18 THE BIOLOGY OF DAILY LIFE. 



ralized and retained, as useful citizens in the body 

 politic.* 



This toleration, so wise and useful in its intention, 

 can be, and is, systematically abused. Hence comes 

 the seeming impunity wth which drugs can be taken. 

 These dangerous aliens cannot be at once extradited, 

 for thelaw of toleration forbids this; but they are dealt with 

 as wisely as the circumstances admit. Let us see how. 



A man forced to stow away heavy lumber in the 

 rooms of a rather crazy house would naturally pile 

 the heaviest weight on those parts of his flooring he 

 deemed the soundest and strongest. He would also 

 try to place the lumber where it would cause the 

 least annoyance possible, and occasion as little ob- 

 struction as possible to the domestic economy of the 

 household. But convenience would, ex hypothesi, have 

 to be sacrificed to safe storage. 



Now this is precisely what Nature does with a 

 human body, under a course of ordinary medical treat- 

 ment. The body of the patient is represented by the 

 crazy house of our illustration, and the Materia Medica 

 is the copious and inexhaustible supply of the matter 

 represented by the lumber. 



The drugs are stowed away with as little inter- 



* A remarkable illustration of this was given me by a dentist, 

 who adopts an ingenious mode of practically restoring partially 

 decayed teeth. Fine platinum wires are passed into the nerve- 

 holes, from which the nerves themselves, for some little distance, 

 have been extracted. In this way a crown is securely fastened 

 upon the duly prepared stump. The uncrowned stump, after the 

 nerve has been removed, in time crumbles away, but, if crowned, 

 and so made useful, although of course it is equally a dead 

 substance, it is accepted, and retained as a living tooth. The 

 writer can vouch for both these statements in his own person. 



