“Then as to the public: my case having been well known my recovery was quickly noised abroad, and a number of people in the neighbourhood who had suffered many things of many physicians and were nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, sought Mr. Hutton’s advice, and were cured; and this has happened in so many instances that public confidence in the ability of the regular practitioner to deal with this class of cases has been greatly shaken. I cannot better illustrate this than by relating the following case:— “One Thursday morning last autumn a man came to me, and, on my inquiring his business, he told me he wanted my advice. He was a laborer in a factory who in lifting a weight, had twisted his knee which was much swollen and painful when he walked. I asked him what advice he had had. He said he had been under the doctors’ hands some time, but the leg was worse and he was now ordered to lay up entirely for a month, and was assured that unless he did so he would lose his leg. In one hand he held a medical certificate to entitle him (being unable to work) to go on his club; in the other he had a large lump of dark paste, about the size of an egg, which he said was a blister, and which he was ordered to apply to the joint immediately and to rest at home until the doctor called on him the next day. I examined his knee, and from the similarity of his symptoms to those I had myself experienced, I felt satisfied his was a case for Mr. Hutton and I told him so. He immediately told me he had heard of my case and so many others that _he would rather take my advice than the doctor’s_. I explained to him that he could not follow the advice of both, and if he decided on going to Mr. Hutton he must on no account apply the blister. To this he assented. The doctor’s assistant called on him the next day, and was very angry that he had not done as he was ordered, and then left, threatening to return with his master, who he said would make him put the blister on whether he liked it or not. This threat however, was not carried out, and on Monday morning he went to Mr. Hutton with several other patients who were going up on a similar errand. He did not return until the last train at night, and I learned next morning that, after visiting Mr. Hutton, he walked several miles to see a friend and then back to the railway station; he rested the next day, and on Wednesday returned to his work, and has been quite well ever since. “The sentence in italics is one to which I desire to call particular attention, since it gives expression to a feeling of want of confidence in the profession, which I know to be widely, though often secretly, entertained in this neighborhood.