FOREWORD. 



WHEN I definitely took up the study of Medicine some twenty 

 years ago, it was in the belief that I was to be initiated into 

 the science of Healing. Like many another student, I was 

 soon to be disillusioned ; and as I pursued my studies I 

 became more and more dismayed at the confusion which 

 prevailed in this branch of learning, a confusion which, 

 curiously enough, is countenanced by its professors. 



The medical curriculum was then, and is still, overburdened 

 with a mass of extraneous matter. Smatterings of Chemistry, 

 Physics and Biology, much irrelevant Anatomy and Physi- 

 ology, vague speculations in Pathology, and an elaborate 

 Materia Medica of no practical value absorb all the future 

 physician's time, while little more than passing reference is 

 made to Therapeutics, the science of healing, which should 

 be, beyond question, the Alpha and Omega of all medical 

 study and effort. 



Finally I resolved to follow another profession. 



But during all these twenty years my interest in Thera- 

 peutics has never flagged, and as time has worn on I have come 

 to realise more and more clearly the principles upon which 

 all Curative Treatment must be based. These principles 

 I have, as occasion arose, applied with almost invariable 

 success in many seemingly hopeless cases, as hundreds of 

 my patients testify ; and having lately placed all other 

 interests aside, I am now able to carry out a life-long ambition, 

 by devoting myself entirely to the practice and advancement 

 of Therapeutics the science of healing proper. 



MAURICE ERNST, LL.D. (Vienna). 



15, PALL MALL EAST, 



TRAFALGAR SQUARE, S.W. 



