THE EXEMPTION BILL. 497 
relate : the other I did not know. Happening to be in a labora- 
tory kept by a doctor, in comes a servant of the D of B 
on which I retired to an inner room. After consultation, &c. 
the poor fellow walked off, when Mr. Doctor said to me “ these 
fellows get their money easily. It is best to give them some- 
thing to keep up the fire, and always to take the other half 
crown from them.” The other is a case in which William 
Gordon, now employed on the Hawick railway, was taken ill, 
it was said, of fever. He was said to be very ill ; and, being an 
old schoolfellow, I went to see him. I was told, his doctor said 
“ Ah ! it is one of those fevers that are always going about — 
it will be twenty-one days before he can get the turn of this 
fever ; and by that time you will not hear him speak, he will 
be so reduced.” The treatment was, first, bleeding ; next, a 
powder — sub. mur. hydrarg. etpulv. jalap at night; and a dose 
of castor oil every morning, with diet of the lowest description — 
thin gruel and weak tea, &c. This treatment continued for 
eight days, and, no doubt, was producing the desired effect — 
weakness, and no mistake. The patient was hungry, but durst 
not eat any food, for fear the doctor should know. The pulse 
was down to 36. He had no pain ; but he could hardly speak. 
I had visited him every day — -advised him to leave off taking 
the “physic;” got a prescription of sulph. quininse 3iss, aquae 
§xx, acid, sulph. dil. gutt. viij, written out for him, of which he 
was to take a wine-glassful at night, and half-a-glassful of port 
wine twice a day, and a small quantity of sago, and a very 
small beef steak. This was to be tried for a day or two, the 
other medicine still being sent for according to order, but none 
taken. In two or three days the patient was much better, 
whether the doctor would or not. When he said, “ Oh ! 1 see 
it is one of those fevers that will break down on the fifteenth 
day, and on that day he ordered the very same treatment he (the 
patient) had been using for seven days before. The patient was 
a stout healthy young fellow, a fit subject to act upon ; the 
doctor had great skill in telling the very day on which he would 
get the turn of the fever ; and I have no doubt if he had been 
left to the freedom of his own will, he would have gone on right. 
That such cases as these are of frequent occurrence in practice I 
have no doubt. I never did such a thing to any man’s horse. 
I never knew it to be done ; neither do I believe there is a 
man in the veterinary profession that would do so. There exist 
many faults among us, low enough, which might be amended; 
but I do not believe that statements of the Sporting Surgeon or a 
veterinary surgeon are among them. 
There is another practice in vogue here, and also to a con- 
siderable extent in Edinburgh ; perhaps very general, though 
VOL. XXIV. 3 Y 
