verse
to this mode of fighting invariably lost the battle to the French and
Spaniards, who were, as a rule, all tied up in ethical red tape. Our
profession is broad, intelligent, and fearless; we do not profess any
exclusive dogma, and should not, therefore, exclude persons; as a large
ship throws its grappling-irons on to its adversary, we should always
seek an opportunity to meet these gentry when practicable. As it is, we
have placed them on the vantage-ground of appearing as being persecuted;
our ethics need circumcising in this regard, and the prepuce of
exclusion should be buried in the sands of the desert.

Moreover, we often are apt to learn something from even the most
ignorant of these men. Rush investigated the nature of a cancer-cure by
not refusing to meet and talk with one of this kind;[28] Fothergill
learned from an old, unlicensed practitioner that there was a knowledge
important to the physician beyond that picked up in the pathological
laboratory or the study of microscopy; and that the practiced eye of an
otherwise unlearned man could detect that there were general physical
signs that negatived the unfavorable prognosis suggested by the presence
of tube-casts.[29] It is related of Sir Isaac Newton, that while riding
homeward one day, the weather being clear and cloudless, in passing a
herder he was warned to ride fast or the shower would wet him. Sir Isaac
looked upon the man as demented, and rode on, not, however, without
being caught in a drenching shower. Not being able to account for the
source of information through which the rustic had gained his
knowledge, he rode back, wet as he was, to learn something. "My cow,"
answered the man, "always twists her tail in a certain way just before a
rain, your Worship, and she so twisted it just before I saw you."[30]
Although twisting cow-tails do not figure in his "Principia," it is very
probable that such a lesson was not without its remote effects on a mind
like Newton's. A spider taught a lesson to one of Scotland's kings; so
that one man may learn something from another.

Professor Letenneur, of the Medical School of Nantes, in his "Causerie a
propos de la Circoncision," mentions that the Convent of Saint
Corneille, in Compiegne, claims to possess the identical instrument with
which the Holy Circumcision was performed. Such a holy relic must have
been unusually potential in performing many miracles.

In this connection it will not be amiss to notice