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CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

UNCERTAINTY OF MEDICINE,

25

IMPORTANCE of the subject. Definiteness of results in chemistry. Only a
distant and humble approach to this possible in medicine. Illustration from
chemistry. CAUSES OF THE UNCERTAINTY OF MEDICINE. 1. Sympathy be-
tween different organs; 2. Symptoms produced at a distance from the seat
of disease. Disease extended by sympathy. Transposition of disease from
one organ to another. 2. Influence of unseen or secret causes. Nature
of many causes of disease unknown. Combination of many agencies in
producing disease, some of them having acted a long time. Cases ren-
dered complex by treatment before physician is applied to. 3. Natural
changes in the system arising from the curative power of nature, and from
the principle of self-limitation in diseases. Illustrations of the opera-
tion of the vis medicatrix naturæ-vomiting to remove offending matters
from the stomach-suppuration and discharge of a swelling. Tendency
of diseases to come to a conclusion-more definite and regular in some
complaints than in others. Mistakes from confounding the effects
of remedies with the changes produced by these two tendencies. 4. Men-
tal influences. Connection of mind with body modifying disease. Effects
produced through the mind often attributed to physical causes and reme-
dies. Case of the dyspeptic. 5. Individual peculiarities.

CHAPTER II.

SKILL IN MEDICINE,

50

SHOW in what medical skill consists, in view of the uncertainty of medicine
-appreciating the condition of the patient in all respects, and applying
remedies in the best manner to relieve this condition. Errors impairing

skill. Taking limited views of disease. Directing attention too much to
particular organs. Undue attachment to certain modes of investigation.
Difficulties in the way of deciding what it is best to do. Course of dif-
ferent physicians in view of these difficulties. Accurate proportioning
of means and ends. Value of experience. Illustration of some of these
points in the case of a sick traveller assisted by his friend in going
through a mountain pass.

CHAPTER III.

POPULAR ERRORS,

. 63

FALSE estimate of the importance of positive medication. This error
appears in various ways. Healing of wounds-anointed axe. Attributing
effects to agencies just preceding them post hoc propter hoc mode of
reasoning. Referring the cure of a case to some one remedy or measure,
when commonly the result of many. Disposition to have something
done all the time. Disease considered often as a palpable thing-a
humora poison-medicines supposed to neutralize it. Specifics. Sup-
posed to be many-really few, if any. Definition. Inadequate ideas of the
community of the necessity for discrimination in medical practice. Pro-
pensity to look for some universal catholicon. Disease supposed by some
to be an unit. A sort of universality of operation attributed to favorite
remedies, even sometimes among physicians. Dr. Beddoes' gases. Phy-
sicians correct their errors by experience-the public only exchange one
error for another in medicine. Changes in popular opinion in regard to
quack remedies.

CHAPTER IV.

QUACKERY,

. 80

THE grand source of quackery the false reference of effects to causes.
The way in which a remedy, whether active or inert, acquires its repu-
tation. Quack medicines principally of three kinds. 1. Evacuants. Great
similarity in these-made up mostly of articles in common use. 2. Those
which are supposed to act upon the system in a gradual way, as altera-
tives. Preparations of sarsaparilla. Impositions. 3. Those which are
supposed to act especially upon the lungs. Harm done by their indis-
criminate use. Quantities of inert and damaged articles used in prepar-
ing quack medicines. Importance of the name of a medicine in giving it

men.

currency. Ridiculousness of quack advertisements. Certificates. Chiefly
of four kinds. 1. Forgeries. 2. Essentially, sometimes wholly, untrue.
How obtained. 3. Those given by invalids imagining themselves to be
relieved. 4. Those given by invalids who are relieved while taking the
medicine—inferred to be done by the medicine. Certificates of clergy-
Rule of the medical profession in regard to nostrums. Proposed

mode of guarding against imposition. Quackery as a monstrous business

interest. Press and legislatures trammelled by it. Itinerant quack lec-

turers. Lectures especially to the ladies. Animal magnetism. Para-

celsus the 66

prince of quacks." St. John Long. Perkins' tractors.

Forms of Quackery many, but the materials from which they are formed
always the same. No discoveries have ever been made by quackery.

PRINCIPLES of the system as promulgated by its founder. Bold con-
fidence of Thompson in his mode of practice. Points in his theory. Ob-
structed perspiration. Strife between the heat and the cold. Simplicity
of the system. No need of "learned doctors." Thompsonian views of
the modus operandi of medicines. Radicalism of Thompsonism. Pre-
judice against mineral medicines. No article injurious simply because it
is mineral. The most deadly poisons in nature vegetable. Effects of
vegetable poisons generally as abiding as those of mineral. Lobelia a
poison, sometimes fatal, though Thompsonians claim it to be perfectly
harmless. Definition of poison. Some poisons more rapid than others in
their effects. Poison sometimes used in a relative sense. This word one
of the watch-words of Thompsonians, though they daily use poisons as
common articles of food. Changes in Thompsonian practice since the
system was first promulgated.

BRIEF notice of the founder of Homœopathy. His exalted ideas of his
"discovery." Two principles in his theory. 1. Like cures like. Ac-
cording to Hahneman there are three modes of practice-allopathic, anti-
pathic, homeopathic. The last alone truly successful, according to him.
The name allopath wrongly bestowed by Hahneman upon physicians.

2. Minute division, with agitation and trituration, communicates a new

power to medicines. Subdivision very minute, and extremely particular

directions given by Hahneman for effecting it. Whether such a power

is thus communicated to be decided by facts. "Observations" on which

the opinion is founded. Character of them illustrated from Jahr's man-

ual. Their extreme minuteness. Mode of collecting them. Based

upon the ridiculous idea that all states of the body are to be referred to

the remedy taken. Notices of some particular remedies in illustration.

Alleged success of Homœopathy. Apparent success to be attributed to

six causes. 1. Mental influence. 2. A strict regard to diet and regimen.

3. Operation of the vis medicatrix naturæ, or curative power of nature.

4. Comparisons made between the results of homeopathic practice and

those of over-dosing physicians. 5. An occasional stealthy use of reme-

dies in ordinary doses. 6. The facility with which people are deceived in

regard to comparative results. Parallel case of a German clergyman.

Empty boasts of homœopathists as to the character of their physicians.

Points of resemblance and of difference between Thompsonism and

Homœopathy.

CHAPTER VII.

NATURAL BONE-SETTERS,

146

SETTING of bones wholly mechanical. There cannot be an innate

skill in this, any more than there can be in any other kind of mechanics.
Explanation of bone-setting. Skill obtained in this just as in anything
else. Bone-setter learns all that he actually knows, by his own obser-
vation, and from others. It is not born with him. Gets some of his
knowledge by stealth. Errors committed by natural bone-setters. Sup-
posing a fracture to be a dislocation. Injuries of joints in which there is
neither dislocation nor fracture-harm sometimes done in such cases by
the bone-setter. Failure in the medical part of the treatment in some
cases. Failure in the management of fractures. Physicians not all good
bone-setters. Mechanical tact requisite. Though so many cases of mal-
practice can be found among the patients of natural bone-setters, gene-
rally supposed by the community to be infallible. Difficulty in getting a
verdict of damages against them. Reasons why they, in spite of their
errors, acquire a reputation for skill. Setting sprains. Facility of the
imposition practised. Breaking up old adhesions. Stiff joints and con-
tracted tendons-efficacy of rubbing. Imagined tenderness and inability
of motion. Sub-luxations—random pulling. False reports of cases.