Year: 1866

so Win lue HuIidu DcuN, We HhuS'
study its parts by experience, to un-
derstand them thoroughly, we must
GO back to the simpler forms of life
and study each organ through all the
lower classes of animal life, and to
understand them as well as the forces
acting through them, we must study
all the forces in nature. So the ply
sician has to begin with the study OF
the great nature, the marko kosp'os, its
chemical as well as physical laws, we
find no chemical elements in the hui
man body, which we do not find else
where, and they follow the same laws
a. d combinations, only slightly modi-
/ fed. How could one understand, TO
demonstrate this little farther, the
philosophy of respiration, if he did not
know anything about oxygen, and
carbon, and what chemical combina-
ton they can undergo and farther,
how could one understand life,' If from
ignorance or oversight he would over
look the laws of mechanics, of hydro
states, of warmth, of electricity and
of magnetism. 1t is the duty as we'll
as the pride Of the physician, TO be
well conversant with these sciences,
and his only sorrow is, that his time
and his attention is called to so many
other fields of investigation, so that
he is not able to devote more than a
part Of them to these so interesting
studies. With great satisfaction we
point to the fact, that the greatest dis
covery in modern times, the identity
and indistructability of all forces, has
been made by practising physician
DIR. Maier of Heidelberg, We men
toned before, that TO understand the
structure Of the human organism, it
is necessary to study animated life in
bodies of the animal as well as the
vegetable world, the cell, the prima-
tive growth and the origin of all nor
NAL as well as abnormal growth is most
easily perceived and understood in
the vegetable world, so are all the or
gans of the human body only under
stood if observed in their first most
simple and uncompleted appearance
in the lower classes of animals, so
among others the eye, first we sec
simple depression of the skin, covered
on the inside, with a ramificaton Of
nerves, then the eyes Of the insect
with their many facets, and so on
and on to an higher development.--
los tol 10
diseased eye understandingly if he
did not know thoroughly the normal
structure Of the same, its component
parts and their nature, the func-
lions of each of them? Would he
not be just like the man who tries
to improve the irregularities of his
time-pieee 10y slapping IL against his
kps. throwing At ON the floor, one
hundred chances against one, that he
would utterly destroy the subtle
mechanism, instead Of improving it.


The physician must also study the
whole nature, the mzrOkOsm0s, as
our predecessors said the great world,
to be able to understand the little
word, mikrOkOsmas the human or
ganism. But not even hero is the
beginning of his labors, to study ma
ture it is necessary, correctly to OBJ


serve, and to draw exact inferences
and conclusions. Nowhere are super
fetal observations and hasty and un-
justified deductions to be so much
dreaded, nowhere so strictly TO be
avoided as in the natural sciences and
the science and practice of medicine.
In common life we meet these faults
almost everywhere, mostly in regard
to medicine, here they create untold
mischief, how often do we hear such
reasons as: my friend A., b., has been
SO sick, was on the point Of dying, but
he took the Life Restorer, the Great
Panacea, or some other of the numor-
GUS nostroms, and he got well at
once, it did cure him straight off,
Now we might ask, does the one who
says such things, know that it is true {?
Is there not simple exaggeration, or
more pardonable deception by signs
very imposing to the laymen, but not
at all so dangerous; don't we see al


most every day hysterical patients
seemingly on the point of death, and
the next day able TO dress for theatre
or the ball? And who says that the
first mentioned got well after oil, how
often do we see such, cured by some
quackery as they and their friends
iondIy believe, totter around pale and
emaciated, Fastening only to their
graves ? This is hasty and faulty
observation by such, who have not
the knowledge or are prevented by
bias and prejudice from making a
correct and satisfactory observation.
But assuming it is true, that A. b.
has been very sick, took a quack nos
trum and got well, does it follow that
the nostrum cured him was it not
that the disease had spent itself, that
nature had conquered it; nature is
very strong and is often victorious not
only over disease but a poor physician
too? 1t does not follow 10y any
means that one fact being proceeded by
ancther that the first is the eau OF
the last. Such erroneous observations,
such i'll conducted conclusions, so very
frequent in common life, would lie
exceedingly dangerous in investiga-
ton ofnature or i'll physician, there
fore his education must thoroughly
provide for this, liberal education
through the classics, strict attention
to mathematical and logical studies, a
full development Of the senses 10y
drawing and music must lay the
foundation for the close observation
and the correct judgment, so eminent
ly needed by the scholar of the heal
ing art Has the physician studied
nature at large and become ac-
quainted with its laws, then he will
have to pay strict attention 20 the