v \ t LIBRARY Or CONGRESS. I {UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.* !& ^^^^^<^^^^^^^^^^^^^. ^£j! ^IsT AIsTSWEB TO THE FOLLOWING INQUIRIES, !X RELATION TO THE Eclectic System of Medicine What is its Origin ? What are its Principles ? What are its Remedies ? What is its Popularity and Organization ? What are its Medical Institutions ? What is its Literature ? What is the success of the Eclectic Practice ? What are its Claims to Public Patronage ? DESIGNED FOR ALL PERSONS SEEKING THE TRUTH AS TO THE RELATIVE MERITS OF THE DIFFERENT SYSTEMS OF MEDICAL PRACTICE. BY PAUL W. ALLEN, M. D., Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine in the Eclectic Medical College of the City of Xew York ; President of the Eclectic Medical Society of the City of Xew York; Honorary Member of the State Eclectic Medical Societies of Mas- sachusetts and Connecticut; Life Member of the American Institute, etc., etc. — NEW YORK : PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 1869. \\ ** The Eclectic Medical College of the City of New York Commences its Sixth Session Oct. 13th, 1869, (Preliminary Course, attendance optional, Oct. 1.) at the College Building, 223 East 26th St. The Session will continue eighteen weeks ; the Hospital facilities of New York are more extensive than those of any other city, either American or European ; and the Faculty will give a very full course of Lec- tures. Professors : J. R. BUCHANAN, M. D., Emeritus Professor and Lecturer on the Institutes of Medicine. R. S. XEWTOX, M. D., Operative Surgery and Surgical Diseases. P. W. ALLEN, M. D., Theory and Practice of Medicine. W. W- HADLEY, M. D., Materia Medica and Therapeutics. J. M. COMINS, M. D.. Obstetrics and Diseases of Females. E. TREEMAN, M. D., Descriptive and Surgical Anatomy. J. M. F. BROWNE. M. D., Physiology and Pathology. J. M. SANDERS, M. D., Chemistry. H. D. GARRISON, M. D., Pharmacy. FRANK TABOR, A. M., Medical Jurisprudence. JOHN H. FITCH, M. D., Demonstrator, and Adjunct Professor of Anatomy. The American Eclectic Medical Review Commences its fifth Volume, July 1, 1869. This is an elegant and able journal of pro- gressive medicine and surgery ; forty-eight pages monthly ; $2.00 per year ; edited by Prof. R. S. Newton, M. D., Prof. J. M. F. Browne, M. D., L. L. D., and P. A. Morrow, M. D. ; with a large list of contributors. Address: Eclectic Medical Review, 30 East 19th St., New York City, N. Y. This Pam phlet Is designed for circulation by Eclectic Medical Societies and Physicians, and also by those friends and patrons of the Eclectic System who have proved its efficacy upon them- selves, or in their families, and who desire to extend the benefits of this Practice, by in- ducing others to understand and appreciate it. The form and size of this pamphlet are such that it can be folded and sent in an ordinary letter envelope. Persons wishing to procure it, will send $5.00 for every hundred copies wanted, and they will be immedi- ately forwarded by express, or as may otherwise be ordered. Send, (by Post Office Money Order, if possible.) to PAUL W. ALLEN, M. D., Ill East 82d St., New York City, N. Y. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by PAUL W. ALLEN, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. THE ECLECTIC SYSTEM OF MEDICINE Its Origin, Remedies, Success, Etc. THE CHOICE OF A PHYSICIAN. "What Doctor shall we send for?" These have been important and familiar words in many a home. A member of the family has become suddenly and violently sick, and some medical advisor must be called. What responsibility in that call ! Many have rejoiced in the selection of their physician, for he knew well the disease, and his remedies were successful. Others, not a few, have bitterly re- gretted that they employed the physician whom they did ; for the treatment did no good, or did injury rather than good, or seemed to so aggravate the disease that it proved fatal ; and those who called the physician deeply deplore that they employed any medical at- tendant — or, at any rate, one whose services seemed worse than useless. How important then that the entire public know something of medical principles and practice ! Upon the choice of a physician often seems to depend the life or death of the patient. How impor- tant that the relative merits of the Allopathic, the Homoeopathic, and Eclectic systems of practice be well understood by every person. All are liable to sickness, at any time, and the choice of a physi- cian should be made with care and discrimination, in the hours of calm and responsible reasoning, and not at the moment of sudden sickness and fearful anxiety. Your mind is settled on one point — that you will employ a man who is intelligent in his profession. You have no confidence in mere pretence. Y^ou want a physician who will thoroughly under- stand your disease and its remedies. But you say: " Shall I have an Allopath, or a Homoeopath, or an Eclectic? Which of these systems is most reasonable in its principles, and therefore entitled to my inteligent confidence ? What is the success of the different systems ?" Among the physicians whose services you may com- mand, it is your duty to be informed, when in health, as to their relative success. Make careful observation and inquiry, free from prejudice. From such inquiry, ascertain what system is successful. In politics and religion, the people are educated as to party prin- ciples and denominational tenets. Political papers and pamphlets are in every family ; and in every campaign, public addresses are given, setting forth, in the most earnest and clear manner, the acts, principles and proposed policy of each party. The people are no longer the blind tools of tyranical leaders, but they are thus so edu- cated that the public sentiment becomes an irresistible influence ; and no party can long remain in power whose acts are not conso- nant with the public interest and general welfare. Just so among religious denominations. Every pains is taken by the clergy, by tracts, and by religious newspapers, to inform the people as to their belief, and as to the reasons for that belief. This is as it should be. It is in strong contrast with the past ; but it ensures the rights, and the enlightenment, and the happiness, of the whole family of man. Just so, too, of every great public interest. Every important question of law, of humanity, of education, of pub- lie enterprise, of national progress, of discovery, is daily discussed, among all the masses ; and its practicability and adoption are largely dependent upon that mighty public sentiment which is fast becoming the power of the world, and the blessing of its millions. Let any principles or remedies which have been proved to be true and practical, be presented to the intelligent judgment of an ob- serving public, and no medical sect can long resist them, by ignor- ing them, or nursing a contempt for them, or by ignorantly or self- ishly decrying them. Let the people be informed as thoroughly as possible, as to medical principles and practice, watch closely the relative success of the different classes of practitioners, and judge for themselves. This alone is their safety, for it will lead them to know with what physicians their health and their lives are safest. The writer of this, after a medical experience of nearly twenty-six years, about equally divided between country, city and hospital practice, believes that any person who will carefully inquire as to the practice of intelligent Eclectic physicians, will decide that they are far more successful and reliable than those of any other school. The reader may suppose that we were educated in this system, and that having practiced it, we are thus prejudiced in its favor. Our education was as opposed to Eclecticism as was St. Paul's to Christi- anity, or as was that of Galileo to free philosophy, or as that of Wash- ington to a republican government. And almost every Eclectic phy- sician, educated a quarter of a century since, was convinced of the cor- rectness in theory, and success in practice, of this system, against all the impressions of his early manhood's education, and by the superior success of Eclectic remedies. He saw. again and again, the want of success of Allopathic physicians, in bilious, typhoid, lung, and rheumatic fevers ; in diarrhoea and dysentery ; in croup, scarlet fever, and other diseases common to infancy ; in incipient consump- tion, in liver diseases, in scrofula, in eruptive diseases, and in most chronic affections. He saw other physicians, some of them known as Botanies, Thomsonians, or Eeformed Physicians, very successful in all these and various other diseases. My own medical studies, and those of many others, were with Allopathic physicians ; and whilst we admired the treasures of medical science gathered by emi- nent Allopathic authors, in works on anatomy, physiology, pathol- ogy, medical chemistry, therapeutics, obstetrics, and other depart- ments of professional learning, we painfully saw that the remedies employed were unsuccessful ; that a large proportion of cases were fatal ; and that the reducing of disease by blood-letting, calomel, opium, and antimony was very uncertain ; that almost all this prac- tice of letting out the life-blood, and poisoning the system by mer- cury, and depressing the vital power by antimony, and stupefying the system by opium, was unscientific in theory, utterly opposed to the hygienic laws of the system, and dreadfully fatal to the sick. And very much of this practice is still most persistently insisted on in Allopathic works on the practice of medicine, and by their lec- turers in medical colleges ; and if the Allopathic profession has, to some extent, discontinued these agencies, as indeed they have, it is the strongest practical admission that we were right, and they were mistaken. THE OEIGIN OF ECLECTICISM. The Eclectic system of medicine is American in its ideas and in its remedies. It is the child of American free thought and practical sagacity. It was first announced to the world by its definite name about the year 1845. In the very early history of medicine there was a sect of physicians known as Eclectics, but they neither knew the remedies or principles which now distinguish Eclectics ; and in modern times, the term Eclectic was first suggested to designate our system of practice by Calvin Fletcher, Esq., of Cincinnati, Ohio. Twenty years previous to that time, Dr. Samuel Thompson, a son of New Hampshire, had announced the great practical truths that we must sustain the vital powers ; that stimulation, and not deple- tion, is the true theory of medicine, and that relaxants and stimu- lants are agents of great efficacy in breaking up, or safely treating, fevers and inflammations. He was the first physician to recommend enemas as a general substitute for cathartics ; and he almost entirely rejected, in either acute or chronic diseases, the use of cathartics — a peculiarity of medical opinion never entertained by Eclectics. Wooster Beach, M. D., of New York, had also published, at least fifteen years before 1845, "the American System of Medicine;'/ and in this work he had most decidedly opposed the whole system of blood-letting, calomel and antimony ; advocated supporting regi- men and remedies; introduced a great many valuable medicinal plants into the materia medica ; and suggested most distinctive and valuable plans of treatment for fevers and inflammations, for diar- rhoea and dysentery, for malignant cholera ; and he also advocated many new methods of treating various chronic diseases. In 1836, the "Western Medical Keformer" was first published in Worthington, Ohio ; a college was established soon after that date; and in 1845 the Eclectic Medical School of Cincinnati was incorporated ; and about this time, the Worcester (Mass.,) Eclectic Medical College. Since that time, several others have been estab- lished; and there are now at least four — educating hundreds of physicians annually — one in New York, one in Cincinnati, one in Philadelphia, and one in Chicago. From each of these cities is now issued a monthly journal of Eclectic medicine and surgery, and they are patronized by our physicians in every State — keeping our practitioners informed of the numerous new remedies discovered in every section of the union ; and also faithfully advising them as to the discoyeries made by Allopathic and Homoeopathic physicians in every part of the world. WHAT AKE THE PRINCIPLES OF ECLECTICISM? Eclecticism is the inductive system of reasoning applied to medi- cine. It has its basis in physiology and hygiene. It studies care- fully the functions of the human system, and it believes that most diseases are essentially the departures from healthy functional ac- tion. It uses such agents as restore the healthy action of the ali- mentary canal, liver, kidneys, and skin, and as equalize the circu- lation. It does other things besides these, but these things it seeks to do in almost every instance, as the primary and essential duty of the physician. It enjoins upon the patient to live in accordance with the laws of hygiene, and instructs him how to do this. It seeks to use as few remedies as possible which interfere with healtky functional action. It avoids violent and irritating cathartics, which produce disease of the stomach and bowels, and greatly reduce the strength and prostrate the system ; and, in their stead, it uses unir- ritating, but sometimes active, cathartics, which cleanse the alimen- tary system and correct its secretions. The Eclectic code does net proscribe a physician for using calomel, for it declares the largest liberty of individual opinion, t; without constraint, let or hindrance f but we have discovered far better remedies to act on the liver thas calomel or blue mass ; and they are so superior that probably v&t one Eclectic in a hundred ever directs his patient to swallow any mercurials. They are generally disapproved of, as liable to create inflammation of the stomach and intestines ; as uncertain in thek action on the liver ; and as most poisonous remedies, which tend is depress the vital powers, poison the fluids of the system, and sub- ject the patient to future disease. Eclectics ever seek to support the system ; to nourish patients, and not to starve them. They endeavor to restore normal functions, and not to depress them ; to sustain the strength, and not to exhaust it They efficiently restore the healthy secretions of the bile, of the urine and of the perspiration ; and they greatly depend on thus as- sisting nature as a means of cure. How contrary is all this to the opinions of Allopathy a few years since ; for even so leading a teacher and professor as Dr. Eush, of Philadelphia, said: " As to nature, I would treat it in a sick chamber as I would a squalling eat — open the door and drive it out." Instead of taking blood out of the system by bleeding, the Eclec- tic equalizes the circulation, and thus overcomes local determinations of the blood and inflammations in any of the organs. He evacuates any excess of blood, by acting powerfully on the kidneys, the bowels, and the skin, and thus carries off this excess by draining off the waste constituents of the blood, instead of removing the vital fluid as a whole. Twenty years ago, the most eminent Allopathic teachers and practitioners insisted on blood-letting in almost every severe case of any inflammation or fever ; and the same Dr. Eush whom we nave just quoted, in speaking of blood-letting in yellow fever, de- clared it to be the magnum bonum Dei — the great gift of Grod.° The Eclectic purifies and enriches the blood, but never wastes it, or poisons it. The Eclectic uses counter-irritants, dry cupping, and a temporary ligation of the limbs, to overcome local inflammation ; but very sel- dom, or never, resorts to blisters. His use of opiates is exceedingly limited, and rather to relieve present, urgent symptoms, than to really depend on them as means of positive cure. He regards opi- ates, in any considerable quantity, as poisonous; and his use of any vegetable poisons is quite limited ; and in the doses in which he uses them, they can scarcely be regarded as poisons. He is pos- itively opposed to arsenic, lead, mercury, and other mineral poisons, fceeause the system cannot fully eliminate them, and they remain as poisons in the system, injuring the constitution, and developing many diseases in the various organs and tissues. Such are the general principles of the medical treatment of Amer- ^8ee Life of Prof. Benj. SillimaD, Vol. i., page 105. 10 ican Eclectics. How unlike is this to the Allopathic system, as taught in their medical colleges and works, in France, Great Britain, and the United States ! And yet these principles have approved themselves to hundreds of men once educated to Allopathy, but who are now Eclectics, practising in every part of our country. And hundreds of other physicians, choosing their school of practice in the outset of professional life, and from careful investigation as seekers of medical science, have graduated as Eclectics, and are ex- tensively practising this system with eminent success. In every State in the Union are many physicians who have, acting individu- ally as medical observers and thinkers, arrived at the same results as to the true doctrines of medical science, and as to the remedies to be preferred. As we have before remarked, in an Annual Ad- dress before the Eclectic Medical Society of the State of New York, delivered in the Assembly Chamber, Albany, Jan. 15, 1868 : '• We challenge the history of the world to produce the instance of so large a number of intelligent men coming to the same conclusions, adopting the same essential platform of belief, without having been educated and disciplined by organization. " It should now be added, that nearly all the remedies and methods of treatment thus gener- ally adopted by Eclectics continue to be used, and maintain that estimation for efficiency with which they were severally announced by their individual discoverers. Surely, here is sagacity making- science — a scientific system of remedies. WHAT ABE OUB BEMEDIES ? The discoveries of American Eclectics have been so numerous and so exceedingly valuable, that we can only refer to them in general terms. Hundreds of new remedies have been discovered and devel- oped by us ; remedies beyond price in efficacy, in almost every class of diseases. We do not reject any remedy because it is used by allopaths or by homoeopaths. On the contrary, we are very grateful 11 for every valuable remedy discovered by any one ; but every intel- ligent Eclectic will testify that the agents and methods of treatment discovered by our school alone, within the last twenty-five years, are of more practical value, to save life and cure the sick, than all the remedies which had previously been discovered, by all other schools of practice, since medicine had a history or mankind an ex- istence. The variety and efficacy of our remedies are the wonder and delight of all who intelligently test them ; and new ones are every year being discovered by enterprising and progressive minds. The United States embrace every variety of soil and climate, plants of all the zones grow therein, and they are contributed, along with the remedies of all other countries and climates, to our materia medica. We invite facts from all persons, the world over, whether physicians or not, as to the action of any newly tested agent, whether used by the profession or as a domestic remedy. To the success of our remedies, thus learned by humble and therefore re- ceptive minds, we shall again have occasion to refer, when we speak of the success of the Eclectic practice. Such remedies give our physicians an enthusiasm and devotion to practice, which are in striking contrast with the declarations of Allopathic physicians and authors. We cannot enlarge on this point, but we will quote a few sentences from an address by the learned Prof. Thomas Watson, author of "Lectures on the Principles and Practice of Physic, de- livered at King's College, London." No name in Allopathic medi- cine is higher than his as an authority in practice. And yet this erudite and logical man said, in an address before the London Clin- ical Society, in 1868: "Certainly the greatest gap in the science of medicine is to be found in its final and supreme stage — the stage of therapeutics." " We know tolerably well ivhat it is we have to deal with, but we do not know so well, nor anything like so well, how to deal with it." "To me it has been a lifelong wonder how vaguely, how ignorantly, how rashly, drugs are often prescribed. We try this, and, not succeeding, we try that ; and, baffled again, 12 we try some thing else." " Our profession is continually fluctuating on a sea of doubts about questions of the gravest importance." 1 ' Of Therapeutics, as a trustworthy science, it is certain that we have as yet only the expectation. " Such is the testimony of Sir Thomas Watson, in 1868, before the elite of the profession in London, in reference to Allopathic reme- dies ! Thank God, American Eclectics have remedies in which they trust, for almost every curable disease. IS ECLECTICISM POPULAR AND ORGANIZED ? Never did any system make such progress in popular favor and in- telligent confidence. Nearly twenty years ago, Allopathy began to es- sentially lose the confidence of the public. It was too fatal to retain favor. Educated people were surprised that the profession, with all the acquirements of many generations, were so unsuccessful in both acute and chronic diseases ; and very many among the better in- formed classes adopted Homoeopathy ; not indeed, because, in most instances, they had any special faith in it, but for the reason that its remedies were pleasant, and they supposed its doses would not destroy life, if they did not save it. They knew of nothing better than this one idea system of "like cures like," and of infinitely small doses. But now it is vastly different. In every section of the country, Eclecticism is rapidly gaining ; and not one-fourth of the applications for Eclectic physicians can be filled by the graduates of Eclectic colleges. Our practitioners are now numbered by thousands, and most of them are very busily employed ; and not one in an hun- dred can be induced to take a new field of professional labor, for the very reason that his time and talents are so fully employed and ap- preciated where he is. State Societies, incorporated by law, exist in Connecticut, Massa- chusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Maine, Vermont, Ohio, and sev- eral other states. County Societies, auxiliary to the State organiza- 13 tions, are rapidly multiplying ; and all their most useful essays and discussions are published, along with those of the State Societies, in volumes of Annual Transactions ; and in the State of New York it is done in an illustrated octavo volume, of about four hundred pages, at the expense of the State. The press everywhere com- mends our enterprise and our success. Eclecticism has made so extensive and so favorable an impression on the American mind that it is fast becoming the system of this country. WHAT IS OUE LITERATURE ? We hold many branches of medical learning in common with other schools of practice. "We have no occasion to publish separate works on these branches. Physicians of all schools study the same text books of Anatomy, Physiology, and Chemistry. In Surgery and Obstetrics our doctrines and practice are, in many respects, quite different ; and we have made valuable improvements in treat- ment. Pour large works on Obstetrics have been published hj Pro- fessors Beach, King, Sites, and Longshore, besides various smaller works on this subject. Works on Surgery have been issued by Pro- fessors R. S. Newton, and Hill. Volumes on Materia Meclica and Therapeutics have been published by Professors King and Newton, L. E. Jones and Scudder, Hollembaek, and Dr. G-rover Coe. Works on the Practice of Medicine have been written by Professors Beach, Morrow and I. G-. Jones, I. G-. Jones and Wm. Sherwood, M. D., Powell and R. S. Newton, Potter, Paine, Scudder, and Buchanan. Works on the Diseases of Women have been given to the profession by Professors King, and Scudder ; and on the Diseases of Children by Professors Powell and Newton, Newton, and Buchanan. These, with volumes on Domestic Practice, Chemistry, Botany, Physiology. Microscopy, Urino-Pathology, Syphilis, and other subjects, show the industry, the enterprise, and the culture of this branch of the pro- fession. An honorable record this to the intellect of these reformers 14 and benefactors of mankind. Besides all these works, published within the last twenty-five years, in large and frequent editions, we have a list of twenty medical periodicals, published within the same time, as enumerated in Dr. M. M. Fenners "Beport on Eclectic Medical Literature," made to the New York State Society, January, 1868. In the number of works on remedies and treatment, it is probable that we have excelled any other branch of the profession in this country. WHAT IS THE SUCCESS OF THE ECLECTIC PBACTICE ? We can specify only a few diseases, but these are the types of our success in others. First of all, we ought to say to those who have not seen this practice, that at least four-fifths of all cases of fever are broken up within the first three days of our attendance. This is not true of typhoid fevers taken alone, because they have usually progressed some days before we see them ; but it is true of bilious, intermittent, rheumatic and lung fevers. In the various acute in- flammations of separate organs, our remedies are exceedingly effica- cious. Our agents to equalize the circulation and restore the secre- tions arc so rapid in their action that they overcome congestion and cut short acute inflammation with surprising power. Sudden at- tacks, like pleurisy, croup, inflammation of the kidneys, etc., usually last but a few hours ; and blood-poison diseases, like erysipelas, scarlet fever, measles and small-pox are far more safely carried through than under any other treatment. The diseases peculiar to children are treated with great success, especially the diseases con- nected with teething, and the bowel affections, and croups and ca- tarrhs to which children are so subject. For diseases of the stomach we have numerous and excellent tonics, stimulants and other agents ; for diseases of the liver, alter- atives which succeed where every preparation of mercury fails ; in diseases of the kidneys and bladder, we have remedies the efficacy 15 at which would surprise the most intense specialists of London and Paris. In dropsy, where there is no organic disease, the new rem- edies act with surprising power, and cure in cases in which there is no hope under any other form of treatment. In the various chronic eruptions of the skin, our alteratives are unrivalled. In general debility and incipient consumption, thousands can testify to the rallying power of Eclectic treatment. In constipation, we have ex- cellent and permanent remedies ; in bilious colic our peculiar reme- dies often relieve the intestinal spasm in half an hour ; in diar- rhoea, dysentery, cholera morbus and Asiatic cholera our practi- tioners have a success which always and everywhere distinguishes them. In the medical and surgical treatment of tumors, cancers and piles, we are in advance of the age in which we live. In fe- male diseases, both functional and organic, we have a general treat- ment and local remedies which have everywhere made our practi- tioners the favorites of the ladies, in these diseases. Such is only a brief statement, correct in every particular, and which is demonstrated by the success of every intelligent Eclectic physician. Test these statements by giving a fair trial to this system. If successful, as we claim, give American Eclecticism your patronage, and the public the benefit of your influence.