26  Mystery  in  Therapeutic  Agents,  {ATanulry,Pi908.m' 
THE  EVIL  INFLUENCE  OF  MYSTERY  IN  THERAPEUTIC 
AGENTS  UPON  THE  SCIENCE  OF  MEDICINE. 
By  J.  H.  MussER,,  M.D.,  Philadelphia. 
The  high  level  of  present-day  medicine  has  been  attained  by  a 
process  of  gradual  growth  secured  only  by  daily  valuation  of  the 
facts  in  biology,  whereby  those  of  seeming  truthfulness  were  cast 
aside,  and  those  of  truth  fastened  upon  as  with  hooks  of  steel. 
No  scientific  groupings  of  any  biological  truths  can  be  made  in 
which  falsehood  and  truth  are  intermingled.  The  Science  of  Medi- 
cine rests  upon  biological  laws  which  are  as  immutable  as  those  of 
physics  or  of  mathematics.  The  prosecution  of  the  study  of  medi- 
cine and,  I  may  also  say  of  the  art  of  medicine,  can  be  conducted 
only  by  methods,  which  the  scientific  habit  of  mind  can  employ. 
Accurate  observation,  logical  deduction  and  precise  action  mark  the 
efforts  of  the  scientific  physician.  True  inference  can  follow  only 
upon  observations  which  attain  the  truth.  If,  therefore,  it  is  essen- 
tial in  the  first  steps  of  our  art — in  diagnosis— to  seek  and  to  accept 
the  truth  only,  how  is  it  possible  we  can  succeed  in  the  practical 
application  of  the  science,  if  we  depart  from  truth  and  take  as  our 
handmaids,  mystery,  and  falsehood  in  therapeutic  action  ?  If  preci- 
sion and  accuracy  are  required  in  diagnosis,  why  are  they  not  essen- 
tial in  therapeutics  ?  To  employ  agencies,  the  composition  of 
which  is  a  mystery,  is  as  much  a  method  of  the  dark  ages  as  to 
employ  witchcraft,  magic  and  other  methods  of  that  era.  We  must 
all  admit  that  empirical  treatment  is  a  mode  that  had  to  be  em- 
ployed in  the  past.  Happily,  the  day  is  rapidly  coming,  when  the 
problems  of  the  action  of  some  remedies,  as  for  example,  of  Iodide 
of  Potassium  in  syphilis  will  be  solved.  Nevertheless,  the  use  of 
this  remedy,  of  Quinine  in  malaria,  of  Lemon  juice  in  scurvy,  was 
based  on  scientific  inference.  How  can  it  be  possible  to  draw  such 
inference,  when  combinations  of  remedies  made  without  regard  to 
the  traits  and  characteristics  of  individuals,  are  employed  willy-nilly, 
for  the  treatment  of  disease  ?  Even  if  we  knew  the  composition  of 
the  various  nostrums,  how  can  we  employ  them  when  we  admit  our 
great  advance  in  therapeutic  action  is  dependent  upon  the  broad 
principle  that  we  treat  the  patient  who  is  ill  and  not  the  disease  ? 
When,  therefore,  I  am  handed  this  combination  for  one  disease; 
another  for  another,  and  so  along  the  whole  list  I  have  the  right  to 
