rNTRODUCTrON^ V 



neither is the number small of tliose unfortunates,, 

 who, from the too violent operations of medicine, 

 live only to wander about as cripples or phantoms, 

 weak and disabled, a burden to themselves and 

 others, some of them longing for death, as the only 

 deliverance from their miseries. 



Girtanner, in his Therapeutics^ Vol. II., p. 600, 

 acknowledges, that " The apparatus inedicq.minum is 

 nothing more than a careful collection of all the so- 

 phisms which have been invented by the medical prac- 

 titioners of former times. It is true, some valuable 

 experience may be found among this immense heap 

 of verbosity ; but, who would spend his time in 

 selecting a few grains of pure metal from such an 

 enormous heap of rubbish as that which has been 

 accumulating for 2,000 years. In the worse than 

 Egyptian darkness in which the physician has to 

 grope his way, he scarcely perceives a ray of light to 

 guide him through the ' palpable obscure.' When 

 two physicians meet at a sick-bed, it is with difficulty 

 they refrain from laughing — like two augurs of 

 Rome." 



Lemiere is quite right in saying — 



Lorsque la fievre et ses brulantes crises 

 Ont de notre machine attaqueles ressorts, 

 Le corps humain est un champ-clos alors, . 

 Ou la nature et le mal sont aux prises, 

 II parvint un aveugle, appelle medecin. 

 Tout au travers, il frappe a I'aventure : 

 S'il attrappe le mal, il fait un homme sain. 

 Et du malade un mort, s'il frappe la nature. 



In the Heidelberg Clinical Annal^ Vol.. V. Part 

 Zy it is stated, *' More individuals perish through the 



