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    The English Review has an article on Erne st Jones ' s poetry , written in the most liberal spirit , enthusiastic in its eulogies of his genius while condemning his politics . The reviewer can afford to be told that we think him more enthusiastic than discriminating , and that we repudiate the charge of having " patronized" Mr . Jones in our article

    on his Poems . We paid that tribute to his power which we considered to be his due . If we do not agree with the reviewer in ranking Mr . Jones above Byron and Scott , is that a reason for assuming our criticism to be " patronage" ? The reader will smile when he hears of a Church of England Tory like the English Review upbraiding the Leader for not being ecstatic over a Chartist

    Poet ! In the Rambler there is an able and amusing paper on " Animal Magnetism , " wherein the writer brings that science to the bar of ecclesiastical authority . The Church has spoken j Catholics are called upon to listen . The writer is perfectly consistent . But to the Protestant mind it does seem strange that a question of science should be

    referred to that eminently unscientific authority—a Pope ! One cannot help recalling Galileo . One cannot help recalling the numerous scientific errors of the Church . In the present case , the Church has wisely refrained from committing itself : it says nothing as to the truth or falsehood of Mesmerism , it only enters a caveat against sinful abuse thereof . Other magazines next week .

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    PHILOSOPHY OF THE WATER CURE . The Philosophy of the IFatcr Cure ; a Development of the True Principles of Health and Longevity . By John Balbirnie , M . A ., M . U . Simpkiu and Marshall . This Journal is not a Medical Journal , and cannot , therefore , pretend to "authority" on Medical questions ; but it would fall short of its purpose if it neglected any great movement that occupies the miads of intelligent men . On this ground we have examined the pretensions of Homoeopathy and of Mesmerism ; not pronouncing dogmatically , but rather seeking to furnish the reader with such information on the present condition of those theories as may ultimately guide him to some conclusion of his own . We have given willing hearing to

    arguments on these subjects , our own attitude being simply that of inquirers , wot oi advocates . We now propose to examine Hydropathy in the same spirit . The necessities of journalism may coerce us occasionally into a more trenchant manner than seems consistent with the spirit of simple inquiry , but we trust to generous interpretations . Our examination of Hydropathy will be limited to its philosophical pretensions : without pronouncing on its empirical merit , we may treat it as we would treat any other theory coming before us with claims to range itself amongst the generalizations of positive science . Not unfamiliar with physiological speculation , and not unversed in philosophy , we trust to be allowed to speak On this subject without stepping beyond

    our province . The work we have selected as the text for this article is remarkable for the precision of its views , and the literary excellence of its exposition . Dr . llalhirnic has only to remove from its pages everything resembling asperity in his opposition to drug medication and medical practitioners—he has onl y to mollify the antagonism which all innovators are

    prone to encourage , moved thereto b y the scorn of the orthodox , who call them quacks—and his littlf k will become a model of h ydropathic exposii ,. In clear , succinct paragraphs it sets forth . m Rationale of the Water ( Jure , founded on the theory of Animal Life and the principles of Pathology— explain -: the physiological action and curative ; ( Heels of WatiT—and tin ; processes of the Water ( . ' ure in its administration oi remedies .

    Having naid this much , we now address ourselves to the fundamental principles of Hydropathy in their relation to Physiology . I lore , and not elsewhere , must the battle be fought . Short oi satisfy ing the demands of positive science , Hydropathy becomes a mere empiricism , in which case it takes its place above or below the empiricism oi Morrison and Holloway . "Cures" and " cases " we arc justified in rejecting as not pertinent . No religion is without its miracles , no quackery without , its cures . Culy the ignorant teat a religion by its miracles ; only the unscientific accept " cures " uh evidence of particular curative causation . It

    requires but a moderate familiarity with the nature of organized beings to be made aware of this dominant and coercive fact , viz ., that the excessive complexity of the structure and interdependence of its parts , render " experiment , " in the scientific sense of the word , next to impossible ; consequently , that the clear , precise , effect of any agent is for ever indeterminate . In experiments on inorganic matter an appreciable effect can be noted , because it is possible to eliminate all the influences , except the one sought—you may change only one condition of the problem , and the change manifested in the

    substance is the measure of the effect produced . Take a barometer from your garden and carry it to the summit of Hampstead-heath , and the only change being the change in the condition of the atmosphere , bythat you demonstrate the weight of the atmosphere . But no simplification is possible in physiology . There is scarcely a case in which you are at liberty to modify one condition while leaving the others unaffected . The organization is a whole ; every action upon one of its parts causes a modification

    of every other part , so that in an experiment we can scarcely say whether the effect is due to primary or secondary causes . To render this complexity greater , the physiological problem is increased in difficulty by the immense varieties in organizations —no two human beings are precisely organized alike ( as is the case with two barometers ) , no human being is the same at all times . The poison which destroys one , is to another but an agreeable sedative ; tobacco , which is to the youth the cause of horrible sickness , becomes in after years a luxury .

    This consideration is enough to make one pause before accepting a " cure " as evidence . We cannot accurately determine the effect of any one experiment , because we cannot isolate the organization from other influences . A man eats a mutton chop and a potato , with bread and pickles ; he digests them perfectly . Two days afterwards he eats similar food , and suffers from indigestion . Who can tell the precise influence ? Was it some difference in the mucous lining of his stomach ,

    produced by a fit of anger on the day previous ? was it some slight variation in the condition of the mutton , or the potato , or the pickle ? No one can ascertain . Try as many experiments as you please—eliminate the bread , the pickle , the potato , the chop—you are still in the impossibility of fulfilling the first requisite of direct experiment , viz ., that of retaining all the conditions unchanged , except the one whose effect you wish to observe . Applied to the practice of drug medicament this is of the greatest importance . Dr . Balbirnie well says : —

    " As regards the great bulk of the medicaments in daily use , and as respects even the simplest of them , we know nothing very accurate as to their really useful principles , the pathological states that indicate them , their doses , their modes of action , and effects , general or especial , primary or consecutive , local or constitutional ; not even in any one given disease . "If this be the case in regard to any single remedy in any single disease , how much more difficult must

    be the inquiry when the question is of some three or four or six contradictory ingredients combined into one heterogeneous melange , and of their operution in a multitude of disease's ? I low far does not one drug or combination destroy the effect of another , if it does not alter its properties , so as to form a tertium quid , widely different in its effects from those intended , if it be not absolutely pernicious ? So little has ytre been determined in this domain of medicina : and ho

    wide a held yet remains to be explored ! Science lias advanced in : tll other points : here it has been stationary ; remaining , Have in a email number of cases , almost in the primeval uncertainty in which the lather of physic himself left it . " It is only a dictate of common sense , that , to prescribe a remedy with confidence , and to employ it with skill and . success , its action must first bo sure and well-determined . The enlightened treatment of diseases must be founded , not only on Mound views of

    Pathology , directed by accurate powers of observation , and habits of profound reflection , but on an inlimatc knowledge , or at least a satisfactory theory , of the modus operandi of the means we employ to combat it . Otherwise we fight an enemy in the dark ; we deal our blows indiscriminately or bootlessly— - injuring what , we should protect . —repelling where we wish to con iliate—and irritating where we intend Jo soothe : we thus confess ourselves , indeed , the vain practitioners of u conjectural art ; if we are not in

    too immy instances but licensed manslaycm—the not guiltless administrators of a public bane . What is blind empiricism if it be not the employment of remedies whose action is unknown or uncertain against , diseases whoso real nature is equally obscure ? Hut the Bcientifie practitioner of the Water ( . hire repels this insinuation on the ; juntcsr , groun < ln . lie combats discuses , whose material conditions arc among the beat ascertained facts of science , with a remedy

    Whose action he can most accurately appreciate seconded by those hygeienic influences whose effects are known and certain . This is the onl y part of Therapeutics which deserves the name of science-, the only part that can be administered without nr > nT " sional qualms of conscience . We are not yet prepared to endorsethe concludini r sentences of this passage , which involve an assumetion of the whole question of Hydropath y . Our object was to show that " cures" and " cases " are

    not evidence : if they are , we do not see how Homoeopathy , Hydropathy , or any other system , could make a stand against Allopathy , which for many centuries has been effectinfr cures . It is easy to say that in these cases " Nature righted herself " in spite of physic , but who does not see that the objection applies with tenfold force ' to Homoeopathy —and Hydropathy ? Dr . Balbirnie , indeed , would not admit this . He

    says—*• The medical treatment of diseases , in fact , is overlaid with fallacies . What between the p ' roverbial errors of diagnosis—the mistakes of taori bid causation—and the temptation to be misled by hasty conclusions ;—what between the almost universal adulteration of drugs , or the spoiling of them by accidents , or errors of chemical manipulation;—what between the disagreement as to their doses , and the uncertainty as ( o their operation ;—what between their modified action as affected by age , constitution , temperament , habits , diets , season , climate , &c . —there is no certainty of prescriptionno accurate calculation of results—no exact appreciation of cause and effect . Wberein , for example , have the triumphs of German Spas , and our own

    mineral waters , been most trumpeted forth ? In dyspeptic , nervous , and hypochondriacal disorderscomplaints which drugs can never cure , and which are greatly influenced by adventitious causes ; as mental emotions—social circumstances—the

    anxieties of business—confined air—late hours—luxurious dinners—and bodily inactivity . But at a Spa , business is laid aside—the patient lives by rule—keeps early hours—continues most of the day in the open air . The result is , the speedy reestablishment of health . Medicine and medicated water get the credit ; while , in fact , the cure is brought about , not in consequence , but in spite , of the treatment ; and the patient is really benefited , to the extent that he has been unconsciously put under the discipline of the Water Cure . And , inasmuch as the full processes have not been carried out , the patient , in a majority of cases , is but only partially ' patched up . ' "

    But although he makes out a case against the Allopaths he does not prove his own . No ; the question of " cures" must be left to quacks ; it is the scientific principles we must examine . At the threshold of this inquiry we are met by an obstacle , to which we urge the reader's attention . That obstacle is the remnant of Metaphysical Method in the prosecution of science . In the Biographical History of Philosophy we have endeavoured to exemplify the incurable vices and

    incompetence of that Method , and to show how , in proportion as it has given way to the positive Method , clear and seminal vi ews have strugg led into light . From Astronomy and Physics that method has long been banished ; but it still lingers amidst the mysteries of Chemistry and Physiology , baffling all inquirers by its will-o ' -wisp vagaries . If the reader wishes for a striking example of metaphysical conception in Physiology , we refer him to the almost universal belief in a vis medicatrix naturte

    or supposed " Conservative I ' owers of the living organism . " This conception is , as we said , almost universal ; not only do the vulgar talk about Nature being her own Physician , not only do Brid gewat er Treatises become rhetorical on the " evidence of design and beneficence of Providence " disp layed m the . efforts of Nature to eject from the system disturbing influences , and in the wonderful way whereby , when a bone is broken , a new formation takes place—but even medicalmen and physiol ogist " believe in this vis medicatrix . They have ceased to believe in a vis inertia ; they laugh to scorn the supposed " abhorence of a vacuum "; but they « t ' cling to a vis medicatrix !

    We hope to be doing some service in pointing out the inadinissibility of thin conception . lt ™ . not take us long ; and the bearing of it upon Hydropathy is important . . . It is perfectly true that the living organism / ' «* the property of reparation and reproduction , eitnt of the whole or of parts . This ia one of the simple ^ of physiological conceptions . I ^ f « in a uerpe »> ' » reparation of waste matter ; but to assume any intention in this reparation , is to quit the «<> main ,. ncienee for that of Metaphysics or Theology- ' reparation of lesions is very wonderful , and does , i ^ first sight , suggest a final caime . But look agau If the torn tissue and the broken limb are repairs

    Untitled Article

    946 HI ) * % t&tl $ t * [ SAtURDAY ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 4, 1851, page 946, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1903/page/14/