"The doctor arrives and attempts to comfort and quiet the broken-hearted widow, and helpless, dependent, fatherless children, by recounting the frailties of poor human nature, and reminding them of the fact that all men must die. "And thus the work of death goes on: the tenderest ties are severed; children are left fatherless; parents are bereaved of their children; families are reduced to fragments; society deprived of her best citizens, and the world filled with misery, confusion, and poverty, in consequence of an evil system of medication.... "The ball is in motion, the banner of medical reform waves gracefully over our beloved country. Hosts of the right stripe are coming to the rescue. Poisons are condemned, the lancet is growing dull, the effusion of blood will soon cease, the battles are half fought, and the victory is sure.... While we would have you adhere to the well-established, fundamental principles of reformed medical science, as taught in this school, we would have you recollect that discoveries in knowledge are progressing.... Never entertain the foolish, absurd, and dangerous idea, that because you have been to college, you have learned all that is to be learned--that your education is finished, and you have nothing more to learn. The college is a place where we go to learn how to learn, and the world is the great university, in which our educational exercises terminate with our last expiring breath." The author craves the reader's indulgence for introducing Dr. Brown's remarks at this stage of the work. It is intended for a class of readers (_the farmers_) who have not the time to make themselves acquainted with all that is going on in the medical world. We aim to make the book acceptable to that class of men. If we fail, the fault is in us, not in our subjects. FOOTNOTE: [4] Inflammation is a vital action, and cannot be properly termed _diseased_ action. The only action that can be properly termed _diseased_ is the chemical action. REMARKS, SHOWING THAT VERY LITTLE IS KNOWN OF THE NATURE AND TREATMENT OF DISEASE. Mr. Percival details a case of peritonitis,[5] after the usual symptoms in the early stage had subsided. "The horse's bowels became much relaxed: suspecting that there was some disorder in the alimentary canal, and that this was an effort of nature to get rid of it, I promoted the diarrhoea by giving mild doses of cathartic medicine, in combination with calomel!" [Nature did not require such assistance: warm drinks, composed of marshmallows, or slippery elm, would have been just the thing.]