Nebraska advertiser. [volume] (Brownville, Nemaha County, N.T. [Neb.]) 1856-1882, 1862-08-23

which is attributed to PoIybus, teache
ABOUT the doctrines Of Plato, and show
Us man formed of four humors. Th
doctrine of Galienus, or Galen, SO muc
venerated for fourteen centuries, bega
also with the ideas of Plato upon th
four fundamental humors blood, phlegm
bile and black bile,) and those Of Empe
docles upon the elements Of the, primiiiy
qualities Of things, ideas which taken an
spread by Aristotle, had swayed philOs
Ophy before they set their stamp upo
medicine. The systems Of Democritu
and Epicurus upon atoms, the effects Q
their going near and removing again frou
each other, gave birth to those of Asele
piades and Themison upon the stylctuna
the laTuns !, ideas which remind to a Ger
tain degree Of the spasm and the atom
of Cullen and Hoffman, the dichotomy o
Brown and Bronassois. What wonder tha
certain epochs, although separated by I
long interval Of time, offer striking anal
ogeis. Mans mind eternally bends anC
bends again upon the same solutions, up
on the same truths as it does upon the
same errors; moreover is it not submit
ted, as itwas two thousand years ago, tc
immutable laws? The principles of the
PyrrhOnean philosophy evidently were
those which inspired the founders of the
empiric medical school, although these,
nevertheless, did not always fully adopt
the principles of the sceptic or empiriC
philosophy. It would not be difficult to
prove that the distinction established by
Descartes between matter which is inert
and the forces which set Il 10 motion, has
produced, On enc hand the doctrine Of
Ssahl, on the other hand. the doctrine of
the Mechanical or Isals7-maihemasical
physicians. In our days do we not see
the philosophy of Locke and Candillac,
which proclaims that the whole physiol-
ogy, even the acts of the mind, emanate
from transformed sensation, open a way
to the school which resumes in inhama-
ton the genesis Of diseases? But while
this system was attaining to the apogee
of its fame, a doctrine, more modest,
arose besides it and was preparing its
ruin, medical eclectism, which is but an
emanation of the philosophical eclectism
of M. Ccusin, protested against the pre-
tention thAt all morbid phenomena ema-
mated from sole lesion. He collected
with the aid of clinical observation, of
pathologic anatomy, of chemical analysis,
a large number of proofs before which
soon was to crumble the ediice of the
professor of Val-de-Grace. Finally, in
these latter times, we have seen medicine,
in Germany, look for fame in the desti-
MES of brilliant system which arose to
the horizon Of philosophy, the system of
absolute identity, and cast compared an
atomy into relations, into pantheistical
speculations, which ideas priOri alone
could inspire.
Now, if medical synlheses have thus
been the reflection of the conceptions of
philosophy, the knowledge of the history
of the latter, viz: OF the ideas which have
logically succeeded to one another, thro'
ages, must precede that of medicine, be
its preface, as the exposition of principles
must precede that of their consequences.
This is the rational measure which it is
necessary to take in every scientific edu-
cation; history of medicine thus under
stood shall constitute the most extensive
and the most sertain instruction which can
be received and transmitted; but as long
as the philosophical questions which are
connected with medicine shall remain for
the medical public kind of arid and
tedious algebra, there shall remain a
hiatus, a want in the intelligence of the
medical profession.
Wen Il is then thaf medical laws should
require more thorough knowledge Of
literature and philosophy before We en-
gage ia & profession which does So much
for the good or for the evil of mankind,
in profession whose members ale neces-
sarily saviors or murderers-saviors, if
they have competent professional knowl-
edge, accompanied with honesty Of pur.
pose; murderers, if lacking in either of
them. A. G.
The Cost OF Fences.