sunset: My religion consists mainly of wonder and gratitude.' This is the religion of paradise and of childhood. It will not be easy to find a better, even in our enlightened days; only it must be a rational wonder, a productive gratitude-the gratitude, that of a man who does not rest contented with the emotion, but goes at once into the motive, and that a motive which really moves-and the wonder, that of a man who, in reverencing God, knows him, and in honouring all men, respects himself. The next is the admonition we have already referred to, by Sydenham. Our readers will find, at its close, the oldest and best kind of homoeopathy-a kind which will survive disease and the doctors, and will never, as may be said of the other, cure nothing but itself. 'He who gives himself to the study and work of medicine ought seriously to ponder these four things -1st, That he must, one day, give an account to the Supreme Judge of the lives of the sick committed to his care. 2dly, That whatsoever of art, or of science, he has by the Divine goodness attained, is to be directed mainly to the glory of the Almighty, and the safety of mankind, and that it is a dishonour to himself and them, to make these celestial gifts subser vient to the vile lusts of avarice and ambition. Moreover, 3dly, that he has undertaken the charge of no mean or ignoble creature, and that in order to his appreciating the true worth of the human race, he should not forget that the only-begotten Son of God became a man, and thus far ennobled, by his own dignity, the nature he assumed. And, lastly, that as he is himself not exempted from the common lot, and is liable and exposed to the same laws of mortality, the same miseries and pains, as are all the rest; so he may endeavour the more diligently, and with a more tender affection, as being himself a fellow-sufferer (oμoloτaðýs), to help them who are sick.' For to take a higher, the highest example, we must be touched with a feeling of the infirmities' of our patients, else all our skill and knowledge will go but half-way to relieve or cure. BOOKS REFERRED TO. 1. Percival's Medical Ethics; new edition, with Notes, by Dr. Greenhill.-2. Code of Medical Ethics; by the American Medical Association.-3. Richard Baxter's Compassionate Counsel to Students of Physic.-4. Sir Thomas Browne's Re. ligio Medici, and Christian Morals.-5. Gaubius de Regimine Mentis quod Medicorum est.-6. Fuller's 'Good Physician,' and 'Life of Paracelsus,' in his 'Holy and Profane State.'7. Simon, Déontologie Médicale, ou des Devoirs et des Droits de Médecins.-8. Gisborne, Gregory, and Ware, on the Duties of a Physician.-9. Hufeland on the Relations of the Physician to the Sick, to the Public, and to his Colleagues.-10. British and Foreign Medical Journal for April 1846. Art. Ix.—11. Dr. Aikin's Letters to his Son on the Choice of a Profession and the Conduct of Life. |