Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1871-10-05
Correspondence of the Fayette County Herald
MEDICINE.
BY BENJAMIN RANKIN, n. d.
HYGEIO-THERAPEUTIC COLLEGE, !
SEPTEMBER 9th 1871. {

innate inquiry, and demands an answer.
In this age of earnest investigation
and inquiry after truth we find that
many systems of philosophy, and
many theories that have been received
| by the mass of mankind, and even by
! the scientists of fast timo s, are without
any foundation in nature. and are often
found to be in direct opposition to
her laws, which rightly understood,
lead US to unerring truth.
And that system which is called ''the
science of medicine" which had its
| origin in the ignorance and supersti-
ton of the human mind in early ages,
subjected to the searching ordeal of
| rigid inquiry, and when examined
through the medium of natures uner-
ring laws, we may say of medicine as
a science, as the prophet said to the
wicked king of Bal ylon, thou art
weighed in the balance and art found
wanting"
In common usage the phrase "sci-
ence of medicine is made to include
many separate sciences, some of them
nearly related to each other, and 9th
ers only having that common and gen
eral relationship which exists between
all the sciences.
"Science of medicine is made to
: include Anatomy, Physiology, Chem
istry, Surgery, Pathology, Obstetrics,
Materia Medica, Therapeutics and
practice of medicine"
Science is an arrangement of lead
ing principles or truths in regard to
any subject usually arrayed in system
attic order.
Anatomy, Physiology, Chemistry
and Pathology are sciences as exact as
many of the other natural sciences,
each of them has its leading principles
or truths; indeed Anatomy might be
termed an exact science.
Physiology, which is t'normal vital
action" is yet in its infancy, and never
y can become an exact science until we
fully comprehend mans relation to
the universe of which he is an integ-
= raj part Not only must we compre-
hend this relationship, but we must be
able to fully comprehend the influence
which is exerted upon vital action by
reason of the relationship that the liv-
ing organization sustains to the uni.
verse of mind and matter.
= The same remarks to some extent
/
vital action In practice physicians
content themselves with the morbid
manifestations, but success demands
that the cause of these morbid actions
should be found out, and thereby
b, properly directing or restraining these
morbid actions, disease or remedial
effort not by drugs, properly speak
ing, but by the application of healthy
r. agencies enable the remedial effor
OF which IS disease, to effect the purfica
ton and afterward the restoration o
the organization to a normal state
Pathology may be as exact a science
as Physiology.
n Chemistry, so far as elementary
substances combine 10 order to form
compounds, is a science as exact as
that of mathematics. Indeed, Chem
= istry has it's mathmatics, which con
sists in it's chemical equivalents or tht
proportion in which elements combine
to form compounds.
If there was any truth in the prac
tice of giving drugs to cure disease
su then chemistry would be of use il
teaching the physician the proportion
in which to combine elements in or
der to form compounds; but some o
the principles of Chemistry apply t.
the vital actions of the living organi
n5 cations, as is taught by some Physiol
ON ogists and Chemists.
ire Obstetrics, so far as it's mechanism
is concerned. is an exact scienc
81 founded on the relationship existin
: between the fetus and the organize
: ton Of the mother Surgery is an ar
founded on Anatomy
Observe that these are sciences eac
having it's leading truths or principles
But note carefully the question befor
us, sis medicine science ?"
''Medicine is any substance admit
istered in the treatment of diseast
remedial agent, remedy, physic."-
Webster.
The science of medicine then, woul
be the leading principles or truths
remedial agents as applied to the trea
ment of diseases,
We cant have science without il
IT controvertible. facts upon which
4. build it. The Fundamental facts of g
sciences must be established beyond
doubt before we can erect a supe
structure worthy of the name of 81
ence, and one chat may be able to be
the searching ordeal that is now a
piled to accepted theories, both 0
and new.
Let US now see if medicine can be
the searching ordeal to which it shou
be subjected by the earnest inquire
after light and knowledge.
We make the inquiry, is there a
K. remedial agents or remedies for d
eases in the sense in which these teri
are used |? We answer there is n
These terms when reduced to pract
s. mean that there exists in nature, ct
tain things which when administer
after prescribed form, cures diseas
This error arises chiefly from an il
%9' @R proper comprehension of disease, d
ease being the premises. This
wrong then; all conclusions dra
from it must be wrong. 1t is believ
~. that disease is an entity, something
~ imical to the organization, hence,
w order to drive out or subdue t
entity, remedies are administered
Is com m But on the contrary, disease is not
entity; is not something inimicai
the organization, but it is it's frie
ST. so TO speak; it is ''organic war rel
dial process" 1t is the life force
sisting that which is inimical to
Wfn ann organization. In short, as strange
inded it NAV sound it is the Uis nnedict