popular superstition.1 Of amulets and complicated machines to impose on the credulity of the ignorant multitude, there is no mention in any part of his works. All diseases he traces to natural causes, and counts it impiety to maintain that any one more than another is an infliction from the Divinity. How strikingly the Hippocratic system differs from that of all other nations in their infantine state, must be well known to every person who is well acquainted with the early history of medicine. His theory of medicine was further based on the physical philosophy of the ancients, more especially on the doctrines then held regarding the elements of things, and the belief in the existence of a spiritual essence diffused through the whole works of creation, which was regarded as the agent that presides over the acts of generation, and which constantly strives to preserve all things in their natural state, and to restore them when they are preternaturally deranged. This is the principle which he called Nature, and which he held to be a vis medicatrix. Nature," says he, or at least one of his immediate followers says, “is the physician of diseases.” '

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STAHL, in one of his numerous short occasional Tracts, Schediasmata, as he calls them, in which his deep and fiery nature was constantly finding vent, thus opens on the doctrine of 'Nature,' as held by the ancients. Besides the thought, it is

1 'This is the more remarkable, as it does not appear to have been the established creed of the greatest literary men and philosophers of the age, who still adhered, or professed to adhere, to the popular belief in the extraordinary interference of the gods with the works of Nature and the affairs of mankind. This, at least, was remarkably the case with Socrates, whose mind, like that of most men who make a great impression on the religious feelings of their age, had evidently a deep tinge of mysticism. See Xenoph. Memor. i. 1. 6-9; Ibid. iv. 7. 7; also Grote's History of Greece, vol. i. p. 499. The latter remarks, " Physical and astronomical phenomena are classified by Socrates among the divine class, interdicted to human study."—(Mem. i. 1. 13.) He adds, in reference to Hippocrates, "On the other hand, Hippocrates, the contemporary of Socrates, denied the discrepancy, and merged into one the two classes of phenomena-the divine and the scientifically determinable-which the latter had put asunder. Hippocrates treated all phenomena as at once both divine and scientifically determinable."'

a good specimen of this great man's abrupt, impetuous, preg. nant, and difficult expressions

'Notanter Hippocrates 6. Epidem. 5. 'Aπaldeutos ʼn púois ἐοῦσα καὶ οὐ μαθοῦσα, τὰ δέοντα ποιέει. Cum a nullo informata sit NATURA, neque quicquam didicerit, ea tamen, quibus opus est, efficit. Efficere et operari, dicit; neque incongrua et aliena, sed quæ necessaria sint, quæ conveniant: Operari autem ipsam per se, non ex consilio (intellige, alieno) lin. præced. monet. Effectivum hoc & operativum Principium, tǹv púσw, appellat, rò dnμiovрyiêòv ǹμŵv atriov circumscribit Galen. de Placit. Hipp. & Platon. 1. 9. hunc eundem locum attingens. De hac Naturâ prolixius idem Galenus lib. de Natur. facult. asserit, quod illa, suis viribus usa, quæ noxia sunt, expellere noverit, quæ utilia, usui servare. Quod idem et lib. i. cap. s. de diff. Febb. repetit. Sapientissimam ipsam esse, itidem adstruit lib. de arte. Et omnia facere salutis hominum causa, in Comm. ad nostrum locum interpretatur. Neque hoc tantum de statu Corporis Humani tranquillo, et sibi constante, intelligendum, sed monent etiam iidem, Naturam hactenus dictam, consulere corpori in dubiis rebus, ingruente nocumentorum periculo, imo actuales, noxas illatas, ita depellere, corrigere, exterminare, resarcire, ut propterea Hippocrates, paulò antè sententiam hactenus citatam, diserte affirmet, Naturam mederi morbis. In quam ipsam assertionem, ut satis fusè consentit Galenus, ita notabilia sunt ejus verba, quod Natura malum sentiens, gestiat magnopere mederi. Et Corn. Celsus, lib. 3. c. i. Repugnante Natura, ait, nihil proficit Medicina. Imo nec deficiente eadem, ut Hipp. lib. de arte monet, quicquam obtinet Medica ars, sed perit æger. Dies deficiat, neque hæc charta capiat, si plerosque tantum, qui comparent, testes Medicos Practicos scriptores, citare liberet. Nimirum QUOD tale Activum et Effectivum, Gubernans, dirigens, regens, Principium in Corpore Vivo præsto sit, tam in statu sano quam concusso, agens, vigilans, propugnans, omnes agnoscunt.

'Ut undique NATURA, hoc sensu, ut Effectivum quoddam, et quidem kuplws tale, Principium asseratur, quod, arbitrarie, gere non agere, rectè aut perperam Organa sua actuare, iisque non magis uti, quam abuti queat.

'Adornarunt hanc Doctrinæ Medicæ partem complures, tùm

Antiquiores, tùm propiorum temporum Doctores, sed non eodem omnes successu, nec fortè eadem intentione. Prolixiores fuerunt Veteres, in illis δυνάμεσιν, αἷς διοκικεῖται τὸ ζῶον, ut ipsam púow Hippocratis describit Galenus lib. de Crisibus, et 1. 5. de Sympt. Caus. Facultatem Corporis nostri Rectricem optimo jure Naturæ nomine insigniendam, decernit. Sed inundavit hinc Facultatem variarum, congeries, & omnem Physiologia antiquioris paginam adeò absolvit, ut nihil offenderetur, quam meræ Facultates, Vitalis, Naturalis, Animalis, Genitalis, Rationalis, Expultrix, Retentrix, Attractrix, Locomotrix, Coctrix, Excretrix, Sanguifica, Chylifica, &c. &c.'

To the Homœopathic delusion, or shall we call it 'persuasion,' whose chief merit and mischief it is to be 'not anything so much as a nothing which looks like a something,' we owe the recognition, in a much more practical way than before, of the selfregulating principle in living bodies-the physician inside the skin. It is hardly necessary to state, that the best modern exposition of this doctrine, and its relation to therapeutics, is to be found in SIR JOHN FORBES' courageous, thoughtful, and singularly candid little book, Art and Nature in the Cure of Disease.

Many years ago, a countryman called on a physician in York. He was in the depths of dyspeptic despair, as often happens with the chawbacons. The doctor gave him some plain advice as to his food, making a thorough change, and ended by writing a prescription for some tonic, saying, 'Take that, and come back in a fortnight.' In ten day Giles came in, blooming and happy, quite well. The doctor was delighted, and not a little proud of his skill. He asked to see what he had given him. Giles said he hadn't got it. 'Where was it?' 'I took it, Sir.' 'Took it! what have you done with it?' 'I ate it, Sir! you told me to take it!' We once told this little story to a Homœopathic friend, adding, 'Perhaps you think the iron in the ink may be credited with the cure?' 'Well,' said my much-believing friend, there is no saying.' No saying, indeed! and no

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thinking either! such matters lie at least in the region of the non-knowable.

DR. HENRY MARSHALL AND

MILITARY HYGIENE.

'To labour diligently, and to be content,' says the son of Sirach, 'is a sweet life.'

'My greatest delight has been to promote a melioration of the condition of soldiers, and in the prosecution of this important object, I hope I have done some good.'—DR. Marshall.