sition to a more careful and rigid observation. The Materia Medica of the profession is especially burdened in this way. The virtues which are attributed to a large portion of the remedies in use require to be tested in order to strip the statements which are made in regard to them of all that is inaccurate and false, Much of the positive medication of the present day will probably be proved by the tests of a rigid observation to be aimless, but by no means harmless.

The over-dosing, which has been so much in vogue both with the community and the profession, is already fast losing its popularity. Heretofore the great object of the Physician has been to do positive good to the patient to overcome disease by a well-directed onset of heroic remedies-and it has been a secondary object altogether to guard against doing him harm. But medical practice is becoming reversed in this respect. It may at the present time be said of quite a large proportion of the profession, that it is the principal object of the Physician to avoid doing harm to the patient, and to prevent harm from being done to him by himself and by his friends: and then, after looking well to this object, he is ready to do whatever positive good he sees can be done in the case. Accordingly, cautionary and quieting measures, intended to remove the obstacles which may hinder the operation of the curative power of nature, are getting to predominate in medical treat

ment over the more active and direct measures for overcoming disease. "The golden axiom of Chomel, that it is only the second law of therapeutics to do good, its first law being this-not to do harm-is gradually finding its way into the medical mind, preventing an incalculable amount of positive ill." So remarks Dr. Bartlett in a work,* which I deem to be one of the best and most effectual efforts, which have been made in promoting the revolution, which is now taking place in the practice of medicine. It is a work which, if I mistake not, is to exert a thorough and extensive influence upon the interests of medical science.

I cannot conclude this chapter without paying a passing tribute to the memory of one, my preceptor and friend, who stood among the foremost in the work of reform now going on in the medical profession. I refer to the late Dr. Hale,† of Boston. He was eminently a

* An Essay on the Philosophy of Medical Science.

+ The reader will permit the author to gratify his own feelings of regard for Dr. Hale as a man, as well as a Physician, by inserting here the following extract from the memoir of him, from the pen of Dr. Channing. "Dr. Hale was an honest man. He was honest in sentiment and in purpose. He had little or no tolerance for what he thought unfair; and any believed misuse or abuse of trusts he resolutely opposed, however active or however strong was the agency by which the wrong was attempted to be consummated. These were not the elements of popularity. You

man of accurate observation. His inquiry always was after the facts. He asked not what a man supposed, but what he had observed-not what he thought, but what he had found to be true. His valuable contributions to the recorded experience, and the literature of the profession, bear him witness on this point. His labours, so deservedly prized by his brethren, are ended;

could hardly make a very popular man out of such. But for the honour and exceeding praise of humanity, there are men who have found something better worth living for than the present fame-men who are happy and satisfied to do that which may live after them, and the memory and the use of which can only be for good. Dr. Hale enjoyed life-the best thank-offering for living. He was social and hospitable, for he would contribute to the pleasure of others as well as his own. He was always cheerful, because he was truly hopeful. He looked on the bright side of disease in himself and in others; and if he laboured so well for their recovery, he never questioned his own.

"Dr. Hale was a religious man. In the development of the religious sentiment was his power. It was kept active by habitual, daily devotion. It influenced his whole life, making him an earnest student and a faithful practitioner-giving him strong interest in all wise efforts to extend Christianity in distant lands, and by his example, recommending to others the religious life, In his religion was his benevolence, which with very narrow fortune, led him to attempt and to accomplish most important objects. In this was his cheerfulness in suffering and all trial; and out of his religion came the peace and the hope of his death hour."

but we have reason to rejoice, that he has left behind him so many of a like spirit, who are endeavouring to redeem our science from the dominion of fanciful theory and loose reasoning, and to place it under the control of a true and rigid OBSERVATION.

CHAPTER VII.

POPULAR ESTIMATES OF PHYSICIANS.

THERE is no class of men whose talents and attainments are so erroneously estimated by the public, as are those of Physicians. Some of the causes of this erroneous estimate have been brought to view in the chapters on the Uncertainty of Medicine, and on Good and Bad Practice. I propose in this chapter to treat of this subject more distinctly, to point out some other causes operating with those which I have already mentioned, to show the results of this false estimate of medical character and attainments, and to develope some plain principles on which a correct estimate may, for the most part, be secured.

I presume it is sufficiently clear to the reader, from the views which I have before presented, that the community cannot judge with any degree of correctness