1875.] Notices of Books. 3797 
results of the ordinary treatment are so little satisfactory, that 
the physician is certainly morally justified in adopting any new 
system which holds out any rational probability of success. A 
number of cases, with their results, are described. Not being 
ourselves connected with the Faculty we cannot, of course, view 
this matter professionally. But if we are asked whether we— 
judging from the “ standpoint ”’ of the man of science—consider 
that Dr. Churchill’s facts support his theory, we reply without 
hesitation in the affirmative. Of course we do not admit, nor 
does the author contend, that hypophosphites, no matter of what 
base, no matter in what dose, or in what admixture, will inevi- 
tably cure phthisis, irrespective of the stage of the complaint 
and of possible complicatigns. Such a proposition could only 
be upheld by the charlatan or the routinist, as distinguished 
from that too rare character—the thoroughly scientific physician. 
The following passage will show that Dr. Churchill by no means 
lays claim to such infallibility :—‘* What science or what art but 
that of medicine has ever pretended to an ‘ infallible’ process ? 
‘Infallible’ means unconditional. Art, on the contrary, is the 
attainment of definite ends by definite means under certain given 
conditions, and the object of all science is the discovery of these 
means and of the conditions which are to guide us in their use.” 
There are few scientific men, in the true sense of the word, 
who will be able to read this book without pleasure and profit, 
and without recognising the profundity, the acuteness, and the 
originality of the author. 
Reverting to the Preface we find a mournful, and only too true, 
picture of the difficulty experienced in obtaining fair play for a 
novel idea :— 
‘“To whom could such an appeal be made ? 
‘* To the statesman ? 
“He will point a speech with a sanitary conundrum, and think 
no more of the matter. 
“To the health-reformer ? 
‘‘ He is all eagerness that the people should be dragooned into 
health, even as their forefathers were once dragooned into holiness, 
and he hopes to be one of the dragooners: beyond that he 
goes not. 
‘©To the man trained in the severe and patient methods of 
positive science ? 
‘¢ He will be afraid to venture amidst the discordant facts, the 
rash assumptions, and the ever-shifting fallacies of the so-called 
science of therapeutics. 
‘© To the philanthropist, our poor clipt and crest-fallen substi- 
tute for the old knight-errant ? 
‘«« Even he will fail to see that there is here the means of doing 
more good than by the endowment of many charities.” 
The Author quotes, from a medical authority whom he does 
not name, the theory that ‘* pulmonary consumption is a bountiful 
