CHAPTER II.
MEDICINE RETARDED—FORMS OF CONTAGION.
The progress of medical science has been much impeded by the operation of the doctrine of atmospheric contagion. From the earliest periods the practitioners of medicine have been in the habit of attributing a very great proportion of the worst forms of disease to that agent; and the consequence has been that little attention has been paid to the investigation of the most difficult, and not the least important department, that of the efficient and ordinary causes of disease.
It was almost a necessary consequence of the possession of such an instrument, ready on all occasions, to solve the problems offered by the occurrences of disease, that no inquiry would be made into those circumstances by which might be detected those influences that conduce to its production. There was ever at hand an agent whose existence all were alike ready to concede, which was amply sufficient to explain the origin and propagation of pestilence.
That being the case, medical men had no inducement to make investigations, and from one generation to another they have gone on in the old way, attributing much to that agency, and leaving uninquired into, with few exceptions, the actual springs of diseased action.
Until very lately little was known of the relation between disease and such important matters as these,—the state of the atmosphere, the severities of the weather, and its other contingent circumstances, the quality of the food and drink, clothing, habits, climate, and the like.
These most important matters received very little consideration, and although much has lately been done to shew their influence in the origin and propagation of disease; yet they are not regarded as so efficient in that respect as they ought to be, and the reason of it is, that the common application of atmospheric contagion to the explanation of the problem, by the vast majority of medical practitioners, puts a stop to the scrutiny which would detect their relation. The fact undoubtedly is, that, in respect to some diseases, little is known, among those intrusted with their treatment, of their causes. This situation of affairs is dangerous, and were physicians to adopt the extravagant measures, which the doctrine of atmospheric contagion suggests, there is a risk that, armed with weapons of so powerful a nature as our medicines are, and moreover, applied to so delicate and nicely strung a machine as the human body, their interference might become downright tampering, and dangerous in the extreme.
But the blame does not lie so much with the present generation of practitioners. It is more the fault of the science than of its present professors.
That doctrine has been taught them, as on established and well authenticated principle. They have too readily confided in the accuracy of their predecessors, and taken for ascertained, that which was only supposititious. Still the public injury is the same, be that as it may; and would the profession perform efficiently its important duties, and deserve that confidence so necessary for the full operation of the art, they would, without delay, inquire into the merits of this case, and turn to the investigation of the causes of disease, the many facts and principles, revealed by the late rapid progress of the sciences.
For the judicious and efficient treatment of disease, a knowledge of its causes is necessary. The disorders being ascertained, the first consideration in reference to the treatment is the cause or causes, and according as the information partakes of certainty or uncertainty, so the propriety of the measures is sure or doubtful.
Without a knowledge of the causes, sure or probable, our efforts are, in some cases, like random blows made in the dark, they may or may not strike the object. It is in general only when the causes are known, more or less, particularly, that medical treatment can be said to rest on a sure and philosophical basis, and to promise the full amount of benefit the art can afford.