Such, it is said, is the more general and successful practice in the Mississippi Valley, where the disease has several times prevailed in its most malignant form. For its curative efficiency much is claimed. Its utility, however, must be measured, as in all other cases, by the unerring rule, the actual results sustained by incontrovertible facts. The nearer any mode of practice accords with the general principle of pathology, the greater must necessarily be its success, for it is not in this disease, or in any other, that the bold, energetic and heroic practice, which is inconsistent and incompatible with this principle, cures, however extensively adopted and rigidly pursued. For this principle must direct and govern the practice, or else it becomes necessarily experimental or empirical, and must be inevitably attended with the most lamentable results. SECTION IV.--STATISTICS--PERCENTAGE OF LOSS--VARIABLE RESULTS--THEIR CAUSE. The results of the different modes of practice which we have briefly noticed will aid materially our effort to discover and establish some general principle for the successful treatment and cure of cholera. For all modes, whatever be their merits or demerits, are supposed to be founded on the pathology of the disease. To treat any disease successfully, its pathology must be observed, and so applied in the arrangement and adoption of a mode of practice as to secure not only entire harmony, but a complete and perfect adaptation of the treatment to its pathological character. The nearer any mode approaches to an exact conformity to this principle the greater will be its success. The neglect to conform, in the treatment of the epidemic cholera, to this acknowledged and universal law, has, no doubt, been the prolific cause of the sacrifice of thousands of valuable lives. For this principle is the key to unlock the mystery of disease, unfold the process of diseased action, and, as an unfailing and definite rule, must govern all correct theories as well as all rational practice of medicine, under whatever name it may be conducted. All practice, then, deviating from, opposed, or contrary to, this principle must be purely empirical, and unworthy the confidence of an intelligent community. Hence we may refer to statistics rather than argument on the subject, to ascertain how far and to what extent each of the different modes of practice conform to the general principle; and on the other hand, to show what modes may be at fault, being deficient in the application of science, opposed to the established laws of practice, and contrary to observation and experience, and therefore utterly and hopelessly empirical.