roached, then it might well be said that
"ignorance is bliss;" but as it gives only the kind of security which
shutting the eyes affords against the dangers of a precipice, and
consequently leaves its victim doubly exposed, it is high time to
renounce its protection, and to seek those of a more powerful and
beneficent ally. Every medical man can testify that, natural character
and other circumstances being alike, those whose knowledge is the most
limited are the fullest of whims and fancies; the most credulous
respecting the efficacy of every senseless and preposterous remedy; the
most impatient of restraint, and the most discontented at suffering.

If any of my readers be still doubtful of the propriety or safety of
communicating physiological knowledge to the public at large, continues
the author from whom we last quoted, and think that ignorance is in all
circumstances to be preferred, I would beg leave to ask him whether it
was knowledge or ignorance which induced the poorer classes in every
country of Asia and Europe to attempt to protect themselves from cholera
by committing ravages on the medical attendants of the sick, under the
plea of their having poisoned the public fountains? And whether it was
ignorance or knowledge which prompted the more rational part of the
community to seek safety in increased attention to proper food, warmth,
cleanliness, and clothing? In both cases, the desire of safety and sense
of danger were the same, but the modes resorted to by each were as
different in kind as in result, the efficacy of the one having formed a
glaring contrast to the failure of the other.

Dr. Southwood Smith, the able author of a volume entitled "The
Philosophy of Health," says, The obvious and peculiar advantages of this
kind of knowledge are, that it would enable its possessor to take a more
rational care of his health; to perceive why certain circumstances are
beneficial or injurious; to understand, in some degree, the nature of
disease, and the operation as well of the agents which produce it as of
those which counteract it; to observe the first beginnings of deranged
function in his own person; to give to his physician a more intelligible
account of his train of morbid sensations, as they arise; and, above
all, to co-operate with him in removing the morbid state on which they
depend, instead of defeating, as is now, through ignorance, constantly
the case, the best concerted plans for the renovation of heal