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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Magendie,* Bock,f Jules Virey,:}: Jennings,§ 

 Rush, II but against bigots like Dr. Black ; 

 against medical obscurantists who dread the 

 enlightenment of their victims as vampires 

 dread the dawn of the moi-ning ; who op- 

 pose independent thinkers with that rancor- 

 ous hatred which Jesuits feel toward the 

 divulgers of their trade-secrets ; who, by 

 holding on to the last planks of their wrecked 

 dogmas, by illogical compromises and tempo- 

 rizing sophisms, are trying to perpetuate the 



animals and savages, upon the rapidity of their re- 

 covery from injuries that defy all the mixtures of 

 materia medica : also upon the fact that the homoe- 

 opathists cure their patients with milk-sugar and 

 mummery, the prayer-Ohristians with mummery 

 without milk-sugar, and my followers with a milk- 

 diet without sugar or mummery — the conclusion 

 forces itself upon us that the entire system of thera- 

 peutics is founded upon an erroneous view of dis- 

 ease " 



* " I hesitate not to declare, no matter how 

 sorely I shall wound our vanity, that so gross is our 

 ignorance of the real nature of the physiological 

 disorders called diseases, that it would perhaps be 

 better to do nothing, and resign the complaint we 

 are called upon to treat to the resources of Nature, 

 than to act, as we are so often comi)elled to do, 

 without knowing the why and the wherefore of our 

 conduct, and at the obvious risk of hastening the 

 end of the patient." 



t " By special methods of diet nearly all known 

 diseases can be cured as well as caused. . . . Twen- 

 ty-flve years' experience at the sick-bed and the 

 dissecting-table, in the nursery and on the battle- 

 field, have convinced me that, with rare exceptions, 

 the disorders of the human body, which have been 

 treated after such an infinite variety of drug-sys- 

 tems, can bo as well cured without any drugs at 

 all." 



% " Our system of therapeutics is so shaky " (va- 

 cillant) " that the soundness of the basis itself must 

 be suspected." 



§ " It is unnecessary for my present pvupose to 

 give a particular account of the results of homceop- 

 athy ; . . . what I now claim with respect to it is, 

 that a wise and beneficent Providence is using it to 

 expose and break up a deep delusion. In the re- 

 sults of homoeopathic practice we have evidence, in 

 amount and of a character sufficient, most incontest- 

 ably to establish the fact that disease is a restorative 

 operation, or renovating process, and that medicine 

 has deceived us. The evidence is full and complete. 

 It does not merely consist of a few isolated cases, 

 whose recovery might be attributed to fortuitous 

 circumstances, but it is a chain of testimony fortified 

 by every possible circumstance. ... All kinds and 

 grades of disease have passed under the ordeal and 

 all classes and characters of persons have been con- 

 cerned in the experiment as patients or witnesses ; 

 . . . while the process of injinitesimally attenu- 

 ating the drugs used was carried to such a ri- 

 diculous extent that no one will, on sober reflec- 

 tion, attribute any portion of the cure to the 

 medicine. I claim, then, that homoeopathy may 

 be regarded as a providential sealing of the fate of 

 old medical views and practices." 



I " I am here incessantly led to make an apology 

 for the instability of the theories and practice of 

 physic ; and those physicians generally become the 

 most eminent who have the soonest emancipated 

 themselves from the tyranny of the schools of 

 physic. Dissections daily convince us of our igno- 

 rance of disease, and cause us to blush at our pre- 

 scriptions. What mischief have we done under the 

 belief of false facts and false theories 1 We have 

 assisted in multiplying diseases ; we have done more, 

 we have increased their mortality. I will not pause 

 to beg pardon of the faculty for acknowledging, in 

 this public manner, the weakness of our profession. 

 I am pursuing Truth, and am indifferent whither I 

 am led, if she only is my leader." 



curse of a life-blighting delusion ; who sub- 

 ordinate the interests of mankind to the 

 interests of their clique, and disparage re- 

 formers till they find it convenient to appro- 

 priate the credit of their discoveries. 



" Some acute philosophers," our obliging 

 correspondent informs us, " think that all 

 the phenomena of the universe can be ex- 

 plained on the laws of mechanics, from the 

 motions of a molecule up to those of the 

 celestial masses." Just so. And Dr. Black 

 might as well confess the secret of his pre- 

 dilection for that system. Its application 

 to therapeutics has so simplified the practice 

 of medicine ; and its recognition as the law 

 of the universe would confirm the prestige of 

 the orthodox cause. Instead of troubling 

 himself with a life-long study of the laws 

 and revelations of Nature, the lessons of 

 instinct, the interaction of the vital func- 

 tions, their modifications under abnormal 

 circumstances, the secrets of the reproduc- 

 tive and self-regulating principle of the hu- 

 man organism, our mechanical philosopher 

 would prefer to re-establish the system of 

 the good old times, when he could consult a 

 pocket-index of drugs, set against an alpha- 

 betical list of diseases, point to his diploma 

 as a presumptive proof that he had learned 

 to repeat the Latin synonyms and construct 

 the pharmaceutic symbols of the various 

 " remedial agents," etc., and magisterially 

 reprimand hygienic " idealists," as a village 

 schoolmaster, well read in Genesis, would 

 reprove an exponent of the evolution doc- 

 trine. 



" Dr. Oswald," says our astute corre- 

 spondent, " is apparently unable to discern 

 that all the customs and habits of savages 

 are intimately correlated to their vital or- 

 ganism, and that for us to adopt only one 

 of them might prove murderous to civilized 

 beings." Because we can not imitate all 

 the customs of a primitive nation, is that a 

 reason why we should not adopt some of 

 them ? With such arguments our medical 

 censor dares to insult the intelligence of 

 your readers ! Must we avoid the unleav- 

 ened bread of the ancient Hebrews because 

 we dislike circumcision ? Must we dispar- 

 age Japanese temperance, because we do not 

 want to commit hari-kari ? Would the Sa- 

 mian water-cure prove more murderous to 

 civilized beings than Dr. Black's blue-pills ? 

 If I should recommend the system of the 

 medical philosopher Asclepiades, who used 

 to prescribe a special course of gymnastics 

 for every form of human disease. Dr. Black 

 would try to retreat behind his correlation- 

 dodge. " Such systems," he would probably 

 remark, " were intimately correlated to the 

 physical and social organism of the pagan 

 savages and their uncivilized doctors ; but 

 nowadays every intelligent druggist would 

 agree with me that it would never do to let 

 people cure their diseases with such reme- 



