tioned them as synergistic operations. But within the scope of my argument I would have been justified in treating them as identical functions. Does Dr. Black wish to deny that intestinal digestion, in its normal phases, includes an assimilative process? But, as in the case of dyspepsia infantum, the doctor's experience is perhaps limited to the action of a drug-convulsed system, in which case the activity of the digestive organs does, indeed, but rarely lead to assimilation. Dr. Black's exception-plea in favor of the stimulant superstition illustrates only the radical confusion of his pathological theories. For that energy of action which he mistakes for a sign of restored functional vigor demonstrates nothing but the urgency of an expulsive process. The functional activity excited by the influence of a drastic tonic proves only the virulence of the drug, and the system's eagerness to rid itself of a deadly foe. In my treatises on "Dyspepsia and Climatic Fevers" I have exposed the two most specious fallacies of the stimulant-delusion; and there is an end to all inductive reasoning if the analogies of the stimulant-vice and the medicine-habit do not establish my tenet that the poison-hunger in all its forms, whether as mania a potu, or a hankering after a digestive excitant, is wholly abnormal and mischievous; that its repeated gratification rarely fails to inoculate the system with the seeds of a progressive stimulant-habit; that the dyspeptic's dependence upon Dr. Black's calomel pills is an aggravation of the original disease; and that even the temporary results, effected at such risk, by the use of virulent drugs, can, in nine cases out of ten, be more safely and as directly attained by other means, as by refrigeration in the treatment of malarial fevers, or indirectly by reform of the predisposing habits, as in consumption and various enteric disorders. In one of his tirades against heretical theories, Dr. Black carries his bravado to the degree of appealing to the testimony of "stubborn facts"-in other words, to the lessons of experience. I would advise my colleague to avoid that arena. Hospital statistics might prove that the homœopathists can challenge our best record and demonstrate by proofs, which should satisfy a depreciator of their sugar-pellets, that they can beat it by total abstinence from the socalled remedies of the drug-shops. In his first letter Dr. Black proposed to let dyspeptics trust themselves to the guidance of their morbid appetite, and, after I proved that the absurdity of that plan could be demonstrated by the analogies of the alcohol-habit, our entrapped medicine-man tries to slip out by the following hole: The chronic hunger of the dyspeptic, he informs us, is a craving after food, while the unquenchable thirst of the alcohol-drinker is VOL. XXIV.-8 a craving after poison. Does that subvert my tenet that, in regard to the persistency of the appetite, both cravings are wholly abnormal? For, let us remember that the original point at issue was the question about the proper number of daily meals. Now, in pursuance of Dr. Black's plan, his patients would have to eat about forty meals a day; for, in his first letter, he advised dyspeptics to follow the promptings of an appetite which he now admits to be morbid and unappeasable, as caused by a chronic state of semi-starvation. Thus Dr. Black continually shifts his ground, to dodge the inferences of his own premises. But the fact is, that he never expected to maintain his positions. He merely wrestles against time, and accepts his successive overthrows in the secret hope that the shrieks of his afflictions might attract the aid of some brother-sophist. Hence, also, his repeated allusions to a numerous class of physicians" whose wrath he warns me to deprecate. Like other champions of orthodoxy who find that their logic leaves them in the lurch, he tries to retreat behind the shelter of a numerical majority. 66 By my outspoken denunciation of the stimulant-superstition, Dr. Black holds that I have offered an insult to that large body of medical men to whom is due the credit of the most important discoveries in hygiene, physiology, surgery, etc. My orthodox contemporary will try in vain to identify the interests of his cause with the progress of those sciences. All their promoters have contributed their share to undermine the foundations of the position which he tries to defend. For the last hundred years the history of medical science has been the history of a continued and increasingly rapid collapse of the drug-delusion—a delusion whose defenders have always tarried in the rear of progress, and, after doing their utmost to obstruct the path of reform, have recognized its triumphs only by sharing the fruits of its victories. My invectives were not directed against the thousand earnest seekers after truth, not against its great discoverers, the pioneers of the true healing art, not against men like Bichat,* Schrodt, To what errors have not mankind been led in the employment and denomination of medicines! They created deobstruents when the theory of obstruction was in fashion; and incisives when that of the thickening of the humors prevailed. Those who saw in diseases only a relaxation or tension of the fibers employed astringents and relaxants. The same identical remedies have been employed with all these opposite views. . . . Hence the vagueness and uncertainty our science presents at this day. An incoherent assemblage of incoherent opinions, it is, perhaps, of all the physiological sciences, that which best shows the caprices of the human mind. What do I say? For a methodical mind it is not a science at all. It is a shapeless collection of inaccurate ideas; of observations often puerile; of deceptive remedies, and of formulas as fantastically conceived as they are tediously arranged." "If we reflect upon the obstinate health of Magendie,* Bock,† Jules Virey, Jennings,§ Rush, but against bigots like Dr. Black; against medical obscurantists who dread the enlightenment of their victims as vampires dread the dawn of the morning; who oppose independent thinkers with that rancorous hatred which Jesuits feel toward the divulgers of their trade-secrets; who, by holding on to the last planks of their wrecked dogmas, by illogical compromises and temporizing sophisms, are trying to perpetuate the ease." animals and savages, upon the rapidity of their recovery from injuries that defy all the mixtures of materia medica; also upon the fact that the homoopathists cure their patients with milk-sugar and mummery, the prayer-Christians with mummery without milk-sugar, and my followers with a milkdiet without sugar or mummery-the conclusion forces itself upon us that the entire system of therapeutics is founded upon an erroneous view of dis"I hesitate not to declare, no matter how sorely I shall wound our vanity, that so gross is our ignorance of the real nature of the physiological disorders called diseases, that it would perhaps be better to do nothing, and resign the complaint we are called upon to treat to the resources of Nature, than to act, as we are so often compelled to do, without knowing the why and the wherefore of our conduct, and at the obvious risk of hastening the end of the patient." "By special methods of diet nearly all known diseases can be cured as well as caused.... Twenty-five years' experience at the sick-bed and the dissecting-table, in the nursery and on the battlefield, have convinced me that, with rare exceptions, the disorders of the human body, which have been treated after such an infinite variety of drug-sys tems, can be as well cured without any drugs at all." "Our system of therapeutics is so shaky " (vacillant)" that the soundness of the basis itself must be suspected." curse of a life-blighting delusion; who subordinate the interests of mankind to the interests of their clique, and disparage reformers till they find it convenient to appropriate the credit of their discoveries. "Some acute philosophers," our obliging correspondent informs us, "think that all the phenomena of the universe can be explained on the laws of mechanics, from the motions of a molecule up to those of the celestial masses." Just so. And Dr. Black might as well confess the secret of his predilection for that system. Its application to therapeutics has so simplified the practice of medicine; and its recognition as the law of the universe would confirm the prestige of the orthodox cause. Instead of troubling himself with a life-long study of the laws and revelations of Nature, the lessons of instinct, the interaction of the vital functions, their modifications under abnormal circumstances, the secrets of the reproductive and self-regulating principle of the human organism, our mechanical philosopher would prefer to re-establish the system of the good old times, when he could consult a pocket-index of drugs, set against an alphabetical list of diseases, point to his diploma as a presumptive proof that he had learned to repeat the Latin synonyms and construct the pharmaceutic symbols of the various "remedial agents," etc., and magisterially reprimand hygienic "idealists," as a village schoolmaster, well read in Genesis, would reprove an exponent of the evolution doctrine. "It is unnecessary for my present purpose to "Dr. Oswald," says our astute corregive a particular account of the results of homeop- spondent, “is apparently unable to discern athy... what I now claim with respect to it is, that all the customs and habits of savages that a wise and beneficent Providence is using it to expose and break up a deep delusion. In the reare intimately correlated to their vital orsults of homeopathic practice we have evidence, inganism, and that for us to adopt only one amount and of a character sufficient, most incontestably to establish the fact that disease is a restorative operation, or renovating process, and that medicine has deceived us. The evidence is full and complete. It does not merely consist of a few isolated cases, whose recovery might be attributed to fortuitous circumstances, but it is a chain of testimony fortified by every possible circumstance. . . . All kinds and grades of disease have passed under the ordeal and all classes and characters of persons have been concerned in the experiment as patients or witnesses; while the process of infinitesimally attenuating the drugs used was carried to such a ridiculous extent that no one will, on sober reflection, attribute any portion of the cure to the medicine. I claim, then, that homeopathy may be regarded as a providential sealing of the fate of old medical views and practices." "I am here incessantly led to make an apology for the instability of the theories and practice of physic; and those physicians generally become the most eminent who have the soonest emancipated themselves from the tyranny of the schools of physic. Dissections daily convince us of our ignorance of disease, and cause us to blush at our prescriptions. What mischief have we done under the assisted in multiplying diseases; we have done more, we have increased their mortality. I will not pause to beg pardon of the faculty for acknowledging, in this public manner, the weakness of our profession. I am pursuing Truth, and am indifferent whither I am led, if she only is my leader." belief of false facts and false theories! We have of them might prove murderous to civilized beings." Because we can not imitate all the customs of a primitive nation, is that a reason why we should not adopt some of them? With such arguments our medical censor dares to insult the intelligence of your readers! Must we avoid the unleavened bread of the ancient Hebrews because we dislike circumcision? Must we disparage Japanese temperance, because we do not want to commit hari-kari? Would the Samian water-cure prove more murderous to civilized beings than Dr. Black's blue-pills? If I should recommend the system of the medical philosopher Asclepiades, who used to prescribe a special course of gymnastics for every form of human disease, Dr. Black would try to retreat behind his correlationdodge. "Such systems," he would probably remark, "were intimately correlated to the physical and social organism of the pagan savages and their uncivilized doctors; but nowadays every intelligent druggist would agree with me that it would never do to let people cure their diseases with such reme dies. In a country like ours," he would add in a whisper, "the introduction of such a system might prove murderous to some civilized beings." Dr. Black complains of my superciliousness in preferring a charge of ignorance against a contemporary who has for a long series of years anxiously sought the solution of "the problem how the sick can be made well." Sad enough; but that is no reason why I should withdraw my charge. Dr. Black may have sought that solution for a most venerable series of years, but, unless he holds his own time as cheap as that of your readers, he ought to seek it more anxiously than ever, for it is very evident that he has not yet found it. to the upper Mississippi region. A parallel relation between loess and forests obtains in Central and Southern Illinois. Here the loess first appears, in passing from north to south, as isolated mounds rising from the almost dead-level drift-plain; which mounds, however far from other forests, are well wooded. The Missouri River loess-belt is, it is true, generally treeless, except along water-ways, which may or may not, however, cut through its deposits; but natural timber is far more abundant than over contiguous drift-areas, while its capability of supporting arborescent vegetation is emphatically attested by the unprecedented growth of artificially-planted fruit and forest trees, which is at once the marvel of Eastern and the boast of Western horticulturists. The potent influence of geological structure in determining the flora of any region is demonstrated by these relations of loess and forests, especially in Northeastern Iowa; but the connection is directly oppo I discussing "The Geological Distribu- site from that which Mr. Howell seeks to tion of North American Forests," in your August number (pp. 521, 522), Mr. Thomas J. Howell makes the general statement that the loess (or lacustral deposits) of the campestrian province "is devoid of trees," except where cut through by erosion; from which he infers that "the loess is not capable of sustaining forest-growths for any length of time." By way of explanation, he adds that the loess "evidently was timbered during the time that part of it was covered by lakes and marshes," but, "when the great rivers cut their beds down to nearly their present level, the timber gradually died out." To generalization, inference, and explanation, exception must alike be taken. In much of Eastern Iowa, and in Southeastern Minnesota, the loess is confined to an irregular zone, five to fifty miles wide, flanking the deeply eroded valley of the Mississippi on the west, and overlapping the glacial drift which forms the greater part of the surface of both States. The western limit of this zone is exceedingly sinuous; lobes of drift extend for miles within its general area, and narrow, finger-like belts of loess, sometimes separating into isolated outliers, extend still farther upon the driftplain. Now, this drift-plain is quite timberless; but the loess is naturally wooded to its extreme margin, and its outliers are also generally wooded. The coincidence of forest-growth with loess is indeed so perfect in this region that maps showing the wooded area indicate with almost equal accuracy the loess area. This is a region, too, in which not only the "great rivers," but many of their minor tributaries, have cut their channels through the loess, and far into the subjacent roeks, thus developing the picturesque river bluffs which lure so many tourists establish. But other and equally significant rela tions exist. Thus, it has been repeatedly pointed out by the director of the Iowa Weather Service, Dr. Gustavus Hinrichs, that the lines of equal timber in Eastern Iowa correspond remarkably, though in a general way, with the lines of equal rainfall. Again, the origin of the loess is yet a mooted point in geology, and the declaration that its surface was once marshy is scarcely warranted; while no unequivocal evidence that it was ever more heavily or continuously wooded than now has ever been adduced. The question as to the distribution of forests, particularly in the campestrian province, is inextricably involved with that of the treelessness of the prairies, concerning which so much has been written, but concerning which it is evident (since neither of the relations pointed out in this note have ever been adequately considered by those who have addressed themselves to the problem) that the last word has not yet been spoken. Mr. Howell would sever the Gordian knot at a stroke; but certainly some of its strands have escaped his blade. Yours, W. J. MCGEE. as the breast may or may not require the "stimulation" of frequent drawing), is an almost absolute guarantee against the gastrointestinal disorders which are popularly supposed to be unavoidable at this period of life. "Popular Science "), while granting the soundness of Dr. Oswald's position as to the "millions of infants who from the moment of birth are overfed and drug-poisoned," viz., that we have here a sufficient cause of dyspepsia, asks: "Well, what of the millions that are not? Are they the ones who do Considerable restriction is essential with not show any such tendency, despite the bottle - babies; for a greedy infant will at fact that some of their progenitors do?" any age swallow at two "sittings" a full Would Dr. Black have us believe that, out-physiological ration for twenty-four hours, side of "baby - farms," a single babe, of all and, if there is to be no restriction as to the the millions who live to be born, escapes quantity taken at each meal, no more than being constantly overfed and (in conse- two should be offered. Furthermore, every quence) occasionally medicated? I assert infant who is not fed ad nauseam will be that, as to the first count in the indictment, "greedy." In case of infants nourished at an infant is about as sure to be excessively the breast, the flow, if excessive, must be fed as he is to be born. The only excep- diminished by regulating the mother's diet; tion in general practice is where the babe for in such cases the excess is due to an is nourished at the breast, and the supply over-stimulating or slop diet, which affects happens to be short of an excess, and even the nursing-woman as a "driving" diet does in these cases all haste is made to supple- our dairy cows, causing a large yield of unment his natural aliment with the bottle; naturally constituted, though perhaps "rich" for mothers are unhappy unless their babies milk. In order to show the wide contrast are growing obese at the rate of a pound between the universal cramming and a truly or more a week. Infants usually measure wholesome diet, I will cite the case of my more round the body, arms, and legs, and own infant, now a stout, strapping boy weigh more, at some period during their of twelve months, who is one of a number first year-often at six months-than at the known to me as having enjoyed a really fair age of two and a half or three years. No chance for proving their fitness to survive. growing thing, in either the animal or vegeta- His allowance at this time is a coffee-cupble kingdom, can, under natural conditions, ful, or about eighteen tablespoonfuls, at exhibit anything of this sort. Parents, no each meal. It is usual for infants to swalmore than the average "druggist," are aware low as much, often more than three such of the fact that the normal or true growth cupfuls, every day, at the age of three or of an infant is never more than three to five four months, except when nausea or lack of ounces per week, and that all the gain appetite prevents. They are either "conabove this is from fat, representing excess, stantly" fed, or at least have a meal every two though seldom all of the excess-more or or three hours. This is the practice with the less being daily purged away by the bowels, "million," by which I presume Dr. Oswald or excreted through other outlets. All this meant all "civilized" infants, including Dr. produces or constitutes disease, leads on to Black's, if he has been blessed with such sickness, and probably dosing. While we "troublesome comforts," as they are univerhave to admit that only about forty or fifty sally called-a term, by-the-way, in itself per cent are, before the age of five years, very significant in this connection; for, again stamped out by this combination-a method referring to the few infants who have been of getting rid of the weakling* far more exceptinoally fed, breathed," clad, and cruel than the Spartan plan, of freezing exercised, i. e.-1. Fed in the manner I have them, or the African, of feeding to the described as constituting a physiological crocodiles-ninety-nine in every hundred diet; 2. Given the breath of life, viz., outare made sick by overfeeding, and few of door air twenty-four hours a day, whether these escape being more or less drugged. the babe is in-doors or out; 3. Saved from Having made the question of infant die- sweltering clothing-allowing the skin to tetics a specialty for the past ten years, I "breathe"; 4. Rationally "neglected," or, find that to hold to cow's milk as the exclu- in other words, instead of being constantly sive diet of bottle-babes (a portion of the held, tended, or wheeled, early allowed the cream to be removed in case the milk is opportunity, on the floor or lawn, of rolling, very rich in this constituent), limiting the tumbling, stretching out, and learning to number of meals to three, and somewhat re- creep at an early age, thus earning a good stricting the amount at each meal, and allow- digestion, and avoiding one of the principal ing nurslings three to five meals (according causes of infantile dyspepsia, by being, like kittens, puppies, and young monkeys, largey "self-supporting," and like them developing naturally in all parts of the frame-by these means, I would say, it has been shown to be entirely practicable to insure for the "infant race a condition as comfortable, Quoth Dr. Black, "Now, we nurse them (the weaklings) to adult life!" In fact, only about fifty to sixty per cent of all infants arrive at adult age, and these have been fitly described as "too tough to kill." Even these, to the last one, would make healthier men and women, if saved the abuses we have named. 66 happy, and thrifty, as that enjoyed by the most fortunate of the nurslings of our domestic animals or household pets. had, within twenty minutes, taken eight full cups. Then I asked her to make a slight exploration to see if she could touch that If in order, I would also venture to cite warm water with her forefinger! She made a case of gastric cramps similar to that the attempt and succeeded-the water meetmentioned by Dr. Black, but more "natural- ing her more than half-way. Along with ly" cured. I was called one day during the the water came the cause of the cramps, in past summer to the bedside of an old lady the shape of undigested food. Directly friend, who is sixty-six years of age, and after this she swallowed, though under provery frail. She was suffering intensely test, seven cupfuls more of the same safe from acute dyspepsia. "Well, doctor," she remedy, which had just the effect I anticimoaned, between the spasms, "you-will pated. She soon became entirely at ease, have-to-give-me-some-medicinethis- rested quietly for the balance of the after time!" “Very good,” I replied, "here it is." (Having obtained a hint from the nurse as to the state of affairs, I had ordered up a pitcher each of hot and cold water.) "Just drink this cupful of warm water. Take it right down, please, as if it were a delicious draught, and you were feeling very thirsty." This she did, and then another and another, and so on until she noon, slept soundly that night, and awoke next morning to laugh over the experience of the day before. There was no poison taken to tax the organism. The water did its perfect work-washing the stomach, diluting the blood, and aiding in the elimination of impurities, instead of adding to them in the least degree. C. E. PAGE. NEW YORK, September 17, 1888. EDITOR'S TABLE. THE CURRENT STUDY OF CLASSICS A not master them, and, second, because PRES. Adams on the Greek ques-quisitions in preparation for the duties tion. The President of Yale College, we need not say, is a very strong man -an eminent scholar, an experienced educator, a keen controversialist, and thoroughly familiar with this subject; and so in the "Princeton Review" for September, in the opening article, entitled "A College Fetich," he has given what must be virtually accepted as the official answer to Mr. Adams's argument. Assuming, then, that President Porter has made out the best case possible, let us see whether Mr. Adams's main position has been successfully assailed or remains undisturbed. It will be remembered that in his Phi Beta Kappa address Mr. Adams arraigned the system of classical study in Harvard College, and more emphatically that of Greek, as a failure; and he appealed to his own experience, and to that of three generations of his ancestors, in proof of the charge. He alleged that the time spent upon classical languages was wasted, first, because he did and responsibilities of modern life. President Porter takes issue with Mr. Adams on the main points of his argument. He holds to "the perfection of the Greek language as an instrument for the perpetual training of the mind of the later generations"; and maintains that "the ancient languages, in their structure, their thoughts, also in the imagery which their literature embodies, are better fitted than any modern languages can be for the single office of training the intellect, and the feelings, and the taste; and in every one of these advantages the Greek is pre-eminently superior to the Latin." As a consequence, he maintains that "the old classical training" is the best preparation for the intellectual work of modern life, the best corrective of its injurious influences, and therefore not an educational failure. But Mr. Adams had condemned the system after trial of it. He had diligently pursued the classics as prescribed |