Ls Medicine a Scrence ? A37 
Egypt, where he formed the idea of going on through 
Sinai tothe Holy Land. The air of the Sinaitic desert 
cured him, and he has since been able to lecture in almost 
every town in the Kingdom (see Introduction to “My Wan- 
derings,” by J. Gadesby). 
What is called or miscalled the science of medicine, is 
stated in a few words—bleeding, blistering, purging, sweat- 
ing, diuretics, to which must be added, two classes of agents, 
the very names of which shew plainly the utter ignorance 
with which they are administered, alteratives and anodynes. 
Their very names imply that those who gave them were 
totally in the dark as to their mode of acting. In all cases 
of difficulty, these are blindly poured into the system with 
the mere hope of producing a change without caring in 
what manner. Yet these are the sheet anchors of profes- 
sional skill. 
It was not always thus—even in the middle ages (called 
dark), cancer and consumption and other diseases, were con- 
stantly and regularly cured by the herbs of the country— 
and lately, an old blacksmith in Norwich, is said to have 
cured every case of cancer which was brought to him. 
This man died of apoplexy, and the secret was lost, but 
the doctors are not ashamed to call the man a quack, for 
doing what they cannot do. 
In fact it has now become evident that by what they call 
the general principles of the science,no cure can be effected, 
though the constitution may be ruined. Who can calculate 
_ the amount of evil inflicted on society by mercury alone, 
and iodine is no better. As to the others, bieeding, blister- 
ing, purging, sweating, and diuretics, they are mere drain- 
age, and treat the human body as if it were a wet field to 
be drained. Their notion is, that all disease is inflamma- 
tion, and is to be cured by depletion of the system; but 
the result of their use is a sad proof to the contrary. This 
was evidenced sufficiently in cholera, the doctors having never 
_ succeeded in curing a single case during the virulence of its 
first advent. The same appeared with cattle disease, in 
which when challenged they signally failed. Now, if there 
were general principles of cure, they would be applicable 
to all diseases, and cure would have something of certainty 
about it to justify the name of science, 
There is, however, now some hope for the community, 
_as the Zzmes newspaper has taken the subject up. We 
trust it will not cease until Government is compelled to 
institute proper inquiry and examination into what is called 
