290 ITS BEARING ON MEDICAL PRACTICE. 



or hideously ugly; and that, iu order to keep up this dilYerence of opinion 

 which suits her i^urpose, she always wears a thick veil over her face. 



"For, with a veil that wimpled everywhere, 

 Her head aud face were hid, that mote to none appear; 

 That some do say was so by skill devised, 

 To hide the terror of her uncouth line 

 From mortal eyes that should be sore agrised; 

 For that lier face did like a lion show. 

 That eye of wight could not endure to view ; 

 But others tell that it so beauteous was, 

 And round about such beams of splendor threw, 

 That it the sun a thousand times did pass. 

 Nor could be seen but like an imago iu a glass." 



Before trusting- nature in the matter of cholera, and proceeding to 

 help her, it would be well to inquire whether she intends to cure the 

 patient by her evacuations or to pat him into his cofBn. For myself, I 

 greatly mistrust her, and would wish to ask, previous to assisting her, 

 whether she is really my mother or only my stepmother. Our experience 

 in Dublin has shown that no more effectual mode of shortening life could 

 be devised in cholera than the " eliminant" treatment; and it was accord- 

 ingly abandoned as soon as tried in that city. 



It is much to be regretted that an authority so deservedly held in 

 high repute as that of Sir Thomas Watson can be now quoted in favor 

 of the treatment of cholera, by the maxim, similia similihus curanfur. 

 So far as Dr. Watson has informed us, his change of opinion rests upon 

 the statements of others, and not upon his own experience. He has 

 suddenly become an advocate of the castor oil, rhubarb, calomel, and 

 eliminant treatment of cholera, and writes as follows: 



" When I last spoke on this subject in these lectures, I stated that 

 the few recoveries which I had witnessed had all taken i^lace under large 

 and repeated doses of calomel, but I could not venture to affirm that the 

 calomel cured them. At present I am much disposed to believe that by 

 its cleansing action the calomel may have helped the recovery; and after 

 all that I have since seen, heard, read, and thought upon the matter, I 

 must contess that in the event of my having again to deal with the dis- 

 order, I should feel bound to adopt, in its generality, the evacuaut theory 

 and practice." 



Sir Thomas Watson omits to add that the cases here referred to 

 were only six in number, of whom three died aud tliree recovered, 

 which is exactly what might have been expected if he had not interfered 

 at all. 



Cholera from Bengal visits these islands at intervals of about seven- 

 teen years, and it is much to be feared that on its next outbreak hun- 

 dreds of patients will be sacrificed, in obedience to the dogma that 

 asserts it to be our duty to assist nature. 



C Diabetes meUitus. — This disease furnishes us with one of our best 

 proofs that all the chemical changes, by means of which work is pro- 

 duced, take place in the blood and not in the tissues of the body: and. 



