The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1869-06-29
JUNE %, 4
..aia From the Scientific Americana isa
The Present Status Of Medical Science.

Inc present STATUS Oh meUlCdi ScieHce
tpresents some singular aspects. While
the majority of the people, perhaps, res
tain their faith in drugs, the doctors
at least, those of the allopathic school
are daily losing faith in them, and rely
| ing more upon good nursing, proper di 2
etetic regimen, and rest, for the cure OF
disease. ~ .--.-.s. p
Homeopathy, With its infintesimal do
tses, has greater faith in its drugs; but,
| whether this faith arises from the really
greater success in the use Of the reme-
dies than is attained by the allopathic
| system, or whether that success is false
l,ly attributed to the effect Of drugs, Civ
en- in SO small quantities that their infiu-
ence upon disease is imperceptible, and
| therefore harmless, is a question, We be-
lieve, not fully decided. And it cannot
be decided so long as many professed
homeopathists do not conform to the
practice they profess, and persist in
| substituting the allopathic dose for the
| homeopathetic one. -17si-a -."
There are quacks in all kinds of med
ical practice, quacks admitted into full
communion and of good standing. In
the allopathic practice the strictly hon
| est physicians, who always give the rem
edies they pretend to give, who eschew
| bread pills, and give the real old FASH
| ioned kill or cure dose, are the men of
| inferior talent and small reputation Sc
| cretly laughed at by the knowing ones
and publicly praised in consultations
! The treatment has been perfectly cor
rect, mas M says the wisehead, whom
| the weaker brother has called in to reas-
sure the anxious mother, who has had
| some misgivings AS to whether her old
| family doctor was not possibly treating
her sick child erroneously. The treat
ment has been perfectly correct. The
| constitution of your child has been ad =
mirably prepared to receive the benefit
| of course of tonics which / shall now
| recommend what tonics p timidly
| asked the weaker brother of the one of
great repute "A little wine and plenty
Of beef tea are the best for children, with
perhaps little, very little, of any 9th
er simple tonic remedy says that ora
Gle, as he steps into his carriage, endeav-
! oring to save, at once, the child and his
own standing as a regular. sf
Talk about the in deficiency of homeo-
pathetic medies., says the practitioner
5of that school. See, ma'am, will place
one of these little pellets Of stibium up
on the tongue of your Spanish grey
hound, and presently he shall be LITERAL
| ly as sick. as a dog Now, stibium,
| worthy reader, is antimony, and this
metal and its salts are deadly poisons.-
| The stomach -reyolts against a very
small quantity Of it, and it is never used
in the alIopathic practice except in mi
| mute doses. This experiment, often per-
| formed to convince people of the power
| of homeopathetic remedies, is convinc
| ing to people who know nothing Of the
nature Of the drug. -. ...f.rs..- $3.50
! We believe homeopathy is doing a
! good work, and that it will ultimately
| teach the world the utter ,powerlessness
of drugs to cure diseases, but its prac>
tice is not free from quacks, who are, so
to speak, neither fish nor. fowl neither
allopathists nor homeopathists, but
| simply eclectics, doctoring as they think
best for the good os the patient; that is,
in nine cases out Of ten, not doctoring
at all, but humbugging patients into the
belief that they are doctored. This class
| of eclectics are the most successful of
physicians in all kinds of practice.
! What is disease is a question never
vet satisfactorily answered. The allo>
pathists affirm that the homeopathists
/ treat only symptoms. But what do th he
former know of disease except symp,
toms Can they point out the subtle
cause of smallpox ? show how it oper-
ates in the blood and taints the entire
system Can they give you the origin
of Bright's disease, or throw a single
obstacle in the way Of its progress p
Can they show the primary cause of tu
bercular deposit, or explain the mystic
rious nature of the scrofulous diathesis?
| Yet these are the men who claim, par
aercellence, to treat causes and not symp
| The following statement in the Raids
cal, for June, is not exaggerated No
branch of science is in a more unstable
and chaotic state than the science of
medicine. Earnest young men gradu
ate from the medical schools, and then
throw up the profession with the frank
avowsl that they do not understand how
| an honest man can be physician
| Grave professors close their learned lee
lures with the naire confession, that, al
though these are the accepted theories
| of to day, few years will undoubtedly
sweep them all into the waste basket of
posterity Undoubtedly they will; and
with them will go what Egyptian pyra-
mids of pills and powders what rivers
| and seas of wine bitters and cherry pec~
torals, of pain killers and panaceas of
/ every conceivable sort, tnaL nave
brought - eaith to their yer ders and woe
to humanity! Every day marks the
birth Of some new, and the burial of
some old, nostrum-more worthless,
even, than ephemeral-while temper
ance, cleanliness and exercise-the
world old healers Of fhumanity-lose not
one jot Or title of their ancient virtues,
though the world comes to a knowledge
i r,f al fN harv1 hu nd
painful steps 1t certainly has not
learned that temperance means the in q,
telligent use Of all that is good, and the
rejection Of all that is evil that clean
illness includes purity of person, purity
Of surroundings, purity of soul and
that. exercise, in its true sense, means
| full and perfect development Of the body
in harmony with all the laws thereof
| Saua the London Quarterly ReYiaW