460 
OIL OF THE DU GO XG. 
denies; he asserts that it is exploded; and that the efficacy 
of the cod-liver oil is in the carbon which it contains—that 
is eighty or ninety parts out of a hundred of its substance. 
The dugong yields a pure, sweet, palatable oil, which may 
be administered in various ways. It may be used in cooking, 
and thus form part of the diet of the patient. By the 
Malays and the Australian aborigines the animal is hunted 
for food. 
Dr. Hobbs has given many instances of cure by the use 
of the dugong oil, a remedy which he has prescribed for 
several years past. It has been found effectual in those 
various diseases which are attended with, or result from, 
exhaustion. The carbon consumed is not replaced by ordi¬ 
nary nourishment, and the tissues of the body are taxed to 
make up the deficiency, and thus the life is sacrificed. The 
aim of the physician in prescribing the cod liver, and the 
object of the substitute prepared by Dr. Hobbs, is to supple¬ 
ment what is wanting, and thus give the system time to 
rally. For every failure in the health of man there is a dis¬ 
tinct and adequate cause; nature is not blind, however 
darkly she may be interpreted. Thus we have reason to 
believe that almost all forms of disease will be held in check 
when science shall discover where the natural action is dis¬ 
turbed. 
“ A living being, considered as an object of chemical re¬ 
search, is a laboratory within which a number of chemical 
operations are conducted. Of these operations, one chief 
object is to produce all those phenomena which, taken col¬ 
lectively, are denominated life; while another chief object is 
to develope gradually the corporeal machine, or laboratory, 
itself, from its existence in the condition of an atom, as it 
were, to its utmost state of perfection. From this point of 
utmost perfection the whole begins to decline as gradually as 
it had been developed; the operations are performed in a 
manner less and less perfect, till at length the being ceases 
to live; and the elements of which it is composed, again set 
free, obey the general laws of inorganic nature.” 
If this be a just representation of the human body, it 
seems clear that the supply of a sufficient quantity of carbon 
is as requisite to the human .machine as coal is to a steam 
engine, and that art must step in when nature fails. 
The diseases for which Dr. Hobbs has found the dugong 
oil most efficacious, are chronic dyspepsia, chronic dysentery, 
and incipient consumption.- 
The editor of the ‘ Sydney Morning Herald/ whence we 
have taken the above extracts, says : “ If the dugong oil 
