“The mode of treating diseases which is generally adopted by the native practitioners of South America, and the East Indies, by decoctions, infusions, and the expressed juices of vegetable productions, has, at any rate, that great recommendation—_simplicity_; but, contemptible as it may appear to be to the practitioners of this country, who suppose that no disease can be successfully combated without blue pill or calomel, or some active mineral or vegetable poison, agreeable to some favourite theory, it often proves successful; and, indeed, from the information which we have received from the intelligent gentlemen who have spent some years among the natives of South America and the East Indies, (some of them members of the medical profession,) we are disposed to believe that in some diseases, particularly scorbutic and scrofulous affections, and those termed _pseudo-syphilitic_, the native surgeons are more successful than the practitioners of this country. To us, the great difference between the practice of the former and that of the latter appears to be, that the one _lead_ nature by simple means, which enable her to correct the constitution, and to produce a healthy process of mutation in a diseased part, whilst the other _drive_ nature by powerful remedies, as blue pill, or some active chemical preparation. Often have we witnessed the recovery of patients, who had been discharged from a hospital, under the simple treatment by decoction of an apparently simple vegetable, and by fomentations under the direction of an old woman; and whoever considers how simple the operations of nature are, will not be surprised that such treatment should succeed even in a formidable chronic disease. Every practitioner of experience and observation will, we think, admit that many thousand invalids are annually hurried to their graves in this metropolis, by persevering in the use of calomel and blue pill, or a drastic purgative, who might have been cured, or whose lives might have been prolonged many years, by a mild alterative treatment; and that many a limb might have been saved by a mild topical treatment of the local diseases, which has been consigned to the knife. In cases of internal acute disease, or active inflammation of a vital part, a decisive treatment is absolutely necessary to save life; but in chronic diseases, attempts by potent remedies to drive nature but too often distract her. To the new theory of chronic inflammation, or ulceration of the mucous membrane of some part of the alimentary canal, thousands have already been sacrificed.” [T] The disgusting practice of having one’s hands and eyes polluted at every corner of a street with the abominable bills and placards of the quacking vermin, is past endurance, and loudly calls for suppression. SECTION IX. COALS.