Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1871-02-02
From New Jersey.
FLonENeE, N. j, Jan. p, le7L

tlon that will be clearly and distinctly
enuneiated in this communication, und /
trust, no less clearly proved.
In order that the American people may
escape from the many ills to which they
are subjected by doctors. they must he ed.
ucnted to understand and obey the laws Of
life, and he made to comprehend the impo-
sition ofany medication.
We are at once willing to admit that Al
lornthy is a stupepdous system, learned
and indeed venerable with antiquity and
numbering in It's ranks some Of the reput.
edly great intellects Of earth, but, not
withstanding all this, its error consists in
the fact that it's first premise is wrong and
utterly at variance with all the teachings
of nature around US.
And If the premises are wrong, all the
/ conclusions drawn from these premises
must be wrong. As our premises are, so
must our conclusions be, IS a fixed law Of
logic.
The false premise 10 which we refer, is,
"that medicine acts upon the human or
ganization." In our last communication,
we promised that we would disprove this
proposition, and if it can be disproved'
then drug medication, for thousands Of
years, has been stupendous cheat, and
Il positive physical injury to the human
race.
In order to disproye this proposition, it
is only necessary that the Affirmative Of the
following proposition be fully establishes;
Living matter acts. Dead matter is
passive
Nov drugs are dead matter, that is they
have no vitality and can only act like all
dead matter, as they ore acted upon.
There are but three kinds of action with
which we are acquainted, These are me-
chanical, which consists in change Of po-
sition and displacement; chemical, which
consists in combination and decomposi.
ton; vital, which consists in disintegra-
ton, assimilation, etc.
All chemical action must take place
in dead matter; all vital action must take
place in matter having life. But, says one,
where is the system of organic chemistry?
what about the chemical action of diges-
ton, and assimilation? l answer that
there is no such thing as organic chemis
try, but We cannot stop now to disProve
this, but will at some future time,
All vital action takes place in organic
matter having the inherent principle OF
life, and all action in the domain of life is
vital and not chemical Let us see il this
is not true, Chemistry is synthesis and
analysis, that is decomposition AID com
bination. If there is any action In the VI.
tai domain that results in decomposition,
in order that it may be chemical action,
when brought together they will unite
chemically, and form the original com
pound again. Take the food which we eat,
after it has undergone digestion in the
stomach, if the action is chemical, then
the chemists must be able to bring the ele
ments together again, and by chemical af'
fnity again form the food in the same
state in which it was found at the time Of
prehension. But this, the mere tyro knows
cannot be done. An action to be chemical
most combined as well as decompose.
The mcts are. digestion and all other
actions in the human organization, are vi
ta and not oue of them chemical. But,
as Is one, "What is vital action!" We an
swer, vital action is the action ola vital
organism, and this action takes place with
out any efforts on the part of the subject.
This action may be called inherent action
of organized matter,
Chemical action is inherent action, but
it is not vital action, because it is action
in dead matter. Hence, digestion, assim-
ulation, excretion, secretion, &c, are all
vital actions.
When food is taken into the mouth, vital
instinct recognizes its presence, and vital
action takes place at once, which is mani
tested by the secrctions of the salivary
glands When this same food is passed
into the stomach, the vital instinct recog
nizes its presence there, and at once the
stomach pours out or secrets the gastric
Juice, for the purpose Of separating the
nutritious particles from the nutritious
This is simple disintegration and not
chemical action, in order to prepare the
food to be built up into tissue. Remem'
Der that food is dead matter But this law
that living matter acts and dead matter
is passive" is universal one.
Metaphysicans teach us that our knowl
edge of an outward world comes from
dead matter acting on us, or living matter
through the medium of our senses, and
thus gives us knowledge of something
external to ourselves. But as it is clear
that there are but three kinds of action
with which we are acquainted, we in
ouire what kind of action is it that dead
matter manitests, in order that it may act
upon us2 Is this action chemical? Our
own observation tell us no. Is it mechan-
cal2 With equal emphasis we answer no.
Well, then it must surely be vital action in
external things, that net upon us, and we
are forced to recognize their presence We
again answer no. All objects external TO
ourselves are either organic or inorganic.
Inorganic matter can only act mechanical
| ", and organic matter, vitality. ask, do
any of these actions in organic or morgan
ic matter act upon us in such manner as
to force us to acknowledge their presnee?