ness are at the bottom; if promises are made with caution and redeemed with punctuality. And yet will not the gospel do all this for the man who embraces its principles, teaching him, as it does, to provide things honest in the sight of all men-to render to all their dues-and to endure as seeing Him who is invisible?

And as to discontented men, ready for any change, because they suppose it cannot make their condition worse, and may improve it, we are sure that the gospel is a certain remedy for all the evils they suffer or inflict. A discontented man, in the bad sense, with the well founded hope of heaven in his heart, is a contradiction in terms. With this hope, a Wilberforce in the Parliament of Great Britain, and walking with the nobles of the land, is no more quiet and peaceful than a Dairyman's daughter in a cottage, calmly awaiting the results of a wasting sickness. Both felt alike, though placed at the extremes of life, that “godliness with contentment is great gain." "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress; my God; in Him will I trust. He shall cover thee with His feathers; His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday."

While Luther was at Coburg, during the sessions of the Diet at Augsburg, in 1530, a Pastor, who was with him, wrote to Melancthon, as follows:-"I cannot cease to wonder, to see how steadfast, joyful, and full of faith and hope he is in these dangerous and miserable times. But he becomes more and more so by daily and diligently strengthening himself at the fountain of God's word. No day passes, in which he does not devote at least three hours to prayer and meditation. I once succeeded in hearing him pray; what faith, what energy in his words! He prays earnestly as a man communing with God, and with such trust and faith, as a man, conversing with his father." So true are the words of the prophet, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee."

In the gospel of Jesus Christ, then, filling the soul with the sympathies of heaven, we have the only adequate remedy for the heartburnings of envy, and the pinings of discontent. This gospel, preached through the length and breadth of the land, and rendered effectual by the power of the Holy Spirit, will fill the public mind with the love of order, truth and justice, and stimulate the public heart to deeds of charity and good will. It

will make us a law loving and a law abiding nation. Yes, here is our hope. Looking at the results of the growing popular discontent in the less evangelized portions of the country, we can hardly fail to be impressed with the necessity of planting and sustaining there the institutions of Christianity. May the Church fully awake to this duty, before the things which concern our peace, are hidden from our eyes! The present is a day of merciful visitation. Let every Christian and Patriot work, while we have the day. And when we look at the tumultuous sea of human passions, and tremble, as we remember, that upon it are all the precious hopes of the friends of liberty, and human elevation-a sea, often rocked into fury by the maddened excitements of selfish hearts, let us also remember, that the oil, which, when poured upon it, will make its waves still and peaceful as the sea of Tiberias, when Jesus spake to it in its angry mood, is the gospel of this same wonderful Son of God!"

ART. IV.-NATURE OF EVIDENCE IN PRACTICAL MEDICINE.

MEDICINE is at the present day one of the staple subjects of conversation in all circles. The merits of remedies, and modes and systems of practice, and of physicians, are discussed and pronounced upon, as if there were no deficiency of knowledge on these subjects, and as if there were no difficulty in coming at a proper decision. There has indeed always been an especial freedom in the discussions and decisions of both the ignorant and the learned, in regard to medicine. Dr. Beddoes, an English physician, once remarked that "there are three things which almost every person gives himself credit for understanding, whether he has taken any pains to make himself master of them or not. These are: 1, The art of mending a dull fire; 2, Politics; and, 3, PHYSIC." But although this has always been true, there never was such bold and busy speculation among classes on the subject of medicine, as there is at the present time. Formerly medicine was left, to no inconsiderable extent, to the physician; and educated wisdom could speak with some measure of authority on this as well as on other subjects. But these days are past, and now the privilege of sitting in judg

all

ment both on the theory and the practice is assumed by everybody, and the distinction between educated physicians and pretenders is to a large extent obliterated in the eyes even of the intelligent portion of the community.

While non-medical men in all classes pronounce their opinions on medicine thus freely and authoritatively, as if there were no doubt that they understood the subject, there is no subject in regard to which they perpetrate so many and so gross errors. There is a strange misapprehension on their part of the application of the rules of evidence. They pretend to examine the evidence for themselves, but come to conclusions widely variant, sometimes wholly opposite in their character. All the pathies and isms now before the public are claimed by their several advocates to be founded on undoubted practical evidence, and the followers of each system are quite sure that all the rest of the world are in utter darkness on this subject.

Such being the state of things, and even among a large portion of the intelligent in the community, it will not be unprofitable to look at the causes of the erroneous judgments which are so commonly formed by the public mind, and to some extent by the professional mind also, on the subject of practical medicine. For this purpose we invite the attention of our readers to the nature of the evidence in relation to the influence of remedies, the principles which we should observe in collecting this evidence and in investigating it, and the errors which arise from a disregard of these principles.

The grand difficulty in the investigation of the evidence on this subject lies in its complex character. So many influences are at work in conjunction with the remedy which we administer, that it is difficult, sometimes impossible, to estimate its exact effect.

Let us look at this point by comparing this subject with some other in this respect. Take chemistry, for example. Suppose that you are experimenting with two or three substances examining their action upon each other. You know what these substances are, and the quantities of them which you use; and they are few in number. Under such circumstances there is commonly no difficulty in coming at definite results. And then you know that if you ever make similar mixtures of these substances, these same results will be realized.

But it is not so with the experimenting of the physician with his remedy. The remedy acts in connection not only with many agencies, but agencies that vary in the different cases, and that vary also in the different stages of the same case. While in the chemical investigation you know the quantities of

the substances which you use, the physician is often puzzled in estimating the quantities or forces of the agencies affecting the patient under his care.

That we may fully appreciate this point, let us observe what these agencies are. They are, the operations of the disease under which the patient is suffering-the restorative efforts of nature -mental influences-the modifying influence of constitutional peculiarities-the action of all the various external agencies, air, food, temperature, electrical and other states.

Observe that each one of these many agencies is in itself complex-it is really a set of agencies. Take, for example, the operations of the disease. This is far from being a simple agency even in the most simple cases. For even if the disease be located in a single organ, it cannot be insulated there. The sympathies linking it with other organs light up disturbances here and there in the system. No organ can be sick by itself.

This is true even of what are called simple uncomplicated cases. But the great majority of the cases which come under the care of the physican are hot of this character. They are complicated from the outset. It would be interesting and profitable to show by many illustrations in what various ways cases of disease are made complex. But one or two illustrations must suffice. When disease appears to be of a general character, as fever, for example, there may be going on in some organ in a secret manner a morbid process, the result of some previous disease; and in the progress of the case, unexpected developments may arise from this source. Or, while the physician supposes that he is attacking a disease of some single organ, disease may be gathering, or be actually in progress, in some other organ, or in several organs. Even when the complications of disease, arising from such causes, plainly show themselves in the symptoms, it severely taxes the skill of the physician to meet them appropriately with his remedies.

We see then how complex is even one of the agencies mentioned. And when we look at all these agencies, and observe how they in all their variations affect the case, and vary it by their mutual influences, intermingling with each other in all modes and quantities, we can have some idea how exceedingly complicated are the considerations which must be kept in view by the physician, if he desire to treat disease in any just and rational adaptation to the actual necessities of the case.

From this brief and hasty view of the subject it must be obvious that there is a constant necessity for sifting and comparing evidence in the practice of medicine; that no conclusions require more caution and discretion, and a wider range of view,

than those which the physician is obliged to make in his common daily rounds; and that therefore nothing calls for greater skill in observation than Therapeutics.

But although this be so, there is no subject on which so little caution is observed in arriving at conclusions. The profession, as well as the community at large, seem to be little aware of the difficulties which attend medical investigations. Inferences are made in relation to the agency of remedies in the most facile manner, as if the subject were a simple and uncomplicated one. Medical experience, therefore, both in and out of the profession, is ever busy in embracing and discarding errors.

The world is full of mistakes in regard to practical medicine; and so it ever has been. This is seen to be true in the annals of what is termed regular medicine, as well as in the annals of quackery. The practical errors of medicine are not as numerous, nor as gross, as those of quackery; but they are similar in kind, and they arise from the same cause-viz: a disregard of the complicated agencies which mingle with the action of remedies.

We might trace here in full the analogy between regular medicine and quackery in this respect. But we will only allude to the resemblance which the reports in medical journals in relation to the efficacy of some favorite remedy sometimes bear to the representations made in regard to quack medicines. Case after case is given in which the remedy appears to have conquered the disease in question; and if the record be a true one, a great discovery has certainly been made in medicine. But physicians in various quarters try the remedy in the same disease, and do not meet with the same experience, with the exception of some here and there who are as eager for new things as the constructor of the reports. The remedy, therefore, though from the influence of these enthusiasts it may acquire a temporary, noisy reputation, is soon discarded and forgotten. It is unnecessary to show how the same process is gone through with by the quack remedy with the multitude, as the remedy vaunted in the scientific medical journal experiences with the profession.

The evil of which we have spoken, existing alike in the profession and in the community, though in different forms and degrees, is a serious obstacle to the progress of practical medicine. If a habit of forming hasty and therefore false conclusions in medicine were confined for the most part to the uneducated, it would be comparatively a small evil. But it is not thus confined. Far from it. The habit is inveterate in the