation of his past career—and as we are permitted to trust that the departed are not entirely unconscious of the progress of this life on earth—he may look down with blissful emotions upon the progress of that great cause of which he was the Western hero, which is still going on conquering and to conquer in the bloodless triumphs of benevolence and peace. In contemplating his career we may learn a lesson which it impressively teaches—to fix our aims in the outset of life upon.a lofty object and pursue it with an unwavering firmness—nev- er regarding the popular disapprobation, silently whispered around us, or gathering in stormy opposition, but going on bravely in the consciousness that the right must ultimately triumph. 2 Such was his course, and the memory of Morrow is richly em- balmed in our hearts! , Gentlemen, we have again assembled to perform the arduous task of reviewing and becoming familiar with the immense mass of facts and principles, which constitute the science of medicine. As medical men it will be our duty hereafter, to stand up with all our armor between our friends and the terrible assaults of every de- vastating pestilence, or insidious disease which many assail their lives. The lives and the health of thousands of our friends and fellow citizens, depend upon the preparation which we make this winter, to shield them from suffering and death by our medical re- sources. Under this solemn responsibility, we act—and every day that is lost, every hour that is unprofitably spent, must impair our skill, and must to that extent, endanger the health or the lives of those who are to be entrusted hereafter to our care. He who assumes these solemn responsibilities, and trifles away his time by idleness, or studies his profession carelessly, no matter what may be his personal virtues, is guilty of a gross dereliction of his duty, and like the sentinel who falls asleep on his post—he must be regarded as a criminal. But you know the value of time; you know that you have not an hour to spare, and that you have only a limited time to prepare yourselves for the responsibilities of the profession: I trust there- fore we shall all go to work this winter, as Nelson's sailors went into battle under the inspiring motto, "England expects every man to do his duty." And in these walls gentlemen, we expect something more than is usually expected in a medical school, we do not ask of you merely to follow implicitly in the footsteps of your predecessors, and to master the details of a particular mode of practice. We ask you to perform the more difficult part of medical philosophers; we ask you to study and compare the various doctrines found in the text- books of our profession and with discriminating sagacity to select the good and reject the evil. We ask you not merely to be learners by memory, but to exercise all your reasoning powers in an impar- tial manner. We ask you not only to learn how to practice, but to understand all the reasons for the method, which you adopt. We ask you not only to learn the common resources and principles of the medical profession, but to learn a great many resources and principles not found in your text books. We therefore most earnestly hope that you will appropriate these four months of our session daily and nightly to your studies, and to nothing else; and as it is impossible to master the knowledge to be acquired in a single course of lectures, our laws imperatively require two courses, and as it is very difficult indeed even for the best disciplined to acquire a perfect or an accurate knowledge of 3 medical science in two courses, we most earnestly hope that you will not stop short of attending three full courses of medical lectures. Do not think this too much. For a common country practitioner, desiring only to make a living by his trade, like a farmer or me- chanic, two courses may be enough, but for the man who aims to excel—to honor himself and to do good to his fellow beings, three courses are little enough. The most eminent men in the medi- cal profession have generally spent a greater time than usual in their course of studies, and attended several of the best schools and hos- pitals, before they felt prepared for their high calling. It is not merely to support yourselves and to benefit your patients that you should prepare; for you have other responsibilities to your country at large. You belong to what has been appropriately termed "The Vanguard of the Army"—that portion of the med- ical corps whose motto is progression. You are participants in the great and benevolent enterprise of medical reform, and upon you it will devolve to carry the broad banner of American Eclecticism over this continent. Upon you it will devolve to carry out a new sys- tem of practice under the eyes of jealous and skeptical observers,andto be prepared to meet every test of your skill and knowledge. Upon you it will devolve to meet captious opponents and to prove not on- ly by practice but by argument, that your doctrines are true, and that American Eclecticism is no crude theory. Let us then understand clearly before we begin our winter's course what is American Eclecticism—what is it to be an Eclectic physician? I cannot better illustrate the relative position of a philosophical Eclecticism and a one-sided system of medical philosophy, than by relating an anecdote which although old and familiar, is peculiarly adapted to our purpose. The story goes that in the olden time two valiant knights traveling to and from the Holy Land, came togeth- er in opposite directions at the crossing of roads, where stood a statue bearing a burnished shield. They paused to admire its sculpture and after a courteous salute one of them spoke admiringly of the statue and its golden shield. "Golden!" replied the other contemptuously, "it is but a silver shield, if I can see correctly." "It certainly is gold," was the reply, "whoever says it is of silver lies." "Then by St. George!" said his antagonist, "if you are no coward you shall meet me in combat." They withdrew to fight. As they were about to commence their tilt, an aged pilgrim came along, who asked why two good christian knights should make war on each other thus, when all their strength was needed for the foe. "The lie has passed," said the first knight, "my ad- versary has pronounced yonder silver shield to be of gold, and giv- en me an unpardonable insult." ''Indeed," said the pilgrim, "and will you shed each other's blood for such a difference of opinion ? The cause of your differ- 4 ence is this: you have traveled different roads, and have each, as you stood in different positions seen but one side of the shield. To you it appeared as silver—to him as gold—but know, sir knight, that I have dwelt upon this spot, and I have often looked upon both sides of the shield. I know that what you say is true, and also what your opponent says is equally true." "True! said the knight indignantly, "iffyou endorse what my opponent says, you endorse the insult and the lie, and unless you leave this ground inv mediately with your insulting mediation, I will transfix you with my lance." The old man grieved in spirit, yet anxious to prevent the effusion of blood, resorted to the other knight, hoping to ex- plain away the difference and propitiate their anger. But all was in vain. Each adhered to his one-sided view and fought for his dogmatic opinion. Neither would examine both sides of the question with Eclectic impartiality, nor listen to a fair explanation of theii differences from a more philosophic mind. Thus it is in the science of medicine. Our materia medica, like the gold and silver shield, presents two aspects—every drug is capable of acting either with the Homoeopathic or with the Allo- pathic relation to disease. They who approach the subject from the road of old and common experience perceive distinctly the Al- lopathic aspect of therapeutics, while others who approach from the direction of subtle philosophy and novel experiment, perceive the Homoeopathic aspect. Each party like the turbulent old knights refuses to recognize what the other sees, and contends that thera- peutic science has but one true aspect. Each pronounces the other totally wrong, and falsehood, knavery and imposition are freely charged, while the harmonious Eclectic philosophy which looks upon all aspects of the question with impartiality is indignantly repelled by each, because it will not take part in their petty quar- rel and endorse the ribaldry of either party against the other. Eclecticism calmly tells them that each is in possession of a partial truth, but that both are in error when they deride ai d denounce. Hence we perceive, an Eclectic physician is not an Allopathist nor a Homceopathist nor a Hydropathist nor a Chrono-Thermalist nor a Botanical nor a Mercurial physician. He is simply an indepen- dent practitioner of medicine, who is not willing to be classed and labelled with any restrictive and peculiar term. He submits to the name Eclectic, merely because it is a free, liberal term, which does not signify anything exclusive or sectarian, and which leaves him in the position of an untrammelled enquirer into all truth. He de- rives his claim to the title of Eclectic from the fact that he believes there is no system of doctrines ever established by man, which is not pregnant with truth, and that there is no class of medical prac- titioners who do not by their clinical experience acquire valuable knowledge; consequently he studies all systems and consults with all practitioners, and fraternizes with all honorable men in the pur- 5 suit of truth. He is willing to learn from every author, from every physician, from every human being. Therefore he may claim to be considered Eclectic. Who then is, and who is not an Eclectic? He who gains the most extensive knowledge of his profession, of all its doctrines and resources, is the best Eclectic, and he is not an Eclectic who falls in with any author or party with so partizan a spirit as to denounce and to exclude from his respectful attention other writers or other systems; to denounce and exclude Homoeopathic, Allopathic, Hy- dropathic, Botanic or Chrono-Thermal doctrines, is a violation of Eclecticism, and to adopt any one of these systems exclusively is still farther wrong. In defining the positions of the various medical parties in the world, you perceive that this is an essentially new position. Con- sequently it requires a new name, and the name which I would propose for a true Eclectic system is a name expressive of its uni- versal, comprehensive character. That name is Pantopathy. It is the fashion to name systems of medical practice from the mode in which they cure, or from the agents which they apply to the treatment of disease. That system which uses remedies capa- ble of producing results analogous to the conditions of the disease to be treated is called Homoeopathic. All other systems which are not guided by this analogy are commonly called Allopathic, as they bring to bear upon the disease something capable of producing mor- bid phenomena different from those of the disease. Looking to the relation between the disease and the remedy, we may say that philosophically speaking, there can be but three prin- cipal forms of this relation, or in other words, three methods of treating disease. The remedy must either directly oppose and overwhelm the disease, (which is Anti-pathy,) or it must coincide in tendency with the disease, (which is Homoeopathy,) or it must take an intermediate course, and neither coincide nor oppose, but simply produce a different action or diversion as in counter-irrita- tion. This method in strict propriety is called Allopathy. Each of these methods is rational, and in practice each has been successful, for they have all been extensively tested. To take the simplest illustration of the different methods of treatment, let us suppose a violent local inflammation to have aris- en. The first and most obvious suggestion of common sense is to counteract the symptoms by an agency exactly opposite, to over- come the heat by cold, the pain by anodynes, the relaxation of the parts by astringents, and the debility, if it exist, by stimulants. Such is the common treatment, and we know that it is perfectly success- ful if correctly applied. But to simplify the matter let us look at one feature of the case alone. The inflammation is accompanied by heat and excitement, hence common sense suggests a cold and sedative application, or in other words, cold water or ice. By this 6 means we overwhelm and keep down the inflammatory action. But experience has also proved that if we can overwhelm inflammation an- tipathically by cold, we can as successfully relieve it Homceopath- ically by heat. Although caloric excessively applied would aggra- vate any inflammation, yet the gentle application of it which the Homoeopathic law requires is decidedly curative. Thus by the ap- plication of warm water or steam we may control inflammation as well as by cold water or ice. If we adopt the antipathic treatment by cold, we must be steady, bold and efficient; in other words, our practice must be heroic, for if we are not efficient we aggravate the disease. If the cold is not efficiently applied it only stimulates reaction and urges the inflammation to greater intensity. If it is not kept up steadily, the inflammation may rally in the intervals and rise higher than ever. Or if it is discontinued too soon, the reaction will arise, and the disease assume its full force. The ap- plication therefore must be bold, firm, steady and lasting; just as if we had attacked a dangerous enemy, when we must not only knock him down, but keep him down and crush him completely, for fear that if we allow him to react and rise he will destroy us. Hence. as I said before, the antipathic practice is necessarily heroic. But Homoeopathic treatment is necessarily gentle. For if we apply a remedy coinciding with the disease, the more we give, the more the disease is aggravated. If we apply heat to an inflamma- tion a heroic practice would be destructive, but if we apply it gently as in warm water or steam, it exerts a beneficial influence, and does not aggravate the disease. Hence arises the broad distinction between Antipathic and Ho- moeopathic treatment of disease. The antipathic muse be heroic or it does no good; we only worry the disease and make it worse unless we give efficient doses and conquer it. But the Homceopa- ic treatment if it should attempt the heroic would be destructive— it does good only by its gentleness. To illustrate this matter by a comparison,—a boy comes home from a quarrel in a furious rage, cursing and swearing vehemently. His father comes in and undertakes to check him on the heroic anti- pathic plan. He orders him to be silent, and threatens him with a flogging forthwith if he does not mend his manners and put on a more smiling countenance. If the old gentleman is a good practi- tioner with the rod, his antibilious prescription succeeds at once, although it is not very pleasant to the patient. But if the father is absent, the mother treats him homoeopathically. She does not op- pose him but listens to his story, pretends to get very angry herself with the boys who abused her darling son, and coincides with him so well that his excitement passes off and he is restored to good hu- mor by the Homoeopathic sugar-pill of his mother's sympathy; and there is no doubt that he prefers this method of treatment. Or to take another illustration, let us compare a disease to a run- 7 away horse. If we wish to stop him, there are three classes of practitioners—first, the antipath steps into the middle of the road right before the run-away horse, seizes him by the bridle and he- roically stops him on the spot, and leads him back to his place. The Homoeopath having more dexterity than strength, runs along- side of the horse, takes hold of his bridle and runs on with him as fast as he can. As soon as he gets hold of the bridle, the horse slackens his speed, and in a short time he comes to a halt and quiet- ly walks back with his dexterous Homoeopathic master. Another practitioner not so heroic as the Antipath nor yet so pliable as the Homoeopath, rushes to the head of the horse and sei- zes the reins, but does not attempt to stop him at once, neither is he willing to run along with him. He turns him to one side, and changes his direction as fast as he can until he is completely turn- ed, or perhaps he drives him into a corner of the fence where he is obliged to stop because his road has come to an end. Thus, the Allopathic practitioner controls a local inflammation by a cathar- tic acting on the alimentary canal—by a blister on some other part of the body, by an opiate, a stimulant or an alterative which does not act directly or inversely on the disease, but which changes the condition of the whole body and gradually changes the action of the morbid part. If a disease be located in the lungs or the spinal column, the Allopathic practitioner does not act directly on the morbid part with either the Homaeopathic specific or the antipathic specific, but he endeavors to divert the headlong power of the dis- ease from its existing channels and run it out to the surface where it must terminate because it can get no farther. He therefore ap- plies a rubefacient or a blister or an irritating plaster over the chest or over the spine and after a time he finds that the morbid action has diminished at its original location and that the physiological and pathological activity is concentrating on the surface where it terminates its progress, ieaving the patient free from his disease. These are simple illustrations of the three great methods of ther- apeutics, Antipathy, Homoeopathy and Allopathy; but these three methods are necessarily subject to variation and commingling. Thus the Antipathic plan cannot always be specifically antipathic, but must be more or less Allopathic. The Homoeopathic prescription can- not always be strictly Homoeopathic, but must often partake in some degree of the Allopathic character, and if we should attempt to carry out the Allopathic plan we would find all of our prescriptions leaning either to Homoeopathy or to Antipathy. Hence although the science or art of therapeutics may be theo- retically divided into its Antipathic, Homoeopathic and Allopathic departments, we shall find that practically no such division is pos- sible. To make such a division is degrading to the intelligence and dignity of the medical profession. A thoroughly educated medical man is acquainted with all the resources of his art and does not confine himself to any portion. The attempt to subdivide the art of healing and establish differ- ent classes of practitioners has been made only in modern times and has not entirely succeeded nor can it ever succeed. The three great methods of healing disease have always been adopted by the medical profession and used indiscriminately, without any reference to their philosophic distinction, aiming only to cure the patient. In modern times, Hahnemann discovered that one of these modes or laws of cure, viz.: the Homoeopathic, was vastly more important and more susceptible of general application than any of his prede- cessors had supposed. He accordingly devoted himself with great boldness and assiduity to the investigation of the materia medica, and extended the applications of the Homoeopathic law to the en- tire practice of medicine, excluding from his system of practice the Antipathic aud Allopathic modes as unscientific and unworthy of preservation. Had the labors of Hahnemann in the development of Homoeo- pathic therapeutics been prosecuted in a more catholic or liberal spirit—had he been content to bring in his contributions to the great treasury of human knowledge without denouncing the labors of his predecessors, and disparaging all other laws but the Homoeo- pathic, we might regard his career with unmingled admiration. Notwithstanding his error in this respect, we must ever regard him as standing high among the world's benefactors, among the diligent contributors to practical medicine, and the reformers of an old, un- scientific and destructive mode of practice. The leaders of the medical profession with their usual haughti- ness nnd dogmatism, rejected the experimental investigations of Hahnemann, while he and his followers with similar dogmatism and prejudice rejected and denounced all other resources beyond the one great Homoeopathic law, "similia similibus curantur." But even the fierce bigotry which has attempted to draw the line between these two parties, cannot subdivide and separate our ther- apeutic resources. Homoeopaths may vow that they will use noth- ing which is not strictly Homoeopathic, and they may come very near to fulfilling their vow. The great body of the medical pro- fession inaccurately called Allopaths may resolve that they will not countenance Homoeopathy, and that they will be exclusively Allo- pathic, but in vain. The medical profession never has been, and never will be exclusively Allopathic. From the time of Hippo crates down to the present day every work upon the practice of medicine (excepting those of Hahnemann and his followers) em- bodies in its code of practice the three great laws of Antipathic Homoeopathic and Allopathic therapeutics. Never until the time of Hahnemann was a medical practitioner limited to one of these laws of cure. ^-^ 9 Homoeopathy then, so far from being the exclusive property of that sect which has become so infatuated with its beauty, is, arid always has been and always will be, the common property of the profession. We act upon the Homoeopathic law when we re- lieve inflammations and fevers by warm water or the vapor bath— when we relieve vomiting by ipecac or lobelia—when we cure a diarrhaea by a cathartic—inflammations by stimulants, cholera by sulphur, agues by quinine, small-pox by vaccination, dysentery by podophyllin, drowsiness or coma by opium, delirium tremens by brandy, rheumatism by cold water, nightsweats by diaphoretics, cholera by camphor, rheumatism by macrotin, &c, &c. If we should carefully review the system of potential drug prac- tice which has been taught in this school, we should find that a large portion of it was decidedly Homoeopathic, and if we should ex- amine the therapeutic system of any of our popular text booksof prac- tice, we should find a great number of Homoeopathic prescriptions. How absurd then must it be for medical men to allow themselves to be separated and circumscribed by the artificial distinctions of party spirit; to be labelled Homoeopathic or Allopathic, when from necessity the great body of the profession always have used and always will use the three great curative laws whenever and wher- ever they deem either law the best adapted to the case. American Eclecticism repudiates all such restrictions and endeavors to reach the quickest, best and surest cure for the patient, no matter whether it be by the Antipathic, Homoeopathic or Allopathic law, or by no law at all that human philosophy has yet discovered. Our busi- ness is to cure our patients, not to indulge in any stubborn preju- dice which may interfere with our success. It has been by the in- dulgence of such prejudices that the medical profession has been kept back from its proper progress, and whenever we indulge them we cease to progress and fall into the old quagmire of medical hunkerism which has heretofore engulfed the strongest minds of the profession and rendered their labors of so little avail for human welfare. Casting aside all the trammels of authority, of sect and of party, American Eclecticism aims to be in its philosophy all comprehen- sive or Pansophic, and in its practice boldly and unqualifiedly Pan- topathic. We claim it as our duty and our right to use all the resources which God and Nature have placed within our reach—all the resour- ces of the Universe that we can understand and use for the relief of disease. Yet, so limited are the powers of the human mind, and so im- perfect is the present crude condition of medical science, it is al- most impossible to render a medical college truly a Pantopathic school of medicine, in which all of its pupils should be thoroughly instructed in all the resources of therapeutics. The most that can be done at present is to teach the proper use of those therapeutic 10 agencies to which we attach the greatest value, and with which we have the greatest familiarity. Few medical graduates accomplish more in their collegiate course than to attain a mastery of the most essential portions of professional knowledge. Hence, however ex- tensive may be our conceptions of Pantopathic medicine, we can do but little more at present than to lay the foundation upon which the physician may build in his subsequent career. We can famil- iarize his mind with the physical and mental constitution of man m health, with the principal features of his various diseases, and with the best methods of potential treatment by medicine. We can impart the true liberal philosophy of the art of healing and show in what manner to receive and profit by a vast variety of re- sources which may not be comprised in a course of medical lec- tures, and the thorough mastery of which requires all the energies of a long and industrious life. When I say that it is impracticable at present to impart successfully all the resources of the healing art, I speak from experience. We have made the attempt during our last session to give to our course a more extensive encyclopediac character, but we have found the task too severe—the course too extensive. We have fallen back withm the limits of what can be more easily accomplished, and I believe the change is generally gratifying to those who are seeking the acquisition of professional knowledge. But although it may be impracticable at present, it is not essen- tially, by the laws of nature, impracticable to give to a collegiate course of instruction a true Pantopathic character. On the con- f!7' ! medlcal science were more philosophically arranged and knoS ' & 4* PantoPathic C0Urse imP^ing more expensive knowledge would be but little more laborious t&n the course of er2lThWn l \l n0Wattemptfd- * ea™estlyhopeto seethe time erelong when all the resources derived from Homoeopathic, Neuro- logical, Hydropathic and Chronothermal researches may be harmonl sive paitizans of the different systems, but m5st be accomplished pU^ZV^^!^^ EclGCtic Position of rntfptal System P7' gm"g t0 6ach ltS pr°Per co™ection in a Pantopathic The accomplishment of such a task, would place the Eclectic rwTre^irat?dTiraSt,t0ihe SySt6mS °f -clusileneessEwehich ™«f of]tt a °n y ^ cont'nual Progress that the Van- fwiv 1 / / Can maintain the post of honor. A consider able number of the supporters of OM Snh™i j: • con.siaer" oresent m K_ tvi^; PPTJ d bcho°l medicine claim, at FonaWe AM of th ' and*tbe T* wil1 become ^11 more fash- ^b linnfnl to find^8611' P60"11^^ of American Eclecticism medS A ? S°me s/mPalhy in the ranks of Old School medicine. The native materia medica is investigated by commk 11 tees of medical societies—the abuses of routine practice and heroic remedies are generally deprecated—the mercurial panacea is losing its hold upon the affections of practitioners as well as of the people—physicians are beginning to discover that cholera and typhus fever do not necessarily require calomel, and that bathing is a very important therapeutic resource. The President of the American Old School National Medical Association was pleased to announce the increased use of cold water, and the diminished use of calomel. The abuses of mercury, iodine, cantharides, anti- mony, the lancet, &c, have been frequently examined and general depletion by the lancet is manifestly losing a great amount of its popularity. In the last American journal of the Medical Sciences, Dr. Dietl's statistics are reported, showing that out of three hundred and eighty cases of pneumonia, treated partly by bleeding alone, partly by tartar emetic alone, and partly by diet and rest alone, the lancet lost over twenty per cent., and tartar emetic lost over twenty per cent., while diet and rest, or nature alone lost only about seven per cent.—in other words, both antimony and the lancet, not only proved to be entirely useless in the treatment of pneumonia, but each of these agencies prolonged the duration of the disease, and rendered it nearly three times as fatal as it would have been by relying upon nature alone. When facts like these are published in the leading medical journals, it is obvious that the spirit of Eclecticism is beginning to pervade the old professional ranks. Yes gentlemen, a new spirit is beginning to pervade all ranks, and medical science partakes of the stirring influence of modern progress. It is learning to drop its barbarisms to depend on some- thing else besides the lancet and the knife, mercury, antimony, arsenic, lead, copper, and a very scanty supply of the most heroic drugs, arbitrarily chosen—learning to use a few of the innumerable safe and gentle agencies which the great Creator has lavished around on every hand—learning to use the health-giving waters which spring from our hills, and the potent but safe medicinal plants which are scattered in boundless profusion on every plain, and mountain side and valley throughout our country—each leaf and flower and root pregnant with healing power for the sick—each plant, indeed, like a special messenger from Heaven, an angel sent to relieve some form of human suffering—standing there on the hill-side, as the rainbow stands in the Heavens, the beautiful em- blem of the kindness of the Creator—and every year it comes forth again in all the beauty of its form, full of medicinal balmy juices, waiting patiently for the time when the true physician shall come and reveal its powers to man, and enable it to fulfill its great mission of benevolence to mankind. More than ten thousand such angels adorn our hills and valleys, and patiently bide the time when man shall be sufficiently enlight- 12 ened to understand and receive the benevolence of God, which streams forth like the light of the sun to all lands, and requires only that we shall open our eyes to receive and enjoy its bright- ness. And our eyes are being opened—opened to a new world of won- ders. The people of the present generation are learning every year the folly of antiquated dogmatism—and the grandeur of the destiny which the Creator is developing for man by his unceasing law of progress. We are learning, too, that our would-be oracles and wise men, who assume to be the leaders of mankind, are but blind guides in our new career. The great men of the generation which is not yet passed away, laughed at poor John Fitch, of Kentucky, and Rumsey and Robert Fulton, when they built their steamboats, but we have lived to see these floating palaces bearing millions of wealth throughout our country—bearing an inland com- merce greater than that of Carthage and of Rome, and all the cities of the Mediterranean Sea. And when it was proposed a few years since to cross the ocean with these steamships, the learned Dyonisius Lardner and others demonstrated that it was utterly impossible; but other men, who were neither Doctors of Divinity nor Doctors of Law accomplished the task and crossed the ocean by steam. I can remember, too, when it was thought by our rulers a very impracticable thing to carry goods and passengers by railroads and by steam cars, yet soon these roads were built, and now they are binding nations together, and girdling the world around with iron, and soon we shall hear the whistle of the steam car in our streets, which starts from the Atlantic Ocean and rushes on its iron way, swifter than the winds, to the Californian coast of the Pacific Ocean, scaring away«on its track the wild buffalo of the plains, and the gray eagle of the Rocky Mountains disturbed in its ancient solitude. And I can remember, for it was just twenty-five years ago, when railroads and locomotives were visionary things, that my father built a steam engine and fastened it to the body and wheels of a wagon, and drove it by steam through the streets of Louisville— about three miles an hour—the wonder of the multitude. Now rail cars fly thirty miles an hour, and before the public mind is entirely at ease as to outstripping the wind, the magnetic telegraph is built, and sends intelligence swift as the light of the Sun from city to city, and already it is proposed to connect Europe and America by the magnetic link across the Atlantic Ocean. But while mineral magnetism thus brings distant lands together, the magnetism of the living mind is speedier by far. The exalted intellect of man in clairvoyance needs no metallic wires to lead it to any portion of the world. The clairvoyant watches the fate and describes the condition of friends in distant lands. He trans- 13 cends the bounds of time and space, tells you the past history of your own life—reveals the form and features of your departed friends—and looks deeply, not only into your mind, but into the interior constitution of your body, and the diagnosis of your dis- eases. Clairvoyance was, and still is pronounced a delusion by the world's would-be leaders, but it still exists, and manifests daily its wonders. As Gallileo, when condemned by the Inquisition for his astronomical doctrines, stamped his foot on the earth, and exclaimed, " It still moves," so we may say of clairvoyance, it still moves on in its destined mission to enlighten man. About twelve years since, I believed it possible to improve the art of painting by making the sunlight paint an image. In a short time, before I had made any experiments, Daguerre had made his discovery, and now Daguerreotypes or Talbotypes are taken on paper almost as fast as by printing. I turned my thoughts to another channel, and in four years from that time, I discovered that mental daguerreotypes might be obtained by placing the auto- graph of any writer upon the forehead of one of an impressible constitution. The wise leaders of the world, of course, do not believe at once, but the enlightened and liberal receive the truth. The distinguished poet and divine, Pierpont, has beautifully ex- pressed his opinion of Psychometry in the following lines, from his poem on Progress. In this poem, which was delivered at the hun- dred and fiftieth anniversary of Yale College, he refers to the va- rious great inventions and improvements of modern times, and af- ter alluding to Daguerre, refers in a more complimentary manner to myself and to the art of Psychometry, which he considers as far su- perior to Daguerreotypy as mind is to matter. Of Psychometry he says in conclusion: "Mysterious science! that has now displayed ' How fearfully and wonderfully made' Is man, that even his touch can catch the mind, That long has left material things behind! Fearful the thought, that when my clay is cold, And the next Jubilee has o'er it rolled, The very page that I am tracing now, With tardy fingers and a care-worn brow, To other brows by other fingers prest, Shall tell the world, not what I had been deem'd, Nor what I passed for, nor what I had seem'd, But what I was! Believe it, friends, or not, To this high point of progress have we got, We stamp ourselves on every page we write! Send you a note to China or the pole— Where'er the wind blows, or the waters roll— That note conveys the measure of your soul!" 14 Fifty years ago Gall was laughed at for studying the skull and talking of Craniology—now Gall's anatomy of the brain is an established science—and phrenology is established in the public mind. Ten years ago, the Gallian Phrenology was the limit of human progress. In '41 I announced the discovery that the organs of the human brain could be excited and made to reveal their true char- acter. It was regarded as a hoax, and scientific journals refused to publish the narrative. The story was pronounced miraculous; but the excitement of the organs of the brain has since been demon- strated, publicly and privately, throughout Europe and America, and now we recognize an almost illimitable number of organs in the human brain, and Phrenology is no longer a science of proba- bilities—it is now a science of experimental accuracy. A time was, we recollect, when operative surgery was a work of blood, and pain, and horror—but for many years, mesmerised patients have escaped all pain, and wake up to find their limbs cut off as in a dream, and in the last three years, we have acquired the power of conveying all to the land of dreams (by anaesthetics) to rest unconscious of the surgeon's knife, and wake up restored. Fifty years ago, the abuses of heroic medicines and the mur- derous career of the knife and lancet were flourishing in all their glory—but a German physician arose, and demonstrated, by prac- tice, that he could lay aside all of these heroic "agencies, and nei- ther bleed nor blister, nor give any perceptible medicine, yet cure his patient with nothing in the world but the smallest possible sugar pills, charged with some mysterious quality, by a new pro- cess. His plan was tried by physicians, hospitals and govern- ments, and universally patients got well twice as fast as they did under the old heroic practice. And as if this were not enough to confound the learned men who govern and mislead the world, we have since seen a man without any medical education rise up on a farm in Silesia and without using a single medicine, with nothing but water 'and a wet sheet, surpass in curative skill all that the medical world had done up to that time. Physicians, Lords, princes and Philoso- phers obeyed his mandates and were cured. And now let me ask if all that the learned physicians of the world had done for several thousand years with pills and potions, drugs and chemicals, col- leges and libraries, was thus eclipsed by a poor German peasant with a tub of water,—is it not time to lay aside the lumber of antiquity and the false guidance of those who assume to be infal- lible, and who are always wrong in reference to every great scien- tific improvement. I trust there will be another and a greater revolutionary movement on this continent. We have had in Europe and America colleges and libraries with- 15 out number, liberally endowed and devoted to the healing art —yet Priessnitz with his tub of water could eclipse their most learned graduates in the art of curing disease. The pomp and learning of the ancient profession have signally failed—if we are ever to have a true medical college, it must be by coming nearer to nature, and by original observations. It must be among the un- trammelled spirits of young America that a true science of healing shall be born. Fifty years ago the red man, the buffalo and the wolf had their home on the north of the Ohio river. Thirty years ago I wan- dered on this spot—then a green common north of the city, which lay nearer the river. During those thirty years since my childish feet trod this ground, a city has sprung up which bids fair to be the inland metropolis of the continent. During those thirty years a system of medical practice has sprung up which bids fair to take possession of this continent. That system of practice has estab- lished its collegiate halls here in the centre of this city. Both are young and their resources undeveloped. Both are American and aim to lead America. Both are in a medium position, between north, south, east and west—between Homoeopathy, Antipathy, Allopathy and Hydropathy. And this great central city, and this great central system of med- icine, are destined to flourish together. Our college has been chartered five years, and already, out of about forty medical col- leges in the United States, we have in numbers surpassed thirty- five, leaving only five of larger dimensions. In a few more years we hope to rise beyond all competition, and to render this college of American Eclectic medicine, beyond all dispute, the leading medical college of the land, and with your efficient and zealous assistance, gentlemen, we hope to accomplish this great enterprise, before our first gray hairs have warned us of the lapse of time. Note.—In the foregoing lecture the terms Allopathy, Homoeo- pathy and Antipathy are used in their strict scientific sense. Pop- ular usage has appropriated the term Allopathic to the doctrines and practice of the old school party, yet as this designation is man- ifestly very erroneous, it should be avoided by medical men. Both khe old school and the new school or Eclectic systems embrace the three great laws of therapeutics. They should be distinguished, theiefore, by other terms, as Old School and New School, Conser- vative and Progressive, Mercurial and Eclectic, Hunker and Radi- cal, &c. ECLECTIC MEDICAL INSTITUTE. SPRING SESSION. The Faculty of the Eclectic Medical Institute have deter- mined, in accordance with the wishes of the medical class, to hold another Spring Session, commencing at the end of the winter course on the first Monday of March, 1851. This course will correspond in character with the Spring Sessions which have heretofore been held, and will present full instruction in all the departments of medical science. The anatomical portion of the course will receive especial at- tention in the first months, before the warmth of the season has become too great. The subject of Botany will command more attention than is usually given during the winter, and es- pecial attention will be given to the progress of those who are preparing for graduation, who will receive additional instruction from the Faculty. The terms of attendance will be the same as those of the winter session, viz: Faculty Tickets, - - - - $60 00 Matriculation, - - - - - 500 Graduation,.....15 00 Dissection,......5 00 The special arrangements of the lectures will be announced hereafter. J. R. BUCHANAN, M. D., Bean. College Hall, Walnut st., Cincinnati. * t *■