n some kind of powder almost every hour. They are dreadfully
nauseous; and we have to hold him, every time, and pour them down
his throat. Oh, dear! It makes my heart sick. Now, with all this,
the disease hangs on almost as bad as ever. Suppose we hadn't sent
for the doctor at first? Can't you see what would have been the
consequence? It is very wrong to put off calling in a physician upon
the first symptoms of a disease."

"Pardon me, Mrs. Lee, for saying so," was my reply, "but I cannot
help thinking that, if you had not called the doctor, your child
would have been quite well to-day."

Mrs. Lee--that was the lady's name--uttered an exclamation of
surprise and disapproval of my remark.

"But, cannot you see, yourself; that it is not the disease that has
reduced your child so low. The bleeding, blistering, cupping,
leeching, and calomel administrations, would have done all this, had
your child been perfectly well when it went into the doctor's
hands."

"But the disease would have killed him inevitably. If it requires
all this to break it, don't you see that it must have taken a most
fatal hold on the poor child's system."

"No, Mrs. Lee, I cannot see any such thing," was my reply. "The
medicine probably fixed the disease, that would, if left alone, have
retired of itself. What does the doctor say ails the child?"

"He does not seem to know. There seems to be a complication of
diseases."

"Produced by the treatment, no doubt. If there had been scarlet
fever, or small pox, or croup, active and energetic treatment would,
probably, have been required, and the doctor would have known what
he was about in administering his remedies. But, in a slight
indisposition, like that from which your child suffered, it is, in
my opinion, always better to give no medicine for a time. Drugs
thrown into the tender system of a child, will always produce
disease of some kind, more or less severe; and where slight
disorders already exist, they are apt to give them a dangerous hold
upon the body, or, uniting with them, cause a most serious, and, at
times, fatal illness."

But Mrs. Lee shook her head. She thought the doctors knew best. They
had great confidence in their family physician. He had doctored them
through many dangerous attacks, and had always brought them through
safely. As to the new-fangled notions about giving little or no
medicine, she had no confidence in them. Medicine was necessary at
times, and she always gave h