Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 1.djvu/75

 it is administered. To say that a remedy cures a disease, and to be content with this knowledge, would betray a lamentable misconception of what medical science requires. The fact is always valuable, but, to be fully available, we should have some insight into the modus operandi, else we must be ill prepared to regulate those circumstances by which the operation of the remedy would be advanced or impeded. It continually happens that a remedy proves effectual, or the contrary, solely through the mode in which it is administered, whence it is often less the quid than the quomodo that is of importance. Ample are our remedial resources both in number and power, if we knew but rightly how to employ them. This knowledge must be sought through a closer investigation of those vital processes by which nature, when duly assisted, can accomplish so much in rectifying the derangements of the animal frame. It will not be denied that many such operations of nature, which at present lie hid, are capable of being discovered; and, if so, the medical enquirer can hardly pursue any research more useful or interesting than that of exploring them. Some valuable remarks "concerning the action of medicinal substances on the living system," may be seen in a small but interesting volume published by Dr. Spillan, of Dublin, entitled "a Supplement to the Pharmacopoeias".

In determining the treatment of diseases, no mode can have less to recommend it than that which adapts the remedy according to the name of the disease. And yet it is very prevalent; even intelligent practitioners being sedulous to ascertain from medical records, what course of treatment has most