In a science which teaches the godlike art of preserving and restoring the health, he who keeps secret the knowledge of that which he believed might prove beneficial to others, forfeits all claim to esteem, by preferring his own sordid interest to the duties of humanity. Mr Alcock's Lecture. For the Medical Intelligencer. EPILEPSY CURED BY TART. EMET. OINT MENT. MR EDITOR-Thinking the following case may not be unacceptable to some of your readers, I give it you, in order that should you deem it worthy a place in the Intelligencer, it may be inserted. The subject of it is a negro man, aged about thirty years, who in the early part of the month of December last, was at tacked, for the first time, with a paroxysm of epilepsy. He was treated by the physician who first saw him, with venesection, brisk cathartics, and epispastics to the back of the neck and inferior extremities, which afforded but a temporary relief, for in spite of his abstemious manner of living, and every other effort to the contrary, the fits returned at short intervals, with unabated violence. I eventually saw him, the first of March. When I entered the sick chamber, I found him, to my surprise, performing on a violin. But there was every appearance of an approaching fit. Although free and copious venesection had just been used, assisted by cathartics, his pulse were preternaturally full, and slow, though soft, and receding considerably on pressure; his eyes and his whole countenance distorted in appearance. I must here mention that several of the family had similar strange appearing features; this circumstance caused me to be more doubtful whether or not I could relieve him, as I feared there was an hereditary predisposition to the disease, though none of them had ever before been seized with it. As I before observed, his eyes were much distorted in appearance, the pupils were dilated to almost the full extent of the iris, his appetite was excessive; his attendants informed me that he manifested a disposition to eat double the quantity of food that he had been wont to do in healththey assured me that he had always been remarkably temperate in every respect, except eating, and that he ate no more than hearty men usually do who are kept at constant and hard labour as he was. He had been very healthy from an infant until the present time. I think his master informed me he never cost him a dollar for medicine or attendance until this seizure. When asked what was the matter, he would reply, "nothing" this even at his best moments, which sufficiently exhibited a constantly disordered state of the mind. I tried to impress him with the idea that he was sick, but that what I should do for him would certainly cure him, in order that the means used might have some effect on the mind also. I had his head shaved, and made an immediate application of the ung. antimonii tartarizati, over the whole surface of it, and as far down the spine as the first dorsal vertebra. In forty-eight hours it had produced an eruption. I continued the use of it daily for sixteen days. He took during the time sulph. magnes. 3j. every other day, made use of no animal food, and as little stimulus of any kind as possible. Of the food which he did take, he made use of but about half allowance. He lived in this abstemious manner, using the sal epsom for one month, at the end of which time he began to use a more nourishing diet, and in a short time returned to his old habits. He has never since the commencement of this plan of treatment had a fit, or been threatened with one. He now eats, drinks, and works, as he formerly THE CHARACTERISTICS OF HOMÖOPATHIA. This is a pamphlet which purports to be an abstract of a German pathological work by Hahneman, translated by H. B. Gram. The main scope of the work is to prove that diseases can be radically cured only by such remedies as are capable of producing in healthy subjects symptoms similar to those which characterize the diseases. To establish this point, he argues that all other remedies may be divided into two classes. First, such as produce in a healthy subject a different state from that which constitutes the disease to be cured; and, secondly, such as produce a state directly contrary to it; and that the first of these, which he terms allopathical, cannot possibly be useful; because otherwise any disease could be cured by any remedy, since all remedies except the homoopathical, produce effects more or less unlike those which characterize the diseases to be cured. Whereas, the fact is, that diseases can only be cured by such remedies as are proper to produce the necessary alterations in the living powers, and not per quamlibet causam. The second class of remedies or those which produce in a healthy subject effects directly opposite to the phenomena of disease, he considers as only palliative. These, he contends, cannot effect a permanent cure of disease. For though they tend to counteract it by inducing an opposite condition of the living system, yet the system re-acts against the impression, and strives to produce an affection contrary to it. So that by the reaction of the system, the consecutive effect of palliative remedies must be to perpetuate and confirm the disease, rather than to remove it. By the same principle of the reaction of the living powers against extraneous impulsions, it seems to follow that those remedies which are capable of producing in a healthy subject phenomena similar to the symptoms of disease, must, by exciting an effort in the system to counteract the impression, tend to the radical cure of the disease.-On this subject, the author lays down the following laws.First, that the susceptibility of the living organism for natural diseases is incomparably less than its susceptibility for the effects of medicine. Causes of disease are constantly in operation, yet men continue healthy. Disease is an exception to the general state of man, and a concurrence of various circumstances and conditions is necessary before morbific influences generate disease. But the effects of medicine are comparatively uniform and certain. They may almost be said to operate unconditionally; no peculiar concurrence of circumstances being necessary to secure their operation. The second general law laid down by the author is, that the organism as a living integer is only capable of receiving one general impression at once. This is evidently the celebrated doctrine of Hunter on the incompatibility of different coexisting diseased actions.-A third general law, as expressed in the peculiar language of our author, is, that a stronger dynamical affection of the organism annihilates a weaker similar affection. From these principles the author infers the curative process to be as follows. Homoopathical remedies excite a similar but stronger affection of the living powers, than that which constitutes the disease to be cured. In so doing they do not add to the morbid impression, but they supersede it. The morbid affection is annihilated, and the system is left to struggle with the artificial disease. The author, however, has only left us to conjecture how and why the constitution comes out of this last contest victorious. If it be said that it is by the reaction o the living powers, the answer is very ob vious that, as this reaction was incapabl of destroying a weaker morbid affection (that of the disease), it is difficult to conceive how it can overcome the more powerful artificial one, produced by the remedy. A great defect in this tract is the absence of all illustration. It cannot be necessary to point out the fallacy of al! abstract reasoning in such a science as medicine. Whether this defect be owing to the difficulty of procuring satisfactory illustration of the doctrine of the pamphlet from practical medicine, we do not pretend to judge. There seems at least to be no difficulty in adducing facts in abundance, which have an opposite bearing. We have not time to go into the discussion at length; but would only instance the extensive and most important class of evacuating remedies; and would ask whether it is by substituting a stronger but similar impression upon the living powers in place of the weaker morbid one, that these remedies cure diseases of excitement. Does the abstraction of 30 or 40 ounces of blood cure a pleurisy, by exciting a similar but more powerful inflammatory action in the pleura? Or is the same remedy capable of exciting pleurisy in a healthy subject? Do squills and digitalis cure hydrothorax, by inducing a .more violent hydropic action in the pleura, in consequence of which the morbid effusion is superseded and cured by a greater artificial one? Or will the exhibition of these remedies produce hydrothorax in a healthy subject? Questions of this kind in abundance might be stated; and not to confine ourselves to evacuant remedies, is it by virtue of any power of causing fever and ague in a healthy person, that bark cures the disease in a sick one? Does arsenic cure periodical diseases from the power of exciting them, or any thing similar to them, in healthy subjects? These questions we conceive are fatal to the doctrine, which is attempted to be supported in this tract; still we should be glad to see what can be adduced in its defence. The pamphlet is written in broken English, and is evidently the work of a foreigner. DAVID AND GOLIAH. Simplicity is the great excellence of a medicine. If the same benefit can be derived from a simple remedy as from a powerful dose, it is far more desirable, and conscience as well as good judgment should induce us to give it the preference. Because in one case the patient's complaint may be removed without harming his constitution, and in the other there is great danger of injuring the general stamina, though the temporary disease is removed. But this practice is bad for the Doctor. People will not think very highly of a Physician who gives little medicine, and that of the simplest kind. They say he is too simple in his practice. They like a man who will give them a powerful dose, which will either kill or cure. Even if such doses cure for the time, they invariably kill in the end. They impair the constitution, render it less able to resist future attacks, and thus shorten the life of the patient, though they lengthen that of his doctor, by affording him that comfortable reputation which tends more than any thing to increase as well as enliven our years. Another advantage;—a physician often acquires a name by curing diseases his own remedies have induced. Debility is the parent of a thousand disorders. Let this be produced by a powerful dose of medicine, and the offspring are as sure to follow as if it were the effect of famine or fatigue. We cannot express the full share of our displeasure when we see a sick chamber loaded with phials and pill boxes. It is a remnant of barbarism thus to drench the primæ viæ with drugs, and no good and intelligent physician can, in this day of light in medicine as well as the other sciences, look on these things but with the most heart-felt abhorrence. We have simple remedies which effect with a mild hand all that was formerly considered the especial province of powerful compounds, and every day brings intelligence of some more agreeable, but equally efficacious substitute for those antiquated doses. By diet and regimen, for example, more may be done for a dyspeptic than by calomel, bark, or brandy; and if we can find, by actual experience, any article of diet, however simple and apparently inert, which will remove the troublesome affections which combined are denominated dyspepsia, it is as much our duty to prescribe that article, as if this salutary relief had been procured from the most formidable of the materiæ medica. These remarks have been immediately occasioned by finding in an European Journal some very singular cases of the efficacy of fat boiled bacon in indigestion, accompanied by constipation. A gentleman who had long suffered from these troubles, and had gone without success through the usual courses of physic, was led by some accidental circumstance to relinquish the use of butter, and substitute fat boiled bacon for it. A slice of this he put between his slices of bread, morning and evening, and soon found his symptoms of dyspepsia began to disappear, his bowels became regular, and his health was restored. Naturally enough, he recommended this to his complaining friend, and it was followed by the same result. Afterwards it was recommended by his physician to a number of his dyspeptic patients, and he had the satisfaction to see them mend under its use, and finally all symptoms of disease vanished. Thus did the fat of bacon, the salutary effects of which we cannot trace to any cause beyond the portion of nitre and culinary salt it contains, do more than the blue pill system of Abernethy, or the stomach and liver speculations of Dr Wilson Philip. Nay, more-it not only removed a disease those systems could not conquer, but removed also the consequences of their previous trial. The most important events are usually brought about by slight causes. A single word or look often causes a man a life of misery or of enjoyment. A trifling manœuvre of a General raises him to power, and his country to glory, whereas without it, both would have been ruined together. The coachman may turn a corner with a gradual sweep, and proceed safely on his rout, or he may give his horses a sudden twist, and get round his corner quicker and with more apparent skill, but his coach is wrenched, and although he goes on for miles, perhaps, without perceiving his injury, the next turn brings his carriage to the ground; and he averts the blame from himself by having proved his skill in the former instance! Which is the wisest of the two? which entitled most to our confidence? Yet which acquires the greatest utary and powerful influences are producreputation in his business? As the most saled on our moral sentiments, by the still small voice, so is our corporeal structure more powerfully and more permanently, as well as more safely affected, by a persevering use of simple remedies. At a meeting of the Counsellors of the Massachusetts Medical Society, holden June 7th, 1826, the following gentlemen James Jackson, M. D. President-Abrawere elected officers of the Society, viz:ham Haskell, M. D. Vice-President-John Dixwell, M. D. Corresponding Sec'yJacob Bigelow, M. D. TreasurerGeorge Hayward, M. D. Recording Sec'y Enoch Hale, Jr, M. D. Librarian. At the annual meeting of the NewHampshire Med. Soo, holden at Concord, ed President-Dr A. Crosby, Vice-PresiJune 6, 1826, Dr R, D. Mussey was electdent-Dr Peter Bartlett, Secretary-Dr Josiah Crosby, Treasurer. Drs Josiah Crosby and Peter Smith were appointed delegates to attend the medical examinations at Dartmouth College. The society resolved, that every candidate, before he can enter upon the study of medicine, shall produce satisfactory evidence that his education is sufficient to enter the freshman class in Dartmouth College, that he shall sustain a good moral character, and that he shall read mecourses of medical lectures, or if he has a dicine four full years, attend two full college education, he shall read medicine three years; this law to go into effect after 1829. WEEKLY REPORT OF DEATHS IN BOSTON. Bilious Fever, 1-Consumption, 3Age, 1-Teething, 1-Scald, 1--Unknowa Croup, 1-Childbed, 1-Fever, 1-Old. 4-Stillborn, 2. Jenckes' Patent Alleviator. TH HE subscriber having made an arrangement for introducing this invaluable Instrument in the city of Boston, any family who may have one of their number so sick as to require the exertions of their friends to lift them for any purpose, can be accommodated with the use of the Alleviator by calling on Mr WILLIAM HANCOCK, No. 39, Market-street, or on Mr EpMUND PARSONS, No. 10, Portland-street, who has undertaken to put them up when and where they may be wanted, and attend to the use of them. Any person wishing for further information, will please to apply as above. JOHN C. JENCKES. Mr JENCKES has many Certificates, from the Medical Society, and from many eminent surgeons in the U. S. recommending them to the public, among which are the following, viz: Certificate from John C. Warren, M. D. of Boston, Principal of the Massachusetts Hospital. Mr J. C. Jenckes having requested my opinion of his Machine for raising the sick and wounded from bed, I have examined it, and found it well calculated for the purpose. In order to test its practical utility, I desired him to convey it to the Massachusetts General Hospital, and have repeatedly employed it there; particularly in a case of fractured thigh, accompanied with delirium, and found it highly useful. Considering it therefore a valuable invention, I very heartily recommend it for the use of hospials, and for all private patients who may be in need of it. JOHN C. WARREN, Principal Mass. Hospital. Boston, June 16, 1823. Lynn, 25th Feb. 1825. DR CHOATE,-This comes to you by the hands of MR JENCKES, the inventor of an apparatus for raising from the bed, persons whose infirmities or injuries from fractures or other causes have usually rendered a long confinement necessary. MR JENCKES is furnished with numerous certificates from eminent surgeons, respecting the advantages of his machine, and in justice to his mechanical ingenuity and philanthropic character, I subjoin an account of an important case, in which I feel assured, the patient's life has been preserved by the assistance of this apparatus. R. T., a respectable lady, aged 55, unusually corpulent, by a fall on the ice fractured the right thigh bone at the neck. The usual reduction and dressings were attended to, and during the first two It was then discovered that by the continweeks the patient appeared to do well. ued pressure on the back and hips, inflammation had taken place and gangrene and mortification were rapidly succeeding. The state of the fractured limb, the size of the patient, and the nervous excitement under which she laboured, precluded or rendered extremely inconvenient, the necessary dressing to those diseased parts. The patient was rapidly sinking and in the opinion of an eminent surgeon who was called in consultation, there was but a faint prospect of her recovery.—At this critical period Mr JENCKES visited Lynn, bringing with him one of his machines, which was immediately employed, and to the facilities afforded by this in the frequent dressings now become necessary, I am ready to attribute the rapid recovery of the patient from her dangerous situation. That the advantages of this invention may be widely extended, and suffering humanity be relieved from many of its burdens is the ardent desire of Your obedient servant, Philadelphia, Nov. 8, 1825. I have within the last few weeks in two cases of compound fractures, near the ancle joint, used with the most decided benefit the "Alleviator" of Mr Jenckes.. Without hesitation I pronounce it a very valuable contrivance. WM. GIBSON, M. D., Professor of Surgery in the University of Pennsylvania. Certificate from the Physicians and Sur geons of the New York Hospital. The undersigned Physicians and Surgeons of the New York Hospital, having examined and witnessed the application of Mr John C. Jenckes' new invention of a Machine for raising the sick from their beds, unite in recommending the same as peculiarly useful for the purposes for which it is intended. DAVID HOSACK, M. D. THOMAS COCK, M. D. ALEX. H. STEVENS, M. D. New-York, July 15, 1823. Published weekly, by John Cotton, Proprietor, at 184, Washington-St. corner of FranklinSt. to whom all communications must be addressed (post-paid). Price two dollars per annum, if paid in advance, but, if not paid within three months, two dollars and a half will be required, and this will, in no case, be deviated from, |