for Time, and Thermà for Heat or Temper- || that have, within the last few years, been ature. These remedies are all treated of in under my treatment, I have not been comthe various modern works upon the Materia pelled to use it once. Resorted to under Medica. The only agents this system rethe most favourable circumstances, its sucjects, are "the leech, the bleeding-lancet, cess is anything but sure, and its failure and the cupping instrument." involves consequences which the untoward administration of other means may not so certainly produce. I have never taken credit for being the first opponent of the Lancet. But one thing in regard to this matter I do claim credit for-I claim credit for being the first man who, by a strong array of facts, and some force of reasoning, produced an impression on the public, that all the facts and all the arguments of former opponents of the lancet never before produced on the Profession,-namely, an impression of the dangerous nature of the remedy; and whether they like to be told of it or not, I claim to have either convinced or compelled the Profession materially to alter their practice. To say blood-letting is a bad thing is one thing, to prove it to be bad is another; to force the world to believe and act upon your arguments against it, in the teeth of the opinion of the world, is a still greater achievement. That merit I distinctly claim."

The subject of Blood-letting occupies a considerable portion of these Lectures. What first caused the author to perceive its dangers will appear in the following pas in the following pas. sage:-"I have not always had this horror of blood-letting. In many instances have I formerly used the lancet, where a cure, in my present state of knowledge, could have been effected without; but this was in my noviciate, influenced by others, and without sufficient or correct data to think for myself. In the Army Hospitals I had an opportunity of studying disease, both at home and abroad. There I saw the fine tall soldier, on his first admission, bled to relief of a symptom, or to fainting. And what is fainting? A loss of every organic perception-a death-like state, which only differs from death by the possibility of a recall. Prolong it to permanency and it is death. Primary symptoms were of course got over by such measures; but once having entered the hospital walls, I found that soldier's face become familiar to me. Seldom did his pale countenance recover its former healthy character. He became the victim of consumption, dysentery, or dropsy; his constitution was broken by the first depletory measures to which he had been subjected." Our author objects to the use of blood-derstanding could not give its full and letting, for this best of reasons, "that we have remedies without number, possessing each an influence equally rapid, and an agency equally curative, without being, like Blood-letting, attended with the insuperable disadvantage of abstracting the material of healthy organisation. I deny not its power as a remedy in certain cases, but I question its claim to precedence even in these. Out of

upwards of Twelve Thousand Cases of disease

Having always had a repugnance to the letting of blood, the practice of my profession, according to the light in which I was instructed, was, up to 1841, a source of great dread-especially in the treatment of acute diseases. I could not see my way clearly-I was not satisfied-I revolted from a system of practice to which my un

entire sanction. In that year a copy of Dr. Dickson's work was placed in my hands. I read it with delight and with a strong conviction of its truth-a conviction which time and experience have amply confirmed. Some examples of the results of this experience will be found among the few notes I have added in the course of the work.

Disease being thus simplified, according

to the system of Dr. Dickson, it follows
that it is, to use his own words, amenable
to a principle of Treatment equally simple.
Partaking, throughout all its modifications,
of the nature of Ague, it will be best met
by a practice in accordance with the proper
principle of treatment of that distemper.
To apply warmth, or administer cordials in
the Cold stage; in the Hot, to reduce the
amount of temperature, by cold affusion
and fresh air; or, for the same purpose, to
exhibit, according to circumstances, an eme-
tic, a purgative, or both in combination.
With Quinine, Arsenic, Opium, &c., the
interval of comparative health-the period
of medium temperature-may be prolonged
to an indefinite period, and in that manner
may Health become established in all dis-
cases - whether, from some special local
developement, the disorder be denominated
mania, epilepsy, croup, cynanche, the gout,
the influenza! In the early stages of disease,
to arrest the fever is, in most instances,
sufficient for the reduction of every kind of
local developement. A few rare cases ex-
cepted, it is only when the case has been of
long standing and habitual, that the physi- ||
cian will be compelled to call to his aid the
various local measures which have a relation
to the greater or less amount of the tem-
perature of particular parts.

Such being the rational and intelligible doctrines of the Chrono-thermal System of Medicine, it will be found that its practice is equally salutary and benign, and that its chief feature is to make short work of disease. As an instance of this, I will give the history of one case of treatment of acute disease, without blood-letting. A lady who had been attending an evening lecture in the Tabernacle, in January, was attacked with violent chills, followed by darting pains in the lungs, severe headache, a rapid pulse, hurried respiration, and all the symptoms of Inflammation (so called) of the lungs. Added to this, owing to compunction in having gone out against the advice of a

parent, she had a severe nervous or hysterical attack, with sobbing and crying. A sharp emetic relieved the severity of all the symptoms almost at once, and an opiate brought on rest and repose through the night. Peruvian Bark and rest were the chief remedies for the two following days. On the third day, she was well enough to participate with the family at meals at the table; and in a fortnight, notwithstanding it was winter, she was pronounced strong enough and well enough to go out. She had no relapse, but has continued in good health to this day.

In the treatment of diseases of children, and especially of those of females, who are more liable to disorder, owing to the periodical changes peculiar to the sex, the Chrono-thermal System, from its simplicity and efficacy, will be found to be particularly valuable and eligible.

Other distinguishing features of the Chrono-thermal System of Medicine areFirst, A demonstration of the fallacious character of the ideas entertained by the Profession and the public in reference to INFLAMMATION and CONGESTION, those fruitful sources of error. Second, That Calomel is no longer placed in the first rank of remedies; and when given is prescribed only in minute doses, as fractions of a grain. Third, That the Chrono-thermal Medicines are to be used generally in minute doses, and that hence but little medicine is required. Fourth, The doctrine that all remedies act primarily upon the Brain, and thence, electrically or magnetically, through the system.

Writers on Medicine, pursuing a false mode of analysis, have for a long time been engaged in dividing and subdividing the subject until it reached its acme in the elaborate and ponderous tomes of the learned and classical Dr. Good; in which such is the extent of subdivision and subtilty attained by the author, that the recollection of the mere names of the various diseases as

says,

both medical practitioners and parents more || dered sufficiently correct, from the number of cases reported, to neutralise the far too ! prevalent idea that Bleeding is the only remedy to be depended on in Apoplexy. The practice of giving Emetics when the attack has succeeded a full meal, has not only been safe but effectual. In cases occurring in old age, Brandy and other stimulants have restored animation and removed the Apoplexy. Purgatives have always been acknowledged to be of essential service in most cases that have recovered. The application of cold to the head, sinapisms to the lower extremities, warm pediluvia, and vesications, have each in their turn appeared to be useful; and are, at all events, free from the objections that they can either produce or add to the mischief. I would, therefore, strongly urge those who may take the trouble to examine the following collection of cases, to dismiss from their minds all the notions which their experience does not justify; and henceforth to treat Apoplexy on the same scientific and rational princi|| ples (?) that guide their practice in other cases. The following are tables of the cases above alluded to:

especially to the subject." The subjects treated of, are inflammation, irritation, teething, bronchitis, and inflammation of the lungs, hooping-cough, croup, measles, scarlet-fever, small-pox, convulsions, and inflammation of the brain, scrofula, and cachectic diseases, constipation, and, lastly, the effects of calomel on children. Under the head of inflammation of the lungs, he "I do not hesitate to declare, that the great mortality of young children, from this particular affection, arises chiefly from the attempts made to subdue the disease by the abstraction of blood." In discussing inflammation of the brain, he remarks, "In looking over several cases which I have known treated by bleeding or leeches, when the brain was suffering from congestion in infants, I am unable to point out one in which the treatment was successful. There was usually an abatement in the violence of the symptoms for a short period, when blood had been drawn, but they invariably returned with redoubled vigour; and death appeared to be hastened by the use of blood-letting as a remedy."

The other work is entitled, "A Collection of Cases of Apoplexy, with an Explanatory Introduction. By Edward Copeman, Surgeon." The author has transcribed from various authentic works and journals, and from his own note-book, no less than 250 cases of Apoplexy, in order to convince himself of the correctness of an opinion he had long entertained, that the popular and professional prejudice in favour of Bleeding in affections of the Brain, is not justifiable by the results of the practice. The following is the conclusion at which he has arrived:-" A comparison of the success attending the practice of bleeding in Apoplexy with that where bleeding was not employed, as shown by the following cases, is decidedly in favour of the latter; and should be consi

is

رو

Behold, then, the answer to the question which, above all others, is asked by the

devotees of the Old School of Medicine :--'If Blood-letting is to be prohibited in all cases of Disease, what in the world is to be done in Apoplexy?'

W. T.

F

THE

CHRONO-THERMAL SYSTEM OF MEDICINE.