Page:The Poor Rich Man, and the Rich Poor Man.djvu/188



writer of the preceding pages would not be supposed to want a due respect for the art of medicine; that it sometimes cures and sometimes alleviates, there can he no doubt; but, does not the patient often resort to it, and resort to it in vain, when, if he had studied and obeyed the laws of physiology, he would not have needed the aid it cannot give.

The laws of Him who made us are perfect. "It is a very different thing to comply blindly with the directions which come to us simply on the authority of a man like ourselves, and to comply intelligently with those which claim our obedience on the authority of the Creator."

The suggestions made in this volume, on the use of ablutions, ventilation, flannel, &c., for the preservation of health, are derived from the admirable and popular work of Andrew Combe on Physiology, and from an observation of the benefit derived from the actual application of his rules. We give a few brief extracts from hi& work, and wish that the whole, in a more popular form, were in every habitation in our land.

"Taking," says Mr. Combe, "even the lowest estimate of Lavoisier, we find the skin endowed