world, the heart still continues to beat, the occasional inspiration and expiration-falungs perform their office, and the other in-miliar to you all in the act of sighing. The ternal organs, over which volition has no heart is quick, palpitating; or languid, or recontrol, keep on their usual harmony of mo-mittent in its beats; the appetite craving, cation-in other words,the digestion of the food, pricious, or lost. The secretions are either the circulation of the blood, and the other lesser motions of organic life, proceed as in the waking state. DISEASE. hurried and increased in quantity, or sluggish, or suppressed. The body shows a part al or general waste; or becomes in part or in whole preternaturally tumid and bloated. Alive to the slightest stimulus, the patient is Till the hour of sickness comes, how few easily impassioned or depressed; his mind, non-medical persons ever think of a subject comprehending in its various relations every which ought to be of interest to all. The shade of unreasonable sadness or gaity, prodsame men who discuss with becoming gravity the artificial inflections of a Greek or Latin igality or cupidity, vaccillation or pertinacity, verb, neglect to inform themselves of the nat- with every color of imagination, from highly suspicious caution or too confident security; ural laws that govern the motions of their intellectual conception to the dream-like vaown bodies! No wonder that the world should be so long kept in darkness on med-garies and reveries of hallucination. His sensations are perceptibly diminished or inicine and its mode of action,-no wonder that creased. Light and sound, for example, even educated persons should still know so confuse or distract him; like the soft Sybalittle of the proper study of mankind-MAN! rite, a rose leaf ruffles him. With the In the throes of disease, the early priests, as smallest increase in the medium temperature I have already told you, imagined they de-of the atmosphere, he becomes hot and untected the workings of demons. The med- comfortable, and the slightest breeze shivers ical theorists, on the contrary, attributed them and discomposes him; or, as you may someto morbid ingredients in the blood or bowels. times observe in the case of extreme age and One age bowed the knee to an "acrimony" idiotcy, he becomes equally insensible to or " putridity" another acknowledged no excess of light, sound, heat, and cold. cause but a "crudity," or a "humor." The moderns hold the notion that a mysterious process, which they term "inflammation," is the head and front of all offending. absurd each and all of these doctrines, will How CAUSES OF DISEASE. What are the agencies that give rise to 66 appear in the sequel! Disease, Gentlemen, Of ghastly spasms, or racking tortures, is neither a devil to "cast out," an acrimony qualms, Convulsions, epilepsies, fierce catarrhs, rheums?" MILTON. or crudity to be expelled, nor any fanciful Of heart-sick agony, all feverish kinds, chemical goblin to be chemically neutralized-neither is the state erroneously termed inflammation, so commonly the cause as a coinculent part of general disorder. Disease is an error of action-a greater or less variation in the motion, rest, and revolutions of the different parts of the body-reducible, like the revolutions of Health, into a systematic series of periodic alternations, in the course Gentlemen, the Causes of all these various of which the matter of a structure occasion-diseases-Various in name, place, and deally by its atomic changes alters its natural gree-One only in their real nature—may character and chemical relations, so much so be found either in a deprivation or wrong in some cases, as to become even completely adaptation of the identical forces which condecomposed and disorganised. Whatever be tinue life, in health-the same natural agenthe cause or causes of corporeal aberration, cies, in a word, by which every motion or in obedience to the law of all matter, the first event is produced throughout the universe. effects are change of motion and change of They comprise, therefore, every thing that temperature. The patient accordingly has a connects us directly or indirectly, with the feeling of heat or cold. His muscular mo- external world; and most, if not all of them, tions, less under the control of their respect- act upon us, in the first place, through the ive influences, become tremulous, spasmod-different modifications of nervous perception. ic; or wearied, palsied, the functions of The causes of disease, then, never originate particular muscles cease. The breathing is in any one organ of the body-except in so hurried on slight exertion, or it is maintain-far as that organ may be predisposed by an ed slowly and at intervals, and with a long inherent weakness of the attractive power of the atoms of its parts to receive grave impressions from outward agencies that affect the more stable portions of the same body in a slighter manner. has been looked upon only as a last resource, The arsenious acid, in an uncombined state, is but very seldom employed in this To return to the causes of disease, country, although with Biett, and some other are they not infinite? The earth and its continental physicians, it is a favorite remeemanations-the air and its electrical condi-dy in psoriasis inveterata, and other very tions-the degrees of temperature, dryness, obstinate cutaneous affections. Its dose, in and moisture of both-the nature and ex- the form of the "Asiatic pill," varies from tent of our food and drink-the passions by the sixteenth up to the fourth of a grain which we are agitated, with all the other twice a day. The comparatively large quanchanges and chances of our social and indi-tity of arsenicus acid that is required in an vidual position; these are the elements to uncombined state to produce a beneficial acwhich we must look, not only for the causes tion on the skin, ought, in my opinion, to of disorders, but for the causes of health militate strongly against its employment in this form. The minimum dose of arsenious itself. We have already analyzed the Life of acid recommended by most writers on the Health; we have seen that it consists in a diseases of the skin is one-sixteenth of a periodic alternation of harmonious move-grain; now this is equal to the quantity conments, some long, some short,-greater and tained in seven and a half minims, almost lesser movements, otherwise fits; in Shaks- the maximum dose of the solution of the arpeare's language, Life is a "fitful fever." If senite of potassa, and certainly too large a so, what can the morbid modifications of quantity of this preparation for us to be justhat Life be, but modifications of Fitful or tified in commencing with. This difference Intermittent Fever? "All diseases," says in effect is probably owing to the greater reaHippocrates," "resemble each other in their diness with which the arsenious acid when form, invasion, march, and decline." "The presented in solution, must be taken up by type of all diseases," he adds, " is one and any surface, and carried into the general cirIf culation. the same." What, then, is that type? we succeed in proving to you that toothache, asthma, epilepsy, gout, mania, and apoplexy, all come on in fits; that all have febrile chills or heats; that intermissions or periods of immunity from suffering, more or less complete, are common to each; and that every one of these supposed different diseases may, moreover, be cured by any one of the agents most generally successful in the treatment of Intermittent Fever, popularly termed Ague; to what other conclusion can we possibly come, but that this same Ague is the type which pervades, and the bond which associates together every one of these variously named diseases? If, in the From a careful examination of many cases course of these Lectures, we further prove that what are called "inflammations" also of cutaneous disease in which this mineral come on in fits; that the subjects of them had been employed, I am enabled to state have equally their periods of immunity from that nothing is gained by carrying it beyond pain, and that these yield with equal readi-a certain point, as far as the affection of the ness to the same remedial means;--who can skin is concerned, and that by so doing, be so unreasonable as to doubt or dispute much mischief, perhaps of an irremediable that Ague is the model or likeness-the nature, may be inflicted on the patient: that type of all disease! Use of Arsenic in Diseases of the Skin. Mr. Donavan lays great stress upon the small quantity of arsenic, and of the other elements, that, in his preparation, sometimes effect a cure; but in this I do not think it presents anything peculiar or more remarkable, than is constantly seen in Fowler's solution, and the other preparations of arsenic. The modus operandi of the arsenical preparation, as of most other medicinal agents, We are only acquainted is unknown to us. with their secondary effects, which manifest themselves most unequivocally on the digestive, nervous, and integumentary systems; on all of which they act as excitant or stimulating tonics. it is not a remedy that can with safety be pushed, to use a common phrase, but that all the good that will result from its employment can be accomplished by a careful and guardThere is probably no substance in the Ma- ed administration of it, and by its being interteria Medica about which a greater discre-mitted on the first appearance of any symppancy of opinion has arisen than arsenic. tom of local or general irritation.-Med. Gaz. By some its uses have been highly extolled May 12th, 1843. and used too indiscriminately; by others it Sir B. C. Brodie in a Lecture delivered in the Theatre of St. George's Hospital, in the session 1843-44, in speaking of the swelled tongue, in which small tumors and abscesses are sometimes formed, says,— curring in the lungs, brain, or liver, whether "The remedy best adapted for these cases is a solution of arsenic. Give the patient five minims three times daily, in a draught, gra- phthisis, the pectoral symptoms, of whatDr. Graves contends, that in all cases of dually increasing the dose to ten minims. It ever nature they may be, are caused by scroshould be taken in full doses, so that it may fulous inflammation, by which we presume begin to produce some of its poisonous effects that he means, inflammation as it occurs in on the system. When it begins to act as a individuals of a scrofulous diathesis, and he poison it will show itself in various ways. proceeds to compare the progress of ulceraSometimes there is a sense of heat, a burning tions of the lungs with that of external scropain in the rectum; sometimes griping, purg-fulous abscesses. ing, and sickness, and nervous tremblings. the same slowness, the same insidious latenThere is, he observes, A patient who is taking arsenic, especially in cy, the same gradual solidification and grapretty large doses, ought to be very carefully dual softening; the puriform fluid secreted is watched. At first you may see him every two similar in character, while there is the anaor three days, and then every day; and as logous occurrence of burrowing ulcers and soon as the arsenic begins to operate as a fistulous openings with close approximation poison, leave it off. When this effect is pro- in the form of thin parieties, and difficulty duced the disease of the tongue generally gets of healing in each; and at the same time well, but at any rate leave off the arsenic, and constitutional symptoms identical in nature; the poisoning will not go too far; it will do hectic flushings and sweats, diarrhea, emano harm. If, after a time, you find that the ciation, &c., equally accompany phthisical disease is relieved, but not entirely cured, you suppuration of the lungs and scrofulous inmay try another course of arsenic. Perhaps flammation of the joints or other external it may take a considerable time to get the parts. With these views, therefore, we are tongue quite well. Sarsaparilla, with the bi-not surprised to find Dr. Graves entertaining chloride of mercury, may be given at one the opinion that tubercle, though a most fretime; and at another, arsenic. You cannot quent accompaniment of phthisis, is neither give either of these remedies for ever, and indeed the arsenic can only be given for a very limited period; but it is astonishing what bad tongues of this description I have seen get well under these modes of treatment, especially under the use of arsenic. ་་་་་་་་་་་་་་· the essential cause of that disease nor a necessary product. Scrofulous inflammation is with him the fons et origo, the real and efficient cause of phthisis, whether tubercle be generated in the course of the diseased action or no, and thus we have scrofulous pneumonia and scrofulous bronchitis equally productive of phthisis without the presence ON PHTHISIS.-BY DR. GRAVES, Dublin. [In the following passage, Dr. Graves ex-of one single tubercle or spot of deposition plains his views on the pathology of tubercle: In of tubercular matter, either in the pulmona- "I look on tubercular development and consumption as the consequences of that particular state of constitution, which occasions what is falsely termed tubercular inflammation, a state of constitution in which we have three distinct processes, attended by corresponding morbid changes, each different in itself, but depending on one common cause. Every form of consumption, which has hitherto come under our notice, is refer- We may therefore, have tubercles without able to one common origin, and this is that either the pneumonia or the bronchitis; and debilitated state of constitution which has we may have scrofulous pneumonia often been termed the scrofulous habit. One of ending in slow burrowing suppuration, and the first tendencies of this habit is to the proving fatal without any tubercles being formation of tissues of an inferior degree of formed. In like manner, a person may die animalization, and parasitic productions, of scrofulous bronchitis without the occuramong which I class tubercles, whether oc- rence of either tubercles or pneumonia. Of these three effects of scrofula, it may be re- should have long since directed him to the marked, that, owing to their cause and origin true character of these bodies, without any being the same, they are most frequently knowledge of the scientific symptoms which found in combination. The same diathesis which produces one may give rise to the others; hence the frequency of their association; hence it is that they generally occur together.-Brit. and For. Med. Rev., July, 1843. point with an unerring hand to the disease in this system. The Doctor, however, as we have before said, is a man of talents, but knows nothing of these symptoms, or of the difference between diseases of the serous and Dr. Graves is one of the most talented men of the mucous membranes, and his treatment of the age, and has had for a long period an of these affections is consequently the foreextensive hospital and private practice,-yet it would be difficult to find an ordinary phy-old astrological absurdities of the schools. bodings of death, or a mere repetition of the sician whose notions are so erroneous on the pathology of tubercle or of bronchitis. We are told first, that tubercular development is falsely termed tubercular inflammation,which is very true, but notwithstanding he repeats this affirmation, his head is so full of the acute, sub-acute and chronic inflammations of the schools, he soon forgets himself and "contends, that in all cases of phthisis, the pectoral symptoms, of whatever nature they may be, are caused by scrofulous inflammation." We are also told, that tubercle is a parasitic production, the consequence of an inferior degree of animalization, and yet we are told tubercles of the lungs have the same character in all respects, as those seen on the external surface of the body, with exalted animalization, accompanied with irregular fever, and terminating in scrofulous abscesses and ulceration, &c., and which every tyro knows to be diseased lymphatic glands. This notion of the parasitic origin of tubercles, is the old astrological theory which was taught more than 2000 years ago; and not 1. "During health, the system is animated by a spiharmonious order." ritual, self moved, vital power, which preserves it in 2. It is only by means of the spiritual influence of the morbific agent, that our spiritual vital power, can be diseased, and in like manner, only by the spiritual (dynamic) operation of medicine that health can be restored." 3. "The homeopathic healing art developes for its purpose the IMMATERIAL (DYNAMIC) VIRTUES OF MEheard of, by means of a peculiar and HITHERTO DICINAL SUBSTANCES, and to a degree previously unUNTRIED PROCESS. By this process it is that they become penetrating, perative, and remedial, even those that, in a natural or crude state, betrayed not the least medicinal power upon the human system."HAHNEMANN. Polemical Powers of Hahnemann. withstanding its absurdity, the professors of BRITISH JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY. our medical colleges will continue to teach it as long as such trash is of any value in their market. If there is any thing any where to be found more crude and contradictory than the effusions we have noticed of Professor Graves, it may be found in the crudities with which he confounds phthisis with bronchitis and pneumonia. The regular and vascular organization of tubercles, and the poverty of the secretions which are conveyed to the heart by the lymphatic system in phthisis, Introduction to the proving of Arsenic. Overwhelming recollections arrest my mind at the mention of Arsenic. When He, the All-bountiful, created iron, He left to the free choice of the children of men to fashion it either into the deadly dagger, or the peaceful ploughshare; to slay or to support their race. Ah, how much happier for them did they employ all His gifts and the end of their being. for good! So would they fulfil His will We cannot charge an all-loving Providence with the crimes that men have committed in having in truth, consistency, practical utility, the When not very long since a celebrated were consumed monthly in his hospital, physician spoke of pounds of opium which where even the nurses were permitted to give as much of it as they thought proper to the patients-mark now, opium, which in the The ordinary system of medicine adminis- thousands to the grave-yet this man lost ordinary practice has consigned so many ters, frequently and in large doses, the strong-none of the esteem in which he was held, est of drugs, such as arsenic, nitrate of silver, because he belonged to the prevailing guild, corrosive sublimate, wolf's-bane, deadly in which every thing is allowable, be it as nightshade, iodine, foxglove, opium, hen- hurtful and dangerous as it may. bane, &c. Stronger substances Homœopathy a few years ago, in one of the most enlightcannot employ, for none are stronger. When ened cities of Europe, almost every pracAnd when physicians of the prevailing school employ titioner, from the dignified doctor down to them, they evidently vie with each other the barber's apprentice, prescribed arsenic as who shall prescribe the largest doses, and a fashionable medicine in almost every disboast of the monstrous quantities they have ease, and that so frequently, and in such imadministered. For this they receive the ap-mense doses, that the detriment to human probation and applause of their brethren. health was quite palpable; yet this was Let Homeopathy, however, make use of the most honorable practice, though not one of same substances, not at random, as in the those who employed it was acquainted with ordinary practice, but, after careful investi- the peculiar mode of action of this metallic gation, in those cases only for which they oxyde (consequently must have been ignorare exactly suited and in the smallest possi-ant of the cases of disease when its employble quantities, and it is immediately charged ment was indicated,) and they all continued with poisoning! How partial, how unjust, how calumnious is this, in those who pass for honest and upright men! prescribing it in repeated doses, any one of which, had it been sufficiently diluted and poDoes Homeopathy now enter into a fuller diseases in the habitable globe in which this tentialized, was quite sufficient to cure all the explanation? Does it condemn (as from con- remedy was indicated. Which, then, of viction it must) the monstrous doses admin- these opposite methods of practice best deistered in the prevailing practice, and does it serves the flattering appellation of "system contend that infinitely smaller quantities of poisoning,"-the ordinary method, which should be given-that, where the ordinary assails the poor patient (who, by the way, physician prescribes a tenth, a half, a whole often requires quite another medicine) with grain, and upwards, a quadrillionth, a sex- the tenth of a grain of arsenic, or the homœotillionth, a decillionth of a grain is perfectly pathic method, which administers not even sufficient? On this, the same prevailing a drop of tincture of rhubarb, without havschool, which decried the homeopathic healing previously instituted a most rigid inquiry ing art as a system of poisoning, laughs out- to ascertain whether or not rhubarb be the right, pronounces it to be mere child's play, best adapted, the only appropriate remedy— and declares itself thoroughly convinced the homeopathic method which has discov(convinced without having tried it?) that such ered, by indefatigable and oft-repeated trials, a small quantity can have no earthly effect, that it is very rarely necessary to administer is in fact as good as nothing at all. Thus more than a fracional part of a decillionth it is not ashamed to blow hot and cold with of a grain of arsenic, and that only in cases the same breath, to accuse exactly the same for which the most careful proving has shewn thing of being inert and ridiculously small, the remedy adapted? To which, then, of which it had just declaimed against as rank poisoning, all the time praising to the skies its own monstrous and murderous doses of the same substances. Is not this the most ical science of our quarter of the globe be sunk, when In what a deep state of ignorance must not the medmiserable and gross inconsistency it is possi-yet, in all other kinds of human knowledge, has scarcethese things occurred in such a city as Berlin, which ble to conceive, wilfully perpetrated for the ly an equal! purpose of doing shameful injustice to a sys Marcus, in Bamburg. tem, which cannot be proved to be deficient would not say magnetized. ED. POTENTIALIZED-that is the word-the old Fox |