THEORY OF DISEASE. 247 



by the vital force. These methods, the result of ages 

 of experience, are such, that the most perfect theory 

 could hardly have pointed them out more acutely or 

 more justly than has been done by the observation 

 of sagacious practitioners. They diminish, by blood- 

 letting, the number of the carriers of oxygen (the 

 globules), and by this- means the conditions of change 

 of matter ; they exclude from the food all such matters 

 as are capable of conversion into blood ; they give 

 chiefly or entirely non-azotized food, which supports 

 the respiratory process, as well as fruit and vegetables, 

 which contain the alkalies necessary for the secretions. 



If they succeed, by these means, in diminishing the 

 action of the oxygen in the blood, on the diseased part, 

 so far that the vital force of the latter, its resistance, in 

 the smallest degree overcomes the chemical action ; and 

 if they accomplish this, without arresting the functions 

 of the other organs, then restoration to health is certain. 



To the method of cure adopted in such cases, if 

 employed with sagacity and acute observation, there 

 is added, as we may call it, an ally on the side of the 

 diseased organ, and this is the vital force of the healthy 

 parts. For, when blood is abstracted, the external 

 causes of change are diminished also in them, and their 

 vital force, formerly neutralized by these causes, now 

 obtains the preponderance. The change of matter, 

 indeed, is diminished throughout the body, and with it 

 the phenomena of motion ; but the sum of all resisting 

 powers, taken together, increases in proportion as the 



