CHAP. I. firmer, the more settled activity of youth, the prattling into full developed speech, and the softness of the frame into solidity combined with softness: then the youth gradually assumes the forms of manhood, and the girl the beauties of womanhood, the mind expanding with the body: the impassioned eye, the new tendernesses of nature proclaim the development of feelings, that add, in their proper activity, some of the highest charms to life: the previously single become united by that invisible link, of which marriage is merely the visible sign; and the result is, a new existence, in which, if not the physical and mental features of both parents, at least the feelings of love in both, are concentered. The mature man endued with powers of mind, is seen struggling with manly energy and persevering assiduity in his duties, cheered by her, who is his helpmeet; and life onward moves till moulded into a more sobered aspect, the aspect of old age; and, at last, having distributed to their rising descendants the results of their matured wisdom, the aged, softened by their kindlier sympathies, surrounded by their offspring, fall asleep, satisfied with the enjoyments they have had in time, and regarding these as a foretaste of those they have to enjoy through eternity.

Of what is this the picture? Of what but an uninterrupted possession of that state of organs, through which, the life acting produces that beautiful harmony of manifestations, called health.

Such a picture is sometimes to be beheld: it would be always beheld, were men for a series of generations to act in obedience to all the laws of the Creator.

But though this picture of undisturbed, of harmonizing manifestations may be seen, sometimes, in all its untarnished glory, more frequently varied and bedimmed, other less pleasing pictures are very frequently forced upon the notice.

Behold the little infant, attacked with severe pain, writhing in convulsions, burned up with heat, rejecting the very breast, on which it used to hang with inexpressible satisfaction; and, combined with this, is seen the anxious eye of the mother, dull with the lengthened watching. And what is this? Is it health? No. It is life; but is it life acting in a regular way? Surely not,it is life acting in an irregular way--it is DISEASE.

Again, behold the youth, full of power, "with marrow whose CHAP. I. bones are moistened," in the hey-dey of life, affected with turgid cheeks, flashing eyes, enlarged and throbbing arteries in his temples, talking madly, trying to break from the kind hands that restrain him. What is this? Is it life? Yes, it is. Is it life in regular action? No. It is life in irregular action-it is

DISEASE.

See the full grown man, the centre of the social circle, the provider for the wants of his happy home, the bread-winner for them all the man of strong energy, of active habits-laid on the bed of sickness: See his pallid look, his anxious countenance, his sunken eyes, his panting nostrils, his brow clothed with the cold damp of death, his fingers convulsively active in picking the bed clothes; and, at his side, see the loved one, who lives in him, living a new life-a life of unsleeping activity, watching every look and speaking thanks in her looks at every respite from his pains, his restlessness. What is this? Is it death? No; it is life, exhausting itself in its destructive efforts-it is

DISEASE.

What then is disease but IRREGULAR, ABNORMAL, manifestations of life? Disease is vitality disturbed in its manifestations: life, not disturbed in its own nature, but disturbed, because the apparatuses, the organs, through which it acts, are not in their natural, their normal, their regular state.

Health, then, is life, acting through the organs of the body in their natural, their regular, their normal condition: disease, also, is life, acting through the organs in an unnatural, an irregular, an abnormal condition: in other words, health is life, acting through healthy organs: disease is life, acting through unhealthy organs.

But it is LIFE IN BOTH. Disease and health, both are life's actions, both are the effects of vitality.

The conditions, essential to health, are life and a natural condition of the organs; a condition, like that in which they were created, and in relation to which they were pronounced "good."

The conditions, essential to disease, are life and a condition of the organs contrary to nature, in which disturbed condition the life, acting through them, will, in most cases, if unaided, end in death.

B

10 POINTS OF CONTRAST BETWEEN HEALTH AND DISEASE.

CHAP. I. Health is the rule; disease is the exception: health is the standard; disease is the deviation from that standard: health is the offspring of the harmony existing between the life and the organs; disease is the offspring of the discord between the life and the organs.

Health is the straight line, beginning and ending in life, and in God, the Author of life: disease is the deviation from the straight line, beginning in the violation of the Creator's law, as recorded in man's physical constitution, and ending in death.

A swimmer goes into deep water he makes a regular and slow effort, keeps himself buoyant, and is saved. A person, not a swimmer, gets into deep water, uses violent efforts, struggles hard, and exhausting himself with the struggling, sinks.

Both use their muscular power; the one to safety, the other to destruction. Health is the name for the graceful, the safetyproducing action: disease is the name for the violent, the destructive action.

Disease is the name for the phenomena of life disturbed in the manifestation of the phenomena, the struggle: it bears the same relation to these as the word "battle" bears to the phenomena, exhibited in killing, piercing, cutting, shooting, dying, which a field of battle presents. A battle can be fought, but you cannot fight the battle.

There is no self-existent, independent matter or thing, called disease, to overcome; it is only life, struggling injuriously.

To conclude these illustrations: health is regular, orderly active life disease is irregular, disorderly active life.

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Beautifully and cleverly has the talented author of "the Past and the Present" remarked, "All misery is faculty misdirected; strength that has not yet found its way." The same is definitive of disease." It is life-power misdirected: it is life's strength that has not found its way."

These illustrative explanations of life and disease have been made thus numerous, because of the importance connected with accurate notions of what disease is: since if this view of disease be understood and adopted, the dreadfully destructive notion will be annihilated, which actually imagines that, in destroying the power of life to MANIFEST SYMPTOMS, disease is overcome :

a notion practically founded on the ofttimes fatal assumption, CHAP. I. that there is more power in disease than in health.

Necessary, indeed, are these illustrations, for how common is the phrase," overcoming disease:" and the phrase is common because the idea of overcoming disease is almost universally prevalent; hence the phrases, "the more violent the disease, the more violent the remedy;"" violent diseases require violent remedies."

With such maxims as these influencing the minds of medical practitioners, it is no wonder that violent medicinal means should abound no wonder that medical practice presents

What a dreadful warrior is the old system medical practitioner. Hanging at his side is a war complement of sharpcutting lancets: dangling from his belt he has a powerful cupping instrument: on his back is a blister: from his shoulders hang plasters: skeins of thread and seton needles are arranged round his neck issue peas form bracelets round his wrist: a bag of mustard is suspended from one arm, tartar emetic ointment from the other: and some match boxes, with cotton and a lamp to burn holes in the body, to make moxas, he holds in one hand, and, in the other, countless agents, potent against the constitution but not against disease.

Such is his panoply. He is so armed because he has, at least so he thinks, to overcome disease; and so much does the force of his weapons raise him to the character of a slayer, that this system of medical treatment has been and is called the "heroic" system.

But the physician's object is to remove the symptoms, which indicate the life power struggling injuriously: his object is to alter the state of the organ or organs, which the life, acting through, causes the manifestations produced to be irregular, to be diseased.

The inquiry now occurs, WHAT ARE THE MEANS by which he

CHAP. I. can realize this object quickly, safely, and favourably, (“ curatio tuto, cito, jucunde.")

It is well known, that, between the stomach in the state of health and certain articles in the aggregate called food, a relationship has been fixed, which ensures that, when the articles are taken, nourishment must result.

An equally fixed relationship has been established between the body in a state of disease and certain articles, which, when administered as the Creator has appointed, have the power of causing a state, which is simultaneous with the removal of disease.

These bodies are called REMEDIES, and they have, it is likely, existed from the earliest time. In fact, the thought is not to be regarded as altogether visionary, which suggests, that the change which took place at the fall, which converted plants into weeds, might have been arranged so that the diseases which soon were to develop themselves should be successfully antagonised by the properties of the degenerated plants.

It is not necessary to notice either the immense number of medical systems, which have been promulgated at different periods of the world's history, or the still greater variety of medicinal substances.

It will be sufficient to notice the two systems, under which medicines, as acting upon diseases, have been grouped; the first being that, in which the medicines act or are supposed to act, in inducing an action in the diseased part or system of a kind directly opposite to that, principally prominent in the disease, the practitioner thus expecting to overcome the disease; the second being that, in which medicines are used to induce an action, a new diseased action, in a part different from that, in which the disease first manifests itself. The first system is called ANTIPATHIC, or ANTIPATHY, from avri, anti, against, and Talos, pathos, suffering; and the latter ALLOPATHY, from alλos, allos, another, and ratos, pathos: the former produces an affection against or opposite to the disease: the latter produces an action in another part.

The antipathic method is in one point of view, putting out a fire by heaping damp combustible materials thereon: The allopathic is to light a fire in another part of the building to put out the fire in another part.