ticated animals to minister to his wants and contribute to his pleasures? Yet how little intelligent humanity is bestowed upon them in return. There is a cruelty to animals in indifference to their healthful wants and enjoyments, which is as reprehensible as treatment of them with savage violence. Many highly philanthropic men subscribe to punish what is legally defined as "cruelty to animals," and yet they appear insensible of the fact, that they are guilty of a cruelty which the law does not define and punish, but which is reprehensible neverthelessmoral cruelty, arising from their ignorance of the laws of health, and their indifference to the simple and cheap means by which, for their own great benefit, the health of their domestic animals can be ensured.

Putting the matter in no higher light than that of utility, the Bath offers advantages to farmers and country gentlemen the value of which it would be difficult to overestimate. In regard to economy merely, those who have tested it concur in stating, that its utility pays it annual cost ten aye twenty times over, besides all the collateral advantages derived from it. A complete Bath with every requisite for farm purposes can be erected at a cost, according to size and local circumstances, ranging from £20 to £100. On the grounds of economy therefore, as well as of humanity, this subject ought to engage the attention of intelligent minds.

CHAPTER XXVII.

The summing up-Three main points for public considerationThe state of Medical opinion and practice-The position of the public in relation thereto -The present position of the Bath, and its future-Illustrative opinions—Conclusion.

THERE are three main points to which the attention of an intelligent public ought to be more particularly directed, in seriously considering the subject-matter of this work. First, the state of Medical opinion and practice, as set forth on the testimony of the highest medical authorities. Second, the position of the public generally, in relation to that opinion and practice. Third, the position the Bath now occupies, and the great future that is before it, as "the keystone of the Hydropathic arch." On these points we will now offer a few observations by way of summing up.

I. Is the state of Medical opinion and practice, as set forth and illustrated in the preceding pages-every single statement made resting on the undoubted authority of Medical men themselves-is it such, we ask, as to inspire any confidence whatever in the scientific soundness of that opinion, or in the safety of that practice-to say nothing at all about its therapeutical value?

Have we not seen that Medical opinion-so falsely called science-is fickle, fluctuating, and changeable, without any solid basis of positive science to rest on, or any settled principles to inform and guide it—that it is "tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive?"

Have we not seen that this opinion has no more rational

foundation than traditional dogma-the offspring of ignorant, superstitious, and semi-barbarous ages-upon which has been engrafted the speculative fallacies of modern theorists, who have sought to warp and pervert the great healing truths of Physiology to sustain their fantastical and visionary crotchets?

In the glorious certainty and exactitude of modern sciencein the philosophic induction on which it is based, what place does Medical opinion occupy? By the admissions of its own exponents-its standard writers, its great recognised leaders and authorities, is not its pretensions to rank as a science scoffingly repudiated?

Denied by its own authorised expounders all partition in established scientific truth, what then is the practical value of Medical opinion? It is opinion-nothing more, save that it is opinion acquired from erroneous sources, fostered by erroneous teaching, nursed into noxious maturity, and confirmed by erroneous professional training, and thus, false throughout, what has it produced-what could it produce but culmination in false and disastrous Drug practice, respecting which we have given such terrible evidence.

Medicine, said Lord Bacon, the great father of the Inductive Philosophy, "has been more professed than laboured, and yet more laboured than advanced, as the pains bestowed thereon were rather circular than progressive." And commenting on this truth proclaimed more than two hundred years ago, what said a great medical authority, in addressing a Medical Association a few years back? Why, that he feared it was as true of Medicine now, as it undoubtedly was then! "I fear," said Dr. W. B. Richardson, "the same remark holds good now. Overwhelmed with details beyond all possibility of human recollection, we are as far from principles as ever; nay, I think, farther!"

Such, then, is Medical opinion! And it is before such an idol that the common-sense and intelligence of the age lies prostrate! 'Twas said, "wretches hang, that jurymen may dine," and so credulous patients must be drugged to death that

Se virin kom frase my levrism Ings am Isless Joctors Tu vill mi ve dave no fh in them WITH-I will not give dem a pm, las yra åre meyo wa migu, reinions, mi van, mi vien we desire to set exname sonar, mé in June alone, you importune, and compella to i po potens Physic, with we know can do you no wh, má mis is a certain cont of him!

Therdore, Fiptic and Physio-practitioners are just what the Vine mike them. This is the salve Physic-doctors have for uvár Onaivase, and it is laid on and spread smoothly enough by an authoritative Medical organ in this fashion:—

"When either accident or disease obliges an 'unlucky individual to send for a doctor, the individual is not satisfied that his doctor should way: Trust to the great healing power of Nature for recovery.' He is not satisfied that his medical adviser should order some simple rules for diet, and for hygiene, and then go his way. No-the individual expects

something tangible for his money, and does not consider that proper attention and a proper respect for his ailments have been shown, unless something tangible is done.

"If his bones are broken, whether they are displaced or whether they are in excellent apposition, some screwing, wrenching and eminently painful process must be undergone, or the surgeon's skill will be in jeopardy with his patient. When a man has to make his living, these whims and vagaries and ignorances of his clients must be salved and flattered, or the poor doctor will eat his crust unbuttered. Most of us like butter to our bread, and as we are not all rich and independent, a little truckling must be done.

"If this is true of surgery, how much more true in medicine? 'Oh! it is nothing, you'll be well to-morrow. No physic is required.' This is a sure introduction for another, and the patient thinks a better doctor. Some one who will bleed, or purge, or give a vomit. Somebody with globules or somebody with coloured water, or mixture of burnt sugar. The public still believe in doctors 'stuff' and takes its potions kindly and likes its clysters. Something must be done to please and something must take the credit of the cure.

"The healing power of nature pulls the strings of life The vital force is there unseen while the crude drugs are things tangible and present to the eye. To many drugging is a bygone relic of a bygone age,' but there are here and there dotted in our ranks, men who play with poisonous elements, and who are heroic for their neighbours' health-but chary of experiments on their own vitality.-Medical Mirror, Dec., 1866.

And what says Dr. Ridge, the popular author of Ourselves, Our Food, and our Physic? Why just this-that, "bewildered by the fears and the whims of an ignorant public, the profession is tossed about by its own adverse principles on the one hand, and its interests on the other." In plain terms, the profession cannot afford to be conscientious and honest! They find an "ignorant public," and they must pander to that ignorance! They find credulous patients full of "fears and whims," and they must treat them tenderly, and coin money out of them!

Observe, this is not an expression of our opinion. We are advancing nothing on our own authority. It is the legitimate and logical deduction from the premises laid down by medical men themselves, who indeed make no secret of their tactics, when "interests" tug on one side and "conscience" on the other. Just hearken to what an old practitioner, Dr. Inma says on the subject:-" When once a professional man