, as that art has been usually
understood, greatly abound; and in which the public ignorance of the
laws of health or hygiene, with the consequences of that ignorance, are
presented with great plainness. The world will make a wiser use of its
medical men than it has hitherto done, when it comes to see more clearly
what is their legitimate and what their ultimate mission.

These remarks indicate the main intention of the writer. It is not so
much to enlighten or aid, or in any way directly affect the medical man,
as to open the eyes of the public to their truest interests; to a just
knowledge of themselves; and to some faint conception of their bondage
to credulity and quackery. The reader will find that I go for science
and truth, let them affect whom they may. Let him, then, suspend his
judgment till he has gone through this volume once, and I shall have no
fears. He may, indeed, find fault with my style, and complain of my
literary or philosophic unfitness for the task I assigned myself; but he
will, nevertheless, be glad to know my facts.

Should any one feel aggrieved by the exposures I have made in the
details which follow, let me assure him that no one is more
exposed--nor, indeed, has more cause to be aggrieved--than myself. Let
us all, then, as far as is practicable, keep our own secrets. Let us not
shrink from such exposures as are likely, in a large measure, to benefit
mankind, while the greatest possible inconvenience or loss to ourselves
is but trifling.

Some may wish that instead of confining myself too rigidly to naked fact
and sober reasoning, I had given a little more scope to the imagination.
But is not plain, "unvarnished" truth sometimes not only "stranger,"
but, in a work like this, better also, than any attempts at "fiction"?

THE AUTHOR.

AUBURNDALE, March, 1859.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER. PAGE.

I. EDUCATIONAL TENDENCIES 1

II. MY FIRST MEDICAL LESSON, 6

III. THE ELECTRICAL MACHINE, 9

IV. THE MEASLES, AND POURING DOWN RUM, 11

V. LEE'S PILLS AND DROPSY, 13

VI. THE COLD SHOWER BATH, 16

VII. MY FIRST SICKNESS ABROAD, 18

VIII. LESSON FROM AN OLD SURGEON, 20

IX. LEE'S WINDHAM BILIOUS PILLS,