Am.  Jour,  Pharm. 
Dec,  1921. 
Professional  Training. 
853 
are  ''sciences."  The  logic  of  facts  proves  the  institutes  of  medi- 
cine to  be  a  homogeneous  technology  devised  to  apply  physical, 
chemical,  and  biological  truths ;  physiology  and  pathology  are  merely 
different  aspects  of  one  applied  study.  This  new  enlightenment  has 
led  medicine  to  revert  to  the  strategy  of  early  man,  who  regarded 
the  maintenance  of  health  as  of  more  consequence  than  the  treat- 
ment of  illness.  Unfortunately,  the  tactics  primitive  man  adopted 
were  not  equal  to  his  strategy. 
Unwritten  history  tells  us  that  the  failure  was  not  the  fault, 
of  husbandry.  When  her  hands  were  not  tied  by  public  opinion 
she  gave  evidence  of  her  belief  that  the  best  way  to  prevent  sickness 
is  to  destroy  disease.  The  rustic  simplicity  of  her  methods  did  not 
lessen  their  scientific  validity.  As  civility  developed,  the  efficacy  of 
the  bonfire  and  the  poleaxe  in  eradicating  murrain  and  blight  from 
herd  and  crop  so  impressed  the  community  at  large  that  they  were 
copied  by  those  in  authority.  The  one  was  long  applied  by  the 
Church  to  eliminate  schism;  the  other  is  still  at  times  employed  by 
the  State  to  extirpate  faction.  But  as  urbanity  increased,  public 
opinion  manifested  a  dislike  for  their  use  in  destroying  human  dis- 
ease. This  unreasoned  objection  did  not  modify  the  outlook  of  hus- 
bandry ;  satisfied  that  her  policy  was  sound,  she  declined  to  preach  a 
more  comfortable  doctrine. 
THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  MEDICINE. 
Inability  to  shake  the  conservatism  of  husbandry  was  not  the 
only  difficulty  early  civilisation  had  to  contend  against.  Pharmacy 
had  originated  as  a  craft  directed  first  to  warding  off  spells  and 
afterwards  to  countering  their  effects.  The  pejorative  significance 
of  the  Greek  name  for  a  member  of  your  profession  shows,  how- 
ever, that  when  historical  chronicles  began,  an  impression  prevailed 
that  pharmacy  had  gone  over  to  the  enemy.  Unwritten  history 
makes  no  suggestion  of  the  kind ;  the  belief,  so  generally  entertained 
when  culture  dawned,  that  a  pharmacist  was  necessarily  a  sorcerer 
and  a  poisoner,  only  proves  that  the  effect  of  propaganda  on  public 
opinion  was  as  powerful  4000  years  ago  as  it  is  today.  However 
this  may  be,  early  civilisation,  unable  to  follow  the  advice  of  hus- 
bandry, ought  to  depend  on  that  of  pharmacy,  was  led  to  invent 
medicine,  an  art,  the  lexicographer  tells  us,  "directed  first  to  the 
prevention  of  diseases  and  afterwards  to  their  cure."    Limited  to 
