We believe that a perfect system of medical science is that which never
allows disease to exist at all; which prevents disease, instead of
curing it, by means of a perfect hygienic system, proper modes of life,
attention to diet, ventilation, and exercise.
We believe that the next best system is that which, after disease has
made its appearance, promptly meets its development by the use of such
agencies as are perfectly in harmony with the laws of life and health,
and physiological in their action; such, for example, as water, air,
heat and cold, friction, food, drink, and medicines that are not usually
regarded as poisons, and are known to prove congenial to the animal
constitution.
We have no attachment to any remedy which experience shows unsafe; but,
on the contrary, we rejoice in the success of every attempt to
substitute sanative for disease-creating agents, and believe that a
number of the articles which are still occasionally used in the old
school, will in time become obsolete, as medical science progresses.
We hold that our opposition to any course of medical treatment should be
in proportion to the mischief it produces, entirely irrespective of
medical theories. Hence our hostility to the lancet.
We do not profess to know more about anatomy, physiology, surgery, &c.,
than our allopathic brethren; but the superiority which our system
claims over others is, in the main, to be found in our therapeutic
agents, all of which are harmless, safe, and efficient. While they
arouse the energies of nature to resist the ravages of disease, they act
harmoniously with the vital principle, in the restoration of the system
from a pathological to the physiological state.