and leaves of the weeds he desired to exterminate, instead of planting his agricultural implements at their roots and removing them, root and branch, from the soil they impoverish. All chronic diseases have some deep-seated predisposing cause, and the pains and discomforts are but the effects of that cause. In many complicated cases, there are not only causes but sub-causes, or in other words one or more causes may produce certain affections which will produce still other disturbances. Now, in all these cases it is necessary, in order to obtain a perfect and unconditional discharge from the tyrant disease, to seek out all these causes and sub-causes, and apply appropriate remedies. In view of these considerations, I would say to the victim of disease, employ your family physician when you are on your back, if you please, but when you get on your feet again, and your physical troubles linger for weeks, months, or years, place yourself under the care of one who gives exclusive attention to chronic diseases, and who, by a thorough and nutritious system of medication goes down to the very root of the whole matter. Read the first and last chapters in Part II., the first commencing on page 331 and the last on page 574.

CHAPTER XIII.

TREATMENT OF DISEASE.

N this chapter of practical matter, will be thrown to. gether, without any waste of labor in classification, suggestions of such importance to the invalid reader, that it is hoped every sentence will be perused with care and reflection. There are many truths, medical and moral, which the mists of ignorance, or popular prejudice, partly or wholly, shut out from the mental vision, and, inasmuch as the great mass of people know more of every thing else than they do of that which pertains to the laws of physical and spiritual health and life, and to a rational art of healing, it is not surprising that many dose themselves to death with their own uncertain concoctions; that thousands become the dupes of wicked charlatans; that tens of thousands allow themselves to become sewers for patent nostrums; and that millions are the patrons of a so-called scientific school of medicine, which cures (?) the sick by making them life-long cripples. I trust that a candid perusal of this chapter will serve to dispel these mists, or what might be properly called medical and moral fogs, for no harm can possibly result from an effort to impress upon the public mind the necessity of doing for the invalid the best that can be done at the very outset, instead of experimenting from week to week, and month to month, with something or somebody which or whom it is thought "will do," until the disease-burdened body nearly sinks into the grave embalmed with a thousand drugs.

With this brief prologue I will pass to the presentation of matter appropriate for this chapter.

Everybody His Own Doctor.

This is an attractive motto which graces the title-page, or gleams from the preface of many a medical work gotten up for the patronage of a too credulous public. It would be no less pleasing to the author than to the reader if, in this volume, instructions could be given, which would enable every invalid who peruses its pages, to treat his or her own case without the aid of a physician. Such a task, notwithstanding the assumptions of many to the contrary, would be simply impossible, as every one of genuine good sense must perceive. So much depends upon the constitution or the temperament of the sick man or woman (see page 156), only one who makes these idiosyncrasies his constant study, is capable of prescribing successfully, especially in the thousands of cases in which there is a variety of blendings or mixtures of temperaments.

If my system of practice were at all similar to that of physicians who make calomel or some other drug a favorite remedy for every disease, with only an occasional deviation, the task of instructing non-professional readers in the healing art-if art, in that case, it could be called-would not only be possible but easy; or if my system was like that of medical men who have a specific for every ill, and who would treat a dozen patients afflicted with one kind of disease in precisely the same way, then would it be but a pleasant pastime to sit down and instruct the world's sufferers just how to doctor themselves. But the attentive reader cannot have failed to perceive that I entirely disapprove of treating the sick on this "hit or miss" principle, and insist on the necessity of prescribing, not only for disease, but for constitutions or temperaments. Never, yet, has there been written for popular use, medical books in which prescriptions or recipes were given for the ostensible purpose of enabling the sick to treat their own diseases, that did not prove failures, and in a majority of cases, worse than failures, for the reason that they lead people requiring the best of medical skill and experience, to tamper with themselves till their diseases became incurable, or to employ active remedies (the nature of which they did not fully understand) when the complications contra-indicated their employment.

The chief aims of the author in placing this work before the public, are to give publicity to a volume of original ideas which he believes will be of advantage to the world; to exhibit to the reader the causes

of disease and social unhappiness, in order that the rocks and shoals which lie hidden in the turbid sea of life may be avoided; to impart to those possessing ordinary intuition, the ability to judge wisely of the merits of the various systems of therapeutics in vogue, and to put all on their guard against-not only the unjust prejudices and old fogyism of the "regular practitioner," but the impositions of the empiric. If I were writing this book for the exclusive use and benefit of the medical profession, it would be necessary to make it voluminous, expensive, and not a little obscure to the non-professional reader, for lengthy details in regard to the treatment of every case, with its many possible peculiarities and complications would have to be scrupulously given, the comprehension and appreciation of which would require the possession, on the part of the reader, of extensive pathological knowledge. I may yet make such a contribution to medical literature, but I doubt my ability to produce a work of this description, which would enable readers of little or no medical attainments, to act as their own physicians. Doctors will continue to be "necessary evils" till mankind for several generations, shall have strictly obeyed the laws of life and health; or, in other words, until disease shall have become an annoyer and destroyer of only those who have passed temperately through the spring and summer of life, and entered the closing winter of their earthly career; or, on the other hand, they will have to be endured until physiology, pathology, materia-medica, hygiene, and surgery become household sciences, taught, not only in all institutions of learning, but in the nursery and family; and then, as "practice makes perfect" in every art, profession, or trade, an invalid laboring under any difficult disease, would rather intrust his case to the hands of one whose sole labors are devoted to the relief of the sick, than to the hands of an artist, a lawyer, a parson, a merchant, a mechanic, or a farmer, however devoted a student he may have been in matters pertaining to the healing art. If a man possesses the necessary attainments and natural gifts to practise medicine successfully, every day's experience adds to his skill; every case upon which he attends, the better prepares him for successfully managing the next, and while his success extends his practice, his practice, in turn, augments his skill. "Every man to his trade," is an old adage, and in no sphere of life does it apply with greater force than to the physician.

None but those who are engaged in the practice of medicine with

eyes and ears open, can realize how complicated are nearly all cases of chronic disease. Seldom is a single organ or function involved; several affections usually co-exist, each of which aggravates the other, and any one remedy, which is favorable to the cure of one, oftentimes gives disturbance to the rest. In no such case can a single prescription affect, favorably, these combinations; nor can directions be laid down in a popular work, which will enable the invalid reader to go understandingly at work to concoct a set of prescriptions adapted to his particular case. But suppose such a plan practicable, then the adulterations practised in drugs and medicines, would put to hazard the reputation of a popular author (see page 194).

In this connection I may make a quotation which bears directly on the point last referred to in the preceding paragraph. While reading the proof sheets of the foregoing matter my attention is called to an article in one of our most influential city papers. The editor has been reading an exposé of the extent to which drugs are adulterated, in "The Journal of Applied Chemistry," published in New York, and, after presenting some startling facts, proceeds to comment as follows: "Hence the physician either increases the doses or condemns the drug entirely; or, should he fix upon the amount required by his experience in the use of such an article, and afterward obtain that which is pure, he will find his patient exhibit the symptoms of being poisoned. Nor is the adulteration limited to a few unprincipled dealers here and there through the country, but it is so general that the leading importers of drugs are aware of it; nor do they deny it, although it might be supposed that their interest lies in the concealment."

"In discussing the remedy," remarks the same editor, "it is said that too great reliance is placed on the manufacturer; for the apothecary seldom applies the proper tests to his purchases. Wo are informed, also, that it is no uncommon practice for clerks to put up a different drug from that named in a prescription, both to avoid the trouble of getting it elsewhere and to be sure of making a sale, and, in calculating the chances of escaping detection, they rely mainly upon the ignorance of the patient and the inattention of the physician. As an effectual remedy for these crimes and stupidities, onr authority proposes that honest drug inspectors shall be appointed alike for large and small places; it shall be their duty to examine every invoice of drugs purchased by the retail dealer, and