68 APIS MELLIFICA; OE, 



extorts from the little being, by forcing do-wn its 

 throat a little laxative mixture, and the family- 

 physician, who goes by fashion, approves of all 

 this. It is his habit, in after-life, to combat every 

 little costiveness, every digestive derangement, 

 every incipient disease, by means of his cathartic 

 mixture, and his skill is considered proportionate 

 to the quantity of stuff which the bowels expel 

 under the operation of his drugs. Laxative pills, 

 rhubarb, glauber-salts, bitter-waters, aloes, gin, etc., 

 etc., are in every body's hands, and become an 

 increasing necessity for millions. An ancient pre- 

 judice decrees that, to permit a single day to pass 

 by without stool, would be to expose one's life to 

 the greatest danger. Every year we see thousands 

 rush to warm and cold springs that have the repu- 

 tation of being possessed with dissolvent and cathar- 

 tic properties. Those who cannot afford to go to 

 the springs, use artificial mineral water in order to 

 accomplish similar purposes. "Very seldom a disease 

 is met with, that is permitted to run its course 

 without dissolvent or cathartic means. It is still a 

 profitable business to sell patent purgatives, such as 

 cider in which a little magnesia has been dissolved. 

 Everybody feels how offensive these things are to 

 nature ; how they attack the stomach and bowels : 

 how they derange digestion and nutrition ; how 

 slowly patients recover from the effects of such 

 drugs ; how chronic abdominal affections, after 

 having been eased for a while by such drugs, soon 

 return again with redoubled vigor ; how the dose 

 has to be increased in order to obtain the same 



