As the little fellow grew worse, “a little brandy was given to counteract the depressing effect of the digitalis.” “On the 27th, the pulse had fallen to 52, and was not quite regular; the brandy was therefore increased to two ounces daily,” with digitalis every six hours; later, a “diuretic draught composed of scoparium, acetate of potash, and nitric ether; on the 29th, this diuretic mixture was changed by the addition of nitre and squills; on the 30th, as was anticipated, he was seized with eliptiform convulsions, a succession of which came on, accompanied with foaming and biting of the tongue, and caused his death in two hours and a half.”[47] The next case reported was that of a child eighteen months old, treated at the hospital by the same physician, and described: “Dropsy——persistent diarrhœa——peritonitis——death.” “The child,” says the celebrated practitioner and author, “was frequently fed with pounded meat and milk; a little brandy was given, and opiates and astringents were prescribed to check the diarrhœa.” As he went on to his fate, he was made to swallow the following remedies: “opium, dilute sulphuric acid, tincture of the sesquioxide of iron, acetate of lead. The quantity of brandy was increased to three ounces daily. The child became paler and had a sunken look,” etc. “The child sunk a week after admission.” I make mention of these cases for the reason that up to this day the same horrible treatment is being practiced. Although these, and many even worse cases contained in this new work, transpired some years ago and were recorded in the first edition, still they remain in the new edition unaccompanied by any note of warning; and young or old medical students pore over and imitate the examples here set before them. [Footnote 47: The case of Thomas Vallance, 9 years old. Oh, wise physician: the fatal symptoms came along “as anticipated!”] I quote another paragraph from the treatise of Dr. Dickinson, which, if it has, as would seem evident, thrown little light about the doctor’s own pathway, as regards the appropriate treatment of the disorder, will prove instructive to some of my readers, and bear favorably upon my theory of disease. In the early pages (p. 29) of the treatise, Dr. Dickinson says: “It may be generally stated that this inflammatory disease arises from unnatural stimulation of the kidneys. The blood is charged with [food] material excessive in quantity or unnatural in quality, which these glands take upon themselves to remove. Their own proper elements of secretion are poured upon them in sudden and excessive amount, or matter is thrown upon them which is foreign to their usual habit. As a consequence of overwork, or of work to which they are not adapted, they take on a turbulent and abnormal activity. They become congested, the tubes get choked up with epithelial growth, and the disease is established.”