FROM THE AETIFICIAL TO THE NATURAL 7 



pose, would cure liver troubles for a similar reason. 

 The dried flesh of the python was a great remedy, 

 also powdered mummy. A hundred other remedies 

 were equally fantastic. 



The first or earliest conception of disease was that 

 it was the result of an evil spirit, and it was to be 

 exorcised or driven away by some religious rite or 

 ceremony. The priests were therefore the first doc- 

 tors. The spirit theory of disease was long since 

 abandoned, but the spirit theory of insanity, or de- 

 moniacal possession, is still held by some of our doc- 

 tors of divinity. The president of a New England 

 college not long since stated his belief in this doc- 

 trine. 



Up to near the end of the first half of our own 

 century, our system of medicine was as artificial as 

 our theology. The doctor abhorred nature about as 

 much as the priest did. The latter taught that man 

 was saved by grace, not by any virtue or excellence 

 in himself, and the doctor taught that disease was 

 cured by drugs, not by any recuperative power in 

 the body. But drugs and nostrums are in our day 

 at a discount. The doctor no longer aims to sup- 

 press symptoms, but to remove causes. His chief 

 reliance is upon nature, fresh air, water, exercise, 

 correct habits, proper food, etc. He does not try 

 to stop a fever but to guide it, and keep up the 

 strength of the patient. 



In religion the progress has been precisely like 

 that in medicine, — from the arbitrary, the fantastic, 

 to the simple and the natural ; from the conception 



