– a. ANIMAL PARASITES.
b. VEGETABLE PARASITES.
The animal parasites are distinguished as
Epizoa, existing upon the exterior; and
Entozoa, in the interior of the body.
The vegetable parasites are variously distinguished and classified, according to their microscopical as well as more common characteristics.
There are cryptogams and fungi, spores and dust or germ-fungi, bacteria and micro-bacteria, etc.
The agents employed to remove these different pests of humanity are many and various, brought largely from the classes of which I have just been speaking; some being –
Mechanical, as the brush, the sponge, the scalpel, etc.
Chemical, as caustics, washes, ferments, etc.
Toxical, as santonin, andira, koosso, etc.
The medicinal treatment of parasites must be toxical, such as may sicken to kill them without seriously disturbing the body whence they are removed. The medication is not, then, primarily of the person or principal, but of the parasites, and must be governed by rules arrived at by observation and experiment in the parasitic field, limited or modified, of course, to suit the liabilities and requirements of the human organism.
The treatment of the conditions inviting and favoring the presence of parasites, calls for hygienic and sometimes medicinal means, under laws elsewhere considered.
Much discussion has taken place in regard to the order of cause and effect in the field of parasitic display, some writers claiming a systemic or constitutional disorder, resulting in local decay and parasitic occupation, while others have placed the parasites as causes, and the local or systemic disorders as their effects. I do not propose to enter upon such questions here, but it is proper for me to say that, the drift of modern discoveries, in such cases, is decidedly against the doctorine of abiogenesis, the generation of living organism, de novo, out of life less matter. The means and methods of disinfection, of stamping out the germs of disease, are daily coming more and more under the sway of recognized principles.
I have now spoken of four classes of forces, or means, the Hygienic, the Chemical, the Mechanical, and the Antiparasitic, as constituting the armamentarium of General Therapeutics; but I would not be understood as saying that they are so distinct and independent that they may not act conjointly or modify each others influence, while favoring the vis medicatrix naturoe, or even the vis medicines, of which I shall speak hereafter.
In conclusion of this part of my subject, I would say, that a review of the means employed in General Therapeutics, which I have presented in our line, will reveal two noteworthy facts- first, that they are of very great importance in the art of healing; and second, that they are all governed by certain laws.
To the therapeutist they are not simply “adjuvants,” nor creatures and tools of fancy, but legitimate and reliable and necessary means for the defense and restoration of human health.
Some practitioners, impressed with these facts, have limited their efforts to the use of one class of means, generally the hygienic, in the treatment of the sick, claiming to act upon the (absurd) principle “that nothing should be used in sickness not required in health.”
It will be observed that, I take no mention of the therapeutic power claimed by persons said to be “healers” or “healing mediums.”
As I have undertaken, to present forces or agents, such as we may grasp and direct, under the guidance of some known laws of nature-means discovered and understood by careful study, and not received as “spiritual gifts,” nor as the discoveries of “clairvoyance”-I leave that mysterious power for those to discuss, who are better acquainted with its character, laws and uses.
I can only say that, it would please me greatly to lay aside the remedies now in use, especially the pathogenetic, if convinced that, the healing forces, now coming through various forms of matter, could come as well, or better, at our call, from the great source of all power, through the human touch, or voice, or look.
