"PREVENTION is BETTER THAN CURE." 53 



habits no longer applicable or safe ; she can erect barriers 

 against anticipated evils ; she can soothe the irritability of 

 weakness, and assuage the violence of pain. At all events, 

 her ministers can never be more legitimately employed than in 

 the struggle to prolong human life ; and their efforts will be 

 more or less effective, in proportion to the attention they may 

 give, not only to actual disease, as it affects the different 

 periods of life, but also to its first incipient manifestations. 

 And it is to this dawning stage of illness, before the evil has 

 attained any considerable power, that the attention of those 

 whom it concerns should be invited. Practical effect should 

 be given to the maxim " Prevention is better than cure." 



