SPECIFIC MEDICATION. 
103 
defined pathological conditions, and that certain well-determined 
deviations from the healthy state will always be corrected by 
certain specific medicines. 
A disease, according to onr present nosology may be formed 
of one or more distinct pathological changes bearing a relation 
to one another. We do not propose to reach all of these condi¬ 
tions by one remedy except in those cases in which one lesion 
is primary and the others are secondary, resulting from it. We 
use a remedy for each pathological feature, using the reined}^ 
for that first which is first in the chain of morbid action, and 
second, and so on. 
As an example, we analyze a case of simple fever, and we 
find it to consist of a lesion of the circulation, of innervation, of 
the secretions, of the blood, and of nutrition ; each of these is 
regarded as a distinct element of disease, and, to a certain 
extent, one depending upon the other, in the order named. A 
remedy that will rectify a lesion of circulation will frequently 
be sufficient to arrest the entire chain of morbid phenomena; 
or a remedy that will correct a lesion of the blood, this being 
primary, and the cause of various morbid processes, will be a 
specific for all, as when quinine arrests an intermittent or 
remittent fever. 
In severer types of disease we find it necessary to use a 
remedy or remedies for each pathological condition. According 
to the ordinary use of the term specific, we employ a number of 
different agents, which are none the less specific, for they meet 
distinct conditions of the diseased action. We should know the 
direct influence of remedies upon the animal body, both in health 
and disease, that we use them singly or in simple combinations. 
If one expects to obtain the advantages from specific medica¬ 
tion, he must not associate it with indirect medication. If you 
use direct medication use it alone ; if yon use indirect medica¬ 
tion use it alone. Success comes from one or the other alone. 
Success of direct medication comes from accurate and faultless 
diagnosis. 
It is not sufficient in selecting a sedative to know that the 
