CONCLUSION. 173 



any cause which may enable them to answer the 

 questions of their patients. They may even err, 

 it seems, most shamefully, in that most important 

 matter diagnosis, or the true nature of the disease. 



" A poor man, labouring under true scurvy, applied to 

 a surgeon on account of the horrid state of his mouth, — 

 his gunis being swollen, spongy, and bleeding ; his teeth 

 loose, and his breath offensive. The surgeon, not having 

 seen a case of scurvy, supposed the disease of the gums 

 arose from a bad state of the teeth, and extracted several 

 in succession ! He was then sent to another, of high emi- 

 nence and enormous practice^ who pronounced it a case of 

 fungus hcematodes of the gums, and admitted him into his 

 hospital — intending to resign him to his fate I Being 

 visited, however, b}^ a practitioner who had witnessed 

 scurvy at a naval hospital, the nature of the disease was 

 at once recognised ; some lemon-juice, fresh meat, and 

 vegetables were prescril)ed ; and he was well m a week 

 or two." * 



Now these practitioners were " well-informed 

 men" — is it not dreadful to think of the blunders 

 of the vast medical ignohile vulgus ? 



If the average annual consumption of tobacco 

 by the whole human race be, as has been proved, 

 70 oz. per head (see ante, p. 24)— considerably 

 more than an ounce per week — the enormous 



Dr. Elliotsou, Practice of Medicine, p. 15. 



