The Sun.
London, England, 1853-02-07 00:00:00

PROGRESS OF THE CHRONO-THERMAL SYS
TEM OF MEDICINE.

From time to time the discovery of principles in the
healing art revolutionise empirical practice, and substi-
tute an enlightened system of therapeutics for the blind
unreason of traditional routine. Among these discove-
ries, or rather these applications of principles as old as
truth itself, we may now rest on Chrono-Thermalism, of
which Dr. Dickson, of Bolton-street, the author of
" Fallacies of the Faculty," may fairly claim the sole
discovery, and also, single-handed, the championship
through evil and good report.
Occasionally we have noticed in the papers and
periodicals which have reached us from the Western
World tokens of the great progress of the Chrono-
Thermal theory in that young and rapidly rising
country, where the prestige of old custom, and the
obstructiveness of ancient corporate institutions
are less potent to stifle, less able to repress,
and more ready to receive new lights in science and
practical medicine than the parent state, where vested
interests, combining with the prejudices of education,
often obstruct and retard for awhile the coming good.
At any rate, we must confess that in the younger coun-
try the precept " Try all things, hold fast that which is
good," has a fairer facility of application than amid an-
cient universities, and settled practices handed down
from darker ages, and reverenced oft for their antiquity
long after their other merits have become obsolete.
Among the more recent medical arrivals which have
reached us from the United States, is a communication
announcing the fact of the institution of a College of
Chrono-Thermal Medicine, in the city of Philadelphia.
The college is organised, and the first session is proposed
for the month of February, the month in which we
write. The "Faculty" comprises the names of some of
the most distinguished medical men in America.
A graceful compliment has been paid to the propounder
and advocate of Chrono-Thermism, by placing the col-
lege destined to extend the triumph of this important
system under the sanction of Dr. Dickson. His name
heads, the syllabus of professors as Emeritus Professor of
the Principles and Practice of Medicine, thus bearing
honourable testimony to their acceptance of Chrono-
Thermalism as the basis of their practice. As a proof
of the rapid progress which Dr. Dickson's system of
treatment—which has been so remarkably successful in
England—is making in the United States, it may be
mentioned, that twelve months ago, the medical gentle-
men who practised it on the other side of the Atlantic
scarcely numbered a baker's dozen. " Now," says a
distinguished medical professor in Philadelphia, "in the
face of a storm of professional reproach and persecution,
our great and harmonious system numbers upwards of
400 practitioners."
This spontaneous tribute must be highly gratifying to
Dr. Dickson, who, amid much lukewarm obstruction
and more active opposition, has long and strenuously ad-
vocated views which professional pride and interest have
preventednf roofn,l, rpeecne
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Mr. Charles Dickens wishes us to contradict the para-
graph (quoted from the Derby Reporter), relating how
3001. had been presented to Inspector Field, late of the
detective force. Mr. Dickens says—" The statement is
unimportant to me, but as it might cast a slur on the
conduct of a most excellent officer in the discharge of his
duty, I beg you to do him the justice of contradicting it,
on my assurance that it is one of the most extravagant
inventions I have ever seen in my life, without a scrap
of truth for its foundation."