The North-Carolinian., 1855-09-22
HEALTH


revolution OF lS4S asa republican OF the red
dest dye, and who expiated his political sins by
a long imprisonment ut Fincennes, has for the
last ten years been in the habit of publishing
every fall a sort of health almanac; he calls it
the Manuel Annuare de la Sante,' in which
he advocates, with singular boldncss many new
and important doctrines upon the proper means
of keeping the physical system in u healthy
state. Previous to his debut in the political
world lie was known to scientific men as an
eminent chemist, and any suggestions on
hygieric subjects from him are entitled to at
tenton His work is full of Instructions on
every subject connected with the regimen of
the body, sometimes detailed with singular
minutcness, and always with insennousncss.
From 4 wcll-compilcd digest of the last pub
lication, in a late number of the 'Honsehold
Words" we have extracted the following and
trust our readers will ponder it carefully.
Health Raspail maintains, is the normal
regular state of life, fitting man for the per-
formance of his natural and social duties. Ill
ness is the exceptional state; it reduces him to
the position of a useless encumbrance on society.
The art of preserving the health is called hy
giene; the art of recovering or restoring the
health when lost enfccbled, is called medi-
cine. Now, it being self-evident that health is
desirable, and disease highly obnoxious
state of life it naturally follows that the study
both Of hygiene and medicine are of the great
est Importance, and should be as widely dissent
uated possible: yet by one of the strange
and apparently ineSplcable contradictions of
our nature, mankind seem to have agreed by
species of tacit understanding, to neglect, or
ignore altogether, those branches of knowledge
that concern them most.
According to Raspail the art OF medicine
has for more than two thousand years past,
made no real progress; and one of the latest
inventions of the medical mind, homeopathy,
affords convincing proof that medicine has
cor hacE to bo frOp !
started, namely, to the simple dietetics of the
ancient physicians. But the hom9pathists
have ventured (according to him) to erect, on
the simple and rational basis ofa proper regi-
men the most natural method of curing dis
ease, dangerous supcrsructure Of infinies-
smiS. and mOnStrouS assertions of the curative
power of the ''high dynamisation' of medical
substances. Yet homeopathy is surely lrcfera-
bic to the Sangrado system to the starving
system, Ct under q starving doctor once, ,
when was too young to rebel. and it ever
come across him again, there shall be waIing
in the Royal College of Surgeons. or ! will
know the reason why, to the salivating system,
and that most abominablc form Of empircis,n--
experimenting on the unfortunate victims of dire
diseases with deadly poisons, such as arsenic
strychniuc, prussic acid. brucea, veratrine, hyo-
scyamus, atropine, opium, belladonna. digitalis,
henbanc, stramony or thorn-aprle. nux vomica,
and other members of the distinguished family
cially is Raspail wroth with "eNperimentasts"
--"cminent practitioners" who really do what
the poor relatives of hospital patients suspect
them Of doing; such men as Bosquilton phys-
clan of the Hotel Dien, who cody proceeded
one morning, hy way of experiment, to bleed
all the patients on the right, and to purge all
those the left side of his ward; Magen-
die, who killed, at one fell swoop. epiIep-
tic patients Just to how they would feel
after dose of prussic acid
Illness, according. to NJ. Raspail, is not a
mystery of nature; it is not the result of some
occult infuence-some mysterious that
cludes the grasp Of our senses. An organ can
be affected by illness, or, in other Words suspend
its functions, Only from want of its
proper nentriment or from some external cause.
The causes of disease are, therefore. external:
illness, in the FIRST instance, attacks us from
without, and does not emanatc from ourselves.
To say that such and such disease is caused
by the blood, the bile, the nervous the pee
cant humors, is simply to give utterance to one
of those nnmeaning phrases that mostly consti-
tute the professional jargon of the schools, and
are of the same family as that celebrated one
Mature abhors vacuum" These are bold
words. FrancosD Vincent Raspail You would
trcmbc, think, at your own boldness, If you
knew how many fashionable physicians there
are here in England, whose fame, whose har-
| vests of guineas, whose patents of baronetcy,
are due to that one ta!smanic word "nerVes." :"
How many practitioners have gained reputa-
ton for vast and almost boundless learning and
wisdom, by merely putting their thumbs i'll their
waist tcoat-pockets, with the hand a little on one
side, enunciating solemnly, "StomachV To
ascertain what the external causes really are
that effect our organs, must have recourse to
analogy, for in most cases they escape the scru-
nifty of our senses.
When point, or sting, or simple thorn,
pierces your flesh, or gets into your skin, your
sufferings may become excruciating. Why?
Because the thorn has violently torn the super
fetal expansions Of the subdivisions of the nerves
and has opened to the external air free access
to the tissues protected before by the epidermis
You know the illness in this place to he caused
by the thorn pickle, and would not dream
Of ascribing it to blood, the bile OF the nerves
But, let suppose that from some circnm-
stances, the sting or prickle escapes our sight
and finds its way into the substance OF the stonl
ach or of the luugs; the presence of foreign
bodies in either of these organs, SO essential to
life, necessarily give rise to much more serious
symptoms. Now, here the aterial cause o
/ the evil not having been revealed to the senses
medicine will step in and with whole train o
conjectures. One physician will ascribe the i'll
ness to the bile another to the blood, third
! to- the nerves: and the patient will be called
upon to ahdieate his own free will and the use
of his reasoning faculties, and to submit bHndly
| to o coArse of treatment rs hstle comrrehendeC
| by the doctor as by the patient. 4 careful anc
minute post-mortem examination would revea
the presence Of the prickle, and show the doc
1 Al. L ~ krr