Mr. Darbey, the house surgeon of the infirmary, in a letter to Dr. Percival, states the discovery of the effects of cod-liver oil to have been accidental, and to have occurred in a patient who, using it externally, was induced also to take some of it internally. She recovered the use of her limbs, and in a few weeks was dismissed. No particular attention was directed to the circumstance until her return to the infirmary, in the course of 12 months, on account of a renewal of her complaint with considerable violence, which, however, soon subsided by the employment of the same means of relief. Dr. Kay, one of the physicians of the infirmary, remarked upon the case, and wished to test the character of the remedies in similar cases, and found the practice to succeed beyond his most sanguine expectations. It is worthy of remark, that the instances in which it was found to be most serviceable were those in which the perspiration was gradually promoted. Those who had been cripples for many years were found, after persisting in its use for a few weeks, not only to be able to quit their seats, to which they had been confined, but also to walk even without the aid of crutches or a stick. The effects were so remarkable, that application was made to the infirmary for the oil in all kinds of lameness, and an expenditure of not less than 50 or 60 gallons annually was the result. This practice was commenced about the year 1772, and continued for many years afterwards. One of the great evils attendant upon the introduction of a new remedy is the universality of its application to cases, often of very dissimilar nature. Its inefficiency to such a variety of purposes thereby speedily becomes apparent, and those disorders to which it may be beneficially applicable cease to be subjected to its operation: the novelty is gone; a prejudice against its use is created, and some new proposition speedily serves to banish it from a position it might probably, with advantage, have held in the Materia Medica.