he would never have been induced to place him with a Medical Practitioner. But it seemed to him, good man, that the more we study the works of the Creator, the more we must perceive and feel his wisdom and his power and his goodness. It was so in his own case, and, like Adam Littleton and all simple-hearted men, he judged of others by himself.

Nevertheless that the practice of Physic, and still more of Surgery, should have an effect like that of war upon the persons engaged in it, is what those who are well acquainted with human nature might expect, and would be at no loss to account for. It is apparent that in all these Professions coarse minds must be rendered coarser, and hard hearts still farther indurated; and that there is a large majority of such minds and hearts in every profession, trade, and calling, few who have had any experience of the ways of the world can doubt. We need not look farther for the immediate cause. Add to a depraved mind and an unfeeling disposition, either a subtle intellect or a daring one, and you have all the preparations for atheism that the Enemy could desire.

But other causes may be found in the history of the Medical Profession, which was an Art, in the worst sense of the word, before it became a Science, and long after it pretended to be a Science was little better than a Craft. Among savages the Sorcerer is always the Physician; and to this day superstitious remedies are in common use among the ignorant in all countries. But wherever

the practice is connected with superstition, as free scope is presented to wickedness as to imagination; and there have been times in which it became obnoxious to much obloquy, which on this score was well deserved.-SOUTHEY, The Doctor, Ch. 120.

... And so of classes of men in this day, it is observed how the young of one Profession much occupied with man's lifeless body, too commonly become wholly careless as to death, and callous, and profane; how hardened and profligate too many of those become who are most conversant with death. DR. PUSEY, Sermons from Advent to Whitsuntide, 1848, Serm. xx.

Bacon was contemplating his subject with that tranquil and intelligent solemnity, which, until the dissection of the dead body became, as it now is, a familiar and daily portion of medical study, characterized the tone of thought brought by the investigator to his pursuits. Deep and considerate reflection, heightened by devotional respect, were the sentiments which physiology inspired. In some degree, the grave feelings of the ancient anatomist may be attributed to the character of mystery then enveloping the posthumous examination of the human remains. Conducted, also, not unfrequently with danger, the opportunity for such investigations was rare. These incidents gave more value to the study. They imparted a solemn preparatory tone to the enquiry, and the

same sobriety followed it onwards. Instead of being attended merely by a crowd of unthinking

youth, of rude and untutored students, even old grey-headed men came eagerly to learn: all presented themselves prepared as for an important event. They encountered the task with minds predetermined by religious reverence.

Thus were they preserved, well was it for them that they should be so, from the assumed defiance of death, the irreverent treatment of the pale corpse, the ribald jest, the impure gibe, the hardened jeer: all no less baleful to the individual, than to the dignity of the noble science imparted for the relief of suffering mortality. — ŠIR F. PALGRAVE, Merchant and Friar, Ch. vi.

Of his diet measurable was he:
for it was of no superfluity;

but of great nourishing, and digestible.
His study was but little on the Bible.

CHAUCER, The Physician.

The lowest office of Medicine is to minister to mere ailments; and this is most effectually done by telling people what in their ordinary mode of living is injurious, and warning them against it. But inasmuch as injurious things are commonly very pleasant things, people are reluctant to leave them off at our mere bidding. Hence, in this, which is their humblest province, small credit upon the whole has been gained by the best Physicians. The advice they have to give is much too simple for the world to accept upon the credit and character of well-instructed and honest men. * * *

But the highest office of Medicine is to minister to diseases, which, by themselves or by their incidents, go directly and rapidly to the destruction of life and this is not to be done by begging people to be reasonable and abstain from what is wrong, and cheating and cajoling them into compliance. But it is a business for wise and cautious men alone to meddle with.-P. M. LATHAM, M.D., Lectures on Clinical Medicine, 1846. Vol. I, Lect. 10.

Oportet autem non modò seipsum exhibere quæ oportet facientem, sed etiam ægrum, et præsentes, et externa. HIPPOCRATES, translated by T. Coar, 1822.

... Nor could I satisfy so great a number of hurt people. Moreover, I had not what was necessary to dress them withal: for it is not sufficient that the Surgeon do his duty towards the Patients; but the Patient must also do his, and the assistants, and all exterior things,witness Hippocrates in his first aphorism.-AMBROSE PARÈ, transl. by T. Johnson, 1649.

It depends a great deal upon a man's general character, whether he may confess an error without suffering by it. At all events, a man who has charge of City Dispensary practice, dependent for its extent and utility upon his own virtue and humanity, when his Patients vary from a score to a hundred paupers besetting his door, as the season happens to be healthy or otherwise, will

often have occasion to blame himself for rashness of practice, as well as flagging industry and infirmity of temper. - R. H. KENNEDY, Notes on the Epidemic Cholera, 1846, Ch. ix.

'Who of us is there,' said my Master, Mr. W*** 'whose professional recollections are not embittered by some feelings of that kind?'

As a zealous advocate of temperance [Caius, John Kaye,] it were to be wished that he had met with more attention; but the words of a good Physician are given to the winds, when they are directed against vices and habits of sensual indulgence. People require from him an infallible preservative, and not a lecture on morality.-J. F. C. HECKER, M.D., Epidemics of the Middle Ages, 1844, p. 303.

What Patients want, in general, is some medicine. that will relieve them from their discomfort and uneasy feelings, and allow them, at the same time, to go on in the indulgence of those habits. which have generated the discomfort. And such. remedies have not yet been discovered.-SIR T. WATSON, Lectures on the Practice of Physic, Lect. 64.

For my part, who take the prognostics of Physicians to be but guesses, not prophecies, and know how backward they are to bid us fear, till our condition leave them little hopes of us, I can not but think that Patient very ill advised, who thinks it not time to entertain thoughts of death