ve him a teaspoonful of good, clean, sweet
cider, every two hours." The cider was given, according to the
commandment, and appeared to have a restorative effect. The man
recovered in a reasonable time, and is, I believe, alive to this day.

CHAPTER XL.

THE VIRTUES OF PUMPKIN-SEED TEA.

Physicians are sometimes compelled by the force of circumstances, to
visit the poor as well as the rich; albeit, they expect, so far as mere
pecuniary compensation is concerned, that they are to have "their labor
for their pains." They know well that honesty here, if nowhere else, is
the best policy. Dr. Cullen, who became, as is well known, a giant in
the profession, first attracted public attention from the act that he
was often seen coming out of the hovels of the poor.

My own lot for several years was to labor _chiefly_ for the poor. In a
region where it had been customary for a medical man who had the whole
control of the business to charge one thousand dollars a year, my
charges scarcely exceeded three hundred. A few of the wealthy employed
me, it is true, but not all; while I had all the poor. Indeed, it is
among the poor, as a general rule, that sickness is most frequent and
prevalent, not to say fatal.

In one of these poor families, on a certain occasion, I had a long
campaign and a hard one. First, I was obliged to travel a great distance
to see them; secondly, I had a very severe disease to encounter;
thirdly, there were several patients in the house; and the family,
usually unprovided with sufficient space for a free circulation of the
air, was still more incommoded when sick. Fourthly, the mistress of the
house was exceedingly ignorant; and ignorance in a mother is, of itself,
almost enough to insure the destruction of all patients over whom she
has control.

My chief source of trouble, in the present instance, was the injudicious
conduct of the mother to the family; for all else could have been borne.
She was almost incessantly trying to do something over and above what I
had ordered or recommended. The neighbors, almost as weak as herself,
would come in and say: "Why don't your doctor give such or such a thing?
Mr. Blarney was sick exactly like Samuel, and they gave him a certain
powder and he got right up in a very few days." This would usually be
quite sufficient to make Mrs. ----very unhappy, at least till she had
again seen me.

Among the sick members of her family, was a daughter of about fifteen
ye