58 IDLEHURST : 



our cottage folk drink deep of medicine the year 

 round ; they rarely find themselves in a state of 

 health to which some sort of physic is not applicable. 

 It is a normal state to be " taking " something ; puffed 

 patents, seas of "mixture," pills, "iles," liniments, 

 powders, ever pour from the little shop which combines 

 pharmacy and "fancy goods." And the cast-iron 

 constitutions, the dura messorum ilia are not let off 

 with the guarded persuasions of the pharmacopoeia. 

 Mrs. Bish was telling me the other day what a fine 

 thing turpentine is, taken internally " painter-chaps, 

 they takes a lot of it." And then there is the popular 

 remedy of small-shot. When we are troubled, as 

 we frequently are in Sussex after heavy courses of 

 pork and greens, with a feral indigestion ; or when 

 women suffer from what doctors call globtts hystericus ; 

 we at once diagnose " the raising of the lights," and 

 treat it seciindum artem. As the lights are supposed 

 to leave their proper station and ascend the windpipe, 

 the most natural thing is to weight them down ; there- 

 fore we prescribe sparrow shot five or six to a dose, 

 say twice a day. Bish has an aunt who got through 

 a seven-pound bag, and lives. Bish himself, a natural 

 sceptic, is doubtful of the rationale ; but reflects that 

 jockeys they gives 'em to horses, allowing the cus- 

 tomary a fortiori argument from the lower creation. 



