(JADEAJSrS AND PLEUEONECTS. 347 



lamps — ^was, till lateljj all it professed to do ; but now 

 its vaunt is, alere vitam — to replenish the lamp of life 

 when burning low and threatening to go out. About 

 sixty years have elapsed since Dr. Bardsley first sounded 

 its praises, but scarce a dozen have passed since it was 

 fairly put upon trial in this country, and everybody 

 now knows the result. Thousands of cases hitherto 

 most unpromising, have, under its auspices, suddenly 

 changed their aspect, and looked bright : here, a fair 

 girl hastening to decay, had scarcely taken a few doses, 

 when the ominous cough was appeased, she recovered 

 her roses, smiled once more on a reassured family of 

 friends, and went on her way rejoicing ; there a case of 

 yet graver import, which had whispered death to the lis- 

 tening ear, made a stand, rallied, and consumption was, 

 for the time, arrested in mid course ; and again, in pa- 

 tients still further reduced by the blightiug malady, the 

 administration of the bland oil has irequently been ob- 

 served to respite, soften, and assuage, sufferings beyond its 

 power to remove. Scepticism has, by slow degrees, at 

 length made way to conviction ; and he who, a few years 

 ago, pretending to cure consumption, would justly have 

 passed for a quack, is now countenanced everywhere 

 by brother practitioners, who have all the same story to 

 tell, till the world at large has become convinced of the 

 fact; and there is now not a village apothecary through 

 the length and breadth of our isle who has not himself 

 witnessed some of the ' wonders' which this penetrating 

 balm, under the Divine blessing, has already done and 

 is daily doing for the children of men. 



The Church of Rome is quite as much beholden to cod 

 as the doctors themselves; on it her credulous sons faith- 

 fully fast more than upon almost any other species. This 

 very important duty of ichthyophagizing dates some way 

 back in ecclesiastical history. ' It was taught,' says Mr. 

 Moule, 'before the age of printing, by means of rude 



