Dear Journal:— How quickly the disciples of materia medica desert the supposed cardinal principles of their so-called science when anything happens to show them that their opinions have been wrong, and instead of representing and resting upon a scientific principle, as they have supposed and asserted, they were simply the products of mortal mind.
When anything occurs to make them change their minds they desert the old theories, which have been landmarks to them all through their careers, in a second, and at once pin their faith on some other material and human hypothesis which they have studied up to take the place of the lost theory, but which they still pretend to consider is based on a principle, and not on "scientific guess work."
This patent fact, it seems to me, was illustrated a few weeks ago to those who read the daily papers. The Boston Herald, of December 25, morning edition, contained a dispatch bearing the New York date-line, giving the details of an operation performed by Dr. Carl Schlatter of the University of Zurich, Switzerland, in the excision of the stomach of a woman. The woman recovered from the operation and grew well and strong, after having been deprived of that supposedly very necessary portion of the human anatomy.
