acted mother brought her daughter to see
him. The girl was suffering from what is known among people as
'general lowness.' There was nothing much the matter with her,
but she was pale and listless and did not care about eating or
doing anything. The doctor, after due consultation, prescribed
for her a glass of claret three times a day with her meals. The
mother was somewhat deaf, but apparently heard all he said and
bore off her daughter, determined to carry out the prescription
to the very letter. In ten days' time they were back again, and
the girl looked a different creature. She was rosy-cheeked,
smiling and the picture of health. The doctor congratulated
himself on his diagnosis of the case. 'I am glad to see that
your daughter is so much better,' he said. 'Yes,' exclaimed the
excited and grateful mother. 'Thanks to you, doctor! She has had
just what you ordered. She has eaten carrots three times a day
since we were here, and sometimes oftener--and once or twice
uncooked--and now look at her!'"

THE REST CURE:--"After all, the veneer of civilization is quite
thin. Scratch most people, and very near the surface you come on
the savage. This is specially true when they are sick. They at
once want charms and miracles to restore them to health, and
come to the doctor or 'medicine man,' as they look upon
him--with this demand: 'I want something, doctor, to fix me up.'
But he, unhappy man, has not wherewith to satisfy them, unless
he is a quack.

"He knows that in most cases all he can do is to give advice as
to how best Nature may be allowed to effect a cure; for Nature
is the great physician, and the doctor's main duty is to stand
by and see that she gets fair play. Nature's chief cure, in a
large number of the diseases to which flesh is heir, is rest.
The tired man needs rest. The tired brain, the tired stomach,
the tired liver and kidneys, need the same rest.

"So, when the patient turns up with an overworked and exhausted
organ of some sort within him--be it what it may--heart, brain
or stomach--the true physician prescribes, first and chiefly,
not drugs, but rest.

"Now, this is generally the advice the patient doesn't want. His
desire is for a bottle of something, no matter how nasty it may
be, which shall 'fix him up,' and let him go on doing what he
has been