A World of High Medical Knowledge.
I spent a long and profitable season in the vicinity of the Great
Dipper, witnessing the almost infinite variations of human life as found
from world to world, and looking upon the wild wastes of the many
planets that are not inhabited.
Finally I again spread my swift wings, reached the beautiful star
Arcturus and noticed among the worlds that revolve around it a few that
are sinless. I was tempted to pause at one or another of these
exceptional stations, but I knew that I could not tarry until I had
reached the far distant constellation of Scorpio.
In this wide flight I traveled a distance so great that I will not weary
the mind with mentioning the trillions of miles. Now I was in the direct
path of the Milky Way and my imagination staggered as I saw the
endlessness of stars and solar systems, as far out beyond me as my
assisted eyes could reach.
The star at which I arrived is one of the largest suns that blaze in the
depths of immensity. It is so wonderfully great that if twelve hundred
million worlds as large as ours were all crushed into one great ball, it
would not make one sphere as immense as this star or sun, around which
revolve about five hundred worlds or planets, many of which are greater
than our Jupiter. With abounding interest I visited all the inhabited
worlds of this vast system. How long it took I have no way of knowing. I
did not count time by hours or heart throbs, for I was so wrapt in my
observations that all else was as nothing to me.
Some of these worlds sustain a low order of human creatures, while on
others there are races that have reached a high degree in the scale of
advancement. Of these five hundred worlds nearly one-half are barren of
all life, and of those that are inhabited some twenty are sinless worlds
and thirty are now passing through an intermediate period between the
probationary life and the final judgment, a period toward which we are
anxiously looking and which we designate as the Millennium.
Of all this ponderous solar system there is one world that excels all
the others in its medical attainments, and of this one first I will give
a flying notice.
I have named this world Dore-lyn. It is fifty times as large as our
Earth and of greater specific gravity.
Its human creatures are delightfully formed and are in ruddy health and
refined happiness. In shape these Dore-lynites differ somewhat from us,
but long before I had reached this planet I learned something of the
universal standards of symmetry and ascertained that creatures could be
beautiful without resembling us whatever.
Here I found four billions of people and there is room for twenty
billions more. So if you are in ill health, and have run the round of
our medical fraternity without success, I would advise you to go to
Dore-lyn, if you know how to reach it.
These Dore-lynites are almost three times our size and they are subject
to most of our ills and many more. From an early date the head
government of this world paid particular attention to hygiene, keeping
all medical work under its own care.
The government controls the whole field of medical science just as we do
the post-office department.
There are no conflicting schools of medicines such as Allopathic,
Homeopathic, Hydropathic, Eclectic and Osteopathic. The government gives
handsome rewards to any one who furnishes a new discovery or gives
additional light. Everything is duly tested and proved to be a success
by a corps of experts before it is given to the practicing fraternity.
The government holds certain rights in experimenting that no physician
or medical school would think of having in our world. The government
medical schools of Dore-lyn are marvels indeed. Nothing is spared that
money or talent can furnish. The full graduates of these schools are
only "the survival of the fittest." Others take a secondary degree and
can act as assistants or retire from the list. The government has a
series of institutions that do a work similar to our hospitals and have
a corps of full graduates supplying the stations. This entire system is
so arranged that every family or individual receives all necessary
treatment free.
The cost of carrying on this vast system is one of the items of national
expense. I will now mention some of the medical achievements of these
Dore-lynites.
When a physician suspects that the blood is poisoned he at once proceeds
to a chemical analysis, and if certain kinds of poison are found, the
blood is filtered by the use of a fine instrument. A blood vessel is
exposed and cut, and the two ends fastened to the delicate filter. Thus
the blood is cleansed by passing through this instrument. Those
acquainted with the manner in which the blood circulates can readily see
how all the blood of the body can be reached in a short time. This
method is very successful in the treatment of all bites of poisonous
insects and reptiles, and all types of hydrophobia, which are ten-fold
more numerous in Dore-lyn than in our world.
There are no patent medicines in Dore-lyn. The few medicines they have
are manufactured only by government authority and everybody receives the
purest that can be compounded, no distinction being made between rich
and poor. One thousand years ago the medical aspects of Dore-lyn were
similar to those which are seen in our world to-day. People were
compelled to take all manner of poisons and opiates even from skilled
hands. But in Dore-lyn those days of darkness and misery are past and
the people enjoy the benefit of a medical skill one thousand years ahead
of us. They look back to the practice of the old physicians with
ludicrous feelings just as we do when reading the prescriptions that
were used in the first century of our dispensation.
We call your attention to some of the antiquated remedies of our world
as related by Geike and copied from a medical journal of our own
country. Following is a list:
"Ashes of wolf's skull, stag's horn, the heads of mice, the eyes of
crabs, owl's brains, liver of frogs, viper's fat, grasshoppers, bats,
etc., these supplied the alkalis which were prescribed. Physicians were
accustomed to order doses of the gall of wild swine. It is presumed the
tame hog was not sufficiently efficacious. There were other choice
prescriptions such as horse's foam, woman's milk, laying a serpent on
the afflicted part, urine of cows, bear fat, still recommended as a hair
restorative, juice of boiled buck horn, etc. For colic, powdered horse's
teeth, dung of swine, asses' kidneys, mice excretion made into a
plaster, and other equally vile and unsavory compounds. Colds in the
head were cured by kissing the nose of a mule. For sore throat, snail
slime was a favorite prescription, and mouse flesh was considered
excellent for disease of the lungs. Boiled snails and powdered bats were
prescribed for intestinal disorders."
When we read such a list of remedies we can scarcely believe that they
were ever popular, but according to the history of Dore-lyn the time
will come when many of our present medicines will be out of date, and
only mentioned in the old medical works.
The people of Dore-lyn have suffered in past ages innumerable woes on
account of intemperance. Alcohol is unknown to them, but they have had a
two-thousand year's battle against three liquids that affect them as
opium affects us. Strange to say that these terrible liquids were the
bases of many of their medicines just like the anodyne medicines of our
present day. Thus in Dore-lyn the old kinds of medicines created many
drunkards. Since the dawn of the brighter age, a strict law prevails
regarding the use of all narcotics in medicines. Then came gradually
into use the many methods of treating disease without medicine, except
the materials used to sustain life regularly.
Being interested in these things, I examined more closely into their
past medical history, and saw more clearly the present folly of a
certain part of our medicinal practice. How we are struggling with
alcohol, especially as found in so many of our patent medicines, and how
helpless we are in trying to abolish the sale of these medicines by
reason of our unbounded liberty! In our world, a man may concoct any
alcoholic medicine and sell it without liquor license, for people
become verily mad for the bottled stuff. Our nation may some day become
wise enough to keep its own hand on the business that is determining the
health and happiness of millions of its inhabitants.
But let me cease this digression and get back once more to Dore-lyn.
One of the most noted medical achievements on this world consists in the
manner of rendering a person unconscious of pain. The anatomy of a
Dore-lynite is, in general, the same as our anatomy. Their bones are
arranged a little differently and the sections of the backbone have a
quite different formation. When a surgeon of that world wishes to
perform an operation and therefore render the patient unconscious, he
presses the tough cartilagenous part of a section of the backbone with a
screw device fastened to the body of the patient. This simple act
renders the spinal cord insensitive, which condition may be maintained
for hours without injuring the patient. Of course any point above the
screw device is sensitive, and for this reason it is more difficult to
render a person unconscious in the parts about the head.
Many ages ago the world of microbes was laid bare, but not before these
people were masters of the microscope or an instrument serving the same
purposes, although formed on a partly different principle.
These Dore-lynites have brought to light the numerous varieties of
parasite broods that cause fermentations and diseases, both infectious
and otherwise.
A diseased body is looked upon as being in possession of a certain brood
of microbes which are destroyed either by the blood filter or the
"Vaccine bath, or injection." (I know no better name by which to call
it.) A few diseases are treated by doses of medicines given in a manner
similar to the prescription system of our country.
The "Food Treatment" is also very popular in Dore-lyn. This is merely a
hygienic selection of foods given to people of declining health, instead
of having them swallow ten or twenty dollars' worth of strong medicines.
Abnormal appetites crave for a class of foods injurious to the system.
In Dore-lyn they have discovered a novel method of turning the diseased
appetite from its cravings toward the things needed by the system.
In performing operations, the experts of Dore-lyn have reached a
marvelous degree of perfection. They have learned to make a false eye so
that one can see with it. It took three and one-half thousand years of
continual experimenting on this delicate creation before it was
pronounced satisfactory.
The false eye is not of flesh but one of manufacture. It is placed in
sensitive connection with the optic nerve, on which images are thrown by
the delicate mechanism of the false eye. The sight thus obtained is
almost one-half as distinct as that which is enjoyed by the normal eye.
These medical wizards also make artificial ears which are about as
satisfactory as the natural ears. In certain lines of surgery we are
equal to these Dore-lynites, but we cannot register with them in the
whole category of surgical achievements. They have simply distanced us
by five hundred years. That is, I believe that in five hundred years we
can reach the fields of glory which they now occupy.
Think of laying bare a human lung and treating it with a special
preparation for extreme cases of lung diseases, and also treating it
with a "baking" for department cases of a disease similar to pneumonia.
Perhaps the most wonderful class of operations is performed on the heart
and the brain.
The heart is laid bare under a sheet of thermal rays. Fatty tissues are
removed and other obstructions eradicated during the regular heart
beats.
The government grants certain privileges of experimenting on her lowest
class of criminals, and it is well nigh incredible what has been
accomplished by cerebrum operations.
Certain murderers of vile propensities have been so changed by an
operation on the cerebrum that they have no power of recalling their
past life and are incapable of uttering an oath. And what is more
strange, they are intent on leading an upright life and being intensely
religious withal.
I am compelled to crowd a world of glorious life into a few paragraphs,
but I hope that I have given such as will be for our good.