which busy rumor
had converted into an indication of galloping consumption; but I found
no other symptom which belonged to that disease. The homoeopathic
medicine had been suspended, and the warm bath had been applied with
apparent success.

I left, with the promise of calling again in ten days--but not sooner,
unless they sent for me. At the end of the ten days, I called and found
all things ajar again. Her female attendant had left her about a week
before; and the new attendants--two of them--being destitute of faith in
me, had found no great difficulty in persuading her that she had a fever
of the lungs, and that she would die if she did not take a _little_
medicine, and that she would do well to recall Dr. A., and take his
medicine.

When I arrived, at this third visit, I found her taking a small amount
of homoeopathic medicine, but without appetite or strength, and
evidently tending downward. It was too late to do any thing, especially
when there was no faith in anything but pills and powders; and I left
her to her native strength of constitution, her homoeopathic
physician, her croaking nurses, and God, vainly mourning, all my way
home, about the inefficiency of works without faith, especially in the
case of the sick. This woman's case is recent, and it is possible that
she may recover, in spite of pills, powders, croakings, and
faithlessness. I have witnessed such things. Nature is tough.

But while I lament the inefficiency of works, where faith is wanting, I
have had one case which seems an exception to the general rule,
"according to your faith," etc., which I take great pleasure in
recording.

In June, 18--, a young man from the interior of New England called on me
while abroad on business, and desired to receive my advice concerning
certain complaints, attended with great debility, and accompanied by
hernia and varicocele, and, in general, by dyspepsia. On examination, I
found the case a very obstinate one, of long standing. The patient was a
young man of twenty-two, a clerk in a country store, a man of some
principle, and yet trained to find his chief happiness in the indulgence
of his appetite, especially in what is called good eating.

I gave him some general directions, promising him something still more
specific as soon as I got home. In July, I gave him written directions,
in full, and urged him to push the treatment as fast as possible, in
order to get into a beginning state of convalescence, s