Human Physiology. 



little medicine ot any kind, and are coming to rely more and 

 more upon hygienic conditions and the vis medicatrix naturce r 

 the healing power of nature, for the cure of all diseases. 



The Herbalists reject the use of the lancet, mercury, and all 

 minerals, and most violent drugs and chemical preparations, 

 and rely upon roots and herbs, which instinct and intuition may 

 have selected, and experience has shown to be useful. There 

 is no doubt that the juices of plants, as well as those of many 

 fruits, have mildly stimulating, cleansing, and tonic properties, 

 useful in many diseased conditions. 



Homoeopathy, a recent medical sect founded by the German 

 Hahnemann, has two principles of cure. The first is, that any 

 substance which will injure the human system has a tendency 

 to cure a similar injury ; but secondly, the substance must be 

 used in very minute doses. Generally a very minute quantity 

 of a drug dissolved in a million, or many millions of times its 

 weight in alcohol, or similarly attenuated by rubbing down in 

 sugar of milk, is given to cure symptoms which the same 

 drug in large doses would produce. But such substances as 

 chalk and charcoal are also used as homoeopathic remedies. 

 The theory is on its trial, and is finding a wide acceptance. 

 Contagious and epidemic diseases prove the potency of matter 

 in infinitesimal quantities. If an odour, a miasm, or germs too 

 small for the microscope to reveal, or too subtile for chemistry 

 to detect, can produce the most terrible diseases, equally 

 minute quantities of matter may neutralise and cure. In any 

 case homoeopathy, with a wise regimen, seems to have no 

 actively injurious influence, and it leaves the patient to faith, 

 and hope, and the vis medicatrix naturcz. 



About half a century ago, Priesnitz, a Silesian peasant, intro- 

 duced the practice of hydropathy, or the water cure, a system 

 in which pure air, a pure diet, and judicious exercises, are 

 joined to the cleansing and invigorating effects of variuas 

 baths, and the external and internal use of water. This system 



