The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1907-09-23
HARRY B. BRADFORD.
No Science in Medicine?

Editor The Washington Herald:
Let me be understood az the very start.
am not writing merely to get into print.
I am not chasing thistle-down and gos-
samer simply because they are in the
air 1 am dealing with matters OF fact.
In your issue of August e appeared
a letter which asserted absolutely with
out exception or qualification, that We
are IN utter ignorance Of the cause and
the cure of disease. and that there is no
healing power in any drug. In support
Of the last assertion. your correspondent
quoted DR.. Osler. To this letter I re-
piled, refuting its main assertions and
demonstrating. by further quotations
from Osler, the erroneous differences
which the uncritlcaI layman otherwise
would have drawn from that source.
gave about equal stress and prominence
to all points. But my letter, instead Of
being published as written, was abridged
(for special reasons, 7 SUPPOSE by the
omission Of that which did not refer TO
.Osler, and was thereby transformed from
a general reply into a specific defense
Of that author.
Your correspondent now states that he
did not intend to quote all Dr. Osler
ever said" &c. I think that made il
amply clear as to what he did not in
tend to quote" from Osler.
AS your contributors second letter is
mostly a rehash Of his first let US not
wander away from the original issue.
Let Us pin this gentleman down with
inverted commas and apoStrophes, even
as the scientist pins down his biological
specimen, and see what we can demon
strate
First assertion: 1.-THE world is yet in
the densest darkness as 10 how
disease is caused -" Answer.
The causes of many Of the most dread
diseases, such as cholera, leprosy, plague
dysentery. malarial and typhoid feyers.
septicaemia, diphtheria, lockjaw, tUber-
culOsis, &c. are clearly and cOmprehen-
sively understood.
Second assertion. 1.-The world is vet
in the densest darkness as to -
how disease is cared There isl
no more healing power in any drug than
there is saving power in a stone image
o." Answer. Mercury and pOtas-
stun i0dide are specific cures for one of
the diseases in which they are used;
the animal parasite that causes the disease
and autitOXin cures diphtheria by counter
acting the toxin. or poison, OF the diph-
liberia bacillus. These two answers un-
mistakably indicate what measure Of sci /
entifc reliance can be placed upon the
statements of your correspondent con-
corning medical subjects But We will
proceed.
Third assertion: There is no science
I'm medicine" Answer: This has lust
been individually refuted, but to show
its utter recklessness 7 viii give some
gratuitOus facts. Medicine" does not
signify therapeutics only; it comprises /
more than twenty other branches. Of
these, chemistry, embryoloEy, anatomy.
physiology, histology, pathology, and
bacteriOlOgy are themselves sciences, on
which. with physics, are based the other
branches. including therapeutics. The
greater includes the lesser. Therefore.
even were it true (which it is not that
there is no science in therapeutics, med
icine' would still consist Of at least
seven complete and separate sciences.
Your contributor asserts that there IS
no science in medicine" but that there