A GENTLEMAN who had devoted many years to the practice of medicine, once said to the writer that no physician of repute would claim that he healed his patients or even that his remedies did so. The most that could be said of the drugs that were administered, or whatever other material remedies were employed, was that they helped nature do the work she was already striving to do. This physician contended that it was unnatural to be sick, and that nature was constantly and continually asserting herself in behalf of the sick man. He said it was only when the forces of nature were too weak to counteract unnatural conditions that the use of drugs and other material remedies was deemed advisable.
This view of the case is in accord with the practice of that rapidly increasing class of physicians who refuse to administer drugs except when from their point of view it is absolutely necessary to do so, and even then it is generally conceded, "the less medicine the better."
Let it lie granted that sickness is the result of breaking nature's laws either knowingly or unwittingly. Then the question arises. How can the sufferer best atone for the wrong that has been done? How can he make amends for the violation of nature's laws? If, as was claimed by the physician referred to. nature is asserting herself in the endeavor to remove the discord occasioned by the violation of law, what can be done to help nature if it be true that assistance is needed? If drugs are to be employed, shall they be administered internally or applied externally? Shall the sick man rely upon the infinitesimal doses of homoeopathy or shall he resort to the more heroic prescription of allopathy? Shall he consider drugs of no avail and place himself under the care of the osteopath or the magnetic healer? or shall he conclude there must be good in all material systems and methods of healing and apply to the eclectic physician in time of need? There are various forms of medical practice, all claiming to work in harmony with nature's laws, and those in need of healing must decide between them.
