eason for this
being, according to this old-time physiological chemist, not that the
fishes are frozen to death, but that they are not able to obtain air in
the ice as they did in the water, and consequently perish.

There are many testimonials to the practical character of all his
knowledge and his desire to apply it for the benefit of humanity. The
old monk could not repress the expression of his impatience with
physicians who gave to patients for "diseases of which they knew little,
remedies of which they knew less." For him it was an unpardonable sin
for a physician not to have faithfully studied the various mixtures
that he prescribed for his patients, and not to know not only their
appearance and taste and effect, but also the limits of their
application. Considering that at the present time it is a frequent
source of complaint that physicians often prescribe remedies with even
whose physical appearance they are not familiar and whose composition is
often quite unknown to them, this complaint of the old-time chemist
alchemist will be all the more interesting for the modern physician. It
is evident that when Basil Valentine allows his ire to get the better of
him it is because of his indignation over the quacks who were abusing
medicine and patients in his time, as they have ever since. There is a
curious bit of aspersion on mere book learning in the passage that has a
distinctly modern ring, and one feels the truth of Russell Lowell's
expression that to read a classic, no matter how antique, is like
reading a commentary on the morning paper, so up-to-date does genius
ever remain:

"And whensoever I shall have occasion to contend in the School
with such a Doctor, who knows not how himself to prepare his
own medicines, but commits that business to another, I am sure
I shall obtain the Palm from him; For indeed that good man
knows not what medicines he prescribes to the sick; whether
the color of them be white, black, gray, or blew (_sic_), he
cannot tell; nor doth this wretched man know whether the
medicine he gives be dry or hot, cold or humid; but he only
knows that he found it so written in his books, and then
pretends to knowledge or as it were Possession by Prescription
of a very long time; yet he desires to further information.
Here again let it be lawful to exclaim, Good God, to what a
state is the matter brought! what Goodness of Minde is in