THE DESPOTISM OF DEMOCRACY. 489 



used it certainly is a valuable agent for this purpose. In many 

 diseases it may prove to be of service, though, aside from its use 

 in myxoadematous conditions, exactly what place in the materia 

 medica should be assigned to it, it is as yet impossible to say. 

 The gland is obtained chiefly from the sheep, and is usually ad- 

 ministered in the form of a dried powder or in tablets. Alarm- 

 ing symptoms may occur as a result of overdosage ; such symp- 

 tom's consist in too rapid loss of weight, or feeble heart action, 

 or lowering of the temperature ; they usually subside when the 

 remedy is stopped. It should be remembered, however, that it 

 is a mysterious and powerful agent, by no means destined for 

 indiscriminate use. 



In conclusion, it may be said that the introduction into medi- 

 cine of the thyroid gland is a logical conclusion from adequate 

 premises. It resulted from scientific experimental and chemical 

 study by trained and skillful workers, and it has nothing in com- 

 mon with the largely advertised " organic extracts," which are 

 false in theory and worthless in practice. 



Animal thyroid is by no means a cure-all, and even in myx- 

 cedematous conditions which have existed for many years it may 

 be unable to repair the ravages of the disease ; but it has shown 

 itself, when appropriately applied, to be among the most unfailing 

 therapeutic agents in our possession. 



THE DESPOTISM OF DEMOCRACY. 



BY FRANKLIN SMITH. 



" TTTHATEVER crushes individuality," says John Stuart Mill, 

 VV describing the essential feature of all political govern- 

 ments, " is despotism, by whatever name it be called, and whether 

 it professes to enforce the will of God or the injunctions of men." * 

 Be the government autocratic, aristocratic, or democratic, the 

 power it wields in restraint of natural rights, or of equal freedom, 

 puts it under the ban. Decked though it be with motives worthy 

 of the noblest philanthropy, aim though it may to fill the world 

 with saints, it is vitiated by the love of power and by the check 

 it puts upon the natural growth of character. It would make all 

 men, not like the diversity of Nature, but like the figures, of 

 Egyptian art. If democracy as well as autocracy and aristocracy 

 has sought to accomplish this task ; if the former as well as the 

 latter, in the pursuit of an enterprise that has always ended and 

 must inevitably end in disaster, has put shackles on the individ- 

 ual in the form of laws and seized his property under the guise of 



* On Liberty. Ticknor & Fields edition, pp. 122, 123. 

 TOL. LI. 38 



