The Free Rural Population. 293 
in its good endeavours. 1 am quite aware that the scheme 
as pourtrayed above by me may be compared to a measure 
of tares and grain combined ; but I offer it with a sincere 
desire that any good points may be considered, and, if 
applicable, adopted. 
Actuated by the idea that there might be insur- 
mountable difficulties embodied in such suggestions 
as the above, I drew attention again during the 
early part of the present year to the condition of 
the free rural population as far as my own district 
was concerned, by addressing an official letter on this 
subject to the Surgeon General ; and therein I drew 
out a less elaborate scheme of medical relief, which 
scheme I may refer to here by quoting from that letter 
as follows : — 
" I do not assert that medical attendance is beyond 
the reach of these people, but as it is at present, consti- 
tuting seldom more than a prescription together with 
advice, it can in my opinion only by a stretch of the 
imagination be considered medical aid. 
" The importance of the proper and quick application 
of a blister needing perhaps the shaving of the patient's 
head, the useful manner of applying a hot poultice or 
fomentation, the prompt giving of an enema, the regular 
administration of such remedies in the way of medicines 
ordered, and the preparation of light and nourishing 
food, are all subjects which naturally are outside the 
radius of persons whose existence and mode of life render 
such topics foreign to them ; for the hand that prepares 
foo-foo best may indeed be poorest in ministering at the 
sick bed Such matters are almost beyond the under- 
standing of the general rural population comprising as it 
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