great fact that two things and two alone are necessary to the production of any result in Nature. First, the power that produces, and Second, the conditions for the operation of the power. It is gravity that turns the water-wheel and generates for us electricity or grinds our flour, but of what use to this end would be the gravity without the wheel and collateral machinery. It is chemical affinity in the dynamite, which first made, and then explodes it, and constitutes the force of the explosion, but how could the explosion be produced without the percussion cap or its equivalent to set it off? So also how could we have a fever or pain without the vital force on the one hand, and injurious application on the other? In every case of disease as in every case of health, therefore, there is the power that produces it and the condition for its operation. These are properly called also the cause and the occasion. A cause is well defined as "that by the power of which a thing is," while the occasion is that which excites into operation the power that does the work. The cause or force of both health and disease is, therefore, the patient's vital force, while the occasion or condition is the habits, indulgences, conditions that call forth the vitality. When these are healthful we have health; but how can we continue to have health while breathing foul air, drinking impure water or other vile drinks, eating impure food or "wasting our substance in riotous living," until the force of life is so depleted that the functions of the organism cannot be carried on easily and efficiently. Health means the easy performance of vital functions, while disease is the uneasy or diseased performance of the same functions. Evil indulgences, even bad habits, do not of themselves produce disease; it is the depletion of power through increased vital activity that does this. As long as the power of life continues sufficient to easy and efficient vital work, men may indulge the worst habits, and not only not suffer disease, but, instead, gain from them apparently increased vigor. Diseases come on the reaction, and are laborious and painful, due to deficiency of power only because their occasions give ease and comfort by rapid expenditure of it. Here is the true explanation of the effects of stimulants and tonics; they compel in the present increased vital activity and apparent vigor, but as the power they seem to give comes out of the patient, and not out of the drug, there is necessarily reduced vigor in the reaction corresponding to the previous increase of it. In this condition, also, we have the true explanation of the mysteries connected with the sudden onset of diseases. Their true cause is not the draft of air, exposure to contagion, or the little over-exertion to which they are ascribed. It is long-continued evil habits which give a delusive feeling of vigor by the very means and at the very time they are exhausting the power that produces the soil for the growth and development of the germs. It is not that the patient caught small-pox, diphtheria, consumption or typhoid; few of those who are exposed ever catch them, their germs are only the spark that sets off the powder; it is the exhaustion of vitality due to the stimulating condiments, table beverages, smoking and drinking habits of the people, which, while they seem to be health-promoting, are really disease producing, that does the mischief. The kidneys are among the first organs that default in their work, producing rheumatism, gout, neuralgias, nervous weaknesses, dropsies, and a whole train of evils, and, finally, Bright's disease, heart failure, etc., all because they are kept so busy carrying out the common salt, spices, alcohol, products of over-feeding and indigestion that their legitimate work is left undone. But I must not continue to weary you with disquisitions on a subject with which you are all so familiar, but crave your indulgence while I cite a couple of cases illustrative of the principles here advocated. A month since a lady, in care of her sister, came to my institution because she has been rejected by my neighbor, who refused to receive her, though she had been recommended to him by her physician, who wrote of the bad heart murmurs to be heard at both base and apex, takinng from five to seven drops of Strophanthus every four hours, which has acted better than Digitalis, with Codeine sulphate, I grain, to induce sleep, which has acted better than morphine. Bromides she did not seem to be able to stand. I agreed to take this woman under one condition, viz., that she stop all her drugs. With many misgivings she finally consented. The result was marvellous. All her bad symptoms disappeared, she has slept well, and is now really a specimen of very good health notwithstanding her heart murmurs still continue. A worse case came in the same way the next week. My neighbor refused to receive her, telling her to go to a hospital and get tapped. She was enormously swollen with abdominal dropsy, feet also swollen, liver greatly enlarged, patient emaciated in the extreme, mitral regurgitant murmur, and heart decidedly enlarged, as diagnosed by my assistant, Dr. Howell. She was hopeless; felt that it was too late, but didn't want to be tapped. With the full conviction that the theories I have been here advocating would apply to her case with fine results, I agreed to receive her. I put her in care of nurse, stopped her heart tonics, put her upon a milk diet, but did nothing whatever to reduce her dropsy, strengthen her heart or effect any other purpose except to quiet, soothe, rest and recuperate her vitality. Heart tonics, kidney stimulants, sweating baths, and every one of the empirical processes usually recommended for such cases, I rejected as calculated to reduce vitality and prevent recovery. The first week she lost nine pounds of water; in twenty-one days she lost twenty-four pounds, her heart has become greatly improved, and she is to-day weighing only 95 pounds; her dropsy has substantially disappeared, her appetite is enormous, and she is evidently gaining flesh. Will she get well? Ten years ago an exactly similar case came under my care, but who had interstitial Bright's disease in addition to the dropsy and heart complications. She was enormously swollen, her breathing was also greatly affected, was confined to her bed, and she, too, was offered only tapping for relief. I put her under the same treatment as our present patient is having, and in five months every vestige of her diseases had disappeared, and for several years afterward she continued in good health as long as heard from. I don't know how to make a liver, lungs, heart or kidneys, and so I don't know how to repair them; but I know of an intelligent force. that made these organs and does know how, and is more interested in their repair than you or I can be, and all that is needed to the patient's recovery is to accumulate the power, which is possessed of the intelligence, supply the conditions for its normal working, and then get out of the way. Meddlesome medicine is quite as bad as meddlesome midwifery, about which we have all heard. REPORT OF THE SECTION OF MATERIA MEDICA. A Few Thoughts on Our Materia Medica, by Aug. Korndorfer, Sr., M. D. Calcarea Carb., Kali Carb. and Graphites, by Edward Cranch, M. D. A FEW THOUGHTS ON OUR MATERIA MEDICA. AUG. KORNDOERFER, SR., M. D., PHILADELPHIA. The Materia Medica Pura, as given to the profession by Hahnemann, is the foundation upon which the therapeutic success of the homœopathic school has been built. Of late years, however, we have heard so much alleged as to imperfections in its symptomatology, and the uncertainty of the effect of our remedies when applied therapeutically in accordance with the recorded pathogeneses, that it behooves every practitioner of Homœopathy to seriously inquire into the facts, both for the purpose of ascertaining the basis upon which such adverse criticism rests and with intent to search for means of correction and improvement. Recognizing the fact that wheresoever complaint persists, some cause, either real or fancied, presumably exists, and recognizing that the complaints above referred to find expression among practitioners who claim affiliation with our school, many of whom are well educated in other departments of medicine, it becomes our duty to make diligent search for the cause. In such controversies we too often satisfy ourselves by condemning the critic, without even an attempt at understanding his real position; often, indeed, impugning his motives or casting doubt upon the honesty of his purpose. We take unjust delight in showing up his weak points, possibly his ignorance upon certain lines, and by such unworthy means draw attention from the major contention, forgetting that disputation is not argument, mere avouchment is not reasoning. If faults exist, duty impels honest search and conscience strenuous effort at correction. But what are these alleged faults? They may be summarized as follows: Some critics complain of the method and scope of our provings; some of the method of recording symptoms; some of the volume of symptoms recorded; some of the lack of education on the part of the provers; while still others complain of a want of integrity in the work of many of the provers. To the first we answer that, though many plans, as to method and scope of our provings, have been suggested, thus far not one has been sufficiently attractive or promising to secure the active co-operation of any large number of the members of the profession, nor, indeed, have these plans resulted in any appreciable amount of useful work from the few who have attempted to make provings upon such new lines. A study of regional and physiologic organic relationship of drug effects has been urged and attempted, but thus far, beyond a few new symptoms added to the old Hahnemannian schedules, and an occasional fairly good symptomatic schedule of some new drug, but little has been accomplished. In fact, but few of the newer pathogeneses compare favorably with those given us by Hahnemann in the Materia Medica Pura. Admitting that it would prove interestinng to have exhaustive physiologic provings from the larger doses, it is evident to the careful prescriber that unless the symptom register were made as complete and specific as are the older pathogeneses, the results would fail to aid the practitioner in the selection of the similimum. The fault found by this class of critics depends upon a wrong conception of the Hahnemannian method of prescribing. These critics should carefully study the Organon for method, and then strive to master the Materia Medica Pura. The second class referred to may have some reasonable ground for contention, for we all must admit that the failure to secure the publication of the day-books of the provers constitutes a real misfortune. The schematic form into which these records were converted fails to give to the average student or practitioner a perfect picture of the drug, and to construct a perfect working pathogenesis from such schedules is work requiring the skill of a master in the art; the unaided beginner finds it a difficult if not an impossible task. Notwithstanding this however, I would suggest to this class of honest critics that, if instead of wasting time in finding fault, they were to make strenuous |