rwise? I could
make no appeal to principle or precedent in justification of my conduct.
It is true, I have met with one or two practitioners whose experience
has been similar; but what are a few isolated cases, of even honest
practice, in comparison with the deductions of wise men for centuries?
There may be after consequences, in these cases, which are not foreseen.
Sentence against an evil work, as Solomon says, is not always executed
speedily.

CHAPTER XXXIII

THE LAMBSKIN DISEASE.

Should any medical man look through these pages, he may perchance amuse
himself by asking where the writer obtained his system of classification
of disease. It will not, certainly, be very easy to find such a disease
as the lambskin disease in any of our modern nosologies. But he will
better understand me when he has read through the chapter. He may be
reminded, by its perusal and its quaint title, of the classification
which is found in Whitlow's New Medical Discoveries, founded, as the
doctor says, on the idea that "every disease ought to be named from the
plant or other substance which is the principal exciting cause of such
disease." It is as follows:

"The Mercurial Disease,
The Belladonna do
The Stramonium do
The Tobacco do
The Cicuta do
The Butter Cup do
The Colchicum do
The Colocynth do
The Pork or Hog do
The Vinegar do
The Fool's Parsley do
The Fox Glove do
The Nux Vomica do
The Quassia do
The Opium do
The Hellebore do
The Salt do
The Mineral Acid do
The Acrid do
The Putrid do"

If on examination the curious reader should find no such disease as the
"Lambskin disease" in Dr. W.'s catalogue, he should remember that the
list is by no means complete, and that there will be no objection to the
addition of one more. And why, indeed, may I not coin terms as well as
others? All names must have been given by somebody.

But I will not dwell on the subject of nosology too long. I have
something else to do in this chapter than merely to amuse. I have some
thoughts to present on health and sickness,--thoughts, too, which seem
to me of vast importance.

A son of Mr. G., a farmer, had been at work in an adjoining town, all
summer, with a man who was accustomed to employ a great number of hands
i