402 
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
lost; or if a wrong inclination be given at the onset, the goal 
is not reached. Rarely does he express an opinion before he 
feels almost confident that his hopes will be realised. We 
have sometimes thought that he occasionally carries this to 
an extreme; but we have no right to judge any man, since 
all of us have our peculiarities, many of which we are uncon¬ 
scious of. Yet surely this cautious mode of procedure, this 
desire clearly to foresee the result, is to be preferred to that 
impetuous action which often defeats its intended purpose, or 
the sanguinely indulging in anticipations which often prove 
cc a delusion and a snare/’ for by them the expectation be¬ 
comes raised so high, that should a failure or delay occur,—and 
sometimes this will be the case despite all the care mani¬ 
fested,—the disappointment is rendered greater, and loud and 
deep are the denunciations. 
We are therefore contented to leave the matter in his 
hands. He will know to what we more especially allude : 
verb. sap. sal. We are nevertheless most anxious that those 
privileges should be early secured by which we feel assured 
the profession must in the end be advantaged. We add no 
more, remembering the motto— 
Amicitia semper proclest.” 
OPIUM. 
Opium, says M. Trousseau, is one of the most sovereign 
remedies of the materia medica; and it is, perhaps, the phar¬ 
maceutical substance which may do the most injury ; it is 
used every day and it is strangely abused. A physician, 
homme (Vesprit as well as a savant , Dr. Pidoux, has called 
opium the “ knout of the therapeutist.” It is, in fact, the 
frustration inflicted on all patients that suffer and complain. 
To administer opiates too readily is the work of the impatient 
and ignorant physician. It is a handy therapeutic, which 
all minds can make use of—is that of ... brutally im- 
posing silence on a painful symptom. 
