TIi


TRlE
REFORMATION OF 'MEDICAL SCI.ENCE,
DEMANDED BY
INDUCTIVE PHILOSOPHY:
A
DI SCGOU R SE
DELIVERED BEFOUR THE
"NEWA-YORK 'PHYSICIANS' SOCIETY,"
ON; THEIR ANNIVERSARY, NOVEMBE'R 21, 1838.
BY WILLIAM CJIANNLNGI M. D.
SRCOND EDITION.
"Hypotheses non fingfo, quicquid enim ex. phanomenis non deductum,
hypothesis vocanda est,' et hypotheses vel metaphysicHe, vel physictie, vel
qualitatum occultarum, sen inechanicaH, in philosophi~l locumn -non habent.-NEWTON.
NEW -YOR K:
ANGELL, ENGEL.& HEWITT, PRINTERS,
1, 3 and 5 Spruce-st., Tribune Buildings.














THE
REFORMATION OF MEDICAL SCIENCE,
DEMANDED BY
INDUCTIVE PHILOSOPHY:
A
DISCOURSE
DELIVERED BEFORE THE
"NEW-YORK PHYSICIANS' SOCIETY,"
ON THEIR ANNIVERSARY, NOVEMBER 21, 1888.
BY WILLIAM CHANNING,       M. D.
SECOND EDITION.
Hypotheses non fingo, quicquid enim ex phbnomenis non deductum,
hypothesis vocanda est, et hypotheses vel metaphysice, vel physieM, vel
quslitatum occultarum, seu mechanicHa, in philosophiC locum non habent.' '-NEWTON.
NEW-YORK:
ANGELL, ENGEL & HEWITT, PRINTERS,
1, 3 and 5 Spruce-st., Tribune Buildings.
1851.





NOTICE.
THE title of this essay, as well as the subjoined transactions relative to
its disposal, render the circumstances of its first appearance sufficiently
obvious. A lapse of several years has effected no change in the mind of
the author, as to the views it contains, and in the retirement from professional avocations, which impaired health has rendered necessary, he feels
that he cannot better subserve the interests of Homoeopathy than by
placing the following reprint before the public.
At an adjourned Anniversary meeting of the "New-York Physicians'
Society," November 27, 1838, it was
" Resolved, That the thanks of this Society be presented to Dr. William
Channing, for the highly Scientific Discourse delivered before this Association at the late celebration of its Anniversary."
" Resolved, That the Corresponding Secretary be requested to communicate the above resolution to Dr. Channing, and to request from him, on
the part of the Society, a copy of his Discourse, to be deposited in its
archives."
A. SIDNEY DOANE, Cor. Sec'y.
DR. CHANNING is happy to acknowledge the liberality with which the
"New-York Physicians' Society" have received a Discourse so much at
variance with the prevailing opinions of its members, and will cheerfully
place at their disposal the copy requested, on receiving it from the
publishers, to whom the manuscript is about to be committed.
To A. SIDNEY DOANE, M. D.,
Cor. Sec. " New-York Physicians' Society."





24f' IFr, in questions of science, the sole purpose of discussion is the establishment of truth, to restrict the one, is
virtually to embarrass the progress of the other. Yet, not
a few, alleging the incompetency of a public tribunal for
the discussion of questions touching Medical science, would
confine such discussion strictly within the masonic precincts
of the profession itself. Is it not quite time, in an enlightened community, that this mystification, so unworthy of
philosophical medicine, be abolished, and that "principles
demonstrable to public intelligence " take its place? The
Positive Sciences have never shrunk from public scrutiny.
No sooner had Chemistry renounced the dreams of Alchemy, than, fearless of the public gaze, she abandoned her
hiding places, and stood forth in the broad light of science.
Medicine will emulate the example so soon as her scientific
claims may bear examination.
The views submitted to the public in the following Discourse, invite philosophical discussion; and if thus proved
untenable, no one will welcome their refutation more cordially than their author. In this procedure, however, as
none will deny the justice of the maxim, " Si judicas cognosce' -all must concede that "the FACTS of Nature, not
the theories of man, are the only infallible tests of the
verity of alleged discoveries."
W. C,










DISCOURSE.
MR. PRESIDENT, AND GENTLEMEN OF THE SOCIETY:
WE are assembled to celebrate the first anniversary
of our union. A year has now elapsed since the adoption of our constitution, associating us for objects, the
simple enunciation of which, indicates their importance.
Summarily expressed, they are--The promotion of the
medical sciences; the elevation of medical ethics; the
encouragement of professional merit, in opposition to
sinister influences; and the cultivation of a spirit of
benevolence and friendship among members of a liberal profession.  These, gentlemen, are the objects
which we have pledged our individual and united efforts
to sustain. We feel that they are worthy of our cordial co-operation; for in their scope, they embrace
much that we prize as men, and all that we value as
physicians. Collaborators of the wise and good of
every clime, we would identify our aims with the great
cause of Social Progress, to which the light of science
is as "the pillar of fire by night." Yes I we believe
that among the benefactors of their race should be enrolled every legitimate son of Hippocrates, who, loving





6


his profession as a liberal art, and vigilantly guarding
its sanctity from all that would profane it, so devotes
his life to its preferment that the world may feel its
beauty through the blessings it diffuses.
With views thus elevated, would we dedicate our
associated efforts to the objects set before us. These
objects have one general import. It is, to raise the
moral and intellectual standard of our profession, until
Medicine, instead of limping in the rear of the army of
science, shall take her place in the vanguard, there, to
win for herself the laurels of a world's benedictions.
This, then, is our distinguished mission. This is the
sacred trust committed to the followers of ZEsculapius.
And if their eyes will not be closed, in this age of illumination; if their minds submit to no chains, in this
age of freedom; if, indeed, they prove not recreant to
the faith they profess, the day cannot be distant, when
this trust shall be fulfilled-this mission literally accomplished.
In behalf of a cause so full of promise to the hopes
of philanthropy, the limits usually allotted to a discourse, might be not unprofitably occupied in sketching
the influential relations of the physician with science,
with sickness, with bereavement, with all the absorbing
interests of society; and in deducing from these multiplied relations, his comprehensive sphere of duty, and
the magnanimous incentives which impel its performance. We might hold up for our emulation the eloquent
examples of those "who," to borrow the language of a
medical philosopher, "not satisfied with doing good





7


themselves, have exerted all the influence of their ministry to inspire a love of it in others; who, not content
with being endowed themselves with the true principles
of wisdom, have endeavored, through the intimacy with
which they were favored, to extend all useful truths;
and who, when it became their duty, have not hesitated
to face persecution, danger, contagion and death."
But, interesting as the contemplation of professional
life is, in the detail of its duties, its motives, its trials
and its rewards, our present purpose precludes all save
incidental allusion to this attractive theme. Nor will
it permit us more than to touch upon a subject, which
deservedly fills no inconsiderable place in the medical
mind, and which is now drawing upon it the scrutiny
of the most searching intellects. We allude to the
subject of medical education.
We are not insensible to the vital importance of a
thorough system of education to every hope of substantial improvement in medical science. And we are
by no means corifident that any, even the best of the
systems that civilization has yet furnished, respond as
they should do to the legitimate claims which Humanity
and Science are everywhere repeating to the medical
profession. For, we are among those who believe that
education, from the period of lisping infancy to the
maturity of manhood, whether administered through
the eloquent birch of the common school, or the eloquent lecture of the learned professor, needs reform.
With both these favorite channels we have long been
familiar, and have fondly flattered ourselves that through
them, the fair fields of science and intellect were abun




8


dantly watered from the fountain of Truth. Nay,
more-we have listened to their praises in oratory and
in song, until we have fain believed that ours was the
favored land where alone the sun of education, shining
beneficently for the rich and the poor, had attained a
meridian brightness. And who, think you, has presumptuously intruded upon this delicious dream? Who
has rudely broken the spell of this cherished delusion?
It is no other than Frederick William, of Prussia,
proudly pointing to dominions where Freedom's accents
may not be whispered, and yet, where the children of
the meanest of his subjects are rejoicing in an illumination which reduces the splendor of our boasted luminary
to that of a satellite. Yes!-let us blush while we
confess it,-a voice from Prussia, re-echoed by France,
first opened our ears to the demands of the people;
and we are at length opening our eyes to the evils
which nineteen-twentieths of our whole population have
too long endured, from the incompetent instruction of
our common schools; and now, the great movement
which has been commenced, aims at nothing less than
a radical reformation in the education of their teachers
themselves. Whether the matter and the methods of
instruction, in the higher departments of education, if
submitted to the crucible of rigid analysis, would yield
more fine gold than those of the minor institutions, and
whether they call for measures of reform equally radical, are questions too general for our present discussion. On one point, however, there can be no division
of opinion-it is this: As reformations never originate





9


within institutions where error and abuse are rife, but
from the sufferings of those without, whatever reform
Medical Education may need, must receive its first impulse from the imperative demands of the age; or,
what is equivalent under a government like ours, from
the omnipotent cry of the people, interpreted, sustained
and enforced by the profession at large; for, to us, in
such an emergency, they naturally and confidingly look
for counsel and support. Let us, therefore, rejoice in
"the signs of the times;" for they announce that a
spirit is awakening, in this home of free institutions,
which, in giving audience to the importunities of the
age, in concentrating the philanthropy, the intelligence
and influence of the profession, to meet its just requisitions, will, it is to be hoped, commence a movement
for Medicine, which may prove as effective in its regenerating power, as that so auspiciously undertaken
for Education in common schools.
To aid in arousing this spirit in the profession-to
encourage, collect and   harmonize its contributions
towards a movement so " devoutly to be wished"virtually express the great design of our organization;
and to advance this design, is the leading object of our
discourse. In carrying out this object, we shall base
our remarks upon what we have denominated "the legitimate claims which Humanity and Science are everywhere repeating to the medical profession." And if, in
urging these claims, it be necessary at times to speak
freely of the acknowledged deficiencies of our art as it
is too generally taught and practised, it is because
I*





10


in the spirit of its own benign principles, we would, if
possible, have the disease under which it languishes,
detected, that the remedies may be found and applied,
which promise to develop in it the health, the vigor
and beauty, for which the native elements of its constitution were unquestionably designed. Furthermore
-our subject is of so comprehensive a nature, it includes so wide a sphere of obligation, that we are compelled to confine our attention to the intellectual duties
of the profession; and even thus narrowed, our field is
too extended for more than a mere outline, on this
occasion.
To preserve and to restore health-in other words,
to avert disease, and to remove it in a manner the most
prompt, the most safe, the most gentle, and the most
durable, is the great end of medicine as an Art--" a
term," says Sir Gilbert Blanc, " the import of which
implies the adaptation of means to ends." The means
of medicine, or the materia medica, should include all
moral and physical agents, whose positive or negative
powers over the functions of the animal economy, are
within the reach, and subject to the control of human
intelligence. A question of the deepest import, here
presents itself. How is human intelligence to compass
such a knowledge of disease to be removed, and of
agents at our disposal, as to adapt these means so
skilfully to the desired end, that its attainment may
reasonably be anticipated? To this question, there is
but one satisfactory answer. It is, solely through exact observation, analysis and classification of the phe




11


nomena of animal life in health and in disease, and a
like observation, analysis and classification, of the
changes induced in these phenomena when subjected to
the modifying powers of the agents under our control
-in a word, through the rational application of an enlightened Experience.
Such is the end, such are the means, and such the
exactions of the art we profess. Well may we exclaim, with the father of medicine-'' Vita brevis; ars
vero longa; tempus autem    acutum; experimentum
fallax; judicium dificile! " for, it needs no seer to inform us that the study of phenomena so complicate, so
evanescent and so infinitely diversified, must of necessity be worse than fruitless, excepting under the light
and guidance of that Philosophy which "broke the
spell of the mighty enchanter of Stagira," emancipated
human reason, and gave birth to science. We repeat
-he alone can hope to thread the mazy labyrinth of
life's phenomena, who is furnished with the single clew,
which, for the deliverance of an infatuated world, the
genius of a Bacon has disclosed. Yet, again and again,
we proclaim it-he who aspires to triumph where the
proudest intellects of twenty centuries have quailed,
must first bow down, and drink deep at the spring of
that Philosophy which takes its humble source from
the elementary axiom of all human science, that " MAN,
THE SERVANT AND INTERPRETER OF NATURE, UNDERSTANDS AND REDUCES TO PRACTICE, JUST SO MUCH AS
HE HAS ACTUALLY EXPERIENCED OF NATURE'S LAWS;
MORE, HE CAN NEITHER KNOW NOR ACHIEVE."





12


We have here indicated, the first great claim of Humanity and Science on the medical profession; a claim
so imperative, that since the birth of Inductive Philosophy, they have never ceased to ring it in our ears.
Their demand is nothing less than that whosoever
would assume the administration of an art which has
to do with the delicate machinery of life, shall be possessed of this only master-key to the laws of its mysterious movements. Is the claim legitimate?   Who,
of the whole profession, if here assembled, would have
the hardihood to hazard his reputation on its public
protest? And if its justice is undeniable, how has it
been met? Let the records of theoretical and practical
medicine of more than two hundred years, answer the
question. Do they attest the vivifying presence of
Nature's philosophy pervading medical education? or,
are their pages fraught with practical denials of the
radical principle of this philosophy, just now quoted?
Is practical medicine established on the broad principles, the immovable basis of a science? or is it avowedly, at best, a mystical, and often merely a conjectural
Art?   Who of us, perusing its text-books in the clear
light of Baconian analysis, has not grieved as he everywhere recognized the legitimate fruits of the magisterial
teaching of the past?   That teaching (would that it
were actually past!) which.the lamented Godman
so vividly depicted, when, mourning over the delinquencies of medicine, and holding them up as beacons to his class, with the frankness of that philosophy
which animated the whole man, he thus poured forth





13


his indignant spirit: '! It was almost sacrilege to differ
in opinion from the popular leader, whose dogmatical
or fanciful absurdities, clothed in all the pomp of words
usurped the place of fact, and truth, and nature.""From the time of Hippocrates," continues this preeminent professor, " to the days of Rush," (and alas!
we may now add, to the days of Broussais,) " every
leader of medical opinion has attempted to establish a
theory of fever. Of the value of these theories, the
world has had melancholy experience in their rapid succession, decline and oblivion."
" How happens it," writes that distinguished prelate,
Bishop Warburton, "that in the difficulties of man,
reason is always made essential to him? Nobody ever
thought of making goodness so; and yet it is certain,
there are as few reasonable men as there are good. To
tell you my mind, I think man may be as properly defined an animal to whom a sword is essential, as -one
to whom reason is essential. For there are as few that
can, and yet fewer that dare, use the one as the other."
A remark so sweeping were a bitter reproach even to
the long night of peripatetic despotism. But, two centuries after the star of Bacon harbingered the dawn,
can it be, that civilized society is still open to an imputation so humbling to our race?  Even conceding to
this pungent satirist the general truth of his sarcasm,
surely, so acute, so discriminating an observer of man,
must have singled out at least one favored class, on
whose bucklers his cruel shaft might fall pointless. He
has excepted none: he has even defied the armor of





14


that profession of which himself was so bright an ornament. Then must ours also, equally unprotected, receive his venomed arrow to our bosoms, writhe as we
may under its merciless infliction. But the heart is
sickened at a retrospect so humiliating to our pride as
physicians, so chilling to our hopes as men; and it
turns instinctively to views more grateful and more
cheering, inviting our attention.
Before relinquishing, however, our leading topic, we
crave your attention to a few suggestions too often
overlooked; for they strike us as not unimportant, in
elucidating the exact requisitions of that philosophy
without whose aid the medical practitioner is doomed
to a life of empiricism, and the healing art forever
precluded the dignity of a science.
It is an observation which time is constantly verifying, that " History is philosophy teaching by example."
The history of man is but a paraphrase of the lessons
of philosophy, and the history of individual man, a prototype of that of the race. If, then, our attention be
directed to any department of human progress, each is
fraught with instruction, all are eloquent for human
improvement.
The beginning of intellectual existence is marked by
a total occupation of the senses with the detached phenomena of isolated objects. The rapid succession of
novel impressions, the delight of childhood in the everchanging scenes of the panorama, afford little opportunity and less inclination for comparison; and only when
this delirium of the senses is calmed, only when the





15


charms of simple perception no longer enthral, is juvenile reflection awakened by the innumerable relations of
surrounding objects. Then, differences and similarities, antecedences and sequences, arresting attention,
furnish new aliment to the craving intellect; and classification, the intuitive resort of reason, commences in
earnest the fundamental work of generalization. Now,
new phenomena are observed and new comparisons instituted, new relations are discovered and new classifications established, until the superstructure of science, in
all its imposing grandeur and beautiful proportions,
stands revealed to the philosopher, who, but yesterday,
was " pleased with a rattle and tickled with a straw."
From this rapid sketch of intellectual development
may be drawn the practical lesson, that he who would
interrogate Nature in her secret recesses and rightly interpret her responses, must, with the positive integrity
of purpose, the fearless simplicity of childhood, observe,
compare and classify. He who has the courage to follow wherever Truth may lead, must forego the vain.glorious distinctions of scholastic hypothesis, for the
unassuming, self-denying aims of a pure philosopythe patient investigation of phenomena in their manifold
relations, and the simple enunciation of these in comprehensive formulhe, or general laws.
Lord Bacon compares the philosophy of nature to
"a vast pyramid which ought to have the history of
nature for its basis," and those who would construct it
of abstract speculations, to the giants of old who would
fain have scaled the heavens by piling Ossa upon





16


Pelion and Olympus upon Ossa. " Gratuitous theories,"
says a distinguished commentator of Bacon, " may impose on the imagination, like the mirage of the Egyptian sands; but, like this illusion, they must pass away.
They may present to the eye a magnificence as gaudy
and seducing as the fata-morgana sometimes witnessed
on the coast of Calabria, in which the most beauteous
landscapes, crowned with picturesque villages, superb
palaces and massy towers, seem to possess a real existence. All, however, is suspended in the air, and the
enchanted scene changes with the least shifting of the
light or the ruffling of the sea-melting away like a
dream of the night. So must vanish at last all systems
of philosophy and science that are not founded on the
solid basis of that Induction which it is the design of
the Novum Organum to explain."
In the spirit of this Induction, let us go a step further-and, paradoxical as it may seem, we shall be convinced that the reiterated examples of Historical phenomena are the very elements of a sound Philosophy;
that not only its basis, but the whole fabric, is composed exclusively of Historical materials, which Science
has selected and wrought into enduring forms of beauty
and usefulness.
In what consists the process of generalization, but in
classifying particulars under a compendious expression
of general characteristics?  What is a philosophical
theory divested of all hypothesis, but a concise enunciation of the known facts on which it rests? And what
is that which we entitle-a law of nature?  Is it, as





17


generally conceived, an abstract, sovereign rule, of Divine authority, prescribed to her agency before God
said--" Let there be light?" Or is it only a synthetical epitome of Nature's operations such as human assiduity has discovered, and human ingenuity has classified, and human phraseology has announced?
On this subject there is a prevalent error pervading
even the ranks of science. Men are accustomed to view
a scientific theory, conventionally stamped " a law of
Nature," as an original principle established by the fiat
of Omnipotence; and he who has the hardihood to examine its validity, is charged with profanely questioning the order of Nature itself. It was for crimes like
this that Roger Bacon, in the thirteenth century, was
excommunicated by the Pope and imprisoned ten years,
accused of dealings with the devil. At the same period, professors of philosophy in some of the universities of Europe, were bound by an oath to follow no
other guide than Aristotle. The more recent examples of the same spirit, in the London college of physicians, denouncing Harvey and Jenner, are familiar to
all.
The truth is, that a theory may be overturned, though
every fact from which it emanated were incontrovertible.
The facts are Nature's-the theory under which they
are arranged, is man's; and if every year furnished new
discoveries requiring a new classification, this annual
change of theories would work no transmutation in the
facts already known. The Franklinian theory of electricity was, by many, received as a law of Nature. The





18


French theory of two distinct fluids, equally sustained
by the uncontroverted facts, proved that Nature had
not yet assumed the responsibility of either. "( There
is a wide difference," says Bacon, "between the idols of
the human mind and the ideas of the Divine mind."
Let us not be misunderstood. We object not to the
phrase-Laws of Nature; but we would sedulously
guard against the delusion to which the mind unconsciously yields, of giving to human constructions of Nature's whispered intimations, the force and authority of
her audible, unambiguous revelations themselves. While
on the one hand it is maintained, that the true elements
of the Philosophy of nature are identically those of the
History of nature, distinguished simply by scientific arrangement; on the other it must be conceded, that the
facts of nature, not the theories of man, are the only
infallible tests of the verity of alleged discoveries.Thus, to contradict past experience, is an indubitable
mark of fallacy; to go beyond it, is the very essence of
genuine discovery.
We here close the first general division of our subject, with a paragraph from a late publication, expressing views too german to our purpose to be omitted;
views which, if not recommended by their novelty, will
yet bear frequent repetition. " There is no department
of inquiry," says this popular writer, "in which it is
not full as easy to miss truth as to find it, even when
the materials from which, truth is to be drawn are actually present to our senses. A child does not catch a
gold-fish in water, at first trial, however good his eyes





19


may be, and however clear the water; knowledge and
method are necessary to enable him to take what is actually before his eyes and under his hand. So it is
with all who fish in a strange element for the truth
which is living and moving there: the powers of observation must be trained, and habits of method in arranging the materials presented to the eye must be acquired,
before the student possesses the requisites for understanding what he contemplates."
Our object will have been attained, if the attention
of the profession be awakened to the truth, that Inductive Philosophy is the truly vivifying principle of a
genuine medical education; and if, through other and
more efficient collaborators in this cause, the conviction
at length obtain, that without this seminal principle of
vitality, a "medical license to practise," is little better
than a legal license to destroy.
The second great claim of Humanity and Science on
our profession, is almost too obvious to require explicit
statement. It is that, under the pure light and sole
guidance of Nature's philosophy, we minutely investigate the phenomena of life, psychological and corporeal,
as manifested in health, as manifested in disease, and
as modified by the moral and physical agents subject to
our control. In a word, they imperatively demand of
us a rigid application of the principles of Inductive
Philosophy to the study of the laws of Life in its most
comprehensive signification.
The legitimacy of this claim, like the first, is not to
be questioned; and how it has been answered is equally





20


clear, from the well-known fact, that to this day, we
have no received science in medicine, whose province
it is to embody and teach the laws of physiological and
psychological life.
Man is a unit;-and however subservient the functions of the body to the nobler attributes of the soul, it
is not to be contested that, while united, they are
subject to one harmonious code of laws governing alike
the psychological, the physiological, and the pathological, in every condition in which life is exhibited.
"What God has joined together, let not man put
asunder!" is a command, the violation of which, in
reference to the phenomena of man's nature, has been
visited with consequences the most disastrous. To its
influence on medicine may we not trace in a great
measure, the melancholy condition of our art already
referred to? Have we not as a profession, hitherto misapprehended the magnitude of the mission with which
we have been intrusted?  Instead of embracing in its
exalted aims the laws of the whole man, we have been
insensible of our high prerogative. Surrendering to
others the study of his nobler nature, we have contented
ourselves with his physical, as if forgetful that we are
almost daily called to "administer to a mind diseased."
Moreover, to whom have we thus tamely surrendered
this noblest portion of our legitimate domain?    To
metaphysical and ethical inquirers, who, ignorant of
human organization and its physiological functions, and
still more of the instructive phenomena, psychological and
corporeal, occurring under the influence of disease, have





21


pursued their speculations almost in darkness. Destitute of these important guides, they could hardly, by
any possibility, have discovered for us the laws of
moral and intellectual man. On the other hand, confining our investigations to mere physical phenomena,
we have attempted in vain to establish the foundations
of scientific medicine upon the limited views disclosed
by anatomy and physiology; the first relating to corporeal structure, and the last, as an eminent physiologist
defines it, "restricted to that branch of science which
treats of the functions of the living animal body, and of
the powers by which these functions are exercised," as
"the purely intellectual do not properly fall within the
province of the physiologist."
And what have been the positive consequences of
this unnatural severance of phenomena which Nature
has indissolubly united?  The unavoidable consequences of false induction. While on the one hand, the
investigations of the physiologist, shut out from the
light which psychological phenomena had shed around
him, could not but too frequently generate the dismal
forms of Materialism; on the other, those of the
psychologist, alike unilluminated, have been as naturally
prolific of the wildest dreams of Idealism; man has
been arrayed against man with the fanatical virulence
of futile controversy, the claims of Inductive Philosophy
have been forgotten, and the laws of life's phenomena,
so important to the cause of social progress, so essential
to scientific medicine, are yet unrevealed.
And what, forsooth, is the argument usually advanced





22


to deter us from this vital inquiry?  "The facts of our
science," said the learned professor of materia medica
of the University of Pennsylvania, in a recent lecture to
his class, "are yet too limited to enable us to form  a
general theory of medicine upon the only true foundation--that of strict induction."-What had been the
feelings of Bacon could he have anticipated this lamentable confession, from such a source, more than two
hundred   years after his departure?-" How      is it
possible," continued the professor, "for us to draw
from our knowledge of the human system, a doctrine
explanatory of all its morbid actions, when we are
almost wholly in the dark as to the nervous functions,
and, of the principle of life itself, know scarcely more
than its existence? We might as well attempt to form
an accurate map of a country from a knowledge of a
few prominent points, while ignorant alike of its
boundaries -and its interior. Yet, so presumptuous is
man, that he frequently undertakes the impossible task.
With intellectual powers, which, in comparison with
the object, are infinitely feeble, he strives to penetrate
the secret counsels of Almighty wisdom."-How        is
it possible, we would ask this able professor, that we
prescribe scientifically to our patients, if, as he avows,
"we are almost wholly in the dark as to the nervous
functions?" especially, as he well knows that every
medicine must exert its peculiar action on these functions, to modify any animal function whatever. And
why are we thus "in the dark " as to the functions of
the nervous system; but because the psychological





23


phenomena-phenomena associated with this system
only, and the most strikingly demonstrative of its
functions-have been irrationally excluded from the
studies of the physiologist?
But, what is the substance of the argument so
imposingly presented by one of the distinguished
teachers of our country? Stripped of its subtlety it is
simply this: because life's essence is inscrutable,
therefore its laws are "past finding out;" and hence, it
is adroitly inferred, that he who "undertakes the impossible task," would fain   "penetrate the secret
counsels of Almighty wisdom." Was such the reasoning of Newton?    When in the fleeting hues of the
" bow of promise" he read the laws of vision, had the
subtle essence of light submitted to his grasp? Or,
when he spanned the heavens, and traced through
limitless space the predestined march of a universe, had
he invoked the mysterious essence of gravitation to
wing him for his empyrean flight?   Was the essence
of the electric spark determined, when the genius of
our Franklin disarmed the bolt of heaven?    Or the
essence of the magnet discovered, before commerce
could explore unmeasured oceans and found new
empires for Liberty?  Experimental philosophy, aware
that names and     forms, archetypes and   essences,
phantasmata and substrata, are inherent prerogatives
of Aristotelian visionaries, devotes herself exclusively
to the study of phenomena and the laws which they
obey; and but for the almost universal neglect in





24


medicine, of this obvious truth, the laws of life's phenomena had been long since scientifically established.
That the universe abounds in mysteries exciting
only the barren wonder of the desponding observer,
stimulates the philosophical inquirer to earnest and
untiring research. Aware that the investigation of the
laws regulating the functions of the animal economy,
ushers him into the very presence of Nature's arcana,
he feels that if consecrated to the worship of Truth,
and realizing the responsibilities of his high vocation,
he be found worthy to lift the veil, the revelations of a
moment may assume an importance to be estimated
only by the great interests of humanity which they
involve.
Until the dawning of that philosophy whose light
alone could penetrate the recesses of nature where
reign the laws of life, Medicine, in listening to the cry
of suffering Humanity, precluded all compunctious
visitings by proffering the uncertain aid of visionary
speculation and unreasoning experience.    But now,
when the hallowed rights of emancipated intellect have
been asserted, and Science has risen, echoing Humanity's appeal and tendering her services to medicine,
Conscience will no longer be appeased. Affirming the
claims of Humanity and Science, her uncompromising
demand of us now is, that medicine be established upon
its true basis, the immutable laws of life.
This investigation, therefore, momentous as it is to
all, has claims on the medical practitioner of paramount
import. Engaged in a profession of fearful responsi




25


bilities, deriving its first principles from the phenomena
of life, and depending on a knowledge of their laws for
the only scientific exercise of its arduous duties, the
physician cannot but feel, that if in the temple of
Nature there be a shrine appropriately dedicated to
AEsculapius, it is this. And now, when a band of his
professed disciples have met to do honor to the anniversary of their union, what more fit occasion than this
to mingle our votive offerings, and while listening to
the mystic responses of the oracle, strive to make this
union conducive to their interpretation?
Every new position from which the phenomena of
vitality are viewed, serves to disclose new relations, to
point out new classifications, and to disclose more clearly the harmony of the laws under which they are
evolved. With a view to such a position, let us begin
with reducing our ideas of life and its phenomena to
simple and definite elements.
By the term phenomenon, we would be understood
any manifest change, perceptible in the corporeal or
psychological relations of created existences.     The
word life, in common parlance, is used almost indiscriminately, to signify an active principle, a certain
manifestation, and a mere condition of existence. In
a philosophical scrutiny of the laws of life, its signification must be restricted to the principle manifesting itself through perceptibly active changes in the relations
of organized beings.    Thus the elementary characteristics of the phenomena through which alone the
presence of the vital principle is demonstrated, are
2





26


organization and activity. "Life," says Lawrence,
"presupposes organization, as the movements of a
watch presuppose the wheels, levers, and other mechanism of the instrument."
These analytical definitions premised, we would call
attention to the fact, universal in animated nature, that
Exercise, within normal or prescribed limits, is absolutely indispensable to the development and vigor of
each and every function of the animal economy; and
though the limits prescribed are not clearly defined,
they are undoubtedly transcended whenever, by reason
of exercise, the vigor of any function, after normal
rest, continues impaired. In this fundamental truth,
that exercise is Nature's indispensable agent in her
work of developing and confirming the vital forces-an
agent, within conservative limits, uniformly invigorating,
and beyond these limits, as uniformly enfeebling every
function or force of animal life-in this universal truth,
we apprehend, lies, the germ of a great principle, which,
with your indulgence, it shall now be our province in
a measure to unfold.
And first, let us inquire, what does the very idea of
exercise in an animal function imply? Can such exercise be imposed but through labor to be performed,
difficulties or obstacles to be overcome, resistance or
opposition to the accomplishment of the purpose for
which the function was designed?   If not, and if exercise be essential, is it not incontrovertible, that to
these adverse or opposing forces, every function is alike
indebted for its earliest, for its latest, for its every mani- -





27


festation of existence? Illustrations of this position,
repeated on every page of animal history, might be
multiplied almost without limitation. A few only can
here be introduced.
1. In the development of every muscular power of
the animal frame, the indispensable agency of opposing
forces is too clearly evinced to admit of a cavil.  Had
the child ever learned to walk, or the bird to fly, if the
force of gravity had not lent its aid to the evolution of
these powers?-powers suddenly annulled, by either
the entire suspension or the excessive accumulation of
this force. The Herculean strength incidental to athletic pursuits, points to the same principle. And
among the less palpable exhibitions of muscular energy,
it can hardly be doubted, that even in the earliest of
all discernible functions of animal life, the embryo
heart, a mere punctum saliens, had never acquired
vigor for the necessities of subsequent existence, had
not its incipient pulsations encountered the resistance
of opposing forces.
2. If we turn to functions more occult, they speak
the same language. Could the eye, admirably adapted,
as it is, to fulfil the design of its beautiful mechanism,
ever be taught the secret of its latent powers, or when
taught, retain it, deprived of the stimulus of its appropriate element?-an element, too, the intensity of
whose flash can paralyze these powers for ever. Is
the ear, exquisitely organized as it is, less dependent
for a knowledge of its uses, on the incitement of a
fbrce equally fitted to destroy? And in the unfolding





28


and perfecting of the other senses, is not this principle
in each reiterated?  Moreover, by what means are the
vital forces fortified against the extremes of the torrid
and frigid zones, the effluvia of the marsh, and the
parching winds of the desert? How are they unscathed amid "the pestilence walking in darkness? "
How confront the noon-day destroyer whose touch is
death?   Is it not by acclimating, inuring, or confirming these forces, by gradual exposure to agents otherwise destructive?
3. The psychological history of man enforces the
same lesson. From the period at which its phenomena
first come under observation, (till which, hereditary,
organic and other unappreciable influences have borne
sway,) up to the period of maturity, every intellectual
faculty, every moral sentiment, every passion of his
nature, is expressed more or less vividly, in the ratio of
its active exercise, the instrument of forces opposing
within established limits. Is the world often astonished by a display of transcendant talent, in men, the
brightness of whose horizon'adversity has never shaded?
How many of the master spirits who have filled a place
in the history of mind, have been born in obscurity and
fought their way to distinction, through difficulties
which nothing but intellect, animated by opposition,
could have overcome!-Where are seen the moral sentiments triumphing in life's great contest?    Where
are the principles of obligation-of justice, benevolence
and truth-found in their power?   Where, but among
those who have felt the full force of temptation?  In





29


what scenes have the great virtues always sought a
congenial soil'?  Have they ever attained a fruitful
maturity, ever seen the light, even, unless planted and
nurtured amid trial and conflict?-And as for the
passions, who does not know that opposition is their
natural aliment? Who does not know that, deprived
of this, like the ambition of the conqueror of one
world pining for another, they prey upon the bosoms
which warmed them into life?    Does not Anger glow
with more vivid intensity at every breath of hostility?
And is not Pride constantly inflated by contesting rivalry?  Had the miser's gold ever been the idol of his
soul, but foi" the toils, privations and perils of its accumulation? or the temple of fame roused an aspiration, but for the struggle to gain its giddy height?  In
fine, is not the poet's thought almost a truism, that
" Love, all-defying Love, who sees
No charm in trophies won with ease,
Hath ever held that pearl the best,
He finds beneath the stormiest water."
Truly, through collision alone, is passion's spark elicited; and the blast which might extinguish, fans it into
a flame. But we cannot now extend our illustrations.
The data which have been adduced, it is believed,
establish the position that-Whenever the exigencies
of the animal economy demand a more energetic activity of special functions or forces, Nature, (not less
skilful in choosing her means than in graduating their
power to the vigor of constitutional reaction,) inva




riably employs, within limits normally conservative,
-agents specifically adverse to the functions or forces requiring her aid.
It follows that of the myriads of active agents by
which animal life is invested, none is essentially inimical; for none proves hostile but through an excessive
exhibition of its power; none is injurious, but in
transcending the limits beyond which the vital forces
necessarily succumb-the normal limits of conservative reaction. An inference fraught with instruction,
pointing as it does to important practical bearings of
the great law of animal existence which Nature has so
unequivocally proclaimedCONTRARIA CONTRARIIS CORROBORANTUR.
A sketch of the deductions which might be traced
from this law of vitality-a mere glance at its bearings
upon the received doctrines of philosophy, upon the
principles of ethical and intellectual science, of education, of government, of theology, of medicine, &c.,
would lead us into fields of discussion, not only foreign
-to our purpose, but requiring volumes to compass; for
its applications are as manifold as the conditions and
interests of life are multiform. Waiving, therefore,
other topics, the occasion limits us to a brief consideration of the monitions of this law, in the correlative
conditions of health and disease.
Here we are naturally introduced to the third and
last great claim of Humanity and Science which we
have to urge upon the votaries of our art. They exact





31


of us, that in its administration, we constantly look to
the laws of life established by rigid induction, as the
supreme, the sole authority for our government; that,
neither usurping ourselves, nor countenancing the
usurpations of others, but firmly maintaining our fealty
"through good report and through evil report,". we
strictly observe these laws, as the only revelation of
Nature's decalogue of which man may rationally avail
himself, for the preservation of health and the removal
of disease.
The justice of this claim is scarcely more obvious,
than that the records of practical medicine are little
else than the records of its denial. Is this allegation
contested? We challenge the objector to the proof:
we challenge him to produce from the history of medicine down to the present age, a concordant code of
laws, or even a single law of general application, which
physicians of repute have received as having universal
authority in the administration of the healing art. But,
to save our objector the labor of research so fruitless,
we refer to testimony which must satisfy the most
scrupulous.   He   doubtless has heard the name of
Cabanis, whom France has ranked among the first of
her medical philosophers; and perhaps he has read his
celebrated " Essay on the Certainty of Medicine," published at the close of the last century. In this Essay,
confessedly the ablest vindication of its claims to confidence which our art can boast, the philosopher, with
all his devotion to medicine, attests his still greater
devotion to truth, in the following ingenuous admissions.





32


"1 We are continually obliged to admit exceptions to
those rules which were thought adequate for our
guidance. We discover nothing fixed and invariable
in their application, or in the plans they should furnish
us for our conduct. With the exception, therefore, of
some principles, which, in consequence of their very
general nature, are little calculated to direct us in the
detail of every particular circumstance, it seems as if
the theoretical knowledge of a physician was reduced
to nothing at the bedside of the sick, and that his practical skill resides in a sort of instinctive acuteness,
improved by habit and experience."     Alas! for the
"t certainty of medicine," if it must depend on the "c instinctive acuteness" of a race so inferior in this respect
to the brute creation, so superior in the nobler prerogative of reason. But we will not anticipate the inference which a mind so disciplined as that of Cabanis
could not but foresee, and, embarrassing as it was to
the task he had undertaken, could not but encounter.
Interrogatively, he presents it thus fairly: "Now, if in
the mathematical sciences, the slightest deviation from
the accurate construction and employment of rules,
leads us inevitably to the most incorrect results, shall
we ever be enabled to avoid errors in an art, the successes of which depend exclusively on the acuteness of
our organs, and in which the most happy views are less
the effects of reasoning than of inspiration?"-His
answer to this plain question needs no commentary of
ours, for it speaks   volumes.    "This, confessedly,
would appear difficult, though not impossible; or at





least, such is my candid opinion."-Feeling, as we do,
that anything which we can add, would but weaken
the impression of testimony so explicit and so entirely
above the reach of cavil, we resurge our subject.
Perfect health of the animal economy, implies perfect
conformity with the laws under which its forces, in harmonious activity, promptly respond to every exigency
of its nature. Disease, like every suffering to which
humanity is subject, is Nature's warning revelation, her
benignant penalty of violated law. It is the condition
in which, through lesion of sensation, of motion or of
structure, the equilibrium of the vital forces is disturbed-a condition wherein we are made to feel the
importance of the " mens sana in corpore sanoe " of
Horace, for the exigencies of a nature illimitable in its
aspirations, boundless in its prospects. The complete
development, then, of both the psychological and corporeal forces maintained in harmony with the laws of life,
constitutes the beau-ideal of health, the ultimate aim
of medical science.
We have seen that " of the myriads of active agents
by which animal life is invested, none proves hostile
but through an excessive exhibition of its power;" and
consequently that "within limits normally conservative," every agent is actively contributing its quota to
that perfect development, without which, the ends of
existence are but inadequately fulfilled. If it be now
recollected that the vital laws control supremely, not
only every function of our nature, psychological and
corporeal, but of necessity, every agent which may
2*





84


operate on either, we cannot but be struck with the
infinite Beneficence which has placed man in the midst
of a world subject to undeviating laws, and filled on
every hand with moral, intellectual and physical influences, all tending, if unperverted, to unfold and perfect
his nature, to invigorate his wavering progress, to assure the accomplishment of his high destiny. Methinks,
if any contemplation of the grand, the glorious displays
of Nature's operations, may touch the soul and bear it
spontaneously " up to Nature's God," it is this. And
if the poet with reason exclaimed, " an undevout astronomer is mad!" what must be the condition of that
mind which can find no spring of devotion in these
wondrous adaptations of a universe to the progressive
expansion of our noblest faculties, the consummation
of our dearest hopes!
" For us the winds do blow,
The earth doth rest, heaven move, and fountains flow
Nothing we see but means our good,
As our delight, or as our treasure
The whole is either our cupboard of food,
Or cabinet of pleasure.
"The stars have us to bed;
Night draws the curtain, which the sun withdraws;
Music and light attend our head.
All things unto our flesh are kind,
In their descent and being; to our mind,
In their ascent and cause.





35


" More servants wait on man
Than he '11 take notice of. In every path,
He treads down that which doth befriend him
When sickness makes him pale and wan.
Oh, mighty Love! Man is one world, and hath
Another to attend him!"
We now approach a topic, at all times the most interesting to the physician, and which, in relation to the
subject of our discourse, holds the place of distinction.
Here, the responsibilities of the task we have assumed
press upon us with redoubled weight, for if our general
law prove unavailing in the treatment of disease, we
shall have expended our labor and taxed your patience
in vain.
Practitioners of the healing art, who, in their proper
vocation, are but the ministers of Nature, recognize her
supremacy in every medical school having claims to Inductive Philosophy. Hence, by all such schools, however antagonistic their theories, it is a truth admitted,
that in every case of disease, the legitimate aim of
medication is, to render efficient aid to the vis conservatrix naturce-either by obviating difficulties, or by
reinforcing its sanitary efforts. For, on the vital forces,
whatever the means resorted to, must we ultimately
rely for the restoration of health.
In the presence of disease, therefore, the philosophical physician, rising above the region where scholastic
controversies have for ages distracted the medical
world, is disturbed with no speculations on its inscrutable nature and essence; but, rejecting all pathological





hypotheses which, like the philosopher's stone and the
elixir vitae of chemistry, have been the paralyzing incubus of medical science, he rests solely on demonstrable facts. Confining his attention strictly to appreciable
phenomena and their inductive classification, as the
only legitimate work of medical philosophy, he discerns,
in these thus classified, the characteristic features of
individual cases-and in each case respectively, that
certain functions or forces of the living economy are
specially invaded, requiring the aid of medicinal agents.
With a mind thus singly devoted to his purpose, his
attention is first directed to the offending cause which
excited and may continue the disturbance. This removed, he turns confidingly to the Laws of Life-the
formulae under which vital phenomena, in their diversified relations, are scientifically disposed-as the only
competent authority for the solution of a problem, in
which life and its relations alone are concerned. And
if among these laws he find recorded, in characters not
to be mistaken, Contraria contrariis corroboranturobedient to its mandate, he selects, as the means of
invigorating their reaction, an agent specifically adverse
to the yielding functions or forces. In other words, he
prescribes the medicine which, acting pathogenetically
upon an organism in health, affects in a similar manner
the special functions or forces suffering under the attack.
That is to say, he administers an agent which, producing
in the healthy organism morbid phenomena similar to
those manifest in the patient, is chosen in conformity





37


with the well-known principle, " Similia similibus
curantur."
The energy of the agent thus selected, primarily
active upon functions yielding to invasion, and hence
less able to resist it, may so much the more readily
transcend "the limits beyond which the vital forces
necessarily succumb." And inasmuch as every agent,
like exercise, is "an agent, within conservative limits,
uniformly invigorating, and beyond these limits, as
uniformly enfeebling every function or force of animal
life" in its sphere of activity, and as the sole object of
a medicinal agent so selected, is to invigorate yielding
functions or forces, it follows, that only within these
limits should the powers of such agent be exhibitedlimits which, like those of exercise, may be competently determined by experience alone.
We must here claim the privilege for a moment, of
reverting to a portion of our argument that, in passing,
was necessarily left incomplete. When pursuing our
inductive analysis, adducing illustrations in support of
the general law of life which we have advanced, had
we closely adhered to our prescribed principles, we had
included in our field of induction the phenomena of
life, not only " as manifested in health," but also " as
manifested in disease," and "as modified by the moral
and physical agents subject to our control."  But, addressing a society, the members of which acknowledge
neither the Homoeopathic doctrine nor the facts on
which it rests, we were precluded all resort to the only
authorities who have minutely and extensively investi




38


gated the simple action of medicinal agents upon the
human organism, uncomplicated by the presence of disease. We have, hence, been compelled to rely on illustrations familiar to all, for the demonstration of our
general law, until through the authority of this law, a
hearing could be obtained for the facts which the Homoeopathic school have brought to light.
You are doubtless apprized that Hahnemann, the
founder of this school, having by numerous experiments
established, to his perfect conviction, his great principle,
" Similia similibus curantur"-saw at a glance, that
this principle could avail little, if he contented himself
with simply proving the general truth it expresses, that
Agents, medicinally administered, are curative of
those sufferings of the sick, which, pathogenetically administered, they generate in the healthy. He saw that,
to render it extensively availing in the treatment of disease, an entirely new science was to be created-the
science of Pathogenetics-which, based on multiplied
experiments upon divers ages, sexes, temperaments and
constitutions, should teach what are the sufferings which
each agent, singly administered, has power to generate
in the healthy. Fortified in their determination by the
opinions of such men as Van Helmont, Stahl, Hoffmann
and Haller, and animated by a devotion which nothing
but the fullest conviction of the truth and importance
of their cause could have kindled-a devotion unparalleled in the history of medicine-Hahnemann and
his followers, in less than fifty years, have carried this
science to an extent and precision perfectly incredible





39


to those unacquainted with its details. Suffice it, however, to say, that through its instrumentality, there
have been at length accumulated upon record, thousands of well-attested cases, (besides the multitude unrecorded,) demonstrating that-agents, proved in the
healthy organism, specifically adverse to the functions
or forces yielding in the sick, if employed within conservative limits, invigorate the reactive energy of these
forces in opposition to the progress of disease.
Availing ourselves of these innumerable facts, into
the details of which our limits forbid us to enter, we
now confidently appeal to them, in obvious support of
both the universal law of life, Contraria contrariis
corroborantur, and its inevitable corollary, the fundamental doctrine of the Homoeopathic school, " Similia
similibus curantur"--and we cannot but feel that, in
view of the wide extension of our induction, the argument demonstrative of these great principles, has acquired a force which absolute scepticism alone can resist.
We have thus, gentlemen, introduced, as we trust,
legitimately to your respectful consideration, a subject
which, until recently in this country, has been deemed
too insignificant for the grave reflection of a medical society: a subject, which, it must be confessed, has but
too often been presented to the profession, either standing aloof from all relations with science, or covered
with the opprobrium which infatuated zeal and ignorant
misrepresentation have jointly heaped upon it. We
should, therefore, do injustice to convictions confirmed





40


by the experience of years, could we forego the present
opportunity to disabuse the professional mind of certain
errors, in the circumstances referred to, perhaps unavoidable. That we may be assured, however, of your
patient attention to the few observations which we have
to offer upon these misconceptions-that indeed, you
may, in some degree, participate in our estimate of the
importance of this subject-we shall first adduce for
your satisfaction, citations from two late publications
not open to the suspicion of ex-parte testimony.
The first of these publications, we regret to say, is
the only one from our opponents on this side of the
Atlantic, that has fallen into our hands, which a Homoeopathist, who realizes the dignity of science and the
sacred nature of the cause he advocates, could publicly
notice without a violation of self-respect. This remark is but a just tribute to the late President of the
New-York State Medical Society,* and to the general
spirit of his "Annual Address" before that body in
February last, on what he terms, " The Homoeopathic
System   of Medicine."   In this address, adverting to
the reception Homoeopathy meets with from physicians,
he says" Generally speaking, they have at once pronounced the whole
subject absurd-a delusion-or a gross imposition upon public
credulity. Now, is this the proper mode of treating it? Is it
philosophical to call anything absurd, professing to be founded
on observation and experiment? If it be false, it should be proved
to be so, by showing that facts do not warrant the premises, or
* Professor James M'Naughton.





41


the deductions drawn from  them."  " It is possible, that the
Homoopathic reasoning may be erroneous-it is possible that the
medicines may act as specifics, like the vaccine virus, and that the
mode of action may be altogether inexplicable, in the present
state of our knowledge. We are, therefore, more interested in
determining the correctness of the alleged facts, than in that of
the theory offered to explain them. Many of these facts are
of such a kind as admit of easy examination-and can be readily
proved or refuted."  " Whether Homoeopathy be true or not,
it is entitled to have its claims fairly investigated. The object
of the profession is to ascertain the truth; and if it should turn
out that in any disease, the Homceopathic remedies are more
efficacious than those known to the ordinary system, they ought
unquestionably to be used. It will not do for the members of
the profession to wrap themselves up in their dignity, and to
call the new system absurd, without further inquiry. The history of the profession presents many lamentable instances of
the obstinacy with which errors have been clung to, and improvements resisted."
And this distinguished professor of our State University concludes this train of thought, by suggesting
to the State Medical Society, as a means of improving
Medical Science, " the propriety of making the comparative merits of Allopathy and Homoeopathy the
subject of a prize dissertation."    Investigation, commenced in such a spirit, cannot but be pursued; and in
separating fact from fiction, it must eventually extricate
a mind like this, from the many embarrassments of a
field so novel, under which it now evidently labors.
The other publication to which we would refer, is
entitled "Curiosities of Medical Experience," by Dr.
Millingen, an eminent surgeon of the British    army-a





42


work which has been thought worthy of a place in the
"Select Medical Library," now in the course of publication in Philadelphia.   In an article upon Homoeopathy,
our author canvasses its claims with the severity of a
critic who knows no touch-stone but experience.
Cautiously    discriminating  between    mere   dogmata
and points essential to Homoeopathic doctrine, he unsparingly condemns some of the positions of Hahnemann as wholly untenable and even absurd, and thus
introduces what he terms "( a much more grateful and
important task," viz.: "to prove by the evidence of
facts, supported by practical reasoning, that the art of
healing is more indebted to the Homoeopathic doctrines,
than to any system that has hitherto been delivered in
our schools."
"That the all-bountiful Creator," continues our author," in
permitting, for purposes unknown to us, that mankind should be
visited by so many scourges, has also scattered around us means
to counteract these evils, cannot be a matter of doubt. Instinct
leads animals to find out these salutary agents, and various specifies have been discovered by man. The rudest savage is in
possession of curative substances unknown to the civilized,, and
performs cures where learning and experience have proved of no
avail. To extend the limits of specifies must be considered a
most desirable step towards adding to our means of relieving disease; and in this pursuit, it is impossible to bestow too much
praise.on the Homoeopathic observer."
Having noticed the current objections to the alleged
Homoeopathic cures, attributed as they are to diet, to
imagination, to Nature, to anything but the small doses,
our author thus proceeds




"But the facts I am about recording-facts which induced me,
from having.been one of the warmest opponents of this system,
to investigate carefully its practical points-will effectually contradict all these assertions regarding the inefficacy of the Homoeopathic doses, the influence of diet, or the agency of the mind;
for in the following cases, in no one instance could such influences be brought into action. They were (with scarcely any exception) experiments made without the patient's knowledge, and
where no time was allowed for any particular regimen. They
may, moreover, be conscientiously relied upon, since they were
made with a view to prove the fallacy of the Homceopathic practice. Their result, as may be perceived by the foregoing observations, by no means rendered me a convert to the absurdities of
the doctrine, but fully convinced me, by the most incontestible
facts, that the introduction of fractional doses will soon banish the
farrago of nostrums that are now exhibited, to the manifest prejudice both of the health and the purse of the sufferer,"
Dr. Millingen here adduces, in support of his views,
six striking cases occurring under his own inspection,
for the details of which * we must refer to his article
itself, which he thus concludes--
'"I could record many instances of similar results, but they
would of course be foreign to this work. I trust that the few
cases I have related will afford a convincing proof of the injustice,
if not the unjustifiable obstinacy, of those practitioners, who, refusing to submit the Homoeopathic practice to a fair trial, condemn
it without investigation. That this practice will be adopted by
quacks and needy adventurers, there is no doubt; but Homeoopathy is a science on which numerous voluminous works have
been written by enlightened practitioners, whose situation in life
placed them far above the necessities of speculation. Their pub* Vide Appendix A.





44


lications are not sealed volumes, and any practitioner can also
obtain the preparations they recommend. It is possible, nay,
more than probable, that physicians cannot find time to commence
a new course of studies, for such this investigation must prove.
If this is the case, let them frankly avow their utter ignorance of
the doctrine, and not denounce with merciless tyranny a practice
of which they do not possess the slightest knowledge. Despite
this absolute persecution that Hahnemannism (as this doctrine is
ironically denominated) is at present enduring, every reflecting and
unprejudiced person must feel convinced that, although its wild
and untenable theories may not overthrow the established systems, (if any one system can be called established,) yet,,its study
and application bid fair to operate an important revolution in medicine. The introduction of infinitely small doses, when compared
at least with the quantities formerly prescribed, is gradually
creeping in. The history of medicine affords abundant proofs of
the acrimony, nay, the fury, with which every new doctrine has
been impugned and insulted. The same annals will also show
that this spirit of intolerance has always been in the ratio of the
truths that these doctrines tended to bring into light. From the
preceding observations, no one can accuse me of having become
a blind convert to Homoeopathy; but I can only hope that its
present vituperators will follow my example and examine the
matter calmly and dispassionately, ere they proceed to pass a
judgment that their vanity may lead them to consider a final
sentence."
Trusting that the two examples here presented-not
of liberality, (for Homoeopathy needs favor from none,)
but simply of that justice which ever distinguishes the
philosophical from the mere sciolist, will not be the less
influential because they are rare, we can now believe
that you will not think a few minutes idly appropriated
to the purpose just now indicated.





45


We flatter ourselves that in demonstrating the fundamental doctrine of Homoeopathic medicine, as the
necessary consequence of a universal law of animal
life, we have satisfactorily proved its intimate relations
with all sciences bearing upon life's great interests. It
remains for us to notice some of the misconceptions
which, pervading the medical mind, pass current in society as fair exhibitions of its pretensions.
And first--Homoeopathy is not a Surgical science.
It has never pretended with its minute doses, though it
would seem to be demanded of it, to amputate a limb,
to reduce a dislocation, to extract an aching tooth or a
piercing thorn, to remove a deadly draught from the
stomach, or any other local irritant from the organism
affecting it chemically or mechanically; though it has
done more, it has often superseded the necessity of
chemical and   mechanical agency.    Neither   does it
promise, more than other medical treatment, to counteract potencies overwhelming the organism beyond the
power of reaction. But, passing all such cases as not
within the scope of its ministry, it confines itself strictly
to its legitimate province, the treatment of medical
cases. As a Medical science, it views the manifestations of disease as consequences of disturbed vital
action.  Hence it employs agents whose dynamical
activity, ascertained by experiment on the healthy organism, is directed upon the vital forces thus disturbed,
-and because disturbed, morbidly susceptible to the
influence of homogeneous or similar irritants, beyond
all human appreciation. Actuated by such views and





46


illuminated by experience, Homoeopathy cannot but inculcate the employment of doses much less than heretofore administered. Still, sufficient latitude is left to
the discriminating judgment of each practitioner, in
adapting his doses to the varied circumstances of each
individual case, so that he never transcend the limits
of conservative reaction; limits which, as we have before remarked, experience alone is competent to determine.
Again-Homoeopathy is often styled, A New System
of Medicine. This it does not claim to be; for, a system of medicine must embrace all the important medical sciences. Now, Homoeopathy came into existence
not to supplant these; not to subvert, indeed, anything previously established; but to supply an acknowledged, an imperative want-to complete, as it were, the
arch of Scientific Medicine. So far from denying her
obligations to the experience of past ages, in the very
introduction of Hahnemann's Organon, its author has
drawn largely upon this experience in support of his
doctrine. So far from disowning the great advances
which modern researches have effected in many departments of science, she frankly admits, and gladly avails
herself of these essential elements of the great arch it
was her province to complete-for example, the sciences of Special and General Anatomy, of Physiology and
General Pathology, on the one side, and the various
departments of Natural History and Chemistry, as
sources of the Materia Medica, on the other. But,
conceding even perfection to these indispensable scien




47


ces, it is manifest that without its key-stone-a scientific system of Therapeutics-the arch of the medical
sciences was alike devoid of symmetry and strength.
For, what could it avail to the Art of Healing, though
on the one hand, every fibre and every function of the
animal frame, in health and disease, were perfectly disclosed-and on the other, creation had yielded up its
stores, and Chemistry had analyzed them all and recombined their elements without limits, if that science
which should teach the adaptation of agents thus multiplied, to the removal of morbid action, was yet to be
created? And that it was to be created, the whole
history of Medicine testifies. All that was positively
established on the subject, all that had effectually withstood the revolutions of medical opinion marking this
history, consisted of a few specific medicines and a few
specific practices, (for which the art was chiefly indebted
to fortuitous or empirical sources,) and these not referred, but deemed irreferable to any consistent system
of general principles, and of course offering no claim to
the appellation of a science.
But lest we be thought to exaggerate in our representation of the absolute deficiency of that science
without which Medicine can never be other than a conjectural art, we must appeal to testimony not to be controverted. And first, let us listen to one whose name
is a monument of genius and practical research, the
immortal John Hunter. Referring to the virtues of
medicinal substances and their application to the counteraction of disease, he says:





48


" Of these virtues we know nothing definitely; all we know is,
that some are capable of altering the mode of action, others stimulating, many counter-stimulating; some even irritating and others
quieting, so as to produce either a healthy disposition and action
in a diseased part, or to change the disease to that action which
accords with the medicine, or to quiet where there is too much
action; and our reasoning goes no further than to make a proper
application of these substances, with these virtues. The difficulty
is, to ascertain the connection of substance and virtue, and to apply this in restraining or altering any diseased action; and as that
cannot be demonstrated a priori, it reduces the practice of medicine to experiment; and this not built upon well-determined data,
but upon experience, resulting from probable data. This is not
equally the case through the whole practice of medicine, for in
many cases, we are much more certain of a cure than in others;
but still, even in them, the certainty does not arise from reasoning
upon any more fixed data, than in others where the certainty of
a cure is less; but it arises from a greater experience alone. It
is still no more than inferring that, in what is now to be tried,
there is probable effect or good to arise in the experiment, from
what has been found serviceable in similar cases. Diseases, however, of the same specific nature, not only vary in their visible
symptoms or actions, but in many of those that are invisible,
arising probably from peculiarities of constitution and causes,
which will make the effects of applications vary, probably almost
in the same proportion; and as those varieties may not be known,
so as either to adapt the specific medicine to them, or to suit the
disease to the medicine, it will then be only given upon a general
principle, which of course may not correspond to the peculiarities.
Even in well-marked specific diseases, where there is a specific
remedy, we find that there are often peculiarities, which counteract the simple specific medicine." *
Such is the testimony of Hunter; and upon this
* Hunter, On the Blood, Inflammation, &c.





49


alone, we might rest our case. But the position which
we would maintain-that, Therapeutics, until the rise
of the Homoeopathic doctrine, had never met the first
requisitions, and was consequently unworthy the name
of a.science-is too important to be left to the testimony of a single witness, however high his authority.
In a lecture before the Royal College of Physicians,
London, delivered by Dr. Paris from the chair of Materia Medica, we find the following concessions. This
learned professor, adverting to "'the extraordinary
vicissitudes so eminently characteristic," as he remarks,
" of the history of Materia Medica," makes use of this
language.
"' That such fluctuations in opinion and versatility in practice
should have produced, even in the most candid and learned observers, an unfavorable impression with regard to the general
efficacy of medicines, can hardly excite our astonishment, much
less our indignation; nor can we be surprised to find that another
portion of mankind has at once arraigned Physic as a fallacious
art, or derided it as a composition of error and fraud. They askand it must be confessed that they ask with reason,-what pledge
can be afforded them, that the boasted remedies of the present
day will not, like their predecessors, fall into disrepute, and in
their turn, serve only as humiliating memorials of the credulity
and infatuation of the physicians who commended and prescribed
them?" Again, while attempting to account for these " fluctuations in opinion and versatility in practice" connected with the
Materia Medica, he alleges that " its advancement has been continually arrested and often entirely subverted, by the caprices,
prejudices, superstitions and knavery of mankind," and that
" unlike the other branches of science, it is incapable of successful
generalization'"-and he adds the significant question, "In the
2





50


progress of the history of remedies, when are we able to produce
a discovery or improvement, which has been the result of that
happy combination of Observation, Analogy and Experiment,
which has so eminently rewarded the labors of modern science?"*
Admitting this question to have been unanswerable,
as it evidently was, how happened it that it did not occur to this able professor that, amid the infinity of
fictions with which the Materia Medica      notoriously
abounds, even the best established facts which are
avowedly "incapable of successful generalization," can
have no pretensions whatever, to the rank of a science?
In further corroboration of our position, the distinguished Girtanner says, "Our Materia Medica is a
mere collection of fallacious observations;"t and to
the same effect is the remark of the illustrious Hoffman-" Perpauca sint remedia quorum         virtutes et
operationes certs; plurima vero infida, suspecta, fallasia, ficta."
It were easy to multiply authorities to prove what
the conscientious and reflecting of the profession, in
every age, have perceived and often publicly lamented.
We feel that the fact we are urging can hardly engage
our thoughts too seriously. Indeed, we would that the
attention of the whole profession were concentrated
upon it, until they realize that here the citadel of Medicine is assailable, and that Humanity will never cease
to reproach us with dereliction of duty, so long as we
leave it thus open to attack.  But for this one unpro* Hist. Introd. Pharm.  t Darstillung.  t Medicina Rationalis.





51


tected point, had our fortress been stormed, the heroism
of its veterans defied, and its best and bravest compelled to succumb before that dread pestilence which,
but yesterday, traversed the civilized globe, devastating
hamlets, and cities, and kingdoms, almost unimpeded
in its march? But for this indefensible condition of
our ramparts, had we so often been compelled, tamely
to acquiesce in the taunts and jeers of our enemies?
Or, when some fearless associate, more actively vigilant
if not more sagacious than the rest, hoping to rouse us
to a sense of our danger, has shouted in our ears the
past delinquencies of our art, what but the received
doctrine that the powers of the Materia Medica are
"incapable of successful generalization," has deterred
us from rushing to the rescue?  But for this paralyzing
conviction, so prevalent in our ranks, had we not long
since rallied with one consent, to the one standard of
medical doctrine which Nature has set up? But for
this, had the plea of Brutus ever been heard in our
forums, from spirits who, " not loving Cesar less but
Rome more," have been compelled to forswear their
allegiance, and strike a blow for human emancipation
from worse than Caesar's bondage?   Who of us did not
feel his blood curdle in his veins? Whose pulse did
not stand still with grief and humiliation, when, but a
brief period since, an eloquent pen, well known in the
cause of Medical Philosophy, held up for our contemplation the following appalling delineation of theoretical
and practical medicine?





52


"It seems to be one of the rules of faith in our art, that every
truth must be helped into belief by some persuasive fiction of the
school. And I here owe it to the general reader to confess, that
as far as I know, the medical profession can scarcely produce a
single volume in its practical department, from the works of Hippocrates down to the last made text-book, which, by the requisitions of an exact philosophy, will not be found to contain nearly
as much fiction as truth. This may seem so severe a charge
against both the pride and logic of our art, that I crave a moment
of digression upon it.
"There are tests for all things. Now, a dangerous epidemic
always shows the difference between the strong and the weak, the
candid and the crafty, among physicians. It is equally true that
the same occasion displays, even to the common observer, the real
condition of their art: whether its precepts are exact or indefinite,
and its practice consistent or contradictory. Upon these points,
and bearing in mind that we have now in medicine the recorded
science and practice of more than two thousand years,-let the
reader refer to the proceedings of the medical profession, during
the prevalence of the so-called Asiatic Cholera,' and he will find
their history every where exhibiting an extraordinary picture of
prefatory panic, vulgar wonder, doubt, ignorance, obtrusive vanity,
plans for profit and popularity, fatal blunders, distracting contradictions, and egregious empiricism:-of twenty confounding doctors called in consultation, to mar the sagacious activity of one;
of ten thousand books upon the subject, with still an unsatisfied
call for more;-of Experience fairly frightened out of all his former convictions, and of costly missions after moonshine, returning
only with clouds.
" Now I do assert, that no art which has a sufficiency of truth,
and the least logical precision, can ever wear a face so mournfully
grotesque as this. In most of the transactions of men, there is
something like mutual understanding and collective agreement,
on some points at least; but the history of the Cholera, summed
up from the four quarters of the earth, presents only one tumultu




53


ous Babel of opinion, and one unavailable farrago of practice. This,
even the populace learned from the daily gazettes; and they
hooted at us accordingly. But it is equally true, that if the inquisitive fears of the community were to bring the real state of
professorial medicine to the bar of public discussion, and thus
array the vanity and interests of physicians in the contest of opinion, we should find the folly and confusion scarcely less remarkable, on nearly all the other topics of our art.
" Whence comes all this? iNot from exact observation, which
assimilates our minds to one consenting usefulness: But from
Fiction-which individualizes each of us to our own solitary conoeit, or herds us into sects, for idle or mischievous contention
with each other; which leads to continual imposition on the
public, inasmuch us fictions, for a time, always draw more listeners than truth; which so generally gives to the mediocrity of
men, and sometimes even to the palpably weak, a leading influence in our profession;- and which- helps the linpostures of the
advertising quack, who being an unavoidable product of the pretending theories of the schools, may be called, a physician with
the requisite amount of fictions, but without-respectability."7
Such is the mortifying, the melancholy picture from
the easel of no less an artist, than the author of I-The
Philosophy of the Human Voice."~ It needs no key
to explain its graphic features; and it needs no sage to
perceive that its original had never existed, hut that
the arch of the medical sciences was in want of its keystone; and it was to supply this desideratum, to give
to this structure a consistency, a strength, and a beauty,
which, for the first time, establish Medicine among the
positive sciences, that Homoeopathy has been vouchsafed to man.


* James Rush, M. D.





54


Homoeopathy, therefore, is not A New System of
Medicine. But, as the first successful generalization
of the curative powers of the Materia Medica, and that
under one comprehensive principle, " Similia similibus
curantur,"-it is in medicine, The Science of Therapeutics. And it is a science which, though by no
means boasting of full and perfect development, claims
for itself and confidently announces the principle with
its practical application, through which Specific Remedies yet undiscovered, may be ultimately found for the
multiplied forms of disease with which the human
family is afflicted.
We might extend our remarks, obviating objections
founded in erroneous views of Homoeopathy. But it
were incompatible with our purpose now to engage in
its elaborate defence, and still more, in defence of certain opinions of its illustrious founder, adopted by some
of the Homoeopathic school and rejected by others
equally distinguished; opinions which are reckoned
among the indispensable constituents of its faith, only
by those who fail in genuine respect for the character
and example of Hahnemann, forgetting as they do, the
invaluable precept which has been the ruling principle
of his life-" Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistra."
What has been offered is sufficient to place in clear
light this truth-that all which is essential to the existence of Homoeopathy is its great radical principle,
"' Similia similibus cnrantur;" and they who hope to
cut off any portion of its vital nutriment, must aim their





55


blows at this, and not idly waste their energies, as heretofore, upon the parasitic productions of misguided zeal
and their own prolific imaginations. Though scarce
half a century has passed since its first germination,
already Honmoeopathy shelters under its wide-spread
branches, a more numerous band of devoted cultivators
than are found beneath the most venerable oaks which
the whirlwinds of opinion have left in the groves of
medical science. That these modernized relics of scholastic antiquity are doomed to the fate of their predecessors, and that this young and vigorous scion of Inductive Philosophy is destined to flourish until the
whole family of man be made partakers of its fruits, is as
certain as that the night of time-honored error must give
place to the day-spring of truth. " Coming events cast
their shadows before"-and may we not, on this side
the Atlantic at least, consider it a harbinger of the consummation referred to, that we everywhere discern a
great and increasing withdrawal of public confidence
from what is termed "regular practice," to attach itself
like a drowning man, to any straw that quackery may
hold out? Has this confidence ever been, in like manner, withdrawn from the professors of Navigation or of
Agriculture?   And if we give to Medicine, principles
equally fixed and equally demonstrable to public intelligence, is it not self-evident that from that hour, the
doom of quackery is forever sealed?
Before our country, however, can become the theatre
of events so long desired, the organization of our Medi




56


cal Institutions must be reformed.* These fountains
of education must be purified; and in accordance with
the spirit of our civil institutions, the principle which
we have adopted as fundamental in our association,
must be carried out to the fullest extent-the principle
of " Free Competition in the honorable exercise of pro..
fessional talent wherever exhibited, whether striving in
the walks of private enterprise, or contending for the
palm of public distinction."  " But," as the writer last
cited, pointedly observes, " if the patronage of chartered
institutions is to be entrapped by the vulgar baits of
ambition;-if anything in a First-of-April suit, is likely
to be caught up by mistake for the succinct enrobing
of science;-if professor, First, Second and Third, is to
be chosen respectively from the North, the South, and
the West, merely to secure like political weight, the profitable pupilage of districts;-if professors are to be
allured into service, for the purpose, if I may use the
poacher's phrase, of crippling a rival institution;-if
one is to be chosen because he votes the right side in
politics; another because he has the support of a religious sect; a third to prevent the desertion of an indispensable myrmidon; and last, but not least, a fourth,
because his cousin's wife is the favorite niece of an influential manager: If all this should be done, it may
indeed be no more than the worldly way and means of
so many other undertakings that evade their promises
implied, and slip their obligatory duty.   But such
medical patronage can do no more than entrench be* Appendix B.





57


yond all means of dislodgement, except ultimate selfdestruction, the mercenary interests and manceuvering
policies of the every-day ambition and ability of our
art."*
If we have not failed in our aim, it has been shown
-that to secure the invaluable ends of Medicine as an
art, Humanity and Science have been, throughout the
last two centuries, importunately repeating three great
claims to the medical profession.
The first of these exacts-that none be admitted to
the ministry of an art professing to control the mysterious phenomena of life, unless deeply imbued with the
spirit and doctrine of that Philosophy whose fundamental principle asserts that "Man, the servant and
interpreter of Nature, understands and reduces to practice just so much as he has actually experienced of
Nature's laws; more, he can neither know nor achieve."
It has been maintained that this claim,-involving as
it does, the child-like integrity, the patience, the courage, the self-denial, in a word, the moral virtues of a
mind which worships at no other than the shrine of
Truth,-is so important, that C' without this seminal
principal of vitality" pervading medical education, 1" a
medical licence to practice is little better than a legal
licence to destroy." It has been also -maintained that,
if we look to the practical evidence of the annals of
medicine, we shall be convinced that, down to the
present age, this claim has been, with few exceptions,
* Appendix C.
3*





58


virtually disregarded by the distinguished teachers of
our art.
Under the second general division of our subject, it
has been urged that Humanity and Science unitedly
and " imperatively demand of us a rigid application of
the principles of Inductive Philosophy to the study of
the laws of life:" That, although in medicine there is
no science recognized "whose province it is to embody
and teach the laws of physiological and psychological
life," yet, of the many fields of Nature open to scientific research, none promises to the Medical Philosopher
a harvest so rich as is offered to him in the investigation of these laws of life: That a truly Baconian spirit,
regardless of all save ascertained phenomena inductively classified, cannot fail, in a field where the very basis
of philosophical medicine must be sought, to reap fruits
more grateful, more invigorating, more abundant, and
more lasting, than have been produced by all the speculations which, from time immemorial, have dazzled the
world.
Anxiously cherishing this spirit, and founding our
inquiries upon a fact confessedly universal in the animal world, a fact pointing to a remarkable relation of
vital phenomena wherever, under certain defined conditions, life is exhibited, we have traced this relation
through exhibitions, physical, intellectual and moral, in
health and in disease, until we have been led to the
conviction that the most extended induction establishes
the principle, Contraria contrariis corroboranturas a universal law of animal life. In other words,





59


throughout the animal kingdom observation proves that
-Agents specifically adverse to certain functions or
forces, exhibited within conservative limits, corroborate
the reactive energy of these forces.
Our third general division introduced the last great
claim of Humanity and Science, enjoining upon us, in
the administration of our art, a steadfast adherence to
" the laws of life established by rigid Induction," "as
the only revelation of Nature's decalogue of which
man may rationally avail himself, for the preservation
of health and the removal of disease."   Having challenged the history of medicine, down to our own age,
to produce a single general law of universal authority
in practice, we have advanced the highest testimony to
prove that so late as the close of the last century,
"the theoretical knowledge of the physician was reduced to nothing at the bedside of the sick, and that
his practical skill resided entirely in a sort of instinctive acuteness"-that " the most happy views were less
the effects of reasoning than of inspiration"-and consequently, that our art has been heretofore administered
irrespective of the only laws which Humanity and
Science can acknowledge for the government of the
conscientious practitioner.
Contrasted with this avowed reliance on "instinct"
and " inspiration," we have exhibited the practical application of the general law of life, just repeated,
to the treatment of disease. Adducing the concurrent
voice of Scientific Medicine of all schools, that-Disease, always invading special functions or forces and to





60


be removed only by their reactive energy, is necessarily
meliorated by whatever corroborates this reaction-we
arrive at the conclusion, which to us appears irresistible,
thatAgents indicated by the Homoeopathic doctrine, (i.
e. agents specifically adverse to functions or forces yielding under invasion, exhibited within conservative limits,)
are Nature's appropriate means of removing disease.
Furthermore-supported by the testimony of such
men as Cabanis of France, Hunter and Paris of England, Girtanner and Hoffman of Germany, Godman,
Wood and Rush of America, we have maintained that
the powers of the Materia Medica,-determined solely,
ab usu in morbo, and thus exposed to the unavoidable
errors of morbid complication,-were not reduced to
general laws, and were even pronounced, before the
London College of Physicians by their Professor of
Materia Medica, "incapable of successful generalization."  Consequently, as the key-stone of Therapeutics
was avowedly wanting in the great arch of the medical
sciences, and as Medicine is indebted to the Homoeopathic doctrine for " the first successful generalization
of the curative powers of the Materia Medica," and
this under a single principle, a clear deduction from a
general law of life,-it follows that the claim of Ho.moeopathy is conclusively established, to rank among
the medical sciences as The Science of Therapeutics.
In short, while Inductive Philosophy has placed beyond the reach of controversy, the truth of the Homoeopathic doctrine, as the long sought desideratum of





61


the art, Medicine has been arraigned at the bar of inexorable Justice-Humanity and Science have stood
forth her accusers-a jury from the most intelligent of
her peers have pronounced their verdict, and an impartial judgment cannot but decree,-that, estranged from
Homoeopathy, she shall continue, with no better guides
than "instinct," "inspiration," and "unreasoning experience," ever groping in the labyrinths of hypothesis;-whereas, opening her arms to this legitimate
child of her household, henceforward, hers is a new, a
glorious career,-the career of the Positive Sciences.
But, gentlemen, we have, on this occasion, a higher
purpose than the support of Homoeopathic doctrine;
we have a loftier aim than the advancement of practical medicine. We would point the emulation of the
profession to objects claiming precedence of the whole
compass of Medicine as an art, fortified even with the
Science of Therapeutics.
We have said that the great end of our association
is, " to raise the moral and intellectual standard of our
profession, until Medicine, instead of limping in the rear
of the army of science, shall take her place in the vanguard, there to win for herself the laurels of a world's
benedictions."  This remark but faintly shadows what
Humanity has a right to expect from us as a profession.
We have said that as " collaborators of the wise and
good of every clime, we would identify our aims with
the great cause of Social Progress, to which the light
of science is as 'the pillar of fire by night.' "-Gentlemen, it is, most emphatically, the light of Medical





62


science, which God in his providence has ordained, to
conduct a world sojourning in the desert, to     the
promised land of its hopes. Be assured, it is something
more than Enthusiasm's dream, that Medicine is destined thus "to take her place in the vanguard" of the
sciences, and thus "to win for herself the laurels of a
world's benedictions."
We have already adverted to the advantages which
our profession exclusively enjoys, for the investigation
of the laws of life. Upon this ground, we have claimed
for it the ennobling prerogative of establishing that
great Central Science, around which, rejoicing in unwonted light, all that is valuable in Medicine, nay, all
that is interesting to man, should harmoniously revolve.
And we have chosen Medicine for our theme, not merely because appropriate to the occasion, but especially,
because it served the purpose of happily illustrating
the harmonizing influence of a single law of this incipient Science, in an arena of controversy where the
champions of Truth not easily obtain a hearing, amid
the tumult of combatants for victory.
If we trace human controversy to its origin, we perceive that men are prone to differ in opinion, not because they reason differently from given premises, (for
the logic of the maniac even, is often indisputable) but
because their premises, originating in distant sources,
differ as widely as the elements from which they spring.
Hence, if the philosophers of every land, were furnished
with one fountain which all must acknowledge as the
common reservoir of elementary truth, is it not apparent





63


that human opinion must ultimately settle upon definite
conclusions, in the great philosophical questions on
which it has been so long agitated? Moreover, if the
researches of Inductive Philosophy, once earnestly
directed to this paramount object, were crowned with
success, (and in this age, who dare set bounds to its
power in a legitimate field of inquiry?)-were a code
of life's laws so far promulgated that it might be said,
" the Science of Biology is established"-would not
this be the " common reservoir" from which all Philosophy must draw its elementary principles, as the only
sound basis of Psychology, Ethics, Natural Theology
and Medicine, as well as of the sciences of Education,
of Government-nay, (save Mathematics, Physics and
their correlatives,) of all the sciences involving human
destiny?
Let the laws of Man's Nature as a totality be clearly
displayed, and have we not before us the laws of both
Physiology and Psychology-and still more, a system
of Ethics appealing for obedience, alike to the understandings and the hearts of all? Let the laws of psychological, physiological, and pathological Man, be developed as one harmonious system, and have we not
plainly before us, established principles of Medicine,
and unerring principles of Education, moral, intellectual
and physical? And who will deny that Society should
find the principles of its organization in the laws of
the individual natures constituting its elements? or
that Human legislation should never contravene the
legislation of Nature? Moreover, what is the legisla




64


tion of Nature in reference to Humanity, but her authorized revelation of Humanity's relations with the
Author of Nature Himself?
But, we cannot now dwell on this exhaustless subject. The hints which we have thrown out are ample
to prove that, if the momentous questions abounding in
the sciences referred to are ever to be settled, from the
laws of Life's phenomena as expressed in the whole
nature of man, must originate the elements of their
solution.
Such are the great ends to be accomplished by the
discovery of these laws; such the obligations which
the spirit of the age imposes on the Medical profession;
and such the sublime motives it holds out inciting to
an investigation which has no parallel in the history of
human research. Whether the doctrines which your
speaker has assumed the responsibility of advancing,
prove tenable or otherwise, it matters nothing to the
immutable facts in this prolific field of Nature; facts
which only the strict classification of Induction can
render available to the exalted beneficence of Philosophy.
However we may differ, therefore, in our theoretical
views, the unspeakable importance of the laws of Life's
phenomena, conceded by all, cannot but inspire the
most generous emulation, oblivious of the past, and
full of promise for the future. With civil institutions
whose first element is freedom of thought-with a profession on which the hopes of humanity are suspended





65
and a field of inquiry almost untrodden-henceforth,
our course is onward-our watch-word,-Explore!
Gentlemen, my task is ended. In expressing my
acknowledgments for the protracted attention with
which you have listened to its execution, permit me to
add, that the position in which I have been placed by
your partiality, imposed a duty to conscience, to humanity, to medicine and its professors, paramount to all
personal considerations. That duty, it has been my
earnest endeavor to perform in a manner not unworthy
the great interests committed to me, nor yet compromitting in any degree, relations which I would ever
proudly maintain, with the members of an association
where intolerance acknowledges no objects but the enemies of Truth, and liberality no limits but the boundaries of science.










APPENDIX.
(A.)
The little skill displayed in the treatment of the following cases, recorded by Dr. Millingen, affords intrinsic evidence of the fidelity with which they are related, as experimental trials of Homoeopathic practice.
"Case I.-A servant-maid received a blow of a stone
upon the head. Severe headache, with dizziness and dimness of sight followed. Various means were resorted to;
but general blood-letting could alone relieve the distressing
symptoms, local bleeding not having been found of any
avail. The relief, however, was not of long duration, and
the distressing accidents recurred periodically, when abstraction of blood became indispensable. Reduced by these frequent evacuations, I was resolved to try the boasted " bleeding globules" of the Homoeopathist, when, to my surprise, I
obtained the same mitigation of symptoms which the loss
of from 12 to 16 ounces of blood had previously accomplished. Since the first experiment no venesection became
necessary, and the returns of the violent headache were invariably relieved by the same means."
" Case II.-An elderly woman was subject to an excruciating headache, with an evident determination of blood to
the brain. Numerous leeches were constantly applied. The
usual remedies indicated in similar affections were resorted
to, but only afforded temporary relief.  A Homoeopathic
dose of Aconite was given, and the relief which, followed
was beyond all possible expectation."
" Case III.-My much esteemed friend Dr Grateloup, of
Bordeaux, was subject to frequent sore-throats, which were
relieved by local blood-letting, cataplasms, &c., but generally lasted several days, during which deglutition became
most difficult. I persuaded him to try a dose of the Belladonna, neither of us having the slightest confidence in its





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expected effects. He took the globules at 12 o'clock, and
at 5 P. M. the tumefaction of the tonsils, with their redness
and sensibility, had subsided to such an extent that he was
able to partake of some food, at dinner. The following
morning all the symptoms, excepting a slight swelling, had
subsided.
" Since this period Dr. G. has repeatedly tried the same
preparation in similar cases, and with equal success. In
my own practice, I can record seven cases of cynanche tonsillaris which were thus relieved in the course of a few
hours."
" Case IV.-H-, a young women on the establishment
of the Countess of -, was suffering under hemiplegia,
and it was resolved by Dr. Brulatour and myself to try the
effects of the Nux Vomica. At this period the wonders of
the Homoeopathic practice had been extolled to the skies by
its advocates, and we were resolved to give one of their
supposed powerful preparations a fair trial. The girl was
told that the powder she was about to take was simply a
dose of calomel; and on calling upon her the following
morning we did not expect that the slightest effect could
have been obtained by this atomic dose; when, to our utter
surprise, the patient told us that she had passed a miserable
night, and described to us most minutely all the symptoms
that usually follow the exhibition of a large dose of Strychnine. It is but fair to mention that the Homoeopathic treatment did not cure the disease; but the manifest operation
of this fractional dose, that could not possibly be denied, is
a fact of considerable importance."
"Case V.-Mrs. -, of Brompton Row, had labored
under hectic fever for several months, and was so reduced
by night perspirations that she was on the very brink of the
grave. Called into consultation, I frankly told her husband
that every possible means known in the profession had been
most judiciously employed, and that I saw no prospect of
obtaining relief. At the same time I mentioned to him that
the Homoeopathic practitioners pretended that they had
found the means of relieving these distressing symptoms,
which he might submit to an experimental trial if he thought
proper. He immediately expressed a wish that it should be
adopted. I gave her a Homoeopathic dose of Phosphoric
Acid and Stannum; and to the surprise of all around her





69


the night sweats did not break out at their usual hourthree o'clock in the morning. What renders this case still
more interesting is the fact of these perspirations recurring
so soon as the action of the medicine ceased; a circumstance
so evidently ascertained, that the patient knew the very day
when another dose became necessary."
"Case VI.-A daughter of the same lady was subject to
deafness, which I attributed to a fulness of blood. This
cause I clearly ascertained by the relief afforded by the application of a few leeches behind the ear. I was therefore
induced on a recurrence of the complaint, to endeavor to
diminish vascular action by a dose of Aconite. The effects
were evident in the course of four hours, when the deafness
and the other symptoms of local congestion had entirely
disappeared."
(B.)
Extract from a Lecture on Medical Education introductory
to the Course of the Institutes of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania, for the session 1833-4, by SAMUEL
JACKSON, M. D.
"Can this reform be much longer postponed? I believe
not. The interests of the profession-the immediate pecuniary interests of practitioners, are too deeply implicated, to
admit that things should long continue in their present'state.
It cannot be concealed, that public confidence in the lhowledge and intelligence of the profession has been shakenhas been most materially impaired in some sections, of the
country. Every where does empiricism abound.    ni i.y
districts it is warmly patronized and encouraged, not by the
vulgar and ignorant only, but by the respected and intelligent; and, in one state, I believe, has been legalized by
statute. The ancient Galenical empiricism, long supposed
at an end, is, in part, resuscitated; if not with alttf its olden
frivolities, with those not less extravagant offiP5 ern date.
Whence arises this state of things 1 Is it not from the observation, too apparent to the public, of the inferior grade
of medical instruction? Do they perceive that wide difference in the acquirements of the regularly educated practitioner, and the empirical pretender, which should always





70


distinguish them?  In the regular practice, has not the
treatment of disease too much degenerated into a blind routine, pursued in nearly every disease, however dissimilar in
nature? Can it be denied, but that the only difference between the regular practice and empirical practice, is a routine treatment of merely different remedies, and not always
to the disadvantage of the empirical method? In an arithmetical estimate, I apprehend, in the long run, the calculation of chances, by either plan, may appear equal; and then
the difference in cost will decide the preference."
" There is but one mode of rescuing our profession from
so degrading a rivalry; and that is, to raise the medical instruction of our country to a level with the philosophic character belonging to our science. Let medicine be, what in
reality it is, a science of calculation, of combination, of induction, the elements of which are deduced from the phenomena of organized beings, and the relations of exterior
agents with them, and you rise so infinitely above the crude
and incorrect proceedings of empirical art, that the intelligent and observant can never be deceived by its vain boastings, or its illusory pretensions."
(C.)
Dr. Rush concludes his pithy observations with "the
following conditional prophecy:"
" There are now some eight or ten medical schools in the
United States; severally varying in their annual classes
from thirty to three hundred and fifty. Without valuing
here, the youthful pupil's admiration of the unparalleled
talents of their respective masters; and apart from that especial slang of the day about 'splendid genius,' and ' gigantic minds;'-it seems from the dead level of scholastic medicine, that the intellectual character, with regard to scientific
originality 4ad to the accomplishments of learning, is about
the same in all: the fancy and the fact of each being compiled from the same common materials of the art.
"But the first of those ten schools which by design or
accident shall employ professors, and a better taste will
breed such, whose powers of observation can penetrate to
the unrecorded phenomena, and compass the broad relation




71
ships of science;-who can find so much newness in nature, that they need not ape originality by perpetual vaccillations in opinion;-who have not served so long at the
table of the times, that they cannot relish, and dare not
offer unsavory truth;-who can hold their steadfast-No, for
a public benefit, when that public would set them in golden
honor for saying-Yes, to its injury;-who have grown into
respect with the wise, by a steady reliance on themselves;
and who are not, when summoned to the all-requiring labors
of fame, already half eaten up in character, by cancerous
schemes for reputation;-I say, the first school that shall
have the cunning forecast so to endow itself, though it may
be at present the very dog-tail of them all, will soon be
raised on high, as the Cynosure of American medicine:
And like Aaron's serpent, as an emblem of our art, shall
swallow up the serpents of those popular magicians, who in
emulation, shall continue to play their theoretic sleights of
instruction on the world.
" There never has been a school distinguished for strength
or brilliancy of fame, without one or more professors of this
character, and there cannot be.  The multitudinous and
lower house of the world, which yet contains ' many mansions' of rank and learning, will never advance such men to
medical stations.  But if there is yet a senate in science,
and if it has not in truckling policy, gone down to a joint
sitting with the popular branch,-that senate should."