Arebraan-Pih9iom'}        The  American  Materia  Medico.  89 
ever,  threw  the  minority  (irregular)  sections  together,  in  the  face 
of  a  general  enemy  bound  on  their  subjugation.  Their  efforts,  re- 
gardless of  the  theories  that  each  maintained,  were,  when  necessary, 
united  against  professional  extinction  of  the  "  irregulars."  Thus 
the  crusades  went  on,  until  about  i860  it  became  apparent  to  a  few 
leaders  in  the  eclectic  section  in  medicine  that  not  only  was  there 
no  necessity  for  excessive  doses  of  even  innocuous  drugs,  but  that 
the  action  of  drugs,  in  a  therapeutic  sense,  was  far  separated  from 
active  physiological  shock.  It  became  apparent,  indeed,  that  shock 
to  the  patient,  even  that  of  post-eclectic  methods,  often  retarded  or 
even  prevented  a  return  to  the  normal.  Thus  was  introduced  a 
new  epoch  in  the  direction  of  American  medicine  as  concerns  the 
men  now  chiefly  concerned  in  the  evolution  of  the  American  materia 
medica. 
PART  III. 
Conditions  in  i860. — Let  us  remember  that  under  the  afore- 
named influences  and  the  age  of  reason,  in  i860,  the  physician 
of  the  allopathic  or  old  school,  who  bled,  blistered,  and  salivated, 
had  become  the  exception.  Indeed,  the  cantharides  plaster  and  the 
croton-oil  vesicant  were  at  that  date  about  all  that  lingeringly  main- 
tained a  place  in  the  practice  of  the  followers  of  old-time  heroics. 
Let  it  be  remembered  that  the  followers  of  Thomson  had  changed 
their  name  to  physiomedical,  and  that  they  had  practically  abandoned 
the  sweating  and  the  lobelia  courses  of  their  founder.  The  eclectics, 
also,  as  the  result  of  reflective  opportunities  and  experimental  ex- 
periences, as  well  as  from  their  pharmacy  studies  of  plant  products, 
had  abandoned  many  of  their  cruder  compounds  of  the  early  days 
of  Beach,  and  had  become  discouraged  as  concerns  a  system  of 
therapy  dependent  upon  the  physiological  action  of  such  remedies 
as  they  had  themselves  introduced  and  developed.  Even  cathartics 
were  no  longer  viewed  with  favor. 
John  Milton  Scudder  (Eclectic  Revolutionist). — Came, 
then,  John  M.  Scudder,  a  man  of  resources,  an  observer,  independent, 
hopeful.  If  he  did  not  originate  the  theory  so  actively  promul- 
gated by  him,  he  grasped  the  situation,  and,  being  at  the  head  of 
the  eclectic  school,  commanded  their  forces.  With  a  courage  that 
even  his  antagonists  (for  necessarily  he  had  many)  admired,  Scud- 
der berated,  the  weaknesses  in  the  eclectic  school.  Although  he 
never  lost  an  opportunity  to  attack  wrong  of  outsiders  as  he  saw 
the  wrong,  his  crusade  was  directed  more  in  the  direction  of  over- 
