American union. [volume] (Morgantown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1855-1859, 1857-07-17
MEDICAL SCIENCE.

MEDICAL SCIENCE.
One of tie most eminent British ply
sicians has la tely published a work, in
which he falls back on what was sub
stantially the tn cory of Ilippocrates,
more than two thorsand years ago
The theory is that ,,Hodern practition-
'crs have been in the ha bit Of giving too
snuch medicine; that nature need only
to be assisted, at critica, points, and
cannot be forced; and that, in many
cases, where tho disorder is fatal from
the first, medicine is wholly us eless.
The old Greeks divided diseases intc
rurable and incurable, which is much
the same theory as that of modern En-
ghshmen. If these views are eorre> It.,
they prove that what is called medica.
science is hardly science aftcr all; for
that cannot be a science, which at best
is merely experimental and empirical,
and which cannot tell, till too late, whe-
ther an attack is to be fatal or not
We should hesitate, therefore, to admit
the premises Of this British author, if
we were a physician, for we would be
too honest to deny the conclusion, and
we should shrink from admitting that
to cure or kill was to Shit or miss"
1t cannot be denied, however, that
medicine IS less of science than men
wish that it should be. Many diseas-
es wholly battle the schools. Nor is
this all. Often, when disorder has
ragged for generation or two, and, by
long study Of it, doctors have como to
think they understand it, 10! it disap-
pears almost entirely, to be succeeded
by some new disease, as subtle, as ia
tai and as widely extended as it was in
It's iiercest fury. The plague, the small
pox, and the Asiatic cholera have de-
yastated the world in this way by turns.
1t would seem as if there were some
secret law of nature, which demanded
certain percentage of annual mortal.
ity, and which brought new epidemics
and unknown disorders ON the scene,
, in order to gather the necessary vic
times, az fast as human skill learned
to master the older types of disease.
Ventilation, cleanliness, exercise, and
wholesome food, with freedom from
harrassing cares, would seem to be
more potent than all the physic in the
q world. The experience of the wisest
s men and nations leans to the conclu-
sion that We may do something to pre-
Went, but little to arrest disease.
4 Nor is itstrange that medical science
has learned SO little. When VIC con-
y slder the delicacy of the human frame,
4 ITS complex character, and the many
4 disturbing influences to health, the
\ wonder is, as Sir Thomas Brown quaint
ly remarks i'll his "Rcligio Medici," " not
that we live so few years, but that we
Go not die every day. The body, the
diseases to which it is subject, the ef-
lects OF medicine, and the control ex-
"ercisod by atmospheric changes over it,
together make problem only less in.
trlcate than that even mightier one, the
condition of immortality and the posi-
ton Of the soul after death Perhaps
it is as we'll that this should be so. 1t
IS doubtless part of Gods providence
towards men, that even the profound
est human intellect should feel, in rela-
tion to some subjects, that beyond a
certain point It's knowledge should not
go, that the issues of life and death
were beyond its ken, chat, in o word,
man was finite and only the Creator
infinite. We are, at best, but creatures
OF the dust---insects of an hour There
1a ihighticr power in Nature than our.
selves. 1t is reflection before which
1nhdelity grows dumb, and at which the
humble Christian becomes humber
PHI. Ledger.