Sec. 30. Every Person of sound plain Sense is capable of perceiving the Truth of whatever I have advanced in this Chapter: and there would be some Degree of Prudence, even in those who do not perceive the real good Tendency of my Advice, not to defy nor oppose it too hardily. The Question relates to a very important Object; and in a Matter quite foreign to themselves, they undoubtedly owe some Deference to the Judgment of Persons, who have made it the Study and Business of their whole Lives. It is not to myself that I hope for their Attention, but to the greatest Physicians, whose feeble Instrument and Eccho I am. What Interest have any of us in forbidding sick People to eat, to be stifled, or to drink such heating things as heighten their Fever? What Advantage can accrue to us from opposing the fatal Torrent, which sweeps them off? What Arguments can persuade People, that some thousand Men of Genius, of Knowledge, and of Experience, who pass their Lives among a Croud and Succession of Patients; who are entirely employed to take Care of them, and to observe all that passes, have been only amusing and deceiving themselves, on the Effects of Food, of Regimen and of Remedies? Can it enter into any sensible Head, that a Nurse, who advises Soup, an Egg, or a Biscuit, deserves a Patient's Confidence, better than a Physician who forbids them? Nothing can be more disagreeable to the latter, than his being obliged to dispute continually in Behalf of the poor Patients; and to be in constant Terror, lest this mortally officious Attendance, by giving such Food as augments all the Causes of the Disease, should defeat the Efficacy of all the Remedies he administers to remove it; and should fester and aggravate the Wound, in Proportion to the Pains he takes to dress it. The more such absurd People love a Patient, the more they urge him to eat, which, in Effect, verifies the Proverb of _killing one with Kindness_. __Chapter III.__ _Of the Means that ought to be used, at the Beginning of Diseases; and of the Diet in acute Diseases._ __Sect.__ 31.