1865.] Pamphlet. 561 



" In these two cases again, the inflammation and suppuration were 

 palpably for the purpose of removing the foreign bodies. In the first 

 case they were almost successful without the aid of art ; in the second, 

 the attempt at the removal of the local injury, which in itself was per- 

 fectly adapted to its end, could not succeed because the general injury 

 under which the system laboured, in the form of scrofula, demanded for 

 its relief another and more extensive process, for which the weakened 

 organ to which it was determined afforded insufficient scope. Death 

 accordingly ensued ; but death which arose strictly from a struggle 

 towards repair." 



The author warmly contests the opinion expressed by Sir John 

 Forbes, that the object of disease is to arrest or destroy life, holding 

 that it would be inconsistent with what we know of the ways of the 

 Creator, that having given to man life with its marvellous attributes, 

 He should send disease to take that life away. We cordially sympa- 

 thize with Mr. Toynbee in his view of the reparative character of dis- 

 ease, and although he limits his exposition of the law to those forms 

 of it which have presented themselves in the branch of hygiene in 

 which he holds so eminent a rank, we feel convinced that the day is 

 not far distant when its curative and reformatory character will be 

 universally acknowledged, and when that which is now regarded as 

 the disease will be looked upon in a new light, and the disease proper 

 will be sought in what are now considered its' predisposing causes. 



We cordially commend the little pamphlet to the notice of our 

 readers. It does credit to the head and heart of its author ; the 

 statements put forth in it appear to us clear and convincing, and the 

 views enunciated are not only consistent with the dictates of common 

 sense, but they are in conformity with those of the most advanced 

 physiologists, and present another link in the chain of evidence which 

 establishes the unity of design and action pervading the visible opera- 

 tions of Nature. 



vox. n. 2 q 



