1 the prime of life) prematurely to their graves, through
2 injudicious treatment, is by no means inconsiderable;
3 neither is the number small of those unfortunates, who,
4 from the too violent operations of medicine, live only
5 to wander about us cripples or phantoms, weak and
6 v
7 disabled, a burden to themselves and others, some of
8 them longing for death, us the only deliverance from
9 their miseries.
10 Girtanncr, in ins Therapeutics, Vol. IX., p. 600,
11 acknowledges, that “ The apparatus medicaviinutn is
12 nothing more than a careful collection of all the soph¬
13 isms which have been invented by the medical prac¬
14 titioners of former times, ft is true, some valuable
15 experience may be found among this immense heap of
16 verbosity ; but, who would spend his time in selecting
17 a few grains of pure metal from such an enormous heap
18 of rubbish as that which has been accumulating for
19 2,000 yeais In the worse than Egyptian darkness in
20 which the physician has to grope his way. lie scarcely
21 perceives a ray of light to guide him through the
22 ' palpable obscure.’ When two physicians meet at a
23 sick-bed, it is with difficulty they refrain from laughing
24 —like two augurs of Rome.”
25 Leruiere is quite right in saying—
26 •Lornijuc In fievre et ses brnbmtefl eiises
27 Out de. uutre machine attaint les ressoris,
28 Le corps huiaain est tin ch.xinp-clos alors,
29 Ou la nature et lc mal want. aux prises,
30 II parvint rnt nveuglc, appello m ikied n ’
31 Tout, an I ravers, il frappe A. riven ture:
32 S'il attrappe le ni;il, il fait un honuiki >ain,
33 Et du nialade un mort, s’il frnppe la nature.
34 in the Heideibcr/I Clinical Anna/. Vol. V. Part 3 it