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SCIENCE. 



they endeavor to attribute a more or less personal signifi- 

 cance to each of these terms. The perception thus be- 

 comes figurative and typical. 



Modern medical science has utterly renounced this ten- 

 dency to personification, where the pre-supposed force 

 does not correspond with an actual demonstrable body. I 

 It further separates simple forms from compound ones, 

 although, according to the mode of observation they may 

 possibly produce the impression of unity. For instance, 

 the human organism appears to be a compound form, al- 

 though we may correctly apply to it a personal expression. 

 Each particular cell can be interpreted as a personality, 

 for they are all self-existing and self-acting, and their 

 power emanates from their own construction — their 

 physics. In this sense the human body is not a unity in 

 the strict material meaning of the word, but on the 

 contrary a plurality, a collective form, and in a certain 

 degree, a state. There likewise exists no one force which 

 rules it and establishes its action, but on the contrary, a 

 cobpera' ion of many forces which are inseparable from the 

 living element. Even the greatest phenomenon in human 

 life, the spiritual I, is therefore no steady, immovable ca- 

 pacity, but a very changeable one. 



If the human organic structure appears to us a unity it 

 is chiefly due to three circumstances : First, in the con- 

 struction of the vascular system and in the blood circu- 

 lating through it, there is another perfectly accorded 

 system which pervades the entire body, effects the 

 material intercourse of the various substances, and con- 

 stitutes a certain dependence of the parts upon the blood. 

 For a long time, therefore, people looked for the source of 

 life merely in the blood, and endeavored to explain all 

 the incidents pertaining to disease and cure by means of 

 the blood alone. When it appeared to be impure it was 

 refined with inappropriate substances. When there was 

 apparently too much or too little, it was drawn off, or at- 

 tempts were made to produce it. In the second place, in 

 the formation of the nervous system to which man's 

 highest powers are attached, namely, the intellectual, we 

 find an organization extending throughout the entire 

 body, converging to the brain and spinal marrow, and 

 which on one side is qualified to adopt outward impres- 

 sions and conduct them to the great centre, whi'e on the 

 other side it possesses the capacity to eject any impulse 

 directed upon other portions of the body by causing them 

 to make particular assertions of activity or else to limit 

 them. 



Diseases such as fever, for instance, can only become 

 intelligible by referring the great number of collected 

 phenomena which come under this category, to the ner- 

 vous system. 1 What wonder then that there is contin- 

 ually a fresh attempt to explain disease and cure by means 

 of the nervous system ? 



But there is still a third point. This is the enormous 

 mass of tissues of which the body is built up. The com- 

 pound construction of countless numbers of cellular ele- 

 ments which are organized in the most varied manner, 

 and are capable of producing the greatest diversity of re- 

 sults. Many of them, such as the muscles, appear in a 

 high degree to be simple bearers of strength. The blood 

 would be an immovable mass if the muscles of the heart 

 and vessels did not circulate it mechanically. Other tis- 

 sue formations, as the glands, superintend various things, 

 the act of secretion, for instance, which represents a no 

 less declaration of force. But each of these regulations, 

 every one of these so-called organs is again a plurali y 

 compounded from endless elementary organisms, the 

 cells. And when we see that the nervous system is just 

 as c omplex, that the vessels, the heart and the blood 

 are likewise compound combinations, it is well proved 

 that every observation which does not apply to a com- 

 pound element must be external and superficial. 



If such a conception upon first sig ht results in a de- 



'Virchow. Fever. Four Discourses upon Li/e and Disease. Berlin, 

 1862, p. 129. 



tachment of the body, a total breaking up of the percep- 

 tion, a further contemplation will show that these innu- 

 merable elements do not exist in juxtaposition. Acci- 

 dentally or indifferently, they belong to each other on ac- 

 count of their common descent from a simple element 

 which insures a certain original resemblance and relation 

 among themselves just as there is among the descendents 

 of one family. 



This is the "divine necessity " of Hippocrates in its 

 modern form. It does not merely assume the material of 

 all elements to be one organism, but it also concludes 

 that it must form certain combinations by means of which 

 the effect of the different elements through each other pro- 

 duces a legitimate arrangement of the general principles. 



Such organizations undoubtedly occur in the vascular 

 and nervous systems, and they exist also in the great 

 masses of superfluous tissues. For even as the vessels 

 and nerves influence these latter, so on their side they 

 influence them. Thus arises a reciprocity of effect which 

 can be beneficial or otherwise, according to circum- 

 stances. 



As long as the effect is beneficial, so long will the or- 

 ganization appear to be in harmony. And we can exper- 

 ience it in our consciousness as a sensation of well-being. 

 If the effect should be injurious on the contrary, we say 

 disease has entered the system, and we experience a feel- 

 ing of discomfort. These sensations do not relate solely 

 to bodily conditions, but to those of the mind, also. There 

 is moral as well as physical indisposition. 



In a figurative sense, we might say equilibrium instead 

 of harmony, and loss of balance instead of discord. In 

 many cases such designations would have an actual signi- 

 ficance. The distribution of the blood is arranged to a 

 certain extent, according to simple hydro-dynamic princi- 

 ples. An increase in one part necessitates a decrease in 

 another. The electricity existing in the nerves can be in- 

 terpreted in a purely physical sense. Here are tensions 

 and accumulations, there evacuations and discharges of 

 electricity. Even the usual incidents pertaining to the 

 growth of the tissues provide us with numerous examples. 

 If one part increases in strength, another diminishes. A 

 suitable instance of these antagonistic phenomena is given 

 in the difference of, incidents pertainingto growth between 

 the male and female sexes. 



From these remarks we alresdy see that any disturb- 

 ance of the harmony or equilibrium does not merely affect 

 the common sensations, and therefore the nervous system, 

 but also other parts of the body, and it can be readily un- 

 derstood that one disturbance will act upon this portion, 

 and another upon that, etc. 



All the parts do not stand in equal relation to each 

 other, and those whose mutual dependence is the closest 

 will, of course, be the soonest affected, while the others will 

 be influenced in a lesser degree or else not at all. We 

 designate the closer relationship as sympathy. 



All these connections exist uniformly in sound, healthy 

 bodies, and in order to explain them, we have no need to 

 refer to the soul, vitality, or any other special spiritual 

 force. When a diseased disturbance of the equilibrium 

 occurs, they represent what we call organic healing power. 



In order to obtain a full comprehension of this it is not 

 actually necessary to say much concerning the healing it- 

 self. The theoretical discussions which have taken place 

 in regard to this point, and the practical inferences de 

 rived from them, have often become very much confused 

 inasmuch as entirely opposite relations have been drawn 

 together by means of them. 



The old word medicine, which is almost synonymous 

 with our modern term therapeutics, led to the misunder- 

 standing that the entire practical energy of the physician 

 should be directed to one particular point of the bodily 

 condition inasmuch as his chief task is to cure. A closer 

 reflection will show, nevertheless, that this is by no means 

 the case. 



Only a certain portion of medical power, although it 



