178 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 



constantly complain of weakness and irritability of the digestive organs, of frequent 

 lowness of spirits and impaired strength ; all of which, it appears to me, they will ever 

 be sensible of. Instances of this description abound. Many of the victims of this prac- 

 tice are aware of this origin of their permanent indisposition, and many more, who are 

 at present unconscious of it, might here find, upon investigation, a sufficient cause for 

 their sleepless nights and miserable days. We have often had every benevolent feeling 

 called into painful exercise, upon viewing patients already exhausted by protracted ill- 

 ness, groaning under the accumulated miseries of an active course of mercury, and by 

 this for ever deprived of perfect restoration. A barbarous practice, the inconsistency, 

 folly, and injury of which no words can sufficiently describe." 



This is the testimony of its FRIENDS of distinguished members 

 of the medical FACULTY and is true of the PRINCIPLE on which 

 calomel and all mineral poisons act. And the more virulent the 

 poison, the worse. Those who take them may recover, yet it will 

 be in SPITE of both disease and medicine. And their recovery will 

 be slow, and constitutions impaired. 



" But," retorts one, " I took calomel, arsenic, quinine, and other 

 condensed poisons, was immediately relieved, and more robust 

 afterwards than before." Aye, but how long did you remain so 1 

 In a few months your stomach became impaired, and various aches, 

 to which you were before a stranger, afflicted you. Still, all are 

 quite welcome to swallow all the rank poisons they please, but for 

 one, however sick, I should rely on other remedies, particularly 

 perspiration. 



Scarcely less detrimental than these poisons is that draining of 

 the life's blood which generally accompanies it. It does not extract 

 the disease, or at least only in proportion as it withdraws life itself, 

 and repeated depletion diverts the vital energies from brain and 

 muscle to the extra manufacture of blood. 



A summary of these medicinal principles shows that we place 

 far less reliance on medicines, even vegetable, as restorative agents, 

 than on physiological prescriptions. Obey the laws of health, and 

 we need not be sick, and when sick a return to this obedience is 

 the most direct road to health. Still the existence of medicines 

 shows that they should be taken. Yet why in the present highly 

 condensed form 1 Why not in that diluted form in which we find 

 them in nature 1 In short, why not take them along with our 

 food'?* 



The following figure represents the appearance of a person under 

 the influence of mercury, in this city, to whom the author was 

 called in consultation. The tongue protruded from the mouth, and 



* Fowler. 





