IN MEDICAL SCIENCE. 59 



any of them, be called in for a special need, as we send 

 for the constable when we have good reason to think 

 we have a thief under our roof; but a man's body is 

 his castle, as well as his house, and the presumption is 

 that we are to keep our alimentary doors bolted against 

 these perturbing agents. 



Now the feeling is very apt to be just contrary to this. 

 The habit has been very general with w^ell-taught prac- 

 titioners, to have recourse to the introduction of these 

 alien elements Into the system on the occasion of any 

 slight disturbance. The tongue was a little coated, 

 and mercury must be given ; the skin was a little dry, 

 and the patient must take antimony. It was like send- 

 ing for the constable and the ^osse comitatus when 

 there is only a carpet to shake or a refuse-barrel to 

 empty.* The constitution bears slow poisoning a great 

 deal better than might be expected ; yet the most intel- 

 ligent men in the profession have gradually got out of 

 the habit of prescribing these powerful alien substances 

 in the old routine way. Mr. Metcalf will tell you how 

 much more sparingly they are given by our practitioners 

 at the present time, than when he first inaugurated the 

 new era of pharmacy among us. Still, the presumption 

 in favor of poisoning out every spontaneous reaction of 

 outrao-ed nature is not extinct in those who are trusted 



o 



* Dr. James Johnson advises persons not ailing to take Jive grains of 

 bluepill with one or two of aloes twice a week for three or four months in 

 the year, with half a pint of compound decoction of sarsaparilla every day 

 for the same period, to preserve health and prolong life. Pract. Treatise on 

 Dis. of Liver, etc., p. 272. 



