Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1870-06-28
(Communicsted)
The Medical Profession and
0uackery-Isms and Pathys-
Regular, Irregular and
Defective.

= N4S icSulhf Oh III |
straltest sect. homeopathic, Hydro
paths, Eolectics, Thomsonians, and the
smaller fry Of cancer doctors tavel-
ing doctors and nostrum vendors are
alike dndthdmd mGrdnthn. So strictly
conservative art we, that we hold all |
these various forms Of medical art to
be arrant quackery; and will not in
the remotest and most indirect man
ner, hold fellowship with any of them.
We thus define our position to draw |
upon ourselves the necessity of de-
Tending it, and to show good cause
for claiming an infinite superiority |
over all the heresies just enumerated.
we have made some stout assertions. |
In their support we start with this |
proposition Any eCcluSiUe system of |
medicine IS necessarily erroneous.
What is quackery THAT which
pretends to more than it can accom-
plish. Now without descending to |
details, without illustrating by this
or that disease, and without resort |
to professional technicalities, we pro-
pose to show the impossibility of any |
exclusive system ia medicine. A
system" supposes that all the laws
OF disease have been investigated
and ascertained thats some great
principles have been involved which
are alike applicable to all phenome-
ma that wo have unerriDg powers Of
diagnosis, and can locate with GER
tainty disease, and predicate posi-
lively its characters and tende ncies
that wo have certain remedies whose
qualities are well known and whose
effects can bo uniailingly anticipated,
and finally that we are aware Of all
the lnfluences--climatic and dietotic
pertaining to regimen - mental,
constitutional and medicinal-which
are acting upon the patient. Now
not one OF al these necessary pre-
eursors Of certainty and system is, in
the tull sense of the word, attainable.
Disease is changable. 1t has, TO use
a trlte allusion, Protean shape. 1t
is subject TO unknown Influences,
geological, Typographical and epidem-
| &c, which we cannot estimate.
All this is in accordance with the
manifestations of Gods will to man.
For His all-wise purpose He has
implanted within US the seeds of de-
cay, which must and will terminate.
30 1T is that medicine is ever reaching
for that beyond its grasp; ever
stretching its eager hand toward the
impossible, surmounting one difficulty
to encounter another; but yet not
walking in a circle, neither defeated
nor discouraged, ever progressing
and acquiring new control over hui
man suffering. Therefore it is that
medicine can have no system, fol
system implies certainty. Wha
then shall it do? Shall it sit will
folded hands and see the tide of hu
man suffering roll by npturned, i'm
ploring faces Of strong men, ant
mothers and gentle babes shriekin,
for help unanswered a.? Not so, for
we have not o system, we have q
least a museum of facts vast an
venerable with time, in which the
clustering ages blend their common TOLL
and to which unwearied modern Ell
fort is constantly adding.
We have the knowledge of Anato
my, we have an imperfect but still
valuable Physiology. Teach tn
student these tell him all we know
about disease teach him to distin
guish one from another; spread be
, tore him our vast materid medica !, tel
him its qualities and its varied con
troll over different morbid actions
ard then send him into the world O
sickness to WELD these weapons eau
tiously. And here is the great poin
of difference between the regula
physician and the systemists tn
latter arc men of one idea. Let u
instance. Homeopathy says tina
"like cures like" that tho less th
cause the greater the effect. Hydro
pathy points to the clear runnin,
brook and the health giving fountain
as the only remedy for disease. III
Thomsonian and the Eclectic show
US the vast array Of the vegetabl
materia medica and say "these alon
are our weapons" The Chronothel
malist insists upon periodicity 40 tn
great first principle for all diseases
, and the nostrum vender offers hi
panacea with the reckless assurance
that it is always safe.
i Wherein do we differ from thes
scots? Legitimate medicine refuse
to take the position of sect an
VIII recognize no system until tn
necessary knowledge forts formation
is attained. The time has not ye
como Gin all probability il never vii
Gomez when we can have genera
principles in medicine. For q prin
clpai must have no exceptions anc
so long as the exception exists tn,
principle is erroneous and unsafe
Common sense has given to a rul,
the privilege of an occasional error
INT Is only generally right, though
wherein lies the philosophy we conlc
never discern. To each of these mis-
named systems we return such an
swers as these We say to the
Homeopath, that "if like cures like
SO also do contrary causes produce
cures" The coincidence on eithe,
side is equal. To be principle in
medicine, your degree should know
no exception, for the first one may
cost a life, or, in the sequence OF
chances, hundred lives in succession.
Hence the danger and absurdty of
devotion to theory. The infinitesi-
NAL notion is one to which reasoning
cannot apply. The strongest argu-
ment against it is this: it is contra
dictory to an axiom that an effect
will be in proportion to the greatness
of it's cause. This is what is called
a first truth, an innate or transcen-
dental idea. which has the force of
higher law and overrules all SEEM
ing contradictions. Against the Plu-
vious doctrines of the hydropath,
legitimacy indues itself in india-rub-