The American Reformed Cattle Doctor Part 5

The strength and health of an animal depend on a due share of exercise, pure air, and suitable food. Deprive an animal of these, and he will cease to exist. We believe in the great doctrine that the duty of the physician is to aid nature in protecting herself in the enjoyment of health, by proper attention to breeding, rearing, ventilation, and proper farm and stable management.

"The tinsel glitter of fine-spun theory, or favorite hypothesis, which prevails wherever allopathy hath been taught, so dazzles, flatters, and charms human vanity and folly, that, so far from contributing to the certain and speedy cure of diseases, it hath, in every age, proved the bane and disgrace of healing art."--_Graham_, p. 15.

"Those physicians generally become the most distinguished who soonest emanc.i.p.ate themselves from the tyranny of the schools of physic."--RUSH.

"Availing ourselves of the privileges we possess, and animated by the n.o.blest impulses, let us cordially cooperate to give to medicine a new direction, and attempt those great improvements which it imperiously demands."--_Ther._, vol. i. p. 51.

"It has been proved by allopathists themselves, that 'a physician should be nature's servant;' that 'bleeding tends directly to subdue nature's efforts;' that 'all poisons suddenly and rapidly destroy a great proportion of the vitality of the system;' that whatever be the quant.i.ty, use, or manner of application, all the influence they inherently possess is injurious, and that they are not fatal in every instance of their use only because nature overpowers them."--_Curtis._

AN INQUIRY CONCERNING THE SOULS OF BRUTES.

"Are these then made in vain? Is man alone, Of all the marvels of creative love, Blest with a scintillation of His essence-- The heavenly spark of reasonable soul?

And hath not yon sagacious dog, that finds A meaning in the shepherd's idiot face; Or the huge elephant, that lends his strength To drag the stranded galley to the sh.o.r.e, And strives with emulative pride t' excel The mindless crowd of slaves that toil beside him; Or the young generous war-horse, when he sniffs The distant field of blood, and quick and shrill Neighing for joy, instils a desperate courage Into the veteran trooper's quailing heart,-- Have they not all an evidence of soul, (Of soul, the proper attribute of man,) The same in kind, though meaner in degree?

Why should not that which hath been--be forever?

And death, O, can it be annihilation?

No,--though the stolid atheist fondly clings To that last hope, how kindred to despair!

No,--'tis the struggling spirit's hour of joy, The glad emanc.i.p.ation of the soul, The moment when the c.u.mbrous fetters drop, And the bright spirit wings its way to heaven!

"To say that G.o.d annihilated aught, Were to declare that in an unwise hour He planned and made somewhat superfluous.

Why should not the mysterious life that dwells In reptiles as in man, and shows itself In memory, grat.i.tude, love, hate, and pride, Still energize, and be, though death may crush Yon frugal ant or thoughtless b.u.t.terfly, Or, with the simoom's pestilential gale Strike down the patient camel in the desert?

"There is one chain of intellectual soul, In many links and various grades, throughout The scale of nature; from the climax bright, The first great Cause of all, Spirit supreme, Incomprehensible, and unconfined, To high archangels blazing near the throne, Seraphim, cherubim, virtues, aids, and powers, All capable of perfection in their kind;-- To man, as holy from his Maker's hand He stood in possible excellence complete, (Man, who is destined now to brighter glories,-- As nearer to the present G.o.d, in One His Lord and Subst.i.tute,--than angels reach;) Then man has fallen, with every varied shade Of character and capability, From him who reads his t.i.tle to the skies, Or grasps, with giant-mind, all nature's wonders, Down to the monster-shaped, inhuman form, Murderer, slavering fool, or blood-stained savage; Then to the prudent elephant, the dog Half-humanized, the docile Arab horse, The social beaver, and contriving fox, The parrot, quick in pertinent reply, The kind-affectioned seal, and patriot bee, The merchant-storing ant, and wintering swallow, With all those other palpable emanations And energies of one Eternal Mind Pervading and instructing all that live, Down to the sentient gra.s.s and shrinking clay.

In truth, I see not why the breath of life, Thus omnipresent, and upholding all, Should not return to Him and be immortal, (I dare not say the same,) in some glad state Originally destined for creation, As well from brutish bodies, as from man.

The uncertain glimmer of a.n.a.logy Suggests the thought, and reason's shrewder guess; Yet revelation whispers nought but this,-- 'Our Father careth when a sparrow dies,'

And that 'the spirit of a brute descends,'

As to some secret and preserving Hades.

"But for some better life, in what strange sort Were justice, mixed with mercy, dealt to these?

Innocent slaves of sordid, guilty man, Poor unthanked drudges, toiling to his will, Pampered in youth, and haply starved in age, Obedient, faithful, gentle, though the spur, Wantonly cruel, or unsparing thong, Weal your galled hides, or your strained sinews crack Beneath the crus.h.i.+ng load,--what recompense Can He who gave you being render you, If in the rank, full harvest of your griefs Ye sink annihilated, to the shame Of government unequal?--In that day When crime is sentenced, shall the cruel heart Boast uncondemned, because no tortured brute Stands there accusing? Shall the embodied deeds Of man not follow him, nor the rescued fly Bear its kind witness to the saving hand?

Shall the mild Brahmin stand in equal sin Regarding nature's menials, with the wretch Who flays the moaning Abyssinian ox, Or roasts the living bird, or flogs to death The famis.h.i.+ng pointer?--and must these again, These poor, unguilty, uncomplaining victims, Have no reward for life with its sharp pains?-- They have my suffrage: Nineveh was spared, Though Jonah prophesied its doom, for sake Of sixscore thousand infants, and 'much cattle;'

And s.p.a.ce is wide enough for every grain Of the broad sands that curb our swelling seas, Each separate in its sphere to stand apart As far as sun from sun; there lacks not room, Nor time, nor care, where all is infinite."--_Tupper._

THE REFORMED PRACTICE.

SYNOPTICAL VIEW OF THE PROMINENT SYSTEMS OF MEDICINE.

Some of our readers, especially the non-medical, may desire to know what the following remarks, which appear to apply generally to the human family, have to do with cattle doctoring. We answer them in the language of Professor Percival. "The object of the veterinary art is not only congenial with human medicine, but the very same paths which lead to a knowledge of the diseases of man, lead also to a knowledge of those of brutes. An accurate examination of the interior parts of their bodies; a studious survey of the arrangement, structure, use, connection, and relation of these parts, and of the laws by which they act; as also of the nature and properties of the various food and other agents which the earth so liberally provides for their support and cure,--these form, in a great measure, the sound and sure foundation of all medical science, whatever living individual animal be the subject of our consideration.

Whether we prescribe for a man, horse, dog, or cat, the laws of the animal economy are the same; and one system, and that based upon established facts, is to guide our practice in all.

"The theory of medicine in the human subject is the theory of medicine in the brute; it is the application of that theory--the practice alone--that is different.

"We might as well, in reference to the principles of each, attempt to separate surgery from medicine, as insist that either of these arts, in theory, is essentially different from the veterinary: every day's experience serves to confirm this our belief, and in showing us how often the diseases of animals arise from the same causes as those of a man, exhibit the same indications, and require a similar method of cure.

"The science of medicine, like others, consists of a collection of facts of a common and not a specific character. These, therefore, admit of arrangement into different systems, according to the notions of theorists, and the various species of philosophy, brought to bear on the subject.

"The first regular system was founded by Hippocrates, about three hundred and eighty years before Christ. It was founded upon _theory_, and comprised the doctrines of the ancient dogmatic school. Its pathology rested upon a supposed change of the humors of the body, particularly the blood and bile; and here are the first elements of the '_humoral pathology_.' Its remedial intentions were founded upon the existence of the _'vis conservatrix' et 'medicatrix naturae;'_ and, although often maintaining direct antipathic principles of action, it rested mainly on physo-dynamic influence for the accomplishment of its therapeutic purposes.

"About two hundred and ninety years before Christ, Philinus of Cos introduced the ancient _Empiric System_, which was founded upon _experience_ and _observation_. About one hundred years before the Christian era, the _Methodic System_ was introduced by Asclepiades of Bithynia. This system was got up with an avowed opposition to that of Hippocrates, which was called 'a study of death.' Themison of Laodicea, pupil of Asclepiades, gives an exposition of the fundamental principles of the methodic system; and it seems that all physiological and pathological action was considered to be dependent upon the _strictum_ and _laxum_ of the organic pores, or increased and decreased secretion, and that all medicines act only on two principles, _i. e._, by inducing contraction and relaxation, or an increase and decrease of the secretions.

"It would seem that, in the first century of the Christian era, the methodic system was divided into various subordinate ones--the _Pneumatic_, _Episynthetic_, and _Eclectic_. The pneumatic system, which was the most popular of the fragments of the methodic, was most indebted to Athenaeus of Attalia for its successful introduction. This system contemplated the doctrine of the Stoics, which recognized the existence of a spirit governing and directing every thing, and which, when offended, would produce disease; hence the name _pneumatic_. The indications of cure were more _moral_ than _physical_. Fire, air, water, &c., were not considered elements, but their properties--heat, cold, dryness, moisture, &c.--were alone ent.i.tled to the name.

"In the second century, the _Galenic System_ was founded by Claudius Galenus. This might, indeed, only be considered the revival of the dogmatic or Hippocratean system. Galen professed to have selected what he found valuable from all the prevailing systems, and has embraced the elements and ruling spirit of the pneumatic school. Thus he explained the operation of medicines by reference to their elementary qualities,--that is, heat, cold, dryness, and moisture,--of each of which he admitted four degrees. But he was governed by a prevailing partiality for the system of Hippocrates, which, he states, was either misunderstood or misrepresented by all theorists, ever since the establishment of the empiric and methodic schools. He devoted most of his time to commenting upon and embellis.h.i.+ng it, and thus again established a system, founded on reason, observation, and sound induction, which maintained its character, without a rival, for more than one thousand five hundred years.

"Near the middle of the sixteenth century, Paracelsus introduced the _Chemical System_. This was strongly opposed by Bellonius and Riverius, who maintained the doctrine of Hippocrates and Galen. But the presumptuous Paracelsus burned, 'in solemn state,' the works of the ancients; and being succeeded by the indefatigable Van Helmont, the whole science of medicine was overwhelmed by the mysticism of the alchemical doctrines and languages. The chemical theory, in the main, rejects the influence, or even the existence, of the _vis medicatrix naturae_, and explains all physiological, pathological, and therapeutic operations upon abstract chemical laws. Thus chemical or inorganic agents, and many of the most virulent poisons, as a.r.s.enic, mercury, antimony, &c., were placed among the most prominent remedies.

"Soon after the introduction of the chemical system, medical science, if we make one exception, became less eccentric, but much less marked for the permanency of its systems. Boerhaave ingeniously blended most of the prominent doctrines of the Galenic and chemical systems; and by an application of several of the newly-developed natural sciences, especially mathematics and natural philosophy, he led his successors into a more even path and fixed method of investigation; for no more do we find any abstract physical laws the sole basis of a system. But these were the highest honors allowed Boerhaave; his particular system was soon subverted by Stahl, who proved the supreme superintendence of an immaterial, vital principle, corresponding to that pointed out by Hippocrates. To this he ascribes intelligence, if not moral attributes.

Hoffman led Cullen into the path that brought him into the fruitful field of _nervous pathology_ and solidism, which, with a modification of Stahl's ruling _immaterial essence_, formed the groundwork of his admired system.

"If, now, we except the eccentricities of Brown, comprising his system, founded on the _sthenic_ and _asthenic_ diathesis, we find little interruption to the general prevalence of the Cullenian system, till nearly the present juncture. The succeeding authors, colleges, and medical societies have only modified and amplified the general theory, and regulated the practice into a comparative uniformity, which now const.i.tutes the popular _Allopathic System_. But notwithstanding the comparatively settled state of medical science, it could not be supposed that in this remarkable age of improvement, while all other liberal sciences and arts are progressing as if prosecuted by superhuman agency, medicine should fail to undergo corresponding improvement.

"Several new systems of medicine date themselves within the last forty years, viz.: 1. The _Homaeopathic_, introduced by Hahnemann, and founded upon the principle, _similia similibus curantur_. 2. The _Botanic_, established by a new cla.s.s of medical philosophers, within the last twenty years. 3. The _Eclectic_, corresponding, in its essential doctrines, with the ancient eclectic system."

CREED OF THE REFORMERS.

We believe that a perfect system of medical science is that which never allows disease to exist at all; which prevents disease, instead of curing it, by means of a perfect hygienic system, proper modes of life, attention to diet, ventilation, and exercise.

We believe that the next best system is that which, after disease has made its appearance, promptly meets its development by the use of such agencies as are perfectly in harmony with the laws of life and health, and physiological in their action; such, for example, as water, air, heat and cold, friction, food, drink, and medicines that are not usually regarded as poisons, and are known to prove congenial to the animal const.i.tution.

We have no attachment to any remedy which experience shows unsafe; but, on the contrary, we rejoice in the success of every attempt to subst.i.tute sanative for disease-creating agents, and believe that a number of the articles which are still occasionally used in the old school, will in time become obsolete, as medical science progresses.

We hold that our opposition to any course of medical treatment should be in proportion to the mischief it produces, entirely irrespective of medical theories. Hence our hostility to the lancet.

We do not profess to know more about anatomy, physiology, surgery, &c., than our allopathic brethren; but the superiority which our system claims over others is, in the main, to be found in our therapeutic agents, all of which are harmless, safe, and efficient. While they arouse the energies of nature to resist the ravages of disease, they act harmoniously with the vital principle, in the restoration of the system from a pathological to the physiological state.

TRUE PRINCIPLES.

"Our objection to the old school," says Professor Curtis, "has ever been, that they not only have no true principles to guide their practice, but they have adopted, fixed, and obstinately adhered to principles the very reverse of the true. They have resolved that, in disease, nature turns a somerset--reverses all her normal laws, and requires them to do the same. They have decreed that the best means and processes to cure the sick are those which will most speedily kill them when in health. In the face of all reason and common sense, they have adhered to this doctrine and practice for the last three centuries, and they have been constrained to confess that the destruction they have produced on human life and health has far exceeded all that has been effected by the sword, pestilence, and famine. Still they obstinately persevere. They say their science is progressive--improving; yet its progression consists in contriving new ways and means to take part of the life's blood, and poison all the balance.

"Medicine, being based on the laws of nature, is in itself an exact science; and every process of the act should be directed by those laws.

"Medicine is a demonstrative science, and all its processes should be based on fixed laws, and be governed by positive inductions. Then, and not till then, will it deserve to be ranked among the exact sciences, and contemplated as a liberal art.

"Truth is stationary; it never progresses. What was true in principle in the days of Adam is so still. To talk of progress in principle is ridiculous. Neither does a given practice progress. That which was ever intrinsically good is so still. To talk, then, of the progress in principles of medicine is absurd. We may learn the truth or error of principles, and the comparative value or worthlessness of practices; but the principles are still the same. This is our progress in knowledge, not the progress of science or art. The constant changes that have taken place in the adoption and rejection of various principles and practices have ever been an injury to the healing art. Both truth and falsehood, separately and combined, have been alternately received and rejected; and this is that progress which is made in a circle, and not in lines direct. The fault of the cultivators of medicine has been, not that they never discovered the truth nor adopted the right practice, but that they adopted wrong principles and practices as often as the right, and rejected the right as readily as the wrong. They have ever been ready to prove many, if not all things; but to cast off the bad and hold fast to the good, they seem to have had but little discrimination and power.