58 BORDER LINES OF KNOWLEDGE 



condemnation of them. Mercury, for instance, is alien 

 to the system, and eminently disturbing in its influence. 

 Yet its efficacy in certain forms of specific disease is 

 acknowledged by all but the most sceptical theorists. 

 Even the esprit moqueur of Ricord, the Voltaire of 

 pelvic literature, submits to the time-honored consti- 

 tutional authority of this great panacea in the class of 

 cases to which he has devoted his brilliant intelligence. 

 Still, there is no telling what evils have arisen from the 

 abuse of this mineral. Dr. Armstrong long ago pointed 

 out some of them, and they have become matters of 

 common notoriety. I am pleased, therefore, when I 

 find so able and experienced a practitioner as Dr. Wil- 

 liams of this city proving that iritis is best treated mth- 

 out mercury,* and Dr. Vanderpool showing the same 

 thing to be true for pericarditis. 



Whatever elements nature does not introduce into 

 vegetables, the natural food of all animal life, — directly 

 of herbivorous, indirectly of carnivorous animals, — are 

 to be regarded with suspicion. Arsenic-eating may 

 seem to improve the condition of horses for a time, — 

 and even of human beings, if Tschudi's stories can be 

 trusted, — but it soon appears that its alien qualities are 

 at war with the animal organization. So of copper, an- 

 timony, and other non-alimentary simple substances ; 

 every one of them is an intruder in the living system, 

 as much as a constable would be, quartered in our 

 household. This does not mean that they may not, 



* On the Treatment of Iritis without Mercury, Boston, 1856. 



