Besides, after the bottles, came the bill, having no doubt the abominable character of all bills, which, by some law analogous to gravitation, appear to enlarge in a terrifically accelerating ratio, in proportion to their longevity; so that they fall at last with an unexpected and a very unwelcome gravity. Then homœopathy did not restrict itself to infinitesimal doses of medicine, but recommended people to live plainly, to relinquish strong drinks, and, in short, to adopt what at least seemed an approximation to a simple mode of living. To be serious—what, then, are the objections to homœpathy? Is there no truth, then, in the dogma, "_Similia similibus curantur_?" We will explain. The _laws_ governing the human body have an established mode of dealing with all injurious influences, which is identical in principle, but infinitely varied and obscured in its _manifestations_, in consequence of multifarious _interferences_; in that respect, just like the laws of light or of gravitation. As we have no opportunity of going into the subject at length, we will give a hint or two which will enable the observing, with a moderate degree of painstaking, to see the fallacy. You can _demonstrate_ no fallacy in a mathematical process even, without some work; neither can you do so in any science; so let that absence of complete demonstration be no bar to the _investigation_ of the hints we give. All medicines are more or less poisons; that is, they have no nutritive properties, or these are so overbalanced by those which are injurious, that the economy immediately institutes endeavours for their expulsion, or for the relief of the disturbance they excite. All organs have a special function of their own, but all can on occasions execute those of some other organ. So, in carrying out injurious influences, organs have peculiar relations to different forms of matter; that is, _ordinarily_. Thus, the stomach is impatient of ipecacuanha, and substances which we call emetics; the liver, of mercury, alcohol, fat, and saccharine matters; and so forth. In the same way we might excite examples of other organs which ordinarily deal with particular natural substances. But then, by the compensating power they have, they _can_ deal with any substance on special occasions.