322 Broughton on the Nerves. 



experiments of a Dr. Clarke Abel, another " Daniel come to 

 judgment." But, though he may possibly be what the tianspo- 

 sition of his names would unquestionably make him, it was 

 sufficient for my purpose that I stated Dr. Wilson Philip did 

 not stand alone and unsupported in his argument. 



Dr. Hastings takes it upon himself to put the ignorant on 

 their guard against being misled by my application of the 

 term digestion; and explains to them what it really means. 

 Possibly the reader, like the lady in the farce, may say, " Here 

 are two very civil gentlemen trying to make themselves under- 

 stood, but the interpreter is the most difficult to comprehend 

 of the two." 



Then we have a playful quibble about mucus and chyme, in 

 which my meaning is ingeniously perverted. I used the word 

 mucus instead of chy77ie, heCMise I w\s\ied to state simply the 

 fact as it appeared to me, leaving it open to others to judge 

 from their own experience of the truth of my suggestions*. 

 Had Dr. Hastings followed this general rule, by which I 

 govern myself, in detailing his experiments, it would have been 

 more fair, instead of adopting the self dictum style, and thus 

 giving us no means of judging for ourselves. In place of say- 

 ing such and such were the results of certain experiments, it 

 seems to me more candid to note the exact appearances, leaving 

 it open to others to form their own opinions as to the indica- 

 tions of such appearances. For, it is the great misfortune of 

 almost every art and science, that their professors are too apt 

 to imagine theories without the experience of facts, which they 

 afterwards warp to support their own views, rather than in 

 aiding the cause of truth ; and which is pretty much the same 

 as erecting a structure before the foundation is secured. 



But I-have yet a graver charge to bring forward ; no less than 

 a palpable misrepresentation, absolutely unwarranted by any ties 

 or debts of gratitude, that may be due between Dr. Wilson 



* Dr. Wilson Pliilip says, this semi-fluid is tlie mucus of the stomach, 

 and not chyme. I believe it to he the result of combination of gastric 

 fluid with the fiarsley, and not secreted originally in the form described. 



