shorten the durations of the organic reaction, the two
remedies should be given in alternation. In most cases I have seen a few
alternate doses give rise to a pleasant perspiration, speedily followed
by quiet sleep and recovery on waking. May we not expect the same result
at the commencement of Asiatic cholera, and thus arrest the further
development of the disease?

Apis is no less effectual against _chronic diarrh[oe]a_, more
particularly if resulting, not from any deep-seated disorganizations,
but from some permanent inflammatory irritation of the intestinal mucous
membrane, and which causes and fosters so much distress, by rendering
all normal digestion impossible and finally bringing on its inseparable
companion, the last degree of hypochondria. This misery is so much more
lamentable, as it is, so to say, forced upon mankind from the cradle to
the grave by the still prevailing and almost ineradicable delusion of
_cathartic medication_.

Scarcely has the little being seen the light of the world, when the
process of purgation begins. Nurse, aunt, grandmamma, everybody, hasten
to hush the cries which the rough contact of the outer world extorts
from the little being, by forcing down its throat a little laxative
mixture, and the family-physician, who goes by fashion, approves of all
this. It is his habit, in after-life, to combat every little
costiveness, every digestive derangement, every incipient disease, by
means of his cathartic mixture, and his skill is considered
proportionate to the quantity of stuff which the bowels expel under the
operation of his drugs. Laxative pills, rhubarb, glauber-salts,
bitter-waters, aloes, gin, etc., etc., are in every body's hands, and
become an increasing necessity for millions. An ancient prejudice
decrees that, to permit a single day to pass by without stool, would be
to expose one's life to the greatest danger. Every year we see thousands
rush to warm and cold springs that have the reputation of being
possessed with dissolvent and cathartic properties. Those who cannot
afford to go to the springs, use artificial mineral water in order to
accomplish similar purposes. Very seldom a disease is met with, that is
permitted to run its course without dissolvent or cathartic means. It is
still a profitable business to sell patent purgatives, such as cider in
which a little magnesia has been dissolved.

Everybody feels how offensive these things are to nature; how they
attack the stom