He sees that for a long time they have been drinking in quackery, and now that they have come at last to the very dregs, they have called him in to partake with them of its bitterness. There is a struggle between his feelings and his sense of duty. He would gladly have nothing to do with a case thus thrown upon his hands in the hour of its extremity, but he is bound to do all to save a fellow-being from death that can be done, even to the last; and then he remembers that recovery has sometimes taken place, when death seemed inevitable. He therefore addresses himself to his task, but it is in vain. The patient dies. An examination of the body reveals to the physician, as clearly as anything can be revealed, the fact, that the treatment which was pursued, previous to his taking charge of the case, was inappropriate and destructive. This is no fancy sketch. Physicians are occasionally obliged to witness such scenes. I have a vivid recollection of one which occurred in a case of so interesting a character, that I will briefly notice it. The patient was one, who, with most of his family, had pursued such a course as the one I have described. He had himself, taken Thompsonian remedies for a long time, for what he supposed to be a ‘bilious trouble.’ He at length was suddenly laid upon his bed by a most violent attack. Though he had faith enough in Homœopathy to take some medicine at the hands of a disciple of that school that very morning, he put himself under the care of a Thompsonian. In a few hours, being satisfied that his favorite system was not working well now, though he thought it had done so heretofore, he requested that I should be sent for. As I expected from the aspect of the case, though he gained some relief to his sufferings, he died. On examination after death, we found extensive chronic inflammation of the stomach and bowels, which had evidently been accumulating for some time, and which at length, by a sudden aggravation from some unknown cause, produced the attack which destroyed his life. In regard to this case it is clear, that if the course which this patient pursued for weeks and months before the final attack, was not adequate of itself to cause such an inflammation, it at least was directly calculated to foster it when it was once begun. And yet, because Thompsonism had never absolutely killed any member of his family, he confided in it most fully, though it was hurrying the disease within him on to a fatal termination; and he let go of that confidence, only when it was too late to retrieve his error. And farther than this, the probability is, that if he had put himself under the care of a judicious physician, when the inflammation had but just begun, it might have been overcome, for cases of recovery from this disease, when early put under treatment, are not at all rare in medical experience.