results. We agree with them in one proposition, namely, that improper
medicines not only poison, but frequently utterly destroy the health and
body of the patient. Every physician should keep steadily in view the
final effects, as well as present relief, and never employ any agent
without regard to its ulterior consequences. However, an agent which is
noxious in _health_, may prove a valuable remedy in _disease_. When
morbid changes have taken place in the blood and tissues, when a general
diseased condition of the bodily organs has occurred, then an agent,
which is poisonous in health, may prove curative. For instance it is
admitted that alcohol is a poison; that it prevents healthful
assimilation, solidifies pepsin, begets a morbid appetite; that it
produces intoxication, and that its habitual use destroys the body. It
is, therefore, neither a hygienic nor a sanative agent, but strictly a
noxious one; yet, its very distinct antiseptic properties render it
valuable for remedial purposes, since these qualities promptly arrest
that fatal form of decomposition of the animal fluids which is
occasioned by snake-venom, which produces its deadly effects in the same
manner as a drop of yeast ferments the largest mash. Alcohol checks this
poisonous and deadly process and neutralizes its effects. Thus, alcohol,
although a noxious agent, possesses a special curative influence in a
morbid state of the human system; but its general remedial effects do
not entitle it to the rank of a hygienic agent. We believe that medicine
is undergoing a gradual change from the darkness of the past, with its
ignorance, superstition, and barbarism, to the light of a glorious
future. At each successive step in the path of progress, medicine
approaches one degree nearer the realm of an exact science. The common
object of the practitioners of all medical schools is the alleviation of
human suffering. The only difference between the schools is in the
remedies employed, the size of dose administered, and the results
attained. These are insufficient grounds for bitter sectarianism. We are