Secondly, when the disease was severe in the commencement, and has been promptly subdued by active treatment. Whenever copious bleeding brings on a precocious convalescence, that convalescence is invariably uncertain and infirm. It is always steady as long as it is properly protected, but it has not strength equal to its apparent health: it is as tender and fragile as it is sensitive: the least noxious agent impresses it; the least stimulus overpowers it. The patient is suddenly relieved from a load that oppressed him; the organs react with preternatural vigor; they have enough to do to sustain the reaction of the system: stimulate them still further by animal food and wine, and they will be sure to be over done; and this artificial excitement will be as fatal as the excitement of disease. It can be of little consequence to the patient whether he die of malaria or of chicken. Thirdly, when the disease was slight in the commencement and through its subsequent progress, but the convalescence proved tardy and imperfect. In this case, animal food and wine are pernicious and highly dangerous, and often prove more fatal than a severe form of fever. Nothing is advantageous or safe for such a patient but perfect rest and quiet and the blandest farinaceous diet. I have now laid before the reader all that I have been able to learn of this frequent and most formidable disease. I am conscious that some of the views which have been exhibited are opposed to the prevalent doctrines of the day, and that some parts of the treatment recommended must appear to many unnecessary and hazardous. But since I have suggested no doctrine which has not been deduced from a long and careful study of the phenomena, and recommended no practice which has not been derived from large experience, I trust that the former will not be rejected without examination, nor the latter condemned until its failure have been witnessed. I have opposed with earnestness, perhaps some may think with vehemence, certain opinions and modes of practice which I conceive to be pregnant with evil; but as I have never intended the slightest reproach or blame to the advocates of the doctrines I condemn, so I shall feel truly grateful to any one who will point out any mistake into which I may have fallen. Those who have studied this disease with the best success are the most sensible how much remains to be done to render our knowledge of it perfect and our treatment of it effectual. Many are the dark spots that still remain upon this part of the field of knowledge; many are the labourers that must work long and skilfully before they are removed; while, if the successful investigation of medical science in general contribute largely to the well-being of man, the successful study of this branch of it must be pre-eminently beneficial. It is computed that upwards of one-half of the human race perish by this fell disease in one or other of its forms: when this fact