The star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1849-1866, 1857-05-20
MEDICAL SCIENCE,

One of the most eminent British physi-
clans has lately published work, in which
he falls back on what was substantially the
theory of Hippocrates, more than two thou.
sand years ago. The theory is that modern
practitioners have been in the habit of Civ
ing too much medicine; that nature need,
only to be assisted, at critical points and
cannot be forced; and that, in many cases,
where the disorder is fatal from the first,
medicine is wholly useless.
The old Greek divided diseases into curs.
BILE and incurable, which is much the same
Theory as that of the modem Englishman.
If these views are correct, they prove that
what is called medical science is hardly q
science after all; for that cannot be sci.
ence, which, at best, is merely experiment.
tai and empirical, and which cannot tell,
till too late, whether an attack is to be fatal
or not. We should hesitate, therefore, to
admit the premises of this British author,
if we were physician, for we would be
too honest to deny the conclusion, and we
should shrink from admitting that to cure
or Kill was shit or miss"
1t cannot be denied, however, that medi-
cine is less of science than men wish
that it should be. Many diseases 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 come TO think they understood it, 10!
it disappears almost entirely, TO be succeed
ed by some new disease, as subtle, as fatal
and as widely extended as it was in its
fisrcest fury. The plague, the small. pox,
and the Asiatic cholera have devastated the
world in this way, by turns. Itwouldseem
as if there were some secret law of nature,
which demanded certain percentage of
annual mortality and which brought new
epidemics and unknown disorders on the
scene, in order 10 gather the necessary VIC
Tins, as fast as human skill learned to mas.
ter the older types of disease. Ventilation,
cleanliness, exercise, wholesome food, and
freedom from harassing cares, would seem
to be more potent than all the phys
ic in the world. The experience of the
wisest men and nations leans to the conclu-
sion that we may do something to prevent,
but little to arrest disease.
Nor is it strange that medical science has
learned so little. When we consider the
delicacy of the human frame, its complex
character, and the many disturbing infu.
ences to health, the wonder is, as Sir Thom-
as Browne quantity remarks in his "Religio
Medici," not that we live so few years, but
that we do not die every day. The body,
the diseases to which it is subject, the Of.
fecls of medicines, and the control exercis-
ed by atmospheric changes over it, toge,h,
er makes problem only less intricate than
that even mightier one, the conditions of
Immortality and the position Of the soul .af-
ter death. Perhaps it is as well that this
should be so. tits doubtless part of Gods
providence towards men, that even the pro-
ioundest human intellect should feel, in re.
lation to some subjects, that beyond Ger.
tain point its knowledge should not go, that
-sir,~:ssuue, of life and death were beyond its
ken, that, in word, man was finite aud
only the Creator infinite. We are, at best,
but creatures ofthe dust, insects of an hour.
There is a mightier power in Nature than
ourselves. 1t is a reflection before which
infdelity grows dumb, and at which the
humble christian becomesh Standardization.