[September, 
6 io Moving Rocks, 
him. The sudden sensation of nervous activity, like a jar 
upon the nerves, aroused him from his slumber. I find 
that patients sometimes do better — make more decided 
progress — in these intervals of treatment than while the 
most active measures are being used. Patients sometimes 
imagine this a proof of the valuelessness of the medicines ; 
but it is in reality a proof of their power. It has been 
said that success in life depends largely upon knowing 
just where to stop. In the practice of medicine, this maxim 
is certainly sound ; and to know where to stop, to let up, 
to modify the treatment, is one of the best tests of medical 
skill. 
The third general suggestion is, that in the treatment 
of nervous diseases, we should study with all our energy 
the psychology of our patients ; we must make a diagnosis 
of the intellectual character as well as of the disease before 
we can make a prognosis or adopt a plan of treatment. 
There are those whose minds are so organised, which 
lack some qualities and have excesses of others — usually 
a preponderance of the emotional, with a deficiency of the 
higher intellectual qualities — that they act badly under any 
treatment, however wise. Some patients take a pleasure in 
their distresses ; it would be cruel to cure them ; their pains 
are their possessions. Any man wishing to make them well 
would be no better than a thief or a robber. There are those 
whose chief felicity in life consists in doctoring and being 
doctored, and to whom the removal of their bodily ills would 
be like the death of long cherished friends. When such 
persons come under your care, you cannot expect any 
treatment to be as successful as with those strong and active 
intellects, who understate rather than magnify their troubles, 
and are resolutely determined to get well. 
III. MOVING ROCKS. 
& REMARKABLE instance of rocks moving out of water 
on to dry land is recorded by the Earl of Dunraven 
in an article on “ Moose-hunting in Canada,” which 
which will be found in the July No. of “ The Nineteenth 
Century.” The attention of Lord Dunraven was directed 
to this phenomenon during a visit to Nova Scotia in the fall 
