1. Although the alkaloids is poisonous to rabbits, twenty times the quantity of strong alcoholic extract does not injure them. (Stille, Op. cit.).
“2. Given to horses in large quantities, it causes dilatation of pupils, spasmodic movement of lips, and frequency of pulse. (Perrira, op cit.)”.
We admit, of course, that much of the animal experimentation of late has been conducted on more elaborate lines, nevertheless it can never take the place of human provings. Great care is necessary in the selection of the animals used because of their varying susceptibility to the action of drugs.
The only advantage, and it is not such a great one as some imagine, that animal experimentation can possibly have, is that the provings can be carried to pathological conclusion. In the human subject, this cannot usually be done. Dr. Nash, who was one of the the kindest hearted old gentlemen, suggested that murderers be used for such purposes, claiming that they would then be of some use to the world, having in most cases failed to be during their lives.
Such a step would be looked upon by certain individuals as inhuman, but the murderer could be given his choice between the electric chair and taking a chance with a drug proving. This is not new. To learn if leprosy could be transmitted, a murder was given the choice of being hanged or receiving an injection of the products of a leprous lesion. He jumped at the latter chance for life. He was injected and in due time a report went out that the disease had not bee transmitted. Scarcely had this news gone forth, that he showed the first symptoms of this dread malady.
We differ with the rhetorical but illogical Mr. Clarence Darrow in his opinion of the criminal. He thinks that they are “poor, sick young men,” whereas we consider the ordinary criminal as a lazy, desperate character who thinks that the world owes him a living. To hold up an armed United States mail car and evade a strong pursuing force requires a nerve, even if it is perverted, absolutely incompatible with this celebrated criminal lawyers notion of a criminal.
Just as a nation has a right to protect itself by any means against opposing violence, so have the law-abiding citizens a right to use such methods as will effectually stamp out or lessen crime. The idea of vengeance plays no part in the punishment of the criminal. Self-protection is the only object. Punishment should be such as to produce this protection. The remarkably efficient handling of the New York Police Department by the most able Mr. McLaughlin diminished to a marked degree crime in that city. The therapeutic measures applied by the former commissioner to these “poor, sick young men” should earn for him the degree of M.D. Equally effective, although somewhat different, were the methods employed by the famous Thomas Burns, superintendent of the New York police, during my youth.
The criminal feared him personally and dreaded to be brought before “The Chief.” He established the “Dead line,” below which no crook dared to go, and kept the city comparatively free from invasion by the criminal element. The old chief stood no fooling and carried a knockout punch in either hand. Captain Williams, of the same period, could wield his night-stick with a grace and efficiency that would have delighted Hercules. He once remarked: “Theres more law in the end of a night-stick than in all the courts in the United States.” These men believed in physical therapeutics and they obtained brilliant results. So, after all, Dr. Nashs suggestion, carried on in a humane manner, is not without merit.
One thing more. Recognizing the value of subjective symptoms is not confined to our school. The great Sir James Mackenzie knew their worth. Let me quote a few of his statements: “The proper appreciation of the patient;s sensations enables us to understand many obscure complaints, as for example in the recognition of abnormal heart action.” “The study of pain, its site, radiation and accompanying phenomena, reveals the mechanism by which it is produced.”
“The knowledge of the progress of disease reveals the meaning of abnormal signs and constitutes the basis for an intelligent prognosis.” “The general practitioner is the only investigator that has the real opportunity.” “The opportunity for investigation in hospitals is too restricted.” “When heart failure sets in, the earliest manifestation is always a subjective sensation of a disagreeable kind”.
Note what Sir James says regarding the general practitioner. the same is true in relation to the homoeopathic materia medica. True knowledge of materia medica and prescribing can only be obtained at the bedside by one actively engaged in private practice. The hospital, using Mackenzies own words, “is too restricted.” The laboratory is still more so.
One of the best pathologists I know remarked to me one day: “Coleman, the young doctor of the present expects me to make all his diagnoses for him. He seems never to have acquired the skill of drawing conclusions from the symptoms presented, or to make a good physical examination. You know that the laboratory is only confirmatory.
We conclude, then, that animal experimentation can aid, but only to a very limited extent, homoeopathic prescribing. The bulk of our knowledge must be obtained from provings on the healthy human body and from repeated verifications of the symptoms.
