ten follows another. It is sometimes so in medicine. As soon as physicians had let go the absurd idea that diseases were the work of demons, had given up their useless mysticisms, and begun to look upon disease as the effect of natural causes—when Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology had helped to explain morbid phenomena, and rational means had come to be employed, practitioners commenced a course of active treatment and went to work with all their might to cure all diseases by positive medication. The sick were taught in all cases to resort immediately to medical means, and the ability of physicians to control diseases was much exaggerated. Medicinal substances were supposed to possess curative properties which never belonged to them, and excessive drugging was the consequence. Regardless of the recuperative powers of the animal organism, the public demanded of physicians to be cured of all bodily ills by active measures; and striving to fulfil such expectations and requirements, practitioners were almost irresistibly driven to adopt the most efficient means. All diseases in all stages were submit-
