The Story of our Health Message

Discrimination Urged

Although it is true that by this time (1858) the dangers of the excessive use of the more potent drugs were recognized by observant physicians, only a very few had the courage to discard the use of drugs altogether. Dr. Worthington Hooker, who, as we have quoted, set forth what he regarded as “rational therapeutics,” in his book by that name, advocated the “discriminatory use” of these drugs and even of bleeding. Thus he says concerning the use of certain remedies: SHM 17.1

“The combination of calomel, antimony, and opium, which in various preparations is now so much used, is a remedy of very great value in the treatment of inflammatory diseases. ... SHM 17.2

“Mercury is a remedy of great value in the treatment of many chronic diseases. ... SHM 17.3

“[Bleeding] has been in some quarters too much given up. ... SHM 17.4

“For a long time the doctrine of the profession was ... that the patient must sleep or die; and that the grand means of securing sleep was opium. ... The profession were right in regard to the first clause of this doctrine, ... but they were wrong in regard to the necessity of opium to produce this result. The agitation can be quieted by other means, as alcohol, for example. ... SHM 17.5

“[For colic and intermittent fever] quinine is often given much more freely than it formerly was.”—Rational Therapeutics, 23, 24, 27, 32, 33, 36. SHM 17.6

As we enter the third quarter of the nineteenth century, we note marked progress in the methods of medical practice. But a single instance will here be cited, that of the knowledge of fevers and their proper treatment. The various stages in this development were well set forth by Dr. J. H. Kellogg, who, writing in 1876, says regarding the old method of treating fevers: SHM 17.7

“Twenty years ago, when a man had a fever, the doctors thought he had too much vitality—too much life—and so they bled him, and purged him, and poisoned him with calomel, and blue mass, and sundry other poisons, for the purpose of taking away from him a part of his vitality—his life—in other words, killing him a little.”—J. H. Kellogg, M.D., in The Health Reformer, January, 1876. (Battle Creek, Michigan.) SHM 18.1

Of course, as Doctor Kellogg points out, only those who were “extraordinarily tough” could survive such treatment; and the heavy mortality led to the adoption of a theory the very opposite of the former. Instead of being an indication of too much vitality, fever was regarded as a sign of too little. And now brandy, wine, and other stimulants were used “to increase vitality.” It was a matter of great perplexity that the results of this treatment were found to be no better than the former. SHM 18.2