The individual who is continually dabbling in medicines is a perpetual invalid, from the result of such everlasting dosing.
If you regard the concise, yet sufficient, instructions for preserving health laid down herein, particularly after noting the hints thrown out all through the body of the book, you will annually have less and less occasion for the use of medicines.
When you actually think you require a physician, get the best,—the best article is the cheapest in the end,—and abide by his counsel. I have told you of some remarkable characters in the history of medicine; but the harp and flowing locks of Apollo, the caduceus of Mercury, the staff of Æsculapius, the hoary beard of Hippocrates, the baton of De Sault, the three-tailed wig of Atkins, the silken coat and charming address of Dr. Reynolds, the gay equipage of Hannes, the library of Radcliffe, or the knowing nods and significant silence of some of the more modern doctors, will avail nothing in the time of great danger and distress.
It is the truly kind-hearted, humane, and educated physician upon whom you must depend in your time of need. Seek such. There are yet many; humanity is not a thing entirely of the past. Who loses faith in humanity has lost it in God. Do the best your circumstances allow in all things,—
“Angels can no more,”—
receiving all afflictions cheerfully, looking hopefully to God for his blessing, which faileth not, in all the walks of “this life and in that which is to come.”
Footnotes:
[1] Small door or window, through which to receive night calls, etc.