The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1871-06-22
Garrsspoadears.
Mad-Stenes.

Mr. EDrroR:-I see an article
written by DR.. c. c. Alternately,
published in your last issue relative
to '1Iad-Stones." He says that
"the asserted efficacy of the mad
stone is more shocking to the we'll
informed physician than is the re-
puted benefit derived from carrying
a buckeye in the pantaloons peck
ct in Piles. 1t seems to me that
whenever anything is presented to
the public which is reputed to pos
sess curative powers, and there is
concurrent evidence of its efficacy
from different sources, and that too,
from intelligent men who have wit
messed its effects and their testimo
ny agrees, that before it is condemn
ed there should be a fair trial made
Of its virtue. The inference in his.
article is that the maidstone is a
humbug, and that it is the welfare
Of the public that prompted him to
write his article. I would respect
fully ask him whether or not he
knows anything about the proper
ties Of mad-stones7 or if he knows
whether they have any at all? I,
too, am as much opposed to hum
bugs, perhaps, as he or any other
person, but I am Of the opinion
that when anything, either tradi-
tional or new, is presented to the
public, that the part Of wisdom as
well as the welfare of man, require
that an investigation and a test
should be made Of its virtues or eff
fcacy, before it is unqualifedly
condemned; and that the test too,
should be made by scientific men,
whose object it should be to pro-
mote science instead Of clogging its
wheels.
If the idea which DR.. Alternately
conveys in his article is true, to-
wit: that because a remedy cannot
be found in his medical books, it
should be at once rejected, then any
further efforts for the advancement
of the science of medicine should
stop. For certainly if the science
Of medicines in a state of perfec-
ton, it would be folly in any one
to trouble his brains to find out any
thing more about it than has al
ready teen done.
So far as the specific virtues of
mad-stones are concerned, I do not
know, but I must confess that the
concurrent evidence with regard to
their efficacy, is too great and that
too, from men of intelligence, (for
there is some intelligence besides
that which is embodied in the brains
of some physicians for them to
be wholly rejected without an in
yestigation of their properties. I
believe that they act upon philoso-
phic principles; that they possess
some chemical principle which has
an affinity for poison, as the lode
stone has an attraction for steel,
though inexplicable, it is acknowl-
edged to exist by all intelligent per-
sons.
The discovery which introduced
vaccination was made upon the faith
of tradition, and if all physicians
had "hooted' at the idea of there
being any efficacy in it, as it has
been done with regard to mad
stones, it is possible that mankind
would have been deprived of its
blessings to this good hour. But.
fortunately, there lived man in the
eighteenth century who possessed
too much wisdom to discard every
thing that was not found in his
medical books, pertaining to rene
dial agents. It had been a tradition
that the hands Of those who MIXED
COWS which had pustules on their
teats were affected in the same man
ner. DR.. Jenner, an English physi-
clan, got hold of this tradition and
having met with a mixer who hap
pened to have the pocks upon his
hands, he conceived the idea of vac
cination. lie 1896 he inserted the
matter taken with lancet from the
hand Of a mixer into the arm of a
child eight years Of age. The ex-
pertinent succeeded. In 1898 he
published a history of his expert
iments which effectually introduced
the practice of vaccination to the
notice of the public. I imagine
that the tradition relative to the
efficacy Of the matter found upon
the teats of COWS was as shocking
to the minds of many ''well-inform-
ed physicians" of that day as the
maidstone is to the minds of some
physicians of the present day
Enough for the present.
r. p. YANcEY.
WALES STATION, June 18th, 1871.