FAILURE Ol^ MEDICAL SCIENCE. 73 



the embalmer attains a similar end by similar means, 

 but it is at the cost of the patient's life. The body may 

 be filled throughout — the blood, bones, muscles, nerves, 

 all the tissues, may be filled with a poisonous antiseptic, 

 just as the railroad tie may be permeated with creosote, 

 and assuredly the microbes will be killed and their pro- 

 pagation will be rendered impossible, but the body will 

 be killed, too. And, on the other hand, if the railroad 

 tie be not thoroughly soaked it will not be preserved, 

 while the body, if not effectually saturated with poison, 

 will not be freed from microbes, and consequently will 

 not be put out of danger. That is the dilemma in 

 which any person is who places himself at the mercy of 

 medical science as it is practised. The remedy is worse 

 than the disease. If he does not die of the one he does 

 of the other, or if he gets well it is because his system 

 was superior to both. The only escape that he has is to 

 find something which, while it effectually destroys mi- 

 crobes and prevents fermentation, does not act injuri- 

 ously upon the bodily organization. It is useless to 

 take a small quantity of a poison which is insufficient to 

 kill the microbe, and it is fatal to take a larger amount, 

 which, while staying the disease, is itself destructive. 



I have no fear that the many able, learned, and 

 progressive men that the medical profession numbers 

 among its members will read these strictures as apply- 

 ing to them. I have no contention with physicians, 

 many of whom are my most favorable critics, but I war 

 against bad methods and false principles. 



