CHEMISTRY IN ITS RELATIONS TO MEDICINE. 215 



I think we can see, in this reference to history, a tendency which 

 has frequently been repeated since that time a tendency to generalize 

 upon an insufficient basis of facts concerning the action of remedies. 

 The reasoning of these older physicians, stripped of all unnecessary 

 details, was simply this: Some remedies act chemically upon the body 

 and produce chemical effects, hence all remedies must act in the same 

 way. Thus the chemico-medical school was founded, as many schools 

 of medicine have since been founded. The dogmas of this old school 

 contained a healthy nucleus of truth, to be sure, as do the dogmas of 

 most schools of medicine existing at the present day, but the physi- 

 cian'proper now recognizes that remedies act in very many ways, and 

 that the science of medicine must take into consideration every way 

 in which remedies can act. He does not commit the error of being 

 satisfied with one idea, as, for instance, that substances do act chemi- 

 cally upon the body, that cold water is a valuable remedy, that elec- 

 tricity properly applied is at times beneficial. A single idea is not 

 sufficient for him: 



Still we must recognize the fact that, in order to impress upon the 

 minds of men the importance of an idea, in order to attract attention 

 to it, it is frequently necessary to present it in an exaggerated form. 

 And so, while we see the error of the old physiciansof Paracelsus's 

 time, we see also that, by attracting the attention of physicians and 

 chemists to the connection between chemistry and medicine, the error 

 committed resulted in permanent good to medicine, and the influence 

 of the old school is still felt. The ideas of those who founded and de- 

 veloped the chemico-medical school have found their proper level, as 

 all ideas tend to do sooner or later. 



It would doubtless be interesting to follow closely the history of 

 the connection between chemistry and medicine, but our time will not 

 permit the discussion of this subject, and hence I shall speak of the 

 bonds of connection indicated by actual chemical work of the present 



In the first place, chemistry furnishes medicine with many of its 

 valuable remedies, as every one knows. The chemist, however, does 

 not recognize the discovery of new substances, possessed of medicinal 

 properties, as the object of his work. If he did so, both chemistry and 

 medicine would suffer. The prime object of the scientific chemist must 

 always be to develop his science, to perfect it in every way he may 

 find possible ; he must be constantly on the lookout for discrepancies 

 between facts supposed to be established, and must ever endeavor to 

 correct errors into which his predecessors may have fallen ; he must 

 reach out beyond that which is known, and strive to know more. The 

 object of the chemist can only be accomplished by employing every 

 method peculiar to the science of chemistry, and by striving to know 

 everything about a substance or class of substances which it is possible 

 to discern. If the chemist should work with .the main object of adding 



