The Mind
AN ADDRESS
BY
J. -. MvO'.E' aIJ,  TZD,:/. D.
Zelipered before the Homnaeopathic:2ediecal Society of
1Sennsy*aWnia, October,: 1875, and in a modif7ed
form before the'Legislature of' Pennsylvania, Marchi, 1876.
PITTSBURGH:
Wm.: G. Johnston, & Co., Printers and Stationers, 57 and 59 Wood Street.
MDCCCLXXVI.
~   ~   ~ ~ ~ ~  ~   ~  ~   ~  ~   + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.'
~,~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~








THE MIND:
THE ANNUAL ADDRESS
DELIVERED BEFORE THE
HOMEOPATHIC MEDICAL SOCIETY
OF PENNSYLVANIA,
October 1tJL, 187,   at Lib7rary icallZ.
BY
J. H. M)CLELLAND, M. D.
PITTSBURGH.'.Mllan  is thle measur)e of tlhe U-nite)','r.".An4d Mind is the measure of tilhe Masz.
PITTS BURGH:
Wm. G. Johnston & Co., Printers and Stationers, 57 and 59 Wood Street.
MDCCCLXXVI.








Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:
In  the productions of high  Art are found many
apparently rough and unfinished sketches; which, to the
casual or untutored observer, give little evidence of
workmanship or design. Yet, it mlay be, the artist has by
a few lines and tracings drawn a picture which commends
itself to the cultivated beholder as suggestive of a grand
Idea; and the artist is assured of a refined conception in
the mind of the observer which he could not hope to
delineate with his pencil.
Although devoid of an artist's skill, it is my desire even
in rude outline to offBr to my colleagues and their assembled guests this evening, a sketch which may, perchance,
assume as much of form as will make it suggestive of
the mighty Theme I would have them consider and
develope.
"Man is fearfully and wonderfully made;" true indeed,
of every cell and fibre of this wonderful microcosm,
with its intricacies of organization, marvellous adaptations and mysteries of origin, growth and decay. Yet
is it not a thousand times more true of man's inner self
-the grand Ego-the sum of whose faculties is called
MIND! Most " wonderful " in its powers and possibilities,
in its deflections how " fearful."




4          THE NATURBE OF THE MIND.
With necessary brevity we will pursue this inquiry
into man's highest nature-a study most worthy, attractive and of surpassing interest-and in order thereto will
adopt the following division of the subject:
FIRST-The Nature of the Mind.
SECOND-The Relation of the Mind to the Physical
Organism.
THIRD-The Relation of Mind to Medicine.
THE NATURE OF THE MIND.
Amid the heated controversies upon this subject-past
and present-it is difficult to tell how much we know of
the real nature of the mind.  We may say it can be
known only as all other things are known, namely-by
its relation to other things; but it is right here the
supreme difficulty is experienced-for while other objects
have limited relations, the mind is tnlimited, and comprehends the complexity of all the relations in the universe.
Yet the mind has never ceased its endeavors to arrive at
a knowledge of itself, and we of to-day are forced to
conclude that it is one of two things, a material or an
immaterial principle; for the Universe is known to involve
both of these.
But what of him  dwelling in the deep recesses of
antiquity-what thinks he of the Mind? To him  no
master hand was there to sweep the strings of the soul
and elicit the truth. All around was matter in which was




THE NAT URE OF THE MIND.             5
recognized an indwelling force; and as these could not be
discriminated they were thought to be identical.  Why
not, therefore, conclude the human body, with its soul, to
be similarly constituted? The soul was a force, but it
must be material-for what else could it be? The minds
of these savage Philosophers could not grasp an idea that
was not materialistic, and so while they imust have had
some ill-defined conception of an element within themselves, different from and superior to the objects around
them, they could not conceive of anything that was not
matter. This was the Philosophy, in all probability, of
the first thirty centuries of history; for according to the
researches of Mr. Tylor, in  " Primlitive Culture," the
idea of the superiority of the soul to the body, obtained
in the human mind long anterior to the age of Greek
Culture-though it never lost its materialistic coloring.
Primitive philosophy, from the analogy of life, gave souls
to plants and animals; in which we find an apology for
the worship of these objects. At this point arose the
doctrine of the transmigration of souls, which filled the
air with disembodied ghosts on their silent passage fromnt
object to object-a superstition from which even we of
to-day are not yet fully recovered. Those were shadowy
days of truth, whose history necessarily is more a matter of speculation, with us, than of record. It was the
formative period of nations-a time when culture holds
aloof from man, dwelling in desert tent or mountain
cave, with no portico or scholastic shrine.




6           THE NATURE OF THE MIND.
But soon, and with strange suddenness, appeared the
wondrous Grecian nation, with an intuitive philosophy,
and with a love and inborn power of patient combat for
truth, which bade fair for a prodigious stride toward the
light. Yet the noblest effort of the philosophy of Ancient
Greece scarcely shed a new ray of light upon the inquiry:
"What is the Mind?' It sought, it is true, to deliver
new theories, but when it made the soul to consist of
Fire and Air, instead of Vapor, an improvement can
scarcely be said to have occurred. The chemistry of
Empedocles had detected four grand elements in nature,
and the soul comprised two of these. Aristotle added
another to the four, and thus gave to the mind a subtler
substance called the quint-essence. But it was matter
still, and those dark ages bore the blight of a double
materialism, which the lapse of thirty centuries had not
dispelled. The Greeks of antiquity had failed to raise the
soul from the dust.
At last the seventh, the sixth and finally the fifth centuries before the Christian Era dawned,shedding a brighter
light upon the rising vision of the philosopher, than had
ever before been enjoyed. Socrates, persuaded of his
divine mission, arose and fell, and philosophy received
from him an impress which seemed to augur well for a
final response to the soul's inquiry. He was convinced
that the soul was of divine origin, related to the Deity
by the power of reason and thought, and consequently
was wholly different from anything material. It is to be




THE NATURBE OF THE MIND.           7
lamented that man ever fell away from these elevated
views.
Then rose the broad-browed Plato, whose thrilling
touch brought to the ear a world of harmony. He was
a pupil of Socrates, and with him philosophy first achieved
popularity. Under Plato, thought escaped matter still
more than was the case with his master, for it interrogated the unseen world of spirit. True he erred when he
gave three souls to man, (the greater in the brain, the
others in the body) still he asserted man's highest nature
to be pre-existent, rational and immortal. He declared
" that every habit or action of the soul is innate," which
we still believe to be true, although questioned, as late as
the last century, by Locke. Long continued materialism
now began to decline, for truth was dawning. Plato had
lived to bring to earth a divine conception of the soul,
and died to be followed by a greater master-his pupilAristotle.
This great intellect excelled, in that he reduced Plato's
best and truest ideas to an organic unity and form. The
phenomena of mental manifestation brought him to many
conclusions widely different from those of his preceptor,
but still the inquiry which we are now prosecuting (as to
the nature of the mind) substantially met with the same
response. His powers of observation, under the guidance
of that powerful logic, in which he was pre-eminent, laid
a foundation upon which human thought has never ceased
to build its metaphysical fabrics-because of its organic
symmetry and beauty —and while he depicted the soul as




8          THE NATURE OF THE MIND.
cold and motionless, he argued that Matter was the inanimate, chaotic mass, and Form the organized being, the
idea imparted to matter. Man, therefore, was called a
living organism. He recognized the inter-dependence of
mind and matter, though with Plato he endowed man with
three souls —the nutrient, common to each animated kingdom of nature-the sentient, belonging to man and
animal only-and the noetic or intellectual, peculiar to
man alone. Man alone, he said, possessed that highest
form of life-a mind, whose highest attribute was an
immaterial, immortal soul, in direct sympathy with the
divine. Here was light! Here the mind found its own
native spirit-plane of thought, and man began to see that
the soul was not vapor, nor yet fire and air combined,
but a spirit full of mystery, yet rational and immortal.
Great as was this achievement of reason, still be it marked
that much of uncertainty and doubt and error attended
the pursuit of truth. Those deep years of the past were
not as the night, nor yet the day, but as the twilight, with
the still flashing star and the creeping dawn.
A few more centuries bring us to the Christian Era,
when human thought was turned into another and better
channel. And yet how the history of patristic lore
bespeaks the difficulty of conceiving of the immaterial
nature of the mind. We, of to-day, marvel that psychology
was not more thoroughly evangelized; but let us remember the prodigious power which Pagan philosophy then
wielded  over human thought.  Heathen materialism
seemed still in the van, side by side with Platonic and




THE NAT URE OF THE MIND.           9
Aristotelian metaphysics. A most cursory glance at the
further development of immaterialism must suffice.
Athenagoras, of the second century, was a Platonian,
and Justin Martyr was not exempt from the same criticism, for he taught his pupil Tatian to say that there was
"an immaterial joined to a material spirit in the human
body." In the fourth century Gregory of Nyssa, improved
upon this when he said "the thinking power does not
belong to matter; otherwise, matter generally would
exhibit it." But the world waited for the fifth century
after, as it seems to have waited for the fifth century before
the Christian Era. As Aristotle had proven himself to
be a startling explorer, so now did St. Augustine appear
a veritable Columbus in the pursuit of the inquiry as to
the nature of the mind. With him mind was not a material principle, nor had it anything in common with matter.
All mental phenomena, conscience, reason, memory-he
argued, are not qualities or attributes of matter; such
psychic inductions finally leading him into the purest and
best of spiritualism-laden with the idea of indestructibility and consequent immortality. A little later in the
same century Claudius Mamertus re-iterated these arguments, adding others of great force-in fact anticipating
many advanced a thousand years afterward by Descartes.
Subsequent history could not overturn these, for they
were truth itself, the product of reason, guided by revelation.
From this time we pass to the great reign of Scholasticism, with Thomas Aquinas as the central figure —the




10         THE NA TURE OF THE MIND.
intervening centuries having been too much occupied
with social problems, to give much heed to intellectual
research.
The philosophy of the middle ages was chiefly Aristotelian. It had slept for centuries in Arabia and was
returned to Europe in the Saracenic invasion of Gaul.
Now a universal revival of learning transpires, and
although there existed with this development, much of
mysticism and skepticism, inseparable from the rigid
dialectics of the Schoolmen, yet the aggressive character
of their dogmas left a firm impress of truth-preparing
the way for coming ages.
The mind was now analyzed into faculties all purely
intellectual, immaterial and immortal, and this product of
Scholasticism ran down to the seventeenth century, not
materially disturbed. Aquinas, the profoundest of the
Schoolmen, largely followed Augustine, yet more than
he, was a disciple of Aristotle, still asserting that man
had three souls. It remained for the great Descartes on
the continent, and Bacon in England, to vitally attack
its errors and give an impulse to its truth, which created
one of the most important epochs in the history of
philosophy. By them the metaphysics of the present
day were founded. The empiricism of Bacon set aside
Aristotelian logic and the dicta of speculatists, and laid
the only solid foundation of knowledge upon the method
of induction; and yet this empiric method proved also to
have a skeptic element, for, as may again be noted, the
materialism of Hobbes was an outgrowth of the Baconian




THE NATURE OF THE MIND.           11
philosophy. The path of induction is a dangerous one to
the psychologist, and yet when pursued with caution, is a
proper one.
In Descartes we have an idealist, towering above his
own century and speaking in the nineteenth. With the
masterly spirit of Aristotle, he struck the key-note of
another method of truth in his famous aphorism "cogito,
ergo stem "-that human Consciousness is the source of all
philosophical truth. To this is owing the remarkable
phenomena, in the history of intellectual development,
seen in the German and Scottish schools of thought.
Spinoza, Fichte and Hegel perverted the great Frenchman's idea of substance, by modeling a pantheism,
destructive of soul not only, but of God himself. Kant
and Leibnitz drank from  the same fountain-in fact,
Cartesianism flowed into every channel of inquiry, lending something of truth and purity to streams otherwise
dark with error.
Our inquiry here finds much of light, for it were a
royal highway to a knowledge of mind-this of consciousness. As Hamilton has abundantly demonstrated,
every emotion, state, quality and power of the mind had
a voice teaching man that he has a spiritual as well as a
physical body, endowed with various faculties.
But a shadow is likely to fall upon the brightest landscape. So it was with Cartesian idealism. In the latter
part of this same seventeenth century, the sensationalism
of Locke spread like wildfire throughout Europe, and




12          THIE NATURE OF THE MINYD.
thousands who had been imbued with the truth, turned
into the perilous wilds of the doctrine of Sensation. Sad
that so good and great a man should have poisoned the
fountain of knowledge. He reduced the soul to a blank
piece of paper (to use his own figure) and deprived it of
any nature save what it acquired through the organs of
sense. Beautiful, persuasive and replete with information,
he spun out a system with such consumate logical power,
that the shadow of his philosophy has not yet passed
away from human thought.
We cannot let the occasion pass without uttering our
protest against this materialism —older than Epicurus,
(who asserted that " sensation is the source of human
knowledge,") which originated the infidelity of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. We are not sure
but that Bacon's induction has proven itself to have been
the strongest ally which materialism ever had; not because
it sweeps a circle to prove a center, but because it is made
to sweep a circle to create a center. Take a few instances
pertinent to our theme, that we may ascertain the length
to which Baconian induction, working through Locke, led
philosophy. Hobbes claimed, that as the senses perceive
only what is material, therefore "matter is the only
reality."   "The mind  is physical, wholly material."
"The phenomena of consciousness is the direct result of
our organization." Locke was hardly a materialist, but
Hartley, his disciple, "a noble man," found a warrant in
sensation to say, that "thought and feeling are vibrations
of the brain." Priestly asserted the same. Hume denied




THE NATURE OF THE MIND.             13
everything, and arrived at nothing. Condillac pronounced
mental phenomena to be "transformed sensations," and
he was Locke's most brilliant disciple. It remained for
Baron d'Holbach, a continental materialist, to establish
the true product of materialism. lie proclaimed that
" matter and motion are eternal —thought is an agitation
of the nerves-the soul is the result of our corporeal
organization-the will the strongest sensation-the ground
of morals a regard for our own happiness. There is no
freedom, no morality, no future existence, no God." Need
I cite more?  Nay, time and necessity forbid. With this
I leave the materialism  of the past to your comment,
confident that this will suffice.
We come to the nineteenth century. Who has not
read of Sheridan's dashing ride up the valley, or of Longfellow's fleet-footed hero, of whom it is told, " at each
stride a mile he measured."  But what snail's gait this to
the strides we have been making down the centuries!
The comparison should rather be to the prophetic celerity
with which Puck was to girdle the earth. In this rapid
transit we have but caught glimpses of such towering
mountain peaks as rear their heads high above their
fellows. And as we come to make mention of the
philosophies of this later time, it will be evident no
careful analysis is proposed, and will not be attempted.
But we hasten to this remarkable century, where, if
possible, we are to focalize the light of the past and
answer for ourselves the question, "What is the nature
of the mind?" We are breathing an atmosphere pregnant




14          THE NATURE OF THE MIND.
with Aristotelian thought to-day. We are living in a
world filled with the ideas of Epicurus, Socrates, Plato,
Justin Martyr, St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Bacon,
Locke, Descartes, and the host of their followers. Empiricism, Idealism, Transcendentalism, Materialism and
Sensationalism-all busy with the problem of the soulsway the human mind to and fro between truth and error.
France and  Germany are poisoned with error, and
England follows too much the devices of her own way.
Enlarged scientific research has been added to ancient
rationalism, producing a stronger type of single materialism than we have yet encountered. Huxley says he is
no materialist, yet affirms that " it is utterly impossible
to prove that anything whatever may not be the effect of
a material and necessary cause." Is not the mind included
in this?  Undoubtedly, for he elsewhere says, as he rises
from his microscope, that vitality is nothing but the molecular change of protoplasm, taking special pains to agree
with Herbert Spencer, who teaches that "' physical forces
can be transformed into chemical, and chemical into vital;"
distinctly stating that he includes the mental forces in his
generalization. And yet these men are not materialists!
If it be true that the mind or soul of man is but a form
of physical force, having existence only as a quality or
attribute of the material organism, and it be true that
this organism, as such, hastens to its dissolution, then is
it also true that " in this life only we have hope," for here
it ends. This body must perish, and with it the mind
which depends upon it for its very existence.




THE NA TUBE OF THE MIND.           15
I would gladly continue these inquiries, but time
admonishes me to desist. I will trespass upon your
patience only to say that it has devolved upon Scotland
to strike anew the key-note of Descartes, by putting into
the ranks him in whom philosophy seems to have culminated- Sir William Hamilton. The last utterance of the
inimical doctrine of materialism from England was, " the
mind is a voltaic pile, giving shocks of thought."-(Mill.)
How grand did Hamilton appear when he erected consciousness as the standard of truth; making all we see and know
real; the basis being the soul of man, at once the cause
and end of all. Carpenter says: "' The Psychologist of the
the present day views lnatter through the light of his own
consciousness," and Beneke, who succeeded Hegel in the
university at Berlin, and who, according to Raue, " created
by his wonderful genius an altogether new science of
psychology," taught that mental philosophy must be
founded upon a strict and careful examination of the
phenomena of consciousness.  What is sensation and
its resultant of ideas, if we are not conscious? or memory,
or reason, or judgment, or conscience? What mean
the hopes of a life to come, the clear-voiced admonitions
of our souls of a moral universe with a moral ruler-if
when we are conscious of these, we believe a lie?
Since the days of Athenian thought, the mind of man
has been more or less believed to be an immaterial
principle, and to-day we not only give assent to what is
almost self-evident, but profess, in the correct sense of the
word the purest spiritualism, believing the mind to be a




16         THE NATURE OF THE MIND.
spiritual organon, clothed with the divine power of thought
and endowed with faculties which make man a wonder
to man. True, it is united with the body, (and we will
take occasion to refer to this phase of the subject again,)
for all we know of it is by physical manifestation and
phenomena, and the complex relations sustained with
them; but we deny that all the achievements of the
intellect can be traced back to primary sensation or to
the materialistic causes of Huxley and Mill. We deny
that the soul has no native instincts and intuitive powers
of perception and thought, so offensive to Locke. He
who said —" First the blade, then the ear, after that the
full corn in the ear," also laid down the same laws of
germ-development for the mind. It comes into the world
with all the potentialities of its subsequent attainments,
and grows, as grows the oak tree and the flower, into an
ever increasing strength and beauty.
But the vital principle of the oak cannot be known
apart from the tree, nor do we intend to ignore the mysterious intimacy which exists between the mind and the
body. We will, therefore, briefly inquire into the way in
which the mind, the immaterial, immortal and divinely
endowed spirit of man, is related to his material organization-which will lead us to the second aspect of our
theme.




MIND AND BODY.                17
THE RELATION OF THE MIND TO THE
PHYSICAL ORGANISM.
John Stuart Mill says, (Dissertations and Discussions,
vol. IV, page 113,) "Whether organization alone could
produce life and thought, we probably shall never
certainly know; but that our mental operations have
material conditions, can be denied by no one who
acknowledges what all now admit, that the mind employs
the brain as its material organ." This was written in
1859, in review of Bain's Psychology, and the conclusion
here drawn, is what we believe to be true, and is sustained
by fact and analogy on every hand; and my great and
good friend, Prof. Raue, (on whose instruction it was my
privilege to wait,) in an advance chapter of his truly
great work on Psychology, thus refers to the cause and
conditions of the senses: "Hence we conclude, that the
first cause for the exercise of our senses lies in the soul,
because a corpse neither sees nor hears, &c.; nor are
these functions ever exercised to their full extent, when
the soul is pre-occupied by something else, and does not
or cannot receive the present external impressions. The
exercise of the senses is therefore the activity of the
soul. It is the soul that sees; it is the soul that hears,
&c. Still, as long as the soul is united with a body, and




18               2CMIND AND BODY.
through that body with the interior world, we may
naturally suppose that its functions would stand in a
conditional relation to the body, as well as to the things
without. In this respect, experience teaches, that if a
person's eyes or optic nerves, or the portion of brain
where these nerves originate, are destroyed, that person
cannot see."  And he quotes Winslow as saying: "The
united action of both the organ, tlIe brain, and the mind, is
essential to sensation. The organ, then, is the mental
instrument of mind and matter-thie point at which the
two worlds meet."'
The late Dr. J. H. P. Frost, whose erudite contributions
to our literature (especially in this department) constitute
his living monument to-day, in a paper read before the
American Institute, session of 1873, upon the subject of
"Vital Dynamics," speaks of the relationship of mind and
body as follows: "While admitting that as to his body
man is placed in immediate and conscious relation with
the physical world, and that as to his soul or spirit, he is
equally, although it may be unconsciously, placed in
communion with the spirit world, it becomes evident
that his life, as a whole, results from the alternate or
combined influence of them both. And while thus
holding fast to the inseparable union of body and spirit
as the fundamental principle of our doctrine of life, and
accepting and explaining all the phenomena thence
resulting-both from the reciprocal action and reaction
of the body upon the spirit, and of the spirit upon the
body, and from the similar reciprocal action and reaction




.MIND AND BODY.               19
upon man of the respective physical and spiritual worlds
— we avoid the Scylla of mysticism, idealism and
spiritualism, on the one hand, and escape the Charybdis
of materialism, sensualism and pantheism on the other."
It is this wonderful inter-dependence of body and
mind which has given rise to such contrariety of opinion
as to the part each plays as cause and effect; but such
a relation must be admitted and recognized, even if its
explanation is unsatisfactory. The intimate relationship
of the mind to the general organism is patent to all,
as we find in the well known physical conditions of health
and disease, heat and cold, vigor and exhaustion, the
effects of drugs and stimulants, and numerous familiar
circumstances which operate upon even the most exalted
mental faculties. On the other hand, it is no less true
that mental states affect the body, and we have examples
in the effects produced by fright, fear, grief and joy, upon
digestion, the circulation, and the whole expression of
the individual.  You are familiar with the incident
related of Louis XIV, who called upon this physiological
truth to testify to his courage. It was when surrounded
by a fierce mob; calmly turning to the infuriate
multitude, with outstretched hand, he exclaimed, "Am I
afraid? feel my pulse!" Well might he appeal to the
sensitive rhythm of the heart-throb as certain to reveal
the slightest perturbation of his soul.
But while it is unquestionably true, that every portion
of our physical frame exerts an influence upon the mind,
and that the mind reciprocally affects every portion of




20              2MIND AND BODY.
the body, it is also true that the grand hemispherical
ganglia called the Brain, is the special organ of the
mind. And at this point it may serve a good purpose (I
speak to my non-professional hearers) to take a casual
glance at the structure of this highly complex organization.
The Brain, then, is composed of a large mass of nerve
substance, partly white and partly grey, the former
constituting by far the larger portion. It is symmetrically
divided into two hemispheres; has a larger portion called
the cerebrum, and a smaller, the cerebellum; has at its base
a most important set of ganglia or nerve centres, known
as the sensory tract, which it over-shadows and covers,
"as a hen covereth her brood."  It is overspread with
three membranes, one of which is in intimate relation
with it, and notable for its extreme vascularity. That
such is the case, may be inferred from the fact that
one-tenth of the whole quantity of blood in the body is
distributed to the brain by way of this membrane, and
further, that four-fifths of this amount is appropriated by
the grey substance. In examining the brain exteriorly,
you are at once struck with the irregular depressions and
elevations which meet the eye, known as the convolutions.
These convolutions afford larger surface for the grey
matter-important, because the seat of nerve power.
The grey matter consists of an immense aggregation of
cells, while the white is composed of millions of fibres or
tubuli.  Thus every glistening nerve throughout the
body finds end or origin in masses of grey matter called
ganglia, conducting impressions to, and impulses from




MIND AND BODY.                21
them. These nerve centres or ganglia are not confined
to the cranium, (nor even the spinal column,) but are
distributed in various parts of the body, and have to do
with the functions of organic life, and give forth motorimpulses.  The number of fibres in a single nerve is
something prodigious. For example, it is found that the
third cranial nerve (having to do with the muscles of the
eye) consists of perhaps fifteen thousand fibres, and the
optic nerve of over one hundred thousand; and what is
more wonderful, each of these fibres contains a core,
thoroughly isolated, like the telegraphic wire of the ocean
cable. It may be inferred from this that the number of
fibres comprising the whole white substance of the brain
must be immense, and so it proves, for it is estimated to
consist of twelve hundred millions.
We are now fairly entitled to enquire, what is the
meaning of this intricate system of nerve machinery?
Time will only admit of a general reply.
The deep furrows by which the convolutions are
formed, do not exist in the lower orders of animals, and
in none are they so marked as in man. Nor is this all,
for it has been observed that their depth and development
is in proportion to the culture and intelligence of the
individual. German and French anatomists (as shown by
a recent work by Ecker on the "cerebral convolutions,")
are devoting much attention to this subject at the present
time, and are endeavoring to localize brain functions
upon a more scientific basis than that whereupon rests




22               lrND AND BODY.
the pseudo-science of phrenology. Farrier, of London,
by an ingenious system of experiments upon animals,
has reached some definite conclusions in this direction.
But his plan of piercing certain localities of the brain
with electric needles, it would appear, must lack in
accuracy; for, in the first place, the brain substance-a
good conductor-might divert the current to parts not
sought to be reached; and in the-second place, the effects
must necessarily be exhibited in a large measure by
certain movements or defects of movement-the range
of mental manifestation being exceedingly limited in
dumb brutes. However, in some very recent experiments
on the brains of monkeys, reported in the, British Medical
Journal, August 28, 1875, the results are more definite,
and are briefly as follows: First, destruction of the
frontal region of the brain, caused marked impairment
of intelligence, and the faculty of attention. Second,
destruction of the grey matter of one side caused
paralysis of voluntary motion on the opposite side of
the  body —sensation  remaining  unaffected.   Third,
destruction of the angular gyrus (located in the occipital
region,) caused blindness of the opposite eye, the blindness
being only temporary, provided the other side was left
intact. Fourth, by the same means it was found that
the superior tempero-sphenoidal region is the seat of
auditory perception (hearing.) The lower part of this
same lobe, in close proximity, was also found to be the
seat of taste and smell. Other facts of a similar nature
were elicited in these experiments. Investigations have




MIND AND BODY.                 23
also shown that the posterior lobes of the brain are not
the seat of animal life and instinct, as generally supposed,
but are in reality concerned in intellectual operations
peculiar in a great degree to man, for many of the lower
orders of animals are deficient in this particular portion
of the brain. Some experiments would seem to indicate
that the cerebellum is concerned in co-ordinating movements (and perhaps ideas) induced by impressions transmitted through the eye.
Whether a complete localization of the various faculties
of the mind can or ever will be effected, is somewhat
doubtful, but I cannot refrain from making reference to
the function of that important set of ganglia nestled at
the base of the brain, known as the sensorium. Carpenter
shows very clearly that the operations of the intellect,
as exhibited in cerebral activity, may proceed without
our knowledge, (unconscious cerebration,) but that this
activity is manifested by means of what Riel calls " the
nerves of the internal senses," which carry the impressions
down to the sensory tract. Now, it is known that this
same centre is also the recipient of all external sense
impressions, and we are thus forced to the conclusion
that the sensorial tract is the seat of consciousness, taking
cognizance not only of every impression made upon the
senses from without, but making us conscious of the
various processes of the mind itself. Let me illustrate
the modus operandi of the circuit thus indicated. If an
impression is received upon the optic disc, the eye, it is
at once conveyed to the sensory ganglion, to which the




24               MIND AND BODY.
optic nerve leads, making the mind's eye conscious of it
as a sensation. The impulse is continued up to the
cerebral cells, where it is elaborated into an idea; if
the impression  has been painful, we experience an
emotion, and if this results in a determination to remove
the gaze, it involves an act of volition.  Whatever the
result of this impression conveyed to the cerebral cells
may be, it is reported by means of the "nerves of the
internal senses " to the sensorium, and the individual is
then conscious of the effect this impression upon the retina
has made upon the mind. How startling to contemplate
the grandeur of such a function! That this little cluster
of cells reveals to us the universe, as comprised in the
world of mind within, and the world of matter without;
nay, brings soul face to face with soul, and is even the
instrument by which man is brought into communion
with his Maker, seems most marvellous.
We have spoken of the immense multitude of cells
and fibres constituting this "organ of the mind;" and
now we might inquire how this large number are
required for its various operations. Let us observe how
one of the faculties, the memory, might employ very many
of them. Memory is composite in its nature, underlying
and forming the very foundation of the intellect. It is
the scroll upon which is written in characters indelible,
every thought, emotion, experience and acquirement of
the soul.  Without it history would be a blank, and
however we might desire to drink of the clear waters of
Lethe-that we might forget the sorrows of earth-yet




MIND AND BODY.                   25
we shrink from the thought of burying the past with all
its blessed memories and accumulated treasures, in the
deep sea of oblivion.  Life must have its retrospect.
Maudsley says, "in every nerve cell there is memory;"
but he also recognizes a species of memory in every
organic element of the body, and instances not only all
of the automatic movements which require memory in
the nerve centres, but refers to the unchanging character
of a scar upon a child's hand, which, (quoting Mr. Paget,)
" grows as the body grows, and evinces that the organic
elements of the part remember the change which it has
suffered; " and so "in a brain that is not disorganized by
injury or disease-the organic registrations are never
actually forgotten, but endure while life lasts."   We
may not wonder, if this be true, at the surmise of
DeQuincey, that "the opening of the Book at the day
of judgment, shall be the unfolding of the everlasting
scroll of memory;"  or at the  beautiful words  of
Wordsworth:
And when the stream
Which overflowed the soul was passed away,
A consciousness remained that it had left,
Deposited upon the silent shore
Of memory, images and precious thoughts
That shall not die, and cannot be destroyed.
If such is an example of the function allotted to these
marvellous little cells of the grey matter, (and that
each operation of the mind bears a direct relation to




26               MIND AND BODY.
cellular activity, we may not doubt,) then it is by no
means strange that they are counted by millions, for the
different phases of mental activity are apparently endless.
The limit of mental acquirement has, however, been
estimated by some curious enquirers, the estimate being
based upon the number of cells in the brain.
But, having reached the cell and remarked upon its
probable function, can we go farther?  Shall we pause to
inquire, what of the philosophy of vitalization? Whence
comes the spark? That there is waste in the nerve cell,
consequent upon mental exertion, is accepted as true;
and there is also a corresponding reparative process by
which each cell maintains its identity. This energy and
continuous conservation of identity, we may say is Life.
But Life, it is claimed, is due to inter-molecular activity.
Now where do they (the molecules) derive their vitality?
Biologists tell us of the living matter in the cells or
germ-the bioplasm-but the discovery of its existence,
and investigation of its properties, by no means settles
the question of its derivation, or makes it certain that it
is formed from lifeless material. This would be a strange
anomaly in nature-a progeny without a progenitor.
The distinguished biologist, Beale, however, makes
such admirable deliverances, applicable to this subject,
that I will rest content with a few quotations from
him, ("Disease Germs," pp. 37 to 59.)
"Several scientific authorities of high repute have of
late summed up very distinctly in favor of the doctrine




MIND AND BODY.                27
of the formation of living beings directly out of lifeless
matter, without the instrumentality of pre-existing living
matter."       * * *  "Nevertheless, every one admits
that in all the instances he knows about, the living being
did, without doubt, come from a pre-existing living
being." * * * "Moreover, those who have advanced
this theory, and those who have given in their adhesion
to it, have not intimated how we may ascertain when the
aggregation of lifeless particles assumes the living
conditions; and they have left us completely in the dark
as to what occurs when the marvellous change in question
takes place. What a wonderful disturbance must occur
at the instant of animation! What a violent dislocation
of elements which were combined as compounds, and
what re-arrangement must take place when the inanimate
collection of molecules starts into vitality! What sort of
force effects the change, and whence arises the destructive
force and the constructive power?  Not a word of
explanation on all this." * * * " Every one interested
in this wonderful problem naturally desires that he should
give us some idea of the view he has formed, in his own
mind, regarding what takes place at the moment when
the mode of the force ceases to be physical and becomes
vital-when the passive atoms become active organisms
-— when the inanimate leave the state of lifeless rest and
assumes that of living activity-when the matter acquires
converting power which it never possessed before-when,
after having collected together by aggregation, the now
living matter begins a new existence, and, instead of




28              MIND AND BODY.
aggregating, its particles move away from one anotherseparate, never to join again."  *  *  *  "However
absurd and against all the accumulated evidence of
observation it may be to believe in the immediate
creation of any particular species of complex plant or
animal, it is at any rate equally absurd, and quite contrary
to any evidence yet obtained, to maintain that living
forms result from the direct combination of particles of
inanimate matter." Let us say rather, with Sir William
Hamilton, that "life proceeds from life and nothing but
life."
Nor does it improve the case to assert "that advancing
knowledge more and more clearly proves the dependence
of life on physical and chemical processes." (Maudsley.)
Chemistry, by rubbing its sticks together, need not hope
to elicit the vital spark. Chemistry is analysis; vitality
is synthesis, and therefore antagonistic.  The Hindoos
thought the world was supported by an elephant, and, as
we understand it, Chemistry wants to be that elephant.
The world, however, turned out to be supported by a
Stronger Power, and these Hindoo biologists may discover
that life —the soul-does not depend for existence on the
fizzings of the laboratory, but on a power infinitely higher
than anything dreamed of in their philosophy. What if
they should find the elephant on their hands? We rest
content with modern biological research and argument,
in so far as it struggles to unfold the process of vitalization
as occtirring in the human organisml; but when chemical
force is asserted to be the only vital principle, the apparent




MIND AND BODY.                29
want of dignity in the conception forbids our credence. As
before intimated, the mind and body are co-related and
inter-dependent, but the point of mysterious union must
ever remain unfathomable to science. The brain is
doubtless the instrument of our psychical powers, and
they depend for degree and quality upon proper cerebral
nutrition, as is evident from the effect of mal-nutrition
upon the mind. Here seems to be a materialistic basis,
and here the spiritualistic hypothesis must suffer a
compromise.  But both are in a measure wrong. The
first entirely eliminates the highest grandeur of manhis moral nature; and the other, when pursued to an
extreme, completes too great a severance between mind
and body.
Let us conclude, therefore, that as man is a denizen of
the universe, his relations with it are infinite. Number
is infinite in its downward as well as its upward scale;
and mathematics cannot define the integer-just where
the point of unity occurs. So is it in the relation of mind
to matter —the point of unity must ever remain
undiscovered. We are not frightened by the microscope
as it peers deeper than even the most refined vision; but
let us not forget the telescope by which to sweep the
heavens, or the scale will be incomplete, and Man, the
microcosmic unit, will be wanting.
But let us hasten to the last division of our subject.




30            MIND AND MEDICINE.
THE RELATION OF THE MIND TO MEDICINE.
The intimate relation of mind to body, which has been
shown to exist, carries with it the inference that there is
also a relation of mind to medicine. For, unfortunately,
even this higher element of man's nature is not exempt
from the disturbing influences of disease, and hence, with
good right,, appeals to medical science for remedy.
Abnormal states of mind are of every grade and
conceivable variety, from the most harmless delusion and
exhibition of temper, to the incoherent mutterings of the
imbecile, or the wildest ravings of the madman. Without,
therefore, attempting a classification, which at all events
is unnecessary in this connection, we may include every
mental disturbance under the head of mens insanaunsound mind.
The causes of many of these disorders have been
successfully ascertained, while many others still remain
enveloped in obscurity.  Some of the most important
are-hereditary descent, excesses, the abuses of narcotics
and stimulants, mechanical injuries, and any of the
numerous agencies which are productive of mal-nutrition.
And while any bodily disturbance may affect the mental
equilibrium, it is not less true that purely moral or
psychical influences are sufficient to produce similar




MIND AND MEDICINE.             31
abnormal conditions. The resultant pathological changes
exhibit an equal variety, although it not infrequently
occurs that the eager scalpel retires from the search,
baffled in its efforts to discover even the slightest textural
change, and this too in particular cases that have manifested the most violent symptoms during life. We may
admit, however, that every mental derangement has a
corresponding and co-existing disturbance of the physical
organism.
But it is the relationship of mind to medicine that
should occupy the remaining moments of our limited
time, and it is to this phase of otr subject your attention
is asked.
The general management of the insane to-day, in its
best aspects, is but another illustration of historical
repetition. As we have seen that Greek philosophy, in
many respects, was in advance of subsequent ageswhich should have been ages of development-we also
find that in those early days most correct ideas of treatment prevailed. Thus we find that iEsclepiades pursued
a most psychical method of cure, "making use of wine,
music, employment, and special means to attract the
attention and exercise the memory."  He recommended
that bodily restraint should be avoided as much as
possible, and that none but the most dangerous should
be confined in bonds."  The methods here advised are
those found most successful in the management of the
insane at the' present time, although sufficient emphasis




32             MIND AND MEDICINE.
is scarcely given to "employment and special means to
attract the attention and exercise the memory."  The
principle of substitution is a most important one, and is
sometimes the only means by which the mind can be
diverted from a morbid train of thought; so that our
efforts to lift the mind from the contemplation of that
which is unpleasant or injurious, may be utterly unavailing, unless another subject be introduced with wvlich to
occupy the attention. And be it marked-the subject so
introduced, to be successful, must not exhibit too great
a diversity from the state of mind sought to be relieved.
As for example, we would not relate a laughable story
to one stricken with grief, with the hope of imparting
consolation or permanent benefit, but rather the
sympathetic utterances of like sorrows.  Shakespeare
appreciated a psychic truth when he said "and this
news which would have made me sick, being sick, hath
in some measure made me well"-it relieved that which
it would have produced-a correct principle in every
respect.
In regard to the prevailing method of treating those
of unsound mind, it is not my purpose to pursue a course
of adverse criticism, (however just such a proceeding
might be,) but I will refer to the subject only enough to
show that it is essentially negative, in so far as it relates
to a scientific curative treatment of this unfortunate
class.
It is admitted that derangements of the mind, occurring
in connection with certain diseases of the body, disappear




MIND AND MEDICINE.              33
upon the restoration of health, and that improved
hygienic conditions-moral as well as physical-are
sufficient in many cases to restore the mind. But in
well marked and persistent cases of mental derangement,
occurring sometimes in connection with excellent bodily
health, I cannot discover that the ordinary methods
attempt to accomplish anything more than restraint and
the enforcement of good sanitary regulations. Asylums
for the insane are an absolute necessity; and in so far.
as they place the patients under improved influences,
keeping them from exciting causes and preventing bodily
injury, the means employed are ample and admirable;
but the medical treatment seems devoid of any specific
purpose, except the procurance of sleep and the suppression of violent maniacal outbursts. To this end, narcotics,
such as opium in its various forms, chloral, bromides,
digitalis, cannabis indica, and similar remedies are
employed-not forgetting the occasional immoderate use
of conium. The use of these remedies is perhaps not so
negative, but if positive, is it for good? Permit me to
offer a few quotations from some standard authorities,
that I may not be understood as characterizing this
treatment unfairly. J. Thompson Dickson, lecturer on
mental diseases in Guy's Hospital, (Medicine in Relation
to Mind, Appleton, 1874,) after discussing the various
remedies employed, viz, opium, chloral, cannabis, conium,
digitalis and tartar emetic, remarks: " I have given chloral
in very large doses without producing sleep, and though
in some instances I have found it of value, in others it has




34             MIND AND MEDICINE.
appeared to me to be absolutely useless. Of all medicines,
however, chloral is the one most to be relied on." Yet
in the London Lancet of a recent date, the editor
discusses its effects as follows: "Each region of its
influence presents an example of perverted action. The
will becomes weakened; the evidences of the senses are
perverted; the sufferer becomes "nervous," emotional,
hysterical. Ultimately still graver consequences may
result. Delirium, imbecility and paralysis of the pharynx
and oesophagus, are among the symptoms that have
occurred in recorded cases." Hammond remarks (Diseases
of the nervous system, p. -383), " the hydrate of chloral is
a dangerous remedy.  I have seen it produce great
increase in the maniacal excitement."  In this work of
Hammond's containing 749 pages, five are spared to the
treatment of the insane.
In Maudsley's late work on the Physiology and
Pathology of the Mind, containing 442 pages, there are
just three pages devoted to the medical treatment of
mental derangements, in which are mentioned some half
dozen drugs, (as above quoted,) and these receive but
qualified endorsement. Of opium he says, "this drug is
particularly useful in that state of mental hyperaesthesia
which so often precedes an outburst of insanity." Further
on in the same paragraph he says "that successive
injections of morphia, though followed by brief snatches
of fitful sleep, have been followed also by fatal collapse
or coma." Dickson (previously quoted,) comments as
follows: " Opium checks the secretions which it is your




MIND AND MEDICINE.              35
object to promote, and in acute mania it rarely produces
sleep; moreover, if it does so, it accomplishes the end
only by carbonizing the blood." A recent authority
declares that the continued use of opium destroys the
moral sense, and renders the individual incapable of
judging between right and wrong.
Digitalis is a drug much admired by some practitioners,
and Maudsley says of it, (page 440,) "in cases of great
excitement - maniacal or melancholic - where it is
advisable to give opium, large doses of digitalis sometimes
produce good effects in tranquilizing the patient;" but
he further remarks, " I have certainly known an acute
maniacal patient to drop down and die in collapse after
taking repeated large doses of digitalis."  Another
excellent authority says " the action of digitalis is very
uncertain, and may produce syncope, and even fatal
syncope, when you least expect it."
And so with the use of the Bromides that are recommended by many to the extent of bromismn, which consists,
according to Brown-Sequard, of " a decided lack of will
and of mental activity, dullness of the senses, drooping
of the head, considerable weakness of the body, and a
somewhat tottering gait." The remainder of the meagre
list I find discussed in similar or less favorable terms;
nor do other authorities which have been consulted add
materially to those already quoted. The conclusion is,
therefore, forced upon us, (and coincides with personal
inquiries,) that no specific treatment of mental derangements




36            MIND AND MEDICINE.
is attempted, unless what has been described is accepted
as such.
Let me not be understood as detracting from the well
earned fame of any, for the grand array of laborers in
the various fields of medical science, in all times, have
given the world some magnificent results of their patient
toil, and are entitled to our homage and gratitude; but
it is a singular fact (in regard to the practice to which we
refer) that the labors and discoveries that have made them
great have not been in the particular sphere towards
which all the collateral branches of medical science should
tend and culminate, namely, Therapeutics-the treatment
of the sick. Researches in the science of Pathology
(knowledge of disease,) have been simply marvellous;
but, should the cure of disease be passed by with scarcely
a mention, as indicated by the proportion devoted to
Treatment in the standard works from which I have
just quoted? I would have preferred passing in silence
this question of Therapeutics, were it not for a sense of
loyalty and justice to a system which has been every
where stigmatized by these who lay claim to the exclusive
right of treating the sick, whether of body or mind, but
whose practice scarcely justifies such an assumption.
It may well be asked if the whole wealth of medicinal
agents which exist in every kingdom of nature, is
utterly useless to the poor sufferer from mental disorder?
It would almost seem as though the wretched ones
turned to the new Therapia with the oft repeated
appeal of Macbeth:




MIND AND MEDICINE.                      37
"Calst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And, with some sweet oblivious antidote,
Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff,
Which weighs upon the heart?"
With your leave we shall inquire for a moment into
the merits of this new system that we may the better
judge of its ability to respond to this appeal.
Our great master, Hahnemann, not content with having
discovered a law in medicine, pursued to a remarkable
extent the study of drugs as affecting the healthy human
organism. This physiological and truly scientific method
revealed to him the fact, that every drug affects in greater
or less degree not only the body but the mind as well;
and a moments reflection will teach us it could not be
otherwise. For if morbific disturbances of the physical
organism are accompanied by corresponding disturbances
of the mental-a self-evident truth-it should'not appear
strange that drugs which all admit disturb bodily
functions, have also a specific influence upon the mind.*
But does this truth bear any relation to the treatment
of the mind diseased? Let us see: Repeated experiments
have shown that the effects produced by drugs upon body
and mind bear an exact similarity, in every particular,
* "For there is not a single potent medicinal substance in the world that does not
possess the power of altering, perceptibly, the mental state and mood of a healthy person
trying the drug; indeed, each drug affects the mind in a different manner."-HAHNEMANN's
ORGANON, Sec. 212.




38             MIND AND MEDICINE.
to the symptoms we find present in diseases of body and
mind.  Now it is easy to understand that if a drug
produces symptoms exactly similar to those found in a
given case of disease, it must do so by acting upon the
very part diseased and in the very manner of the diseased
action-else the symptoms could not be similar. You may
say, "this is treating symptoms," but are not symptoms
the language of disease and the only means of its making
itself known? You see what an advantage this gives us
in the treatment of obscure affections (particularly of the
brain), for while the cause of certain, even violent,
symptoms may be in doubt, yet the drug which would
produce like conditions may be obtained and applied with
signal relief.
But does it necessarily follow that although drugs
possess this power of inducing such striking resemblances
to disease; that they will, therefore, cure them? We
may safely say it does. Nature would never establish
such an unvarying relation between drug action and
disturbed vital action without a purpose and a meaning.
Besides it is in unison with all of nature's recognized
laws and not antagonistic or inconsistent with any of
them. Every child in science knows that a force will
neutralize a force similar to itself. We find it true in
electric force-two negatives neutralize, and it is the
same with the positives; and so in spectrum analysis,
" it seems very singular that the sodium vapor, which
gives off a yellow light, should absorb yellow light; and
yet nothing in reality is more true, or more likely, from




MIND AND MEDICINE.              39
being in accordance with many other facts in science."
(Roscoe.) Thus we find in Kirchhoff's law, but a phase
of the universal law of similia. It is a law governing all
force, medicinal or otherwise, and its practical application
raises medicine to the dignity of a science, while otherwise
it is but an empiricism.
Many object, that Homoeopathy is the practice of an
exclusive dogma, but as well might they object to the
mechanic, who regards the law of gravitation. So far
from being exclusive-there is not a medicinal substance
or agency in the universe which may not be employed
curatively in accordance with the Homoeopathic law.
Very true is it that many of the measures adopted by
the "regular" practice are in conformity to this law, and
very notably the introduction into the system of cowpox (and in very minute quantity be it remarked) to
neutralize the similar virus of small-pox. Thus every
time vaccination is performed, no matter by whom,
Homoeopathy of the purest type is practised.
The scientists of to-day have resolved everything into
force, and Hahnemann used synonymously the terms vital,
dynamic and spiritual force (to the latter of which some
have taken exception), believing that disease was a
disturbance of these forces, which in time would result
in textural changes. The same term has been applied to
the vital energy in the drug-and thus we have force
combatting force.
But the conclusive argument after all is in the practical experiment, and to this crucial test we submit our




40             MIND AND MEDICINE.
claims: We find for example, that Belladonna will
produce congestion of the brain, manifesting itself in a
general feverish condition, and quick nervous manner;
flushed face, flashing eye, dilated pupils, increased mental
activity even to delirium, with fantastic illusions, frightful
figures and images before the eyes. Such a picture is
not an unusual one in the sick room, and when found,
the administration of Belladonna in quite small quantity
will rapidly overcome the whole difficulty, leaving the
patient perfectly recovered.
The mental condition produced by arsenic is also very
striking, resulting from an impoverished state of the
blood. The symptoms are: "distressing anguish, restlessness, suspicion, despair and madness," all marked
symptoms of mal-nutrition for which arsenic in minute
doses is the curative remedy. (It will appear plain to
many why, in giving a drug homoeopathically, it is
necessary to give a small dose, but as that question cannot
be discussed at this time I will only add that it has
nothing to do with the principles of homeopathy and is
only a matter of experience, as in the other school.)
I will not multiply examples to show that drugs produce
symptoms exactly corresponding to the symtoms of
disease; it is susceptible of demonstration by any one
at any time. It is sufficient to say that in the Materia
Medica of the Homoeopathic School (the completed work
comprising some fifteen large volumes a grand contribution to medical science) —the descriptive record of the




MIND AND MEDICINE.              41
effects of each drug upon the human organism, details
also the effects produced upon the mind, forming a basis
for the treatment of mental disorders nowhere else to be
obtained. And further than this, Constantine Hering, of
Philadelphia, nay, of America, for such a man is owned
only by a continent, in his great work on Analytical
Therapeutics, devotes one whole volume to the treatment
of the mind, in its various relations to the body. In
this masterpiece of my revered teacher and friend, instead
of the uncertain indications for some half-dozen drugs to
which we have referred, are found accurate data for the
use of a multitude of medicines in the treatment of
every phase of mental disturbance.
But, as before intimated, there is a class of cases which
require not only curative medical treatment, but the
advantages of well-appointed asylums; although the
time may come when the plan pursued for so many years
at Gheel, Belgium, and more recently in Scotland, may
meet with the general approval it deserves. This method
consists in quartering, the insane among the various
families of a community, one or two in each, where they
are treated as members of the family and are under
constant surveillance. Of course they are not confined to
the room or house, except by sickness, and they are daily
visited by the physicians having them in charge.
It is well understood that asylums are for the most
part, built and maintained at public expense, and by
taxation levied upon the whole people.  I need not




42                     MIND AND MEDICINE.
suggest how many of these people prefer the Homoeopathic treatment for themselves, and none the less for
their friends who may be suffering with mental derangement. I would ask is it not the commonest justice that
such persons should have the treatment which they elect,
for their unfortunate friends? Should not the sick have
their own physician as well as their own minister? Does
this goverment propose to sustain a sect in medicine any
more than a sect in religion, granting powers and privileges to one and withholding them from another? Surely
such is not the intention, although such has practically been  the fact.*   I think  I have shown  that
Homceopathy may lay as good claim to scientific and
successful treatment, as the methods at present pursued
to its exclusion in all of the asylums of the State. And
we ask now in the name of the people, and in the name
of justice, that equal rights be guaranteed to all. We
have no desire to force this treatment on any, nor do we
wish other treatment forced upon us.
New York State has taken a step in the right direction,
and is building a magnificent asylum (now partly finished
and occupied) devoted to Homoeopathic treatment. In
* While urging a fair representation of Homceopathy in our public institutions to a
member of the Legislature, he objected, that it was a medical sect, afterwards, however,
admitting the fallacy of such a ipsition.  The new practice is called Homceopathy, because
the word explains, in a measure, the principles that govern it. The facts would justify the
appellation, "Scienihfic Medicine," for it is based upon scientific principles.  It certainly
should be no disparagement that in the use of every means of cure, the observance of these
principles lead to the greatest measure of success. But I cannot see what claim the Allopathic
School (even though calling itself "Regular Medicine") has to a monopoly of public places.
By its plan of organization and restrictive regulations, it undoubtedly bears the character
of an exclusive sect. Public institutions for the sick should be sustained upon the ground
of charity, but should not be monopolized by any sect, either in religion or medicine.




MIND AND MEDICINE.                         43
last year's report, the President, Fletcher Harper, Jr.,
thus speaks of the institution and its prospects:
"If the success which has attended the acceptance of homceopathy as
a method of cure by the thousands of intelligent laymen representing a
large portion of the taxpayers of this State, is to be a test of what is to be
accomplished in that specialty assigned to this asylum; if the elaborate
examination of the death rate in the principal cities of the Union shows
that success, in general practice, as compared with that of all other schools
of medicine, to be more than two to one, then it may be that the homceopathic system will require less than half of the costly roof-trees, princely
structures, munitions for care and attendance, lavished upon those devoted
to antagonistic methods of cure. But it ought not to be put off with less
than a tithe. While all other institutions under public patronage, past or
present, have provision for over 6,000 inmates, this asylum should not be
stinted below the least limitation consistent with the conditions of due
scientific classification."
The results so far have been most encouraging, as will
appear from the following extract from the report of the
Superintendent, Dr. H. R. Stiles, for a period of about a
year and a half:
"Of the total cases under treatment (168) we have a per centage of 312
cures and 1313 improved. Our medical treatment has been purely according to the HEomceopathic law of' sinzilia similibus curantur,' and entirely
without resort to any of the forms of anodyne, sedative, or palliative
treatment so generally in use in cases of mental disturbance. Not a grain
of chloral, morphine, the bromides, etc., etc., has ever been allowed in
our pharmacy, or given in our prescriptions, and we have never felt the
need of them, even in our most violent cases of acute mania. A careful
study of the mental and physical symptoms, together with a rigid
adherence to the Hahnemannian principles of selection and administration
of remedies, has enabled us to meet the requirements of each individual
case with comfort and success.




44               MIND AND MEDICINE.
We have reports also from an institution where this
practice has been pursued for a much longer time, as the
following will show:
"At Montevidlo, Republic of Uraguay, South America, in a public insane
asylum connected with the Charity HIospital of that city, in which for 14 -
years and 5 months' pure Homceopathic' treatment has been employed by
Dr. J. Christian D. Korth, the tabulated statement shows that during
these fourteen years, 979 men of different nationalities have enjoyed the
benefits of the institution. Of these 617 were cured."
Need I multiply facts or citations to make plainer that
the interests of the State and of the patients will not
suffer from  the adoption of this system.  Or need I call
attention to the fact that a large portion of the taxpayers
of this State prefer this system for themselves and their
families, and yet in case of dire necessity are compelled
to place friends requiring the advantages of an asylum,
under a treatment which they do not prefer, and for
which they may have a positive aversion. Would any
one in my hearing willingly yield his right to choose his
medical adviser in time of sickness? I cannot but think
that intelligent, fair minded men of whatever school or
persuasion, will grant the justice of guaranteeing to
others this samle God given right.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for your
kind attention. I have in this brief hour, striven to
depict the mind by slow degrees awakening to a knowledge of itself throughout the ages, and to remark upon
some of its relations to the body; yet science, year by
year, is opening up other and hidden veins of truth. How




MllND AND MEDICINE.            45
much we shall one day know of man doth not yet appear,
but this we do know, that whatever progress be made in
other directions, the grandest attainments of science
remain for the student of man in his highest nature; for
in the language of one in the ancient days, "the mind is
king of heaven and earth."
And when we contemplate that even this exalted
sphere of our being, in the which man was made after
his Maker's own image, is liable to the malign influence
of disease, and from its imperial seat may even be hurled
in dethronement-we catch something of the significance of the last phase of our subject, "The relation of
Mind to Medicine." I trust we realize'the importance
of this relation, and while as men of science we are
endeavoring to relieve bodily suffering and avert final
disaster, let us not fail to bring under tribute every
remedial substance or agency which a kind providence
has placed within our reach, or which lies within the
power of benevolence to provide, for the relief of the
suffering Mind. And may we not argue from the universal
applicability of the great law of cure we have been considering, that the achievements of the future in mental
therapeutics shall be in the direction of our beloved
science-HOMCEOPATHY.