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I had been taught by those who believe in the gospel according 

 to Gamgee, that Coleman, Turner, Bracey Clark, Lawrence 

 Blaine, Percivall, Youett, Miles, Spooner, and other distin- 

 guished writers upon the foot of the horse, had all been the vic- 

 tims of a hallucination upon the questions of functional expan- 

 sibility and morbid contraction, and were " blind leaders of the 

 blind," and their teachings an u ignus fatuus," "mere coinage 

 of the brain," " chimerical," "mythical," and so forth. 



It was not until I found myself face to face with pathological 

 problems, upon the correct solution of which depended my 

 "daily bread," that I discovered the real danger of the no con- 

 traction and non-expansion heresies ; for how could I consist- 

 ently apply measures or remedies which directly contradicted 

 such views ? I was unable to cope with such cases until I 

 found one fact that was sufficient to dispel the whole brood of 

 crudescent fancies which I had acquired under the influence of 

 the teaching of "eminent authorities." This one fact has been 

 the open sesame to a veritable cave of mystery which a few, indeed, 

 have essayed to enter, but have halted upon its " precincts," and 

 still fewer have been found to penetrate and explore its myste- 

 rious recesses. 



FACTS VERSUS THEORIES. 



Opportunities were soon afforded me of testing the truth of 

 the new or the old doctrines, for there is no middle ground in 

 this question. I was compelled to yield to the irresistible logic 

 of facts. My practice has taken precedence of my theory in 

 this connection. Upon the facts of practice my theory is based. 

 The facts are irresistible and indisputable, and upon these I 

 take my stand, and am prepared to submit my practice to any 

 fair practical test. The theory may be doubted, questioned, 

 nay, utterly annihilated by one better versed than myself in the 

 art of chopping logic. As to the practical facts, however, 

 which are of greater moment than any theory, however plaus- 

 ible, no weapon of logic has ever been constructed that can so 

 much as indent its impenetrable armature. Fortunately, the 



