ON THERAPEUTICS. 583 * 
tions of disturbance is the object proposed by every medical 
system. 
It would be interesting to trace, if possible, the rise of 
medicine from its first struggle into existence to its present 
growth ; but, in the absence of record, we can only imagine 
how gradual must have been the conviction that certain 
agents possess the power of acting in a certain manner 
upon the organism, producing sometimes symptoms allied 
to, and sometimes differing from, the indications of disease. 
In the early attempts to restore the healthy condition of 
the system, we can imagine the most natural course to have 
been the employment of those agents whose effects were 
known to be opposite to those of the disease to be treated. 
Whatever refinements may have resulted from observation 
and experiment, we can only conclude this system to have 
been the one suggested by reason, unprejudiced by expe¬ 
rience. 
The complex character of disease depends upon the variety 
and complexity of the organic functions and structures. 
Were the organism simple, the mere excess or defect of an 
action or a part would be rectified immediately by an agent 
possessing the power of inducing an opposite condition ; but 
at the outset it is difficult, even impossible at times, to deter¬ 
mine where the altered action is, or upon what it depends— 
questions upon the answer to which the cure frequently hangs. 
The difficulty of deciding exactly what is to be attempted 
will explain the unfortunate diversity of opinion upon the 
curative means employed; a diversity of opinion not only 
upon minor points of dose, or frequency, or method of 
administration, but on the graver question of medicinal 
action; some employing stimulants for a disease which 
others treat by sedatives, and with an apparently equal 
success. To reconcile, or even to discuss, these diverse 
proceedings forms no part of our intention. We are to 
inquire into the nature of the process by which health is 
restored, to decide upon what system the cure shall be 
attempted, and to arrange and classify the agents that are 
found to possess the requisite properties. 
In reasoning upon the effects of certain agents applied to 
the cure of disease, we seem mostly to lose sight of the 
vitality of the organism, acting, as we should, in the repair 
of an artificial mechanism, supplying what we deem requi¬ 
site, and modifying what we consider imperfect in action, 
apparently in ignorance of the restorative powers inherent in 
the animal structures. 
