Gropings

Last week the American Institute of Homeopathy met in 82nd annual convention at Philadelphia; the American Osteopathic Association in 30th annual convention at Louisville, Ky. Famed John D. ("Bonesetter") Reese of Youngstown, Ohio, was made a "Druid" by the American Gorsedd. All are groping toward methods of keeping humans well, of getting them healthy, once diseased. Homeopathy. The homeopaths still have two medical schools, the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia and the New York Homeopathic Medical College of Manhattan. They have faculty representation at the Universities of California and of Michigan and at the Boston University School of Medicine. Every large city in the U. S. has from one to three homeopathic hospitals. Some few have several. At least 10,000 homeopathic physicians are still in practice, with additional ones coming from the few medical schools available for their instruction. Homeopathy is by no means dead in the U. S., but its distinctions from orthodox therapy are fading, both because homeopathy has adapted much of the orthodox technique and because orthodox medicine has approximated some of the homeopathic ideas. Samuel C. F. Hahnemann (1755-1843) worked out the principle of similars--a large dose of a drug gave the same symptoms on the healthy human body as did a certain disease. Therefore that disease and that drug poisoned the body similarly. If a minute portion of the drug were given to a patient so diseased, the minute portion would stimulate the body to resist the disease. By "proving," by testing out on healthy humans the whole armamentarium of drugs, the homeopaths worked out a, vast array of drugs specific for practically every disease symptom. The regular school of medicine rejects the law of similars, but approximates it by the current concept of immunities. Vaccines give the symptoms of a disease--mildly. President of the Institute of Homeopathy is Arthur Whitaker Belting, of Trenton, N. J., and the president-elect is G. Harlan Wells of Elkins, Md. Osteopathy. Another group groping for methods healing to mankind's ailments are the asteopaths. Like the homeopaths they have acquired some current respect because their students for the most part must now get a general medical education. They must know what the regular school knows, except materia medica. For that knowledge of drugs they substitute a thorough knowledge of anatomy and of manipulation, osteopathic therapy. The osteopathic idea is that the body will overcome disease of its own accord if all its parts are functioning normally. Abnormalities of joints, bones, muscles, tendons, nerves are "lesions." The osteopath, by finger surgery, finger technique, nuger treatment, by a kind of mighty massaging-- removes these lesions, breaks up adhesions, gets lymphatic drainage. Regular physicians and surgeons recognize the value of such manipulation, deny that it is as efficacious as the osteopaths proclaim. R. B. Gilmour of Sioux City, Iowa, is the recently elected president of the American Osteopathic Association.

Bonesetting. At Youngstown, Ohio, where the rivers flow red with pigment of Minnesota iron ore heaped about the mills, dwells a onetime steel worker by the name of "Bonesetter" Reese, a fat and opulent man. He is congenially accepted in the chateaux of that vigorous city, for the onetime mill worker is famed wide and far as a healer, a mender of broken bones.

In his youth he puttered at fixing the dislocated fingers, the the bruised ankle bones, the wrenched knees of fellows battered at their sweaty laborings in the mill. His skill was a bit uncanny, for though he had no medical training, he patched and repaired successfully, became known. His deft fingers developed Reese into an outstanding and nationally famed expert at rehabilitating errant bones. Especially desired is he of athletes--precious professionals require the delicate care of specialists, hardy amateurs must please the alumni regularly--and many a sport page luminary has hastened to Reese as to a Good Samaritan. Neither physician nor literatus, grey-haired Welshman Reese was signaled last week by an organization of U. S. Welshmen, the American Gorsedd; was ornamented with trappings of flower bouquets, white robe, an honorary title of "Druid," for his eminence as a practitioner, despite the fact that the Gorsedd concerns itself not at all with medical progression, and is solely a literary assembly.