Section XV Diseases of the Social Organism
If the public economy of a people be an organism, we must expect to find that the perturbations, which affect it, present some analogies to the diseases of the body physical. We may, therefore, hope to learn much that may be of use in practice, from the tried methods of medicine.129 In the diseases of the body economic, it is necessary to distinguish accurately, between the nature of the disease and its external symptoms, although it may be necessary to combat the latter directly, and not merely with a view to alleviation. Following the example of the physician, we should particularly direct our attention to the curative method which nature itself would pursue, were art not to intervene. “The curative power of nature is no peculiar power; it is the result of a series of happy adjustments, by means of which the morbid perturbation itself sets in motion the springs which may either destroy the evil or paralyze its action. It is, in fact, nothing but the original power which formed the body and preserves its life in contact with the external causes of perturbation and the internal disorder provoked by these causes.” (Ruete.)