Mesmerism in its relation to health and disease, and the present state of medicine

Front matter

IN ITS

RELATION TO HEALTH AND DISEASE.

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Contents

CHAPTEK I.

THE PRESENT STATE OF MEDICINE.

VAt. I!

Chapter II. The Faculty And Novelties

conservative tendency of the Faculty — Their position makes them magnify the old and decry the new — They habitually oppose new remedies — Sir William Hamilton's opinion— Reception of antimony, &c.— Circulation of the blood— The stethoscope— Inoculation— Vaccination— Girolamo Cardano— The Medical Faculty of Paris.

CHAPTER 111.

THE FACULTY AND MESMERISM.

1 he cry against Harvey and .Tenner revived against Dr. Elliotson— His character—A presumption in favour of Mesmerism— The profession that opposed vaccination because it was new, might he expected to oppose the new curative that was to interfere with their monopoly— Their vituperation of Mesmerism— Wish to keep the public from inquiry— Mesmerists provoked, yet make allowance for tho Faculty's position.

VU1

CONTENTS.

Chapter IV. Who Is To Judge ?

octors not qualified to judge of what they are prejudiced against-The profession are ignorant of Mesmerism-Reasons why they oppose it— Professional pride-Comraitted against it-Purse-prudence-The Faculty threaten inquirers Many doctors afraid to avow their belief in Mesmerism— The profession an interested party-Dr. Elliotson's opinion of Mesmerism-It is to be judged by those who have studied it— Its applications are numerous and varied The Faculty proscribe it-The old stage-coachman and the new rai way Won t let their patients try it — However, scores of doctors practise it— It is widely practised, by doctors, on the Continent,

PACK

Chapter V

the curative force.

Introductory quotation— The vis medicatrix Nature— All cures are effected by it alone— Medical allusions to it necessarily vague — It originates in the brain, and is conducted by the nerves to the organs — The heart is impelled to action by it— All organic function depends on it— When it is deficient, disease is induced, which is cured by restoring the due supply— This brain force can be stimulated by mental influence— Miss Martineau's deafnessinteraction of body and mind — Certain emotions disturb the nerval action — Mental influence, or “change of air" — Its effects on the brain-force limited— Drugs required to produce a sufficient action of the brain and nerves Their curative power depends solely on such action — Dr. A. Thomson s opinion Certain drugs affect only certain nerves — Proved, not bv reason, but by experience— The Mesmeric process stimulates the brain-force to sufficient action — Also satisfactorily proved by experience — The circulation of the brain-force can be controlled by the will— Dr. Watson's opinion Can be projected, by the will, from the nervous system of the operator upon the nervous system of the patient— Dr. Esdailo's opinion— Such communication of brain-force (implementing one brain with the force of another) is more efficacious than the application of drugs— It has more certainty— It does not exhaust the patient— Occult property of drugs— The force by which

they stimulate the brain to action is probably imponderable Dr. Dickson's

opinion— All curative agents stimulate the brain-force by acting on the nerves— Galvanism— Kinesipathy— Hydropathy— Effects of heat and cold on tlie nerval circulation — Health depends on the nerval circulation duly stimulating the entire organism— Tho Mesmeric process implements and regulates tho nerval circulation— Its consistoucy with tho providential go vernment .

CONTENTS.

IX

Chapter VI. Concerning Mesmerism

PAGE

All diseases originate in deficiency of brain-force, or disturbance of it in the nerval currents ; and Mesmerism cures them by readjusting it — Mesmerism can produce any organic movement that drugs can — The Mesmeric force illustrated by irrigation — It cannot cure certain organic diseases, yet its application is always beneficial — The time required for its application — It cures tumours, &c., by stimulating the absorbents — It cures inflammation by extracting the cause, which is over-supply of the brain-force — Inflammation illustrated — Cases related by Dr. Watson — Counter-irritation cures by regulating the brain-force — Wounds cured, by inflammatory action, in the same way— Drugs are useful— Continued during Mesmerism— Effects of prematurely stopping Mesmeric treatment — Mesmerism may be misapplied — Illustrious illustration — The Mesmeric process perfectly safe when properly applied The Mesmeric sleep — Causes of insanity — Curable by Mesmerism —Dr. Keane’s cases— Summary of the subject— Mesmerism an illustration of the simplicity of Nature’s laws,

The objectors to Clairvoyance— Their humility— They begin to investigate Mesmerism at the wrong end— Their reason for doing so — Sir W. Hamilton’s

opinion of Clairvoyance— Clairvoyant power of natural somnambulists

Clairvoyance induced by disease-Natural clairvoyants— Second sight— Clairvoyant dreaming— The testimony of Mesmerists the most unexceptionable- Conditions of Clairvoyance— Eyesight as incomprehensible as Clairvoyance-Nerval communication cannot be effected, through the medium of hght, without an eye; but it can through another medium-The use of Clairvoyance Its adaptation to another state— Illustration,

Chapter VIII. History Op Mesmerism

nial of Paganism — Illusissics — Fragmentary evit down” by persecution — — As witch-persecution idividuals— Grcatrakes—

X

CONTENTS.

r AGE

bt. Ewald's reputed miracle— Dr. Elliotson's note upon it— Antiquity of Mesmerism in India— Connexion with priestcraft— Present native practice —Mesmeric phenomena traced in traditions— Attested by the Old Testament — Retrospect — Advance of Mesmeric art — In spite of ancient priestcraft, modern superstition, and medical monopoly — The medical press Mes-

merism is advocated by physicians of European reputation— Its position in Scotland— In England— On the Continent, 145-

Chapter IX. Objections To Mesmerism

Tlie Faculty ignorant of Mesmerism — Their pretended investigations — Their disingenuousness illustrated by th e Encyclopcedia Britannica and the Quarterly Review — Their education does not qualify them to judge of Mesmerism — Their research confined to what is in harmony with their previous opinions— Their objections to Mesmerism unworthy of consideration — Exposure of general objections : — You can't put me to sleep — Mesmerism is contrary to the laws of Nature — Is opposed to reason — Is not supported by great names— Is imagination — Causes congestion of the brain — Is Satanic agency — Gives one undue power over another — Such objections are advanced by people who will not inquire — Anti-mesmeric folly — Sages of Timbuctoo — Unconscious state induced by opium and chloroform — The Q. E. D. — Man can obtain knowledge of facts only by using his eyes — Without this, reason cannot arbitrate, 175

Chapter X. Mesmerism In The Family

Considerations brought out in the previous chapters — 1st, Tho drug-system is not in a satisfactory state — The Faculty discourage inquiry into their professional attainments— The public should institute such inquiry. — 2d, The Faculty are not competent to pronounce on new curatives — Their opinion of Mesmerism is worthless. — 3d, Mesmerism is established on facts — Disease is tho consequence of deficiency, or disturbance of the vis mcdicatrix Naturce — Mesmerism cures disease by implementing and regulating the vis medicalrlx Naturce. — ith, The duty of tho public to inquire into the truth of Mesmerism — Belief in Mesmerism rapidly spreading — Difficulty of procuring inesinerizers — The difficulty met — Mesmerism in the family — Its easy application as a preventative — Idiosyncrasies of patients — Nervous |atients — The application of mesmerism demands time, strength, and experience— Difficulties in tho way of family Mesmerism obviated by consulting an experienced Mesmerist — The system tested by the Author,

CONTENTS.

SI

Appendix

l'AGK

No. I. The FACULTT, 219

II. Chloroform 222

IV. Cases of Mesmeric Cure, 239

MESMERISM.

Chapter I. The State Of Medicine

Necessary to consider the drug system — Doctors prejudiced against Mesmerism — Their decree may be questioned — The public have a right to inquire — Dates no criterion — The two claimants — The Faculty the aggressors ; Mesmerists, in self-defence, have to expose them — Uncertainty of medical art — Dr. Abercrombie’s opinion — Errors in diagnosis — Errors in remedies — Opinions of literary men — Medical authorities.

Before considering Mesmerism, Nature’s curative force, it is expedient to glance at the drug system, in order that, having some idea of its powers and modes of action, the state of medicine, with its capabilities, pretensions, and the prejudices to which these have given birth, may be duly appreciated. A just appreciation of the old, is the first step to a just appreciation of the new.

It is natural that doctors should be prejudiced against, and therefore unwilling to believe in, Mesmerism, which proposes to cure all diseases with one appliance, seeing that their own art, to which their professional experience is confined, has so often completely failed in curing one disease with a hundred appliances; and the esteem to which they are entitled is not lessened by their being

MESMERISM.

Me, like other people, to be biassed by prejudice. But when they take upon themselves to decree that no such specific can, should, or shall exist, and that they who speak to the contrary are dupes, or worse, reverence for the profession must become so tempered with courtesy for the rest of the human species, as to allow any common man to ask plainly, Who constituted you the judge ?

Moreover, when doctors say that they alone can cure the public, the public have a right, it may be presumed, to inquire if that really be a fact.

It might be seemly to take the word of a time-honoured institution regarding the infallibility which it arrogates to itself, in a question of mere speculation ; but, when the health of mankind is involved, a plain common-sense consideration of the subject may not seem unreasonable to those who are not prepared to shape their belief by the sanction of antiquity, and the routine of custom. To say that the old has fittest adaptation to the times in which we live, because it is old, is just as convincing as to say, that the new has fittest adaptation because it is new. The question is, What is the old, and what is the new ?

The claimants are Medicine and Mesmerism. A short statement of their claims, put in juxtaposition, may prepare the way for a verdict.

It may be remarked in passing, that Mesmerists have shewn no wish to depreciate the Faculty, or prevent them exercising what gifts of healing they can command. In common with all ranks of society, they render homage to their great learning and well-known zeal ; and they do not believe that the profession contains more than its fair proportion of incompetent members. But when the Faculty become the aggressors — when, not contented with prescribing drugs, they take advantage of their posi-

THE STATE OF MEDICINE.

tion to poison the public mind, under sanction of their corporate fame won in other paths, and but for which their assertions would be as harmless as they are unfounded— Mesmerists are compelled, in self-defence, to institute a few inquiries regarding what would secure monopoly by using such unjustifiable means.

Is THE DRUG SYSTEM PERFECT ?

Dr. Abercrombie, in his Intellectual Powers , says, “ When, in the practice of medicine, we apply to new cases the knowledge acquired from others which we believe to have been of the same nature, the difficulties are so great, that it is doubtful whether in any case we can properly be said to act upon experience, as we do in other departments of science. For we have not the means of determining with certainty that the condition of the disease, the habit of the patient, and all the circumstances which enter into the character of the affection, are in any two cases precisely the same ; and if they differ in any one particular, we cannot be said to act from experience, but only from analogy. The difficulties and sources of uncertainty which meet us at every stage of such investigations are, in fact, so great and so numerous, that those who have had the most extensive opportunities of observation will be the first to acknowledge that our pretended experience must , in general, sink into analogy , and even our analogy too often into conjecture.”

Tim pre-eminent characteristic of medical art, then, according to one of the greatest Allopathic authorities, is its uncertainty. Giving all credit to the doctors for their learning, zeal, and good intentions, and allowing that they have effected much good, especially in their treatment of simple complaints, it is no less a fact that they often prescribe without knowing what the disease

MESMERISM.

actually is, and that, even when they have discovered the disease, they very often prescribe the wrong drugs.*

It is admitted by those “ who have had the most extensive opportunities of observation,” that the “ pretended experience” is a mere system of guessing ; in which the rare sagacity of an Abercrombie, trained in as rare an experience, may be seldom at fault, but in which— not to mention the commonality of the profession— the learning of the “ respectable physician” serves too often only to bewilder the owner, and lead him into ingenious mistakes.

Accordingly it is universally found, that the more complicated the disease is, the more conflicting the prescriptions are : the first physician being certain of one thing, the second of another, the third of another, and so on, — each one merely vouching the product of the whole — uncertainty ! medically illustrating the aphorism of the philosopher, “ all that we know is, that nothing can be known.”

How often do we hear of a case like the following, related by Dr. Edward Johnson : — u A friend of mine once consulted six London physicians in one day, and then brought all their prescriptions to me ; and it was most amusing to read over and compare these prescriptions. There were not two which , in the slightest degree , resembled each other. I proposed to my friend that he should take them all six. But he adopted a wiser course, and

* Tho remarks in this volume on the uncertainty of drugs, do not apply to the system of Homoeopathy, in so far as it is founded upon law. " The only thing we have to desire is, that a medicinal agent agrees with, or, in other terms, that it has in itself tho power of producing most of the symptoms wo discover in diseases ; that, consequently, it is in a position, when employed as a counter-irritant, in the form of medicine, to destroy or extinguish these same symptoms in the diseased body." — Hahnemann.

THE STATE OF MEDICINE.

took none of them. The truth is, that, in the treatment of chronic diseases at least, the exhibition of drugs is pure speculation. There is nothing certain in the matter, but the certainty of doing mischief. The result of all this is that an entirely new set of diseases has sprung up among mankind, which have regularly taken their places amongst other ordinary human maladies, and are classed together as ‘ drug-diseases and each is named after the name of the drug which produces it. And we hear medical men talking familiarly together, and as unconcernedly about mercurial tremor, mercurial eythema, arsenical disease, iodism, narcotism, &c. &c., as though these disorders were inflicted upon us by Providence instead of by their own mal-practices ! It is by no means uncommon for one medical man to be called in to cure a disease which has been caused by the drugs of his medical brother !”

The following case, communicated in the Zoist , by Dr. Elliotson, is selected as illustrating how two celebrated doctors can recommend exactly opposite methods of treatment; whilst it also shews how Mesmerism effected what drugs could not, and how a doctor can expose himself in order to disparage the Mesmeric cure, that so unpleasantly contrasted with his failure — not an uncommon case. The patient laboured under a severe form of St. Vitus’s dance, of nine years' duration.— “Dr. Marshall Hall prescribed ‘ mustard cataplasms to the spine , cupping on the back of the neck every fifth day, and mercury to such an extent that not one sound tooth is left in the patient’s head. ’ He treated th e case for three mon th s, an d wish ed t o continue Ins plan for a twelvemonth. The friends, however, interfered, and Sir Benjamin Brodie was consulted, ‘ who condemned the treatment in the most unqualified manner, declined to prescribe medicines, or to see the patient

It

MESMERISM.

again, and stated that nothing more could be done than to endeavour, by every means, to strengthen the debilitated frame.’ Dr. Hall, however, wrote a letter, still in the possession of the family, maintaining his opinion, and treating Sir Benjamin Brodie’s opinion most contemptuously. On being consulted, Dr. Elliotson advised that, ‘ as Mesmerism had been begun, it should be continued rather than the case be abandoned; though I entreated them not to be disappointed, if no good resulted.’ And he adds,

‘ For the last four months, Mesmerism has been daily persevered with ; and the gradual but steady improvement in the strength, the sleep, and looks of the patient, and the decline of the disease, astonishes every one. Now that Dr. Hall has learned the improvement by Mesmerism, he says that he all along (while cupping every five days, and giving mercury freely, and proposing to do all this for twelve months !) suspected, and is now (Mesmerism having done great good) perfectly certain that the case was feigned! I should like to observe his countenance when he says so.’”

Dr. Forbes, (now Sir John Forbes,) Physician to the Royal Household, says, — “ This comparative powerlessness and positive uncertainty of medicine is also exhibited in a striking light, when we come to trace the history and fortunes of particular remedies and modes of treatment, and observe the notions of practitioners, at different times, respecting their positive or relative value. What difference of opinion, — what an array of alleged facts directly at variance with each other, — what contradictions,— what opposite results of a like experience, — what ups and downs, — what glorification and degradation of the same remedy, — what confidence now, — what despair anon in encountering the same disease with the very

THE STATE OF MEDICINE.

same weapons, — what horror and intolerance at one time of the very opinions and practices which, previously and subsequently, are cherished and admired!”

Dr. Henderson, (Professor of General Pathology, Edinburgh University,) in his Homoeopathy Fairly Represented, says, “ No earnest or truth-loving man can peruse the facts recorded in the last chapter, without very seriously meditating on the state of medical affairs, or without the conviction, that there is something fearfully wrong, where both the public and the profession in general have been totally unsuspicious of error. These revelations are startling and new to most of us The

same truth, says Dr. Forbes, ‘ as to the uncertainty of practical medicine generally, and the utter insufficiency of the ordinary evidence to establish the efficacy of many of our remedies, as was stated above, has been almost always attained to by philosophical physicians of experience, in the course of long practice, and has resulted, in general, in a mild, tentative, or expectant [that is, no medicine,— W. H.] mode of practice in their old age, whatever may have been the vigorous or heroic doings of their youth.’ ( Brit . and For. Med. Rev.) As an instance in point, of a very notable kind, I may state, that Sir Benjamin Brodie recants, in the last edition of his work on the joints, some of the chief practical directions he had laid down thirty years before.”

I he Professor adds, — “ I have known an accomplished consulting physician, and an eminent general practitioner, overlook or mistake double pneumonia of great extent, and discover it only on dissection ; I have known a great advocate for cod-liver oil in consumption, mistake chronic pleurisy for the other disease; I have known an eminent stethoscopist, for mere irritation of the throat, which ho

MESMERISM.

treated with caustic, as usual, mistake pulmonary consumption, which was fatal within the week, by the bursting of a tubercular abscess into the pleura ; I have known an instance in which a notable hospital physician, not finding, on dissection, the pulmonary disease he had mapped out and described to his pupils, adroitly remarked, ‘ Gentlemen, you perceive the appearances on dissection don’t correspond with the stethoscopic signs heard during life,’ (the lung was sound ;) and, not to he tedious, when samples alone are required, I believe Dr. Simpson knows of a case of diabetes mellitus, which a whole bevy of ‘ foremost’ physicians mistook for some chronic inflammation within the cranium, and treated accordingly. Let us hear no more of errors of diagnosis, else the list may be greatly enlarged. Humanum est err are.”

Medical Journals are full of cases in point ; for instance, “ it appears that considerable doubts existed in the minds of Dr. Man toll’s professional friends as to the exact nature of the affection, but by many it was supposed to be a lumbar abscess , connected, in all probability, with caries of some of the vertebras ; others, feeling a prominent swelling, partly hard and partly fluctuating, in the lumbar region, concluded, that there was a tumour of doubtful character. The patient used to suffer most excruciating agony. After death it was ascertained by Mr. Adams, that there was no disease either of the bones or the intervertebral substances ; that there was no trace of any abscess , all the surrounding tissues being quite healthy : but the vertebra were twisted in such a way, that, witli considerable lateral curvature, there existed a backward projection of the lumbar transverse processes, to an extent sufficient to form a prominence. The spinous processes were in their proper relation to each other.” — Lancet , July 8, 1854.

TIIE STATE OF MEDICINE.

Dr.Elliotsonsays, — “Medical men should he the humblest of all practitioners of art. Highly as I estimate the powers of my art, when carefully and earnestly employed, and invaluable as is a skilful, laborious, and conscientious medical man, we know in our hearts that we have yet hut an insufficient insight into disease ; that the investigation of cases is too difficult and too laborious to he carried on efficiently, in the greater number of them, by persons who see many in the day, whether in charities or in a profitable round ; that well-established measures require more pains for their perfect administration than are generally given ; that for a very large number of cases our means are very inadequate, for many all but useless ; and that medical men arc receiving money every day for doing little or no good.”

The student of Professor Dungleson's Work, Nciv Remedies , (Philadelphia,) is struck at almost every page with the conflicting and opposite views expressed by practitioners, in reference to the effects of the medicines therein treated of. By some, a particular remedy is extolled in high terms ; by others, it is declared to be of little value.

Dr. S. Dickson says, — “ So completely at variance with each other are even the greatest authorities on every subject in medicine, that I do not know a single disease in which you will find any two of them agreeing.”

And, in fact, to have an idea of the uncertainty of the medical art, one has merely to fix on any disease, and learn the conflicting opinions that it has given rise to. Take consumption, for instance. The celebrated Stohl attributed the frequency of consumption to the introduction of the Peruvian bark : the equally celebrated Morton considered the bark an effectual cure. Reid ascribed its frequency to the use of mercury : Brillonet asserted that it is only curable by this mineral. Rush says, that consumption is

MESMERISM.

an inflammatory disease, and should be treated by bleeding, purging, cooling medicines, and starvation: Salvadori maintained the disease to be one of debility, and that it should be treated by tonics, stimulating remedies, and a generous diet. Galen, among the ancients, recommended vinegar as the best preventive of consumption : Dessault and other modern writers assert, that consumption is often brought on by a common practice of young people taking vinegar to prevent their getting fat. Dr. Beddoes recommended foxglove as a specific in consumption : Dr. Parr, with equal confidence, declared that he found foxglove more injurious in his practice than beneficial !

See, again, how the Academy of Paris settles one of the commonest of all complaints ! The extract is taken from the Medical Times. — “ The Academy of Medicine has been engaged for several days, in a discussion of the best means of treating acute articular rheumatism, [rheumatism of the joints ;] but all the talent, experience, and learning displayed, have little other effect than to shew how 1 doctors can differ,’ when the cure of disease becomes the question of debate. Yet how can men agree on the treatment of a malady, when they differ essentially in their opinions concerning its nature ? Many members of the Academy — Bouillaud, Piorry, and others, see nothing in acute articular rheumatism, save inflammation of the joint. M. Grisolle regards rheumatism as a general disease, and denies that inflammation has anything to say to it. Lastly, the majority of the Academy seem to consider the complaint as a special one, with which inflammation of the joints or other parts may be connected in a secondary, but not essential manner. With such diversity of views, it is not astonishing that various plans of treatment should, in turn, be extolled or rejected. M. Bouillaud still sticks to his

THE STATE OF MEDICINE.

formula of bleeding, ‘ coup sur coup but tbe Academy evinced an evident disinclination to accept bis statistics, while it was shewn that it was impossible, from M. Bouillaud’s published cases, to determine the exact duration of the treatment. M. Piorry affirms, that it is reduced to less than four days by repeated bleedings ; and, moreover, informs us, that the celebrated formula of ‘ bleeding coup sur coup,’ was a larceny committed on him, the aforesaid Professor Piorry. M. Martin Solon insists on the superiority of nitre over all other remedies for the cure of articular rheumatism, and thinks that it is the one most appropriate to the nature of the disease. The sulphate of quinine, say others, is the only remedy on which dependence can be placed. Finally, according-to M. Dechilly, whose memoir gave rise to the five days’ discussion now alluded to, articular rheumatism is a local malady, and best treated by a succession of blisters over the affected joint. None of the various speakers alluded to the tendency of many cases of rheumatism, thus apparently cured, to pass into a chronic stage ; nor to the efficacy of the vapour and water treatments, which have assuredly, even in the hands of comparatively ignorant persons, been attended with surprising success, after what is called regular medicine had been tried for years, arid failed.”

“ The public,” says Dr. Elliotson, “ have no conception of the absurd mode in which medicines are administered, by men who have an abundance of practice, or of the oceans of liquid physic, and mountains of pills and powders, which are swallowed without having, either through being unfit for the case, or improper in the doses, or shortness of the period of administration, the smallest chance of benefiting the patient.”

Sir Benjamin Brodie seems to have employed the best

MESMERISM.

part of Ins life expressly to confirm what Sir John Forbes calls, this “ positive uncertainty” of the art of curing-. In Ins work on Diseases of the Joints and Spine , publshed in 1813, he enforces the advantages of bleeding leeching, cupping, calomel, blisters, setons, caustic, issues’ and long confinement to the recumbent position. In 1834 he published another edition, confirming what he had enforced in 1813. But in 1850, he published another edition, in which he declares that the treatment which he enforced in 1813, and confirmed in 1834, is in the very great majority of instances not only not useful , but actually injurious. His words are “ A more enlarged experience has satisfied me, that in the very great majority of instances this painful and loathsome treatment is not only not useful, but actually injurious. F or many years past, I have ceased to torment my patients, who were thus afflicted in any manner, and I am convinced, that the change of treatment has been attended with the hajipiest results.”

Lvcn regarding such a common disease as Erysipelas, Hr. Watson has to tell his students,— “ This is another of the diseases concerning the treatment of which there has been, and there is, a most embarrassing difference of opinion. Some, prescribing according to a name, tell you that it is inflammation, and, therefore, that the remedies of inflammation, and especially blood-letting, are to bo vigorouslv employed , others declare, that the safety of the jiatient lies in the early and liberal administration of wine and bark.”

And the same gentleman, from his chair, King’s College, pronounces the following, seemingly as such a matter of couisc, that he can scarcely keep from being humorous on the subject “ I believe, that by the free use of opium I saved the life of a relation of my own, an old lady, who was in danger of being worn out by the cough and bron-

THE STATE OF MEDICINE.

chial affection which attended the influenza. On the other hand, I have certainly known more than one person, labouring under extensive and severe bronchitis, so effectually quieted by a dose of the same medicine, that they never woke again !”

If these extracts were not sufficient, a quite unlimited number might be given, whereby it might be inferred, that those medical gentlemen should be exceedingly happy, who, on looking back, have not reason to say, “ I wish that I had not made that diagnosis, — that I had not administered that drug.”