Medical heresies historically considered : a series of critical essays on the origin and evolution of sectarian medicine, embracing a special sketch and review of homoeopathy, past and present

Front matter

No.

Boston EDiCAL Library Association,

19 BOYLSTON PLACE,

Chapter I

Ages in Medicine ; The Mythological, Dogmatic or Em- page pirical and Rational ; Origin of Medicine ; Its Evolution ; Primeval Medicine ; Ancient Egyptian Ci^dlization ; Influence of Epidemics upon Primeval Man 17-22

Chapter II

Egyptian Mythology, Isis, Osiris, Horus, Thoth, Aj^is, Esmion and Serapis; Diseases Attributed to the Anger of the Gods ; Priests ; Demonology ; Egyptian Mysteries ; Venesection ; Clysters ; Greek Colonies ; .y^Lsculapius ; Chiron the Centaur ; Machoan and Podalirius ; The Asclepiadse ; Pythagoras and his School; Secret Nostrums 23-30

Chapter IV

The Dogmatic School of Medicine ; Prominent Characters in this School ; School at Alexandria, 32 B.C. ; Herophilus ; Erasistratus ; Dissection of the Human Body Legalized for the First Time in the History of the World; Empiric School, 287 B.C.; Pyrrho ; Philinus ; Serapion ; Doctrines and Influence of this School ; Methodic School ; Asclepiades ; Stephanus ; Marcus Artorius ; Themison ; Principles and Influence of this School 35-42

Chapter V

Claudius Galen ; Biography ; Education ; Distracted Condition of Medicine ; Opportunities for Distinction; Revival and Revision of Dogmatism; His Writings and Opinions ; The Impression They left upon the Medical World ; His Cowardice 43-50

iii

IV CONTENTS.

Chapter VI

Doctrines and Influence of tlie Christian Churcli on the page Progress of Medicine ; Priestcraft ; Prayers ; Incantations ; Holy Waters, Ointments, etc., etc. ; Ignorance and Sujoerstition ; Reign of Justinian ; Destruc* tion of the School at Athens ; The Nestorians ; School at Edessa ; Baghdad ; Preservation of Medicine by the Arabians ; Schools in Spain ; Rhazes ; Hali Abbas ; Avicenna \ Albucasis ; Improvements Introduced by the Arabians 51-57

Chapter VII

Progress of Medicine in the West; Destruction of Roman Emjiire ; Ecclesiastics ; Oribasius ; vEtius ; Alexander of Tralles ; Paulus ^gineta ; Attempted Revival of Letters during the Reign of Charlemagne ; Theosophy and Astrology ; Schools at Monte Cassino and Salerno ; Cures by Prayer ; Revival of Practical Anatomy by Mondini, 1315 a. d. ; Important Events During the Century ; Cabalistic Medicine ; Cornelius Agrippa ; Jerome Cardan ; Paracelsus ; Chemical School of Medicine ; Doctrines of, and their Influence 58-68

Chapter VIII

The Rosicrucians ; Mystery connected with the Origin of this Sect ; Their Absurd Pretensions ; The Eclectic Conciliators ; Belief in Witchcraft ; Transmutation of Metals; Demonology, etc.; Mathematical School ; Borelli ; Principles of this School ; Bellini ; Unrealized Expectations of this School 69-72

Chapter IX

Brilliant Progi-ess of Surgery ; Evolution of Anatomy ; Knowledge of the Ancients upon this Subject ; Cannibalism ; Knowledge Gained by Embalming ; Prejudices against Dissections by the Jews, Greeks, Early Christians, etc. ; Roman Laws uj^on the Subject ; Rufus, the Ephesian ; Galen ; Mondini' s Work on Anatomy ; Carpi ; Silvius ; Michael Servetus ; Andrew Vesalius ; Harvey ; Progress of Medicine and the Collateral Sciences during the remainder of the Century 73-82

Chapter X

Progress of Medicine during the Close of the Seventeenth Century and the First Half of the Eighteenth ; New

CONTENTS. V

Schools Founded upon the Improvements in Physi- page ology During this Period ; Expectant School ; Ernest Stahl ; Principles of this School; Hoffmann's System ; Boerhaave ; CuUen's System ; The Brunonian System; The Last of the Dogmatic Schools 83-89

CHAPTER XI. Concluding Remarks on Ancient Dogmatism ; Medicine

and Philosophy ; Materia Medica of the Ancients 90-95

Chapter XII

Homoeopathy as Taught by Hahnemann ; Biography of Hahnemann ; Similia Similibus Curantur ; Transcendental Pathology ; Quotations from Organon ; Spirit-like, Dynamic Pathology ; Dilutions, Manufacture and Strength of; Olfaction ; Single Dose ; Disease Canceled by Removing Totality of Symptoms ; Vital Force, Rude and Instinctive ; Efforts of Nature the Disease itself; Local Remedies Denounced ; Hahnemann's Theory of Chronic Diseases; Three Miasms, Syphilis, Sycosis and Psora 96-123

Chapter XIII

Homoeopathy Continued ; Forces of Nature ; Opinion of the Ancients upon this Subject ; Unity of Force ; Nature of the Vital Forces ; Sensation and Motion ; Electric Force ; Impossibility of Diseased Vital Force ; Dynamic Causes of Disease ; Material Causes ; Hahnemann's Theory of Psora as a Cause ; Allopathy, Homoeopathy and Antipathy ; Law of Similars Based upon Symptoms and not Pathology ; Claimed as a Divine Revelation ; Explanation of the Modus Operandi of Cure under this Law 124-138

Chapter XIV

Discussion of Homoepathy Continued ; Provings ; Difficulties Attending this Process ; Dynamic Force Acquired by Dilution and Trituration ; Provings of Calcarea ; Allen's Encyclopaedia of Materia Medica ; Dynamization ; Hahnemann's New Chemical Law ; Divisibility of Metals ; Mathematical Calculations in Regard to Dilutions ; Modus Operandi of Medicines ; Effect of Medicine upon the Temperature of the Human Body; Antipyretic Treatment of Fevers 139-158

VI CONTENTS.

Chapter XV

Discussion of Homoeopatliy Continued ; Quotations h'om page Current Homoeopathic Literature ; Illinois Homoeopathic Medical Association ; Refusal to Indorse Similia Similibus Curantur ; Homoeopathic Society of New York; Resolutions of 1878, '79 and '80; Discussions and Differences of Opinion; Sherman's Milwaukee Test of the Thirtieth Dilution; Final Report Thereon ; Internal and Avoidable Obstacles to Homoeopathy ; Discussion of Homoeopathy by a Homoepath, in the Homoeopathic Times ; Examples of Homoepathic Practice ; Ludlam's Case of Ovariotomy; Homoeopathic Chicanery in Connection with Hospital on Ward's Island; Homoeopathy a Divine Truth or a Huge Lie 159-196

Chapter XVI

Summary; Similia; Kidd's Laws of Therapeutics ; Contrarii Contrariis ; Galen's Law; Cases from Kidd's Practice ; Totality of Symptoms and Pathological Lesions ; Similar Diseases Associated in the Same Individual ; Natural Diseases Essentially Dissimilar ; Pathology of no Use in Selecting a Remedy ; Drug- Disease ; Domain of Similia ; Propositions, Discussions and Conclusions ; Chemical, Mechanical and Physical Forces ; Tonics and Restoratives ; Metaphysical Discussions on Therapeutical Laws ; Slow Advance of Homoeopathy in the Old World ; International Hahnemannian Association 197-218

Preface

It is expected that every person who proposes to inflict a new book upon the profession should be able to give a good reason therefor.

My object in producing this little work is twofold : First, to furnish the profession a condensed history of the evolution of medicine, or, at least, so much of it as relates to the rise, progress and fall of the various schools, sects, or systems, from the earliest historical period down to the present. This I have done in as brief terms as possible, without any discussion of the contemporaneous systems of philosophy or theology with which medicine in former times has been strangely and inconsistently commingled.

I have also avoided as much as possible discussing

the materia medica of the ancients, especially as applied

to the treatment of special diseases, which would be of

interest only to the medical antiquarian.

vii

Vlll PREFACE.

My second object is to furnish the regular profession with some much needed information in regard to homoeopathy. Few busy practitioners have the time or inclination to investigate the claims of this school, and although they are brought in contact with it daily, know little or nothing of its real principles.

I have presented the principles of this school fairly, quoting the exact words of its founders, at the expense of some repetition, in order that I might not be accused of misrepresentation.

The discussion of these principles has been conducted from a scientific standpoint, and without ridicule, thus showing of what homoeopathy consisted originally ; and by quotations from the current literature of the school, with discussions thereon, showing what it is now.

It is confidently believed that the condensed information contained in this little book will not be altogether without interest to the profession.

G. C. Smythe.

HISTORICALIY CONSIDERED. '

Chapter I

Ages in Medicine — Hie Mythological, Dogmatic or Empirical, and national — Origin of Medicine — Evolution — Primeval Medicine — Ancient Egyptian Civilization — Epidemics, Plagues, Black Death.

In writing a history of medicine it would seem philosophical to divide the subject into three periods or ages, to be denominated respectively — I. The Mythological; II. The Dogmatic or Empirical; and,

III. The Rational.

The Mythological age extends from the infancy of the human race to about the year 400 B.C., and includes what is known from tradition of the early evolution of medicine, together with the meagre facts gained from history during this interesting epoch.

The history of medicine really begins with the Dogmatic or Empirical age, and includes that portion of

the time between the Hippocratic period (400 B.C.) 2 17 and the close of the eighteenth century, A.D., or the death of the last Dogmatic system, the Brunonian.

The Rational age in medicine begins where dogmatism leaves off; viz., about the close of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth. It is founded upon the ruins of the ancient dogmatic schools, together with the new facts discovered about this time by the rapid evolution of anatomy, physiology, pathology, chemistry and the collateral sciences.

The latter two ages are necessarily more or less blended, and seem to overlap each other ; yet a distinct line of demarkation can be discovered by the careful student; and, notwithstanding Hippocrates is said to have been the father of rational medicine, from the very nature of things existing at that time, his system could be little better than a rational empiricism.

It is not my intention to write a History of Medicine, but simply to gather so much from the general history of the subject in a condensed form as relates to the rise and fall of the different schools, sects or systems of medicine from the earliest period of Avhich we have any knowledge, down to, and including, some of the more prominent heresies of the present day.

The opinion is almost unanimous among historians, upon this subject, that the origin of medicine can be traced to the ancient Egyptian civilization. This can be only partially true. The art of treating accidents, injuries and diseases m ust have been brought about among all

EPIDEMICS, PLAGUES. 19

primeval nations by the slow process of evolution. This process was necessarily slow, and must have extended over an immense period of time which was pregnant with danger and disaster to the race. Whole tribes or nations perished, or even continents must have been depopulated by epidemics, plagues and pestilential diseases during this long period when the race was struggling up from savagery and barbarism.

What could primitive man have done to stay the ravages of such an epidemic as the one from which our Southern States have recently suffered ; or such a plague as the Black Death, which during the fourteenth century is said to have destroyed in China 13,000,000 of the population, and in the other Eastern countries 24,000,- 000 more? The loss by death from the plague in Europe only was over 25,000,000. A plague was prevalent in London as late as a.d. 1665, where it destroyed in the latter half of that year no less than 76,000 persons. Also in the city of Toulon as late as A.D. 1720, where, out of a population of 26,276 souls, 20,000 were attacked and 16,000 perished. What, I ask, could primeval man do under such circumstances? and we have no reason to believe that he was exempt from such calamities ; on the contrary, judging from the careless manner in which he lived he must have been oftener subjected to such pestilences than his more modern successor. We find the remains of slaughtered animals and all kinds of debris capable

20 MEDICAL HEKESIES.

of preservation, right in the cave where he dwelt, and "kitchen middings" several feet deep immediately in front of the door of his habitation.

According to the recent investigations of Professor Marsh, this continent is the birthplace of the horse and the monkey. It is not likely that the means of subsistence were ever so precarious as to cause extinction by starvation on such a vast continent as this, but it is far more plausible to suppose that they have disappeared by the ravages of some epidemic disease.

If the evidence brought to light by archaeologists is trustworthy, this continent was once inhabited by a numerous and thrifty race of people, who have left behind them traces of civilization greatly superior to that of the inhabitants found here by its European discoverers. It is not likely that this superior race was conquered and annihilated by the lazy, good-for-nothing savages who succeeded them. It is much more reasonable to conclude that they perished by the ravages of plagues and epidemic diseases of different kinds which afflicted them in rapid succession. And they, having no knowledge of sanitary science, would be unable to oppose any obstacle to the progress of such calamities after the germs were once scattered in their midst.

It is highly probable that the human race has been struggling against such influences for a thousand centuries; and it would indeed be strange if some knowledge of agents to ameliorate the condition of the afflicted

ORIGIN" OF THE HEALING ART. 21

were not discovered. Even the beasts of the field, guided by their sensations alone, would soon learn to bathe their fevered bodies in the cooling waters of a convenient brook.

It is altogether probable that the healing art is coexistent with the race. However rude their practice may have been, with no way of preserving their experiences excepting by tradition, it is little wonder that whole tribes perished, or that continents were depopulated. It would not require much time for a primeval man with a fractured leg to learn that a perfect state of rest would cause him to suffer less pain, and that if the fracture was steadied with a stick or piece of bark, tied on with rawhide, he could move about with more comfort ; and after a lapse of a few weeks he would find that he could dispense with his rude splint — in fact, that his wound had recovered, crooked it might be, and perhaps too short, but still a useful limb. This experience would not be lost. He would also learn that cold water, if his limb was too hot, would keep it cool ; and if his wound was an open one, that keeping it moist would cause it to be less painful ; and hence, he would naturally apply something to retain the moisture, if it was nothing but a fig leaf. But if he should happen to apply some anodyne plant, like stramonium, belladonna, or poppies, he would learn something more, and that something would be treasured up as a precious discovery, for the benefit of posterity. Such is the real origin of the healing art ;

it is not a gift of the gods. An immense period must have elapsed while the human family was emerging from this condition, and before diseases were attributed to the anger of evil spirits; for this would necessarily signify the evolution of a moral sense, at least the knowledge of good and evil.

EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY. 23

Chapter II

Egyptian Mythology — Isis, Osiris, Horus, Thoth, A^jis, Esmion, Serapis — Disease Attributed to the Anger of the Gods — Priests — Demonology — Egyptian Mysteries — Venesection — Clysters — Greek Colonies — uEsculapius — Chiron the Centaur • — Machoan — Podalirius — The Asclepiadce — Pythagoras and his School — Secret Nostrums.

The ancient Egyptians attributed the diseases with which they were afflicted to the anger of their gods. Among their principal deities might be mentioned Isis, sister and wife of Osiris ; her son Horus, whose life she miraculously restored, and who is the same as the Apollo of the Greeks ; Thoth, the same as Hermes of the Greeks ; also Apis, Esmion, Serapis, and many others.

Serapis was worshiped as a medical divinity by both Greeks and Egyptians, as late as the time of Alexander the Great. The origin of medicine is attributed by different authorities to several of these deities. Horus is said to have received his knowledge of diseases and their antidotes from his mother Isis, and he is regarded as the inventor of the art by some. Yet Apis is regarded by equally as good authority as the deity to whom this honor is due ; and there are still others who claim that Thoth is the real inventor of all the arts and sciences, including medicine. Of course, at this late date it matters little to us, and less to the gods, to whom we ascribe this doubtful honor. These gods were all of human origin, but had been deified by a grateful people, for supposed benefits conferred. When the gods condescended to practice medicine it had to be done by proxy, and this created a necessity for middle-men, or a priesthood, as is too often the case with the more modern gods. All diseases were regarded as caused by the displeasure of the gods, and of course, according to that view of their pathology, they could be cured in no other way than by appeasing this displeasure, and no other means could be employed by the multitude in order to approach these gods, than through the medium of the priests who administered in the temples. The sick were bewildered with imposing rites and ceremonies which were as senseless and unscientific as the beating of the tom-tom and the frightful grimaces made by the great medicine-man of the North American Indians. If any medicines were used, their names as well as their virtues, if they had any, were carefully concealed. Their entire practice consisted in a miscellaneous conglomeration of absurdities, of which the following is a good example : They believed there were thirty-six demons or gods of the air, who had divided the human body among themselves, into that many parts, and that by invoking the god who presided over the particular part affected the disease would be relieved.

The sum total of all human knowledge, including what was known of medicine and the collateral sciences.

EGYPTIAN MYSTEBIES. 25

was supposed to be communicated to those who w^ere initiated into the secrets of the ancient Egyptian mysteries. This knowledge was carefully concealed from the vulgar, and those who were initiated were bound to secrecy by blood-curdling oaths, and required to go through with the most extravagant and absurd forms and ceremonies previous to and during their initiation, sufficient to eclipse by far any of the modern institutions of that kind, some of which are sufficiently absurd, as many of my readers well know. They used venesection, cathartics, emetics and clysters. They claimed to have been taught venesection by the hippopotamus, which, it is said, performed this operation upon itself by striking its leg against a sharp reed and opening a vein in this way, and after the blood had flowed as long as it thought proper filled the wound with mud. The ancient hippopotamus might have amused himself in this dangerous way, but I have no doubt that his modern successor has learned more sense. They also claim to have learned the use of clysters from their sacred bird. Ibis, which is said to have administered them to itself with its bill. So much for ancient Egyptian medicine. Nothing has been lost to the science by our want of familiarity with it.

Ancient Greece was largely colonized by the Egyptians. These colonists brought their deities and their worship along with them, and consequently the mythology of the Greeks was largely borrowed from the

Egyptians ; and especially was this the case with medical divinities. But the Greeks were a restless, warlike people, and soon developed a propensity for manufacturing gods that fairly eclipsed all previous efforts in that line, one of their finest specimens being ^sculapius ; and as he was their most illustrious god in medicine, it will be well to look into his history somewhat. He is represented as being the son of Apollo and Coronis. He was a student of Chiron the centaur, who, if I am correctly informed, established the first medical college mentioned in history, in a cave or grotto at the foot of Mount Pelion, where he taught medicine, music, botany and chirurgery. Efforts have been made by some etymologists to derive the latter word from his name. Some of the most celebrated names of this period appear among those who were numbered as his students. But as we are concerned only with those who are most illustrious in medicine, we shall confine our attention to ^sculapius and his two sons, Machoan and Podalirius. Chiron lived to a great age, and frequently instructed both father and son, as in the above case. He was accidentally killed by a poisoned arrow, shot at another person by young Hercules, who was also a student of his, and who is reputed as having had an uncontrollable temper. I mention this fact in order to show that the antidote to the poison the ancient Greeks were using on their arrows was unknown, for the wound itself was slight,

^SCULAPIUS AND HIS SONS. 27

being situated near the knee, and would probably not have produced death had it not been poisoned.

^sculapius distinguished himself above all others as surgeon-in-chief of the expedition of Argonauts in search of the golden fleece, and his fame has been celebrated in poetry, more as a surgeon than as a physician ; in fact, he evidently knew very little about the administration of drugs as curative agents. He is reported to have raised the dead, but with as little truth, perhaps, as the same report in regard to the more modern gods. He used songs, dances, incantations, amulets, etc., for the cure of disease. One of his principal medicines appears to have been a mixture of wine, meal and scraped cheese made from goat's milk. His skill in medicine has been greatly over-estimated. He was not deified until after the time of Homer ; at least, there is nothing in Homer that indicates that such was the case. Another account places his deification about fifty years before the siege of Troy, which is supposed to have been about 1184 B.C. ^sculapius was destroyed by a thunderbolt from Jupiter, at the special request of Pluto, because he was interfering w^ith the peopling of the latter's empire. Apollo revenged the death of his son by destroying the Cyclops who forged the bolt. So it will be observed that the gods do not always constitute a happy family; a very good argument against having too many.

Machoan and Podalirius, the two sons of ^sculapius.

were at the siege of Troy, and greatly distingaished themselves as surgeons and physicians. Medical knowledge was retained as a secret in this family, and transmitted from father to son, until the time of Hippocrates. His descendants formed a priesthood called the Asclepiadae, who administered in the temples which were erected in the principal cities to commemorate his worship, much after the manner of the Egyptians. These rites and ceremonies seem rather silly and unscientific to modern physicians, but we must remember that they were not possessed of as valuable a materia medica as we are, and in the absence of such they had to make up the deficiency in pomp and show; and we ought to remember that this very circumstance contributed much in making a favorable mental impression, a thing of real value in the treatment of certain forms of disease, which I shall have occasion to demonstrate before closing this essay, in treating of another branch of this subject. During the sixth century B.C., Pythagoras, after extensive travels in foreign countries, during which he is said to have learned all there was of human knowledge at that day and age of the world, returned and settled at Crotonia, where he established a school of philosophy and medicine; and owing to his venerable appearance and burning eloquence he was regarded as a messenger direct from the gods — a pious fraud which he encouraged. He soon had numerous disciples and followers, which included some of the most illustrious names among

THE SCHOOL OF PYTHAGORAS. 29

the ancient Grecian philosophers, such as Empedocles, Democritus, Anaxagoras, and others. Through the teachings of these men medicine and philosophy were connected and taught conjointly, but their practice was almost as superstitious as that of the priests in the temples ; in fact, Pythagoras is supposed to have borrowed his philosophy largely from the Egyptians, where he is known to have been circumcised and initiated into the ancient mysteries. His knowledge of the power of drugs must have been very vague and indefinite. He regarded the cabbage as a universal remedy for all diseases, when, in fact, it is almost worthless, even as an article of diet in health, and positively injurious in nearly all forms of disease excepting those based on a scorbutic diathesis, and even in these greatly inferior to many plants.

Medicine, philosophy and religion were strangely and inconsistently commingled for centuries after the time of Pythagoras.

The Pythagoreans were communists, and their practices soon became obnoxious to the people who prosecuted them, and about 500 B.C. their society was disbanded and the disciples of Pythagoras were scattered throughout the cities of Greece, where they divulged the secrets of his philosophy and his practices. Had it not been for this circumstance the world would never have known anything about his system of philosophy, for he left no writings behind him.

This disclosure of the Pythagorean system and its propagation among the people soon built up a formidable rivalry between his disciples and the Asclepiadse, who still practiced and taught medicine in the temples, which induced them to disclose the secrets of their system; which brings us down, in the course of time, to the period of Hippocrates. It is also a fact that ought not to escape our notice, that secret nostrums were sold in the principal cities of Greece at least five hundred years before the Christian era; and still the patentmedicine-man flourishes.

HIPPOCRATES. 31

Chapter III

■ Hiiypocrates — Genealogy — Writings of, and Opinions.

The history of Dogmatic or Empirical medicine, as transmitted to us in a direct line, begins with Hippocrates and his followers. All our information prior to this date partakes largely of the prehistoric or mythological.

Hippocrates was born on the island of Cos, near the beginning of the 80th Olympiad, and consequently was in the prime of life about the year 400 B.C. He was a lineal descendant, seventeen generations removed, of ^sculapius, on the paternal side of the house, and on the maternal side he traced his ancestry to Hercules; a genealogy sufficiently ancient and aristocratic to suit the most fastidious. He is the first of the ancients who left us any considerable amount of literature on the subject of medicine. He is the reputed author of seventeen books or short treatises on various subjects connected with medicine, some of which are genuine, and some of which are known to be apochryphal.

There appears to have been a kind of mania for writing apochryphal books, which originated about this time and continued for several centuries. The authors of some of them imagined themselves to be inspired, but they were evidently inflated only. Be this as it may, the works attributed to Hippocrates perhaps give us a very accurate view of medicine as it existed at that time. Whether or not they were all the result of his handiwork, several of them are known to be genuine;

It has been said that if Shakespeare's writings were subtracted from the English language and literature very little would remain. The truth of this statement will be readily conceded by persons familiar with the subject, for Shakespeareanisms are found permeating our literature everywhere.

So much could not be said of the writings of Hippocrates in reference to medicine, at this day and age of the world, but it could have been said for several centuries after his death, without any violation of the truth.

Hippocrates flourished when nothing or next to nothing was known of anatomy, physiology, or pathology. Chemistry was yet an unborn science. Not a single trace of chemistry as applied to pharmacy can be found previous to or during the time in which Hippocrates lived. Little was known of Botany ; especially of the medicinal properties of plants.

We are struck with wonder and admiration for the man who could so impress the coming ages, with such a small capital to begin with, in the shape of collateral sciences, as he possessed. He was the first who attempted to separate medicine from philosophy and start it in business for itself, and is justly entitled to be called the

OPINIONS OF HIPPOCRATES. 33

"father of medicine." He recognized a certain force which he called Nature, which he regarded as the ^^ first of all physicians^' It appears that he relied greatly on this force in the cure of disease, and especially if he did not see his way clearly ; a practice which ought to be imitated by the profession of to-day much oftener than it is. He attributed a real intelligence to this force. He says, " Nature is sufficient of itself for every animal. She performs everything that is necessary to them without any instruction how to do it. She distributes the blood, spirits and heat through all parts of the body, by which means it receives life and sensation, nourishment, preservation and growth." He finally resolves this force into heat, which he says is immortal. Not a bad guess for a man to make twenty -three centuries ago, who was not acquainted with the fact, as now demonstrated, that force is as eternal and persistent as matter itself ! His pathology was altogether humoral. He enumerated four humors — blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. He regarded imprudence in diet as a frequent source of disease. He treats of diet extensively in his writings. He also considered bad air as a prolific source of disease. He noted the direction of the wind and the irregularity of the seasons, the rising and setting of the stars, the solstices and equinoxes, and observed that these influences had a profound impression on certain diseases. Right here is a vast field for observation, which is of untold importance, and which has not been sufficiently explored until this day. There is less known of the meteorology of diseases than almost any field in the sciences. The suggestions made by him on this subject seem to have gone unheeded for ages after his death. I have every reason to believe that had he been possessed of the modern appliances for taking observations which we have had so long, he would have laid the foundations for meteorological observations in medicine, which would have borne fruit of great value. Some of Hippocrates' divisions of diseases have scarcely been modified, and Avords spoken by physicians daily, in the present age, are found in his writings, with the same meanings as at present ; such as acute and chronic ; epidemic, endemic and sporadic ; malignant and benign, crisis, and so on. In prognosis he had superior tact, making some observations that have never been improved upon. His description of the countenance just before death takes place is so true and vivid that it has borne the name of the Hippocratic countenance until this day. His theory of disease was based on the four elements of earth, fire, air, and water; and the four humors already mentioned. He believed that some derangement of these elements and humors constituted the essence of diseases, and that the principle he called Nature prepared them for expulsion from the body by a process he called coction, and that they were expelled by a crisis.