6 INTRODUCTION 



circulation; and cutaneous irritation, which operates reflexly 

 through the nervous system upon the distant disease process. The 

 derivative action is also regarded as an independent healing method. 

 This action can be attained through the operation of cutaneous 

 stimulation, cathartics, diuretics, diaphoretics, sialagogues, and 

 bleeding. By far the greater number of cases of all diseases are 

 treated by the indirect method, because only in isolated cases can 

 the therapeutic measures be applied directly to the disease. 



3. The causal method attacks not the disease itself but the 

 cause, e.g., in the infectious diseases, the bacteria; in poisonings, the 

 poison. To this extent it agrees with the direct method. With 

 reference to its value, it must be observed that the removal of the 

 cause is only possible in certain diseases (surgical measures, anti- 

 sepsis, antiparasitics, antidotes, emetics, cathartics). Further- 

 more, after the removal of the cause the disease frequently does 

 not cease, e.g., rheumatic diseases after the removal of the cold 

 irritant; and finally, in many diseases the cause is either not acces- 

 sible (distomatosis, echinococci) or is not known (ultra visible virus, 

 epilepsy, diabetes mellitus). 



4. The radical method is directed against the root or source of 

 the disease and not merely to the removal of the associated dis- 

 turbances. As the definition indicates, the radical method is 

 related partly to the causal and partly to the direct (local) method. 

 Goitre and actinomycosis may be treated indirectly through the 

 medium of the blood stream with iodine. The radical method 

 consists in the operative removal of the diseased parts. In a simi- 

 lar manner are herniae and urinary calculi treated radically, — i.e., 

 by operation. Unfortunately, there are only a small number of 

 diseases in which complete restoration can be attained by the 

 radical method. 



5. The symptomatic or palliative method is directed against 

 neither the cause of the disease nor the disease itself, but only 

 against the symptoms of the disease. In the infectious diseases, 

 for example, the fever is treated, in laryngeal catarrh the cough, in 

 gastric catarrh the vomiting, in intestinal catarrh the diarrhoea, in 

 brain diseases the psychic excitement and convulsions, in lameness 



