Page 144 - My FlipBook

124 Curative Treatment of Cartes.
this subject, by showing how fond we are of believing what
we could wish to be true. Cements are kept by some of the

to (he erudite work of Dr. Leo-Wolf, whom we are proud to honor as a
member of the profession, and whose admirable analysis of Hahne-
mann will redound to his honor, when the works of authors less unpre-
tending will have been forgotten."
"Gambling," says the historian Gibbon, "is a natural propensity of
man." It has not a more fasinating charm with the gamster, than has
mystery with the credulous man, afflicted with any disease.
England has been termed "the paradise of quacks," we doubt if tha
term were not more applicable to our own country : tor quacks in every
department of the healing art are swarming the land ; steam doctors, root
doctors, Indian doctors, bone setters or doctors, and lastly tooth doctors.
We cannot look into a newspaper of the present day, without meeting
With medical and quack advertisements, the most digusting to a man of
sense, all held forth to the eager eyes of the afflicted, as panaceas, who,
actuated by credulity or hope, grasp at them aa a drowning man at a
straw, and with as much advantage. "Doctor diet," " doctor quiet," and
" doctor cheer." are the best physicians for the telief or cure of those
diseases, for which patent medicines are taken by the afflicted ; and with-
out these, conjoined with wholsome exercise, all the medicines in the
world can be of little use. " A quack is known by his advertisement."
The thorough bred physician never offers a specific, for the cure of any
disease, for he knows there are none. The administration of medicine in
all chronic or organic diseases is of little advantage, unless accompanied
with a strict regimen or diet. It is in the treatment of violent diseases,
where the skill of the judicious physician is displayed. As the master
of a ship, during a stcrm at sea, directs her guidance, so the physician,
watching every symp'om of the disease, endeavors to check, remove, or
obviate the effects of all those that are unfavorable, till the storm abates.
The effects of change of diet, exercise, recreation, &c. are well illus-
trated by the following extracts from Paris' Pharmacologia :
" Let us then, before we decree the honors of a cure to a favorite me-
dicine, carefully and candidly ascertain the exa^t circumstances under
which it was exhibited, or we shall rapidly accumulate examples of the
fallacies to which our art is exposed ; what has been more common than
to attribute to the efficacy of a mineral water, those fortunate changes of
constitution that have en'tirelyor in a great measure, arisen from salubrity
of situation, hilarity of mind, exercise of body, and regularity of habits,
which have incidentally accompanied its potation. Thus, the celebrated
John Wesley, while he commemorates the triumph of ' Sulphur and
Supplication,' over his bodily infirmity, forgets to appreciate the resus-
citating influence of four months repose from his apostolic labors; and
such is the disposition of the human mind to place confidence in the ope-
ration of mysterious agents, that we find him more disposed to attribute
Ivs cure to a brown paper plaister of esrg and brimstone, than to Dr.
Fothergill's salutary prescription of country air, rest, asses milk, and horse
exercise. The ancient physicians duly appreciated the influence of such
agents ; their temples, like our watering places, were the resort of those
whom medicine will not cure, and we are expressly told by Plutarch that
these temples, especially that of Esculapius, were erected on derated