k, at the Monongahela, scorned to
have his regulars, who had fought under Marlborough and Eugene, break
ranks before a lot of breech-clouted savages, and take shelter that the
nature of the ground and the trees could afford, thinking it an unfit
action for men who had faced the veterans of Louis XIV on many a
hard-fought European field. I sometimes think that if _our_ regulars
were, for only a season, to follow the example of the provincial
militia at that battle, it would be better for the country, the people,
science, and last, but not the least, for the profession. The theory
that we should not counsel with quacks is altogether mischievous and
fallacious, although right and rigidly orthodox in its intent; were we
to counsel and meet these gentry, we should expose their ignorance and
assumption, and we should not be exposed to the charge of jealousy and
of fear to meet them in consultation. I remember on one occasion a
client went to a lawyer for advice as to how he might dispossess some
parties who had some adverse claim to some property which he owned,
after due deliberation and a protracted siege of the house, in the vain
hope of gaining admittance; the lawyer advised his client to go and nail
up all exits and fasten them in, which had the effect of driving them
out. So with our profession--we should not neglect an opportunity of
meeting a quack in consultation, regardless of the nature of the case;
it is the only way to nail them up; as it is, we have simply chained up
the shepherd-dog and given the wolves full play.

The French Guards at Fontenoy, who out of courtesy refused to fire first
on the English, may have been very ethical and chivalrous, but they were
very foolish, as the English discharge nearly swept them from the field,
and but for the Irish Brigade, who knew no ethics, Louis XV would in all
likelihood have followed the example of King John, who, after Crecy,
visited England for a season. A disregard of ethics gave Copenhagen to
Lord Nelson, who insisted on looking at Admiral Parker's signal to
withdraw from action with his sightless eye, which could not see it. A
fear of disregarding ethics lost to Grouchy the chance of assisting
Napoleon at Waterloo. In our strife against ignorance and quackery the
profession should follow the general plan of action usually adopted by
Lord Nelson--lie alongside of whom you can and sink or capture your
enemy; let each man do his duty; never mind any general plan. A re