tion of symptoms, and by no means of the disease itself, a material point to be rightly understood, that the physician may not confound the actual disease with the action of the curative agent.

This action, though too great, may be left to die away, unless it be too violent, or too continuous; and in the latter case, tho proper antidote pointed out in the materia medica must be given. By following this course, the physician will have the pleasure to bring about the cure of his patient in a much shorter time, more certainty, and more effectually, than it was possible to effect at the commencement of homœopathic practice, in which it very frequently happens, that the physician, bewildered by doubts, had not the experience and the rules since acquired, to point the way.

REGIMEN.

Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty;
For in my youth I never did apply

Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood:
Nor did not, with unbashful forehead, woo
The means of weakness and debility.
Therefore my age is as a lusty winter-
Frosty, but kindly.

"By being old when I was young; I find myself young

now I am old,"

As you Like it, act II., scene 3.

The object of the physician in subjecting a patient to a certain regimen, is not to cure his disease, but merely to dispose his system to receive the salutary influence of an appropriate remedy. Before prescribing for a patient any mode of living, the physician should, therefore, reflect what circumstances of this kind there are, which may favour the use of intended medicaments, and what medicaments may obstruct their effects. The patient's regimen must be considered in two distinct relations: 1st, the things which the physician ought to advise; and, 2d, those which he ought to prohibit. In order to direct his choice, and enable him to enter those in two corresponding lists, he must, as a general rule, recommend only such things

as are nutritive, and not medicinal-those which promote the most natural distribution of the vital power: and he must prohibit those which would throw it into disorder. By having his mind impressed with these simple rules, the physician will be enabled to prescribe a good system of regimen for his patients; and it is under their guidance that we shall now consider this portion of our art. We shall accordingly have to examine,

1. The aliments derived from the vegetable kingdom. 2. Those derived from the animal kingdom.

3. Drinks.

4. Spices.

5. The air, and atmospheric influences.

6. Exercises, walking, dancing, carriage riding, riding on horseback, gymnastic exercises..

Vegetable Food.

The basis of most people's nourishment is, undoubtedly, borrowed from the vegetable kingdom. We have every reason for believing that the fruits of the earth constituted, originally, the only food of man. And even at the present day, we know that the Hindoo lives almost exclusively on rice and water.* In Ireland, a great proportion of the poor subsist on potatoes, with a small addition of oaten bread, while the labouring classes, in many districts of Scotland, nourish their robust frames on oat-meal, with

* The inhabitants of the isles of Pagues, those of New Spain, and the Dalearlians, according to Sporrman, live solely upon vegetables..

occasionally the addition of milk. Corn affords a species of food in universal use. Wheaten bread is the most perfeet of all alimentary substances, and therefore the most nutritious and wholesome food.

This is evinced by the feeling of strength and comfort which succeeds its use; and some degree of the same feeling is produced by every substance really nutritious which is apt to be assimilated with our frames, and which is free from noxious and medicinal properties. It is by contrary symptoms that we detect those substances, especially if taken too copiously, which are not simply nutritious.

Macarroni, vermicelli, sago, salep, arrowroot, French beans, peas, lentiles, when well prepared are excellent aliments. Very ripe melons, but in small quantities, may be allowed to patients whose digestion is sound; but in case of weakness of the digestive organs, it ought to be prohibited.

Strawberries and gooseberries, when perfectly ripe, or reduced to a jelly; rasberries, apricots, peaches, grapes, cherries, pears, apples; in short, all fruits of a good quality not sour and perfectly ripe, in some cases, baked or dressed with sugar, are very proper.

Animal Food.

Man is omnivorous; that is to say, he is destined by nature to live upon vegetable and animal substances, and not entirely upon the former. The natural appetite which

all persons have for meat, would alone be sufficient to establish the truth of this assertion; but it is also proved by the structure of the digestive organs, and by the real inconveniencies that arise from the entire use of either vegetables or viands.

Beef is, of all butchers' meat, the one generally found best adapted to the health of man. It, perhaps, best assimilates with our organs; and, as almost every nation pefers it, its consumption is greater than that of any other moat. We are less apt to grow tired by beef. All other kinds of meat, in spite of their natural relish and the flavour they acquire in skilful hands, soon cloy the appetite and disgust the stomach, probably because they do not possess the same affinity with our organization. If we are under the necessity of continuing to eat them, disgust is soon followed by disorder of the function. All other flesh requires to be much more frequently varied and intermingled with other substances. Mutton may almost be ranked along with beef, as it apparently assimilates readily with our organs. Ham, in consequence of the prepa ration it undergoes, is more easy of digestion, by a vigorous stomach, than other kinds of pork, and on that account, it may sometimes be allowed to the patient able to digest it; but it should even then be sparingly used. The flesh of the hare and roebuck may very properly be admitted into homœopathic regime. Being highly animalized, it is in every respect suitable. The various kinds of poultry may be allowed during treatment; but as their flesh is