The principles of the chrono-thermal system of medicine, with the fallacies of the faculty / by Samuel Dickson.

Date:
1861
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles of the chrono-thermal system of medicine, with the fallacies of the faculty / by Samuel Dickson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    Alps. The telegraph from Turin while we write brings us the melancholy intelli- gence of the death of Count Cavour, who, for a fever, variously described by his physicians as the gout/' congestion of the brain, brain fever, ioitermittent fever, &c., &c., was three times bled in one day, and twice the next* If we turn to the Western hemisphere we shall be equally at a loss for an answer. Throughout the now dis-United States of America the older physicians, while be- wailing modern innovations, ascribe the downfall of blood-letting in the new world to a too ready acquiescence of the people in the Chrono-thermal quackery of Dr. Dickson. Dr. Sieveking styles Dr. Dickson the Apostle of Chrono-thermaHsm. Dr. Dick- son, on the contrary, is the Founder of the System ; and here it may be as well to say what Chrono-thermalism means. The term Chrono-thermalism is a com- pound of two Greek words, the same words from which we derive the names of two instruments in daily use, namely, the Chrono-meter and Thermo-meter. It has * The Romans, it is said, crowned on the Capitol the physician who rid them of Pope Adrian VI. The Italians of our own days would honestly hang Count Cavour's doctors if the execution would afford any reUef to their feelings. There never was a clearer case of a man murdered by his medical attendants. Within the very short period of five days they attempted to cure the count of four or more different complaints,—congestion of the brain, typhus fever, intermittent pernicious fever, brain fever, dropsy, and, lastly, gout; and for aU these diseases they could think of nothing but their own sovereign remedy,— the lancet. I think these excellent practitioners are worthy to have their names sent down to posterity. They were Dr. Rossi, Dr. Mattoni, and, towards tlie end, the king's physician, Riberi, the same in whose hands the mother, wife, and brother of Yiotor Em- manuel expired, one by one, in the early months of the fatal year 1855. Dr. Tomraasi, who was sum- moned from Pavia by Cavour's friends, was not admitted to consultation.—Furin Correspondent of the Times Neiosjia^per, June 6, 1861. Similar disputes about the name of a disease, with the same treatment and the same results, were the English rule wljon Dr. Dickson first onme out as » medical revolutionist and reformer. therefore a certain relation to Ghronos, Time, and to Tlierma, Temperature. During health the human body keeps time in all its parts like a watch. How could the nose on the face, or the fingei- with which we point, preserve its sliape, if its constantly changing atoms kept no time in the order of their exits and en- tranoes ? Every organ and atom, and consequently every function of our frame, whether in health or disease, keep more or less perfect time. The Chronometry of Man only ends with the Life of Man. Like the clock he is a Chronometer more or less perfect till he stops altogether. Moreover, there is a certain thermal state —a certain temperature—beyond which, if his living body, in whole or in part, rises or falls, we find disease; — which disease may be either a cause, a con- sequence, or a coincidence of such in- crease or decrease of temperature. So long as Life's Chronometry is true. And all's well thermally, 'tis well with you. Therefore, to shame the doctors of the schools, Who work so often with destructive tools, Whate'er to Chrono-thermal comfort tends, Promotes in all things Physic's aims and ends. This is a proposition no sophistry can overturn. Consequently the physician or surgeon who opposes Chrono-thermalism is a bigot or a fool. Reader, take note, he may be both the one and the other, and yet be a very honest man. When the savage for the first time sees a watch, his exclamation is, It Uves ! Why ? Because of its lifelike movements. The watch keeps periodic tune like the beating of his own heart! The body of man, Hke a watch that strikes the hour, is a repeater and a time-keeper tlu-ough- out. The nearer you bring the move- ments of any machine to the movements of animal life, the more perfect you make the machine. There are chronometers that play and sing like a bird ; could they do either -without a main-spring ? Consideriug the amount of regular work a