THE Chicago Medical Times. WILSON H. DAVIS, M. D., Editor and Publisher. BY HENRY G. GABEL, M. D., AURORA, ILL. An English traveler in the Fiji Islands once observed one of the chiefs of the island ascending a mountain path with a long line of people following him in single file. The chief happened to stumble and fall, when immediately every man in the long procession, except one, stumbled also, and lay flat upon the ground; when the chief arose, they all arose likewise, and fell upon the dissenting or neglectful member who dared to deviate from the sacred custom of the tribe, and beat him to death with their clubs. This incident is a picture of the law of evolution which runs through the entire philosophy of history. All of us are aware how hard it is for the savage to accustom himself to labor and regular habits, and thus fit himself for concerted action with his fellow-man. We also know that with political freedom, advancing civilization is inevitable. Free discussion ensues; thought is excited; error detected; truth elicited, and all are finally benefited by the conflict between the radical and conservative elements of the human mind. This is as true in medicine as in politics or religion. Says a great thinker, "One of the greatest pains of human nature is the pain of a new idea. It the present time. Members are requested to furnish papers in their possession as early as possible, in order to prevent delay. The following officers were elected for the ensuing year: President, E. D. Wiley, M. D., of Des Moines; Vice President, J. A. Reid, M. D., of Davenport; Recording Secretary, Watson Roberts, M. D., of Marshalltown; Treasurer, C. B. Powell, M. D., of Russell; Corresponding Secretary, J. A. McKloveen, M. D., of Chariton. This Society will hold its next annual meeting at Des Moines, commencing on the second Wednesday in June, 1880. J. A. McKLOVEEN, Corresponding Secretary. THE Volta Electric Belt comes indorsed by high scientific authority as an apparatus for generating the direct continuous galvanic current of an intensity and strength which does not vary for ten or twelve hours. There is no longer doubt that the application of such a current for hours at a time is productive of decided reliable and permanent therapeutic effects, and for that purpose the Volta Electric Belt is offered to the medical profession. Common experience has demonstrated that there are nervous, chronic and functional diseases in which electricity is the most efficient treatment. In those conditions of the system where there is a loss or a derangement of nerve force which manifests itself in neuralgiac or rheumatic troubles, in nervous dyspepsia, in any of the manifold symptoms consequent upon the conditions described, electrical treatment has won a claim which we hope the profession will honor by an enlightened investigation which shall assign electricity to its proper place (for it has a place) in therapeutics, so that it may be prescribed with as much certainty and defininiteness as any article in the materia medica. Ease of management, simplicity of application, durability of material and good workmanship are evidenced by the slightest inspection of a sample. BY HENRY G. GABEL, M. D., AURORA, ILL. An English traveler in the Fiji Islands once observed one of the chiefs of the island ascending a mountain path with a long line of people following him in single file. The chief happened to stumble and fall, when immediately every man in the long procession, except one, stumbled also, and lay flat upon the ground; when the chief arose, they all arose likewise, and fell upon the dissenting or neglectful member who dared to deviate from the sacred custom of the tribe, and beat him to death with their clubs. This incident is a picture of the law of evolution which runs through the entire philosophy of history. All of us are aware how hard it is for the savage to accustom himself to labor and regular habits, and thus fit himself for concerted action with his fellow-man. We also know that with political freedom, advancing civilization is inevitable. Free discussion ensues; thought is excited; error detected; truth elicited, and all are finally benefited by the conflict between the radical and conservative elements of the human mind. This is as true in medicine as in politics or religion. Says a great thinker, "One of the greatest pains of human nature is the pain of a new idea. It is, as common people say, 'so upsetting.' It makes you think that, after all, your favorite notion may be wrong, your firmest belief ill-founded. Naturally, therefore, common men hate a new idea, and are disposed more or less to ill-treat the man who brings it." "The science of medicine," says Sir Astley Cooper, "is founded on conjecture." Sir Thomas Watson says, "Our profession is continually floating on a sea of doubts about questions of the gravest importance." When such thoughts are expressed by the great independent thinkers of the world, it should make every intelligent and conscientious physician ask himself how far his own conduct and opinion has contributed to this pitiable condition of the profession. Magendie says, "Medicine is not a science; we are collecting facts, and perhaps in a century there may be a science.' Are we then, as the Eclectic branch of the medical profession, collecting facts in regard to the theory of Specific Medication which may, even in a century, give us a medical science, or, in other words, a rational practice of medicine? When we look about us in nature, we find this universal law, "Like causes always produce like effects." Even in some of the branches of medicine, we recognize this law; as in botany, chemistry, anatomy, physiology, pathology, surgery and obstetrics. Can we say as much for therapeutics? I think not. Is this branch, then, an exception to this great law? Certainly not; but it is so imperfectly understood that we may at times think that it is an exception. However, if we have certain conditions which are alike in two or more persons, and we find an agent or remedy which removes these conditions in one person, can we not reasonably expect that the same agent or remedy will remove these conditions in all? If so, it follows that we must first know the pathological condition and the expression thereof, and then know that remedies have a certain definite influence upon the body, and that one must be opposed to the other. I dare say that we all have seen certain expressions of disease in which certain remedies were found to be curative. Can we not expect the same remedy to be curative in all like cases? The expression may unfold to us a pathological condition, and, in such a case, we prescribe for said condition. Yet the expression of disease will many times only point out the remedy, and leave us in the dark about the lesion. The remedy, however, acts as certainly as if we knew the exact pathological change the part had undergone. We, as a school of medicine, acknowledge that disease is wrong life, instead of an entity, as our forefathers used to think. This wrong finds a uniform expression in its outward manifestations recognizable by the human senses. The fact, I think, will not be disputed, that remedies are selective and uniform in their actions; the condition being the same, their action will always be the same. So, if we desire to influence a certain part of the body, we choose a remedy which acts upon that part. Let us observe correctly, and reason to accurate conclusions; a practice resting upon such a rule must necessarily be right. Now comes the relative importance of these lesions. We want to know which is at the base, upon which others have grown. Let me illustrate: A simple fever has for its basie lesion a disturbance of the circulation; as a result of this, we have an increase of temperature, loss of appetite and digestion, arrest of secretion, and a deranged condition of the nervous system. We have seen that very severe forms of disease thus rest upon this lesion of the circulation, and by giving the special sedatives, this underlying lesion was removed, and our patient became convalescent. Again we have other cases quite as well marked as the above, where sedatives do not even cause sedation. In these cases, the lesion may be of the blood or nervous system, and we look for remedies that act upon the blood or nervous system in such a way as to counteract this lesion. The right remedy being chosen according to indications present, from the class of antiperiodics, antiseptics, nerve-sedatives or nerve-tonics. The experience of other members of the profession, with that of my own, convinces me that Specific Medication is no |