As just intimated, Homoeopathy was the natural reaction against such heroic measures; in the rebound the other extreme was reached, even to practical therapeutic nihilism. Now, instead of venesection and drastic medication, came the theories expounded by Hahnemann (1753-1843), which denied disease, admitting only symptoms. This apostle of homoeopathy was the son of a porcelain-painter in Meissen; he studied in Leipzig and in Vienna, and later practiced in various cities, including Dresden and Leipzig. "Similia similibus curantur" was not original with him, as it long before had been formulated by Hippocrates, and later by Paracelsus. Of the life and labors of Hahnemann, much might be told; but this is not the time or place to go into the subject.
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An offshoot of homoeopathy, which demands only the harshest criticism, is Isopathy,—perhaps the filthiest theory ever invented,—according to which like is to be cured by like, and to such an extent that small-pox is to be treated by variolous pus, tape-worm by the ingestion of the proglottides, etc.
Another of the rankest of fraudulent outgrowths is the so-called Electrohomceopathic system of Count Mattei, who prates of "red," "blue" and "green" electricity,—a theory that, in spite of its utter idiocy, has attracted a considerable following and earned a fortune for its chief promoter.
Another of the vagaries of the earlier portion of the present century, and that still survives, in a weak way, is Cranioscopy, or Phrenology. Gall expounded his doctrines at Vienna as early as 1796, but, being expelled, went to Germany, where he was joined by Spurzheim, who, though much more of a student and scientist, accepted the doctrine of the former with enthusiasm; and it was chiefly due to the efforts of Spurzheim that phrenology was introduced into England, and later (1832) into America. Gall assumed to locate twenty-seven different organs alongside of each other in the brain, and held that external markings on the skull were guides to the development of the various parts. Every neophyte in anatomy knows how little foundation there is for such a doctrine, but for a time it attracted great attention, and there are to-day certain men and women who make their living out of this imposition.
The Physiological Theory of Medicine was originated by Broussais (1772-1838), and combined the views of Pinel and Bichat with the "sympathetic" view of Hoffmann, the "concealed inflammation" of Stoll, and the theory of inflammation held by Marcus. Broussais had been a pupil of Bichat. In 1814 he began hospital teaching, and in 1831 was made professor. Personally very vain, quick-tempered, even belligerent, as a therapeutist he was a man of routine. He was, perhaps, best known shortly before his death, when delivering lectures on phrenology. According to him, life depends upon external irritation, produced by heat, which excites new chemical processes, while these in turn stimulate regeneration, assimilation, as well as contractility, and sensibility. When the functions supported by heat cease, death ensues. Health depends upon moderate action of external irritants; disease, upon either their weakness or their extraordinary strength. He saw nothing ontological about disease. In therapeutics he admitted the healing power of Nature, but regarded the physician not as a minister, but as a lord of Nature. Febrile and inflammatory diseases were all treated by the withdrawal of nourishment, carried to the extreme. His most powerful antiphlogistic treatment consisted in the application of leeches to the abdomen, and to robust individuals he applied from thirty to fifty at once It is not, then, to be wondered at that, in consequence of his so-called "hirudinomania," leeches became very scarce In the year 1833 forty-one million five hundred thousand leeches were imported into France, while in 1824 one-twentieth of this number sufficed to supply the demand. Even in cases of worms, the abdominal integument had to pay its blood-tribute, particularly if enteritis prevailed. He only allowed a spare diet of mucilaginous and acid drinks. In mercurial France and Italy he gained numerous followers, but they were few and far between in practical, hard-headed Germany and England. His best follower was Bouillaud (1797-1881), who adopted the symptomatic nature of fever and the sanguinary therapeutics of his master, but used the lancet more than the leech. As the homoeopaths regard Hahnemann, so Bouillaud looked up to Broussais as the Messiah of medicine and science, which, as Baas says were "already greatly overstocked with Messiahs."
Contemporaneous with the school of Broussais, and its antagonist in all respects, was the Paris School of Pathological Anatomy and Diagnosis, which has given tone to all medical art. It made it the duty of the physician to search for changes in the human body, to investigate the local products of disease, and assigned to medicine the duty of removing these products. The tendency of its teaching was to treat the patient rather as a living cadaver than as a sentient being endowed with vital forces, and the charge which Asclepiades once falsely made against Hippocrates was revived upon new grounds. Kratzmann wrote some years ago: "In France every one experiments on the sick, less to attain the best method of cure than to enrich science with an interesting discovery and to advance the accuracy of diagnosis by some new physical sign." The seductiveness of this system promoted still more onesidedness, which finally almost attained the belief that the science of medicine really originated in the Anatomical School of Paris.