MEDICINE. 187 



system for a term that is infinite, compared to tho status of 

 any other profession, 



The name and purpose of every bone and muscle in tho body 

 Is well known, hut neither the true nature of the atomic 

 material that composes the body, nor the nature of tho action 

 which keeps up life in it, is understood by them. Tho reme- 

 dial knowledge of the profession, also, is obtained almost solely 

 by an uncertain, or careless experience ; and in many instances 

 the remedy which has proved successful with one will be tried 

 on another, without considering the differing nature of either 

 case, relatively to the other. 



How many cases of mysterious death also occur from the 

 prescriptions of the physician, which are kindly ignored by 

 the coroner, who is, fortunately, often one of themselves ? Yet, 

 notwithstanding all this, certain medical professors in Ontario, 

 Canada, have petitioned their legislature for a bill, to consti- 

 tute them the only life-preserving and death-dealing power in 

 the land. To give them the power " to decide what is medical 

 truth ; to decide how truth shall be taught ; to fix tho standard 

 of medical knowledge ; and to prosecute all medical practition- 

 ers who may differ from them." Either the people in Ontario 

 must be very simple, or their doctors are gifted with an 

 audacity which could only result from, ignorance. "We hope 

 for the honour and good name of the profession that there are 

 no others in the world so bereft of reasoning capacity, for, it ia 

 evident, that a branch of any other profession or trade could 

 as well claim similar privileges. 



So much will, henceforth, be known about matter and its 

 chemical properties, that disease should be, as Sir J. G. Simpson 

 said, the exception, rather than the rule, 



