persuade us, irresistibly hurried, are precisely those sanctioned by prevailing fashion. No man's passions are beyond his control : were they, where would be his accountability? and where the reasonableness of any laws, human or divine? The truth is, that, wherever the determination exists, no difficulty is found in subjecting the most violent, headstrong, and unruly propensities, to a due degree of salutary restraint. Though strong passions are implanted in the human heart, the human mind is endued with powers quite adequate to keep those passions in check. It is true, that instances are on record of persons arriving at a great age who had been guilty of excesses; but these can be viewed in no other light than as a few exceptions to a general rule, appearing to be frequent only because they are frequently obtruded on our notice by those who take shelter under them. Were the premature deaths occasioned by intemperance made public, the long-lived drunkards and debauchees would appear to them as a drop to the ocean. Besides, there is reason to believe that these vaunted examples in a great measure counteracted the dangers to which they exposed themselves, by an early observance of some or other of the material rules essential to the maintenance of the principles of life; such, for instance,

"A man can always conquer his passions if he pleases; but he cannot always please to conquer his passions.”—(D.B.)

as adhering to great regularity in point of hours, both rising early and going early to rest. It may also be reasonably contended, that, if such persons lived to a great age notwithstanding their intemperance, they would have lived much longer had they followed a different course.* Another view may be taken of the subject. Two men arrive at a considerable age, the one has been a temperate, the other an intemperate liver. Now, the former finds substantial enjoyment every day of his life; and therefore (in a peculiar sense) lives throughout the whole period of his existence whilst the other, from the impaired state of his functions, frequently experiences debility and pain, during the greater part of his years, and most certainly in his latter days. "No man," says Colton, "can promise himself fifty years of life; but any man may, if he please, live in the proportion of fifty years in forty." Few die a natural death, and fewer allow themselves to live to a natural old age.

"You are old, Father William, the young man cried,
The few locks which are left you are grey;
You 're hale, Father William, a hearty old man ;
Now tell me the reason, I pray.

"In the days of my youth, Father William replied,
I remembered that youth would fly fast,
And abused not my health and my vigour at first,
That I never might need them at last."

MEDICAL REFORM.

"The first physicians by debauch were made:
Excess began, and still sustains, the trade;
By chace our long-lived fathers earned their food,
Toil strung the nerves, and purified the blood."

THE practice of medicine may be considered in two points of view, as a science and as a trade. As a science, if conscientiously and faithfully administered, it will be found of the highest possible benefit to the community at large; but, practised as a trade, and subjected to the influence of rivalry, in supplying the article of advice, which appears to be admitted to be "the staple commodity," it becomes most pernicious.

When a medical man first enters the field of practice, he frequently finds, that, by dominant customs, he is prohibited from pursuing unfettered, the true principles of his science, and successfully reducing those principles to their practical use. To explain in some measure the cause of this subjection, I need only refer to the words of an eminent physician, now in full practice. "There

exists a fashion in medicine (observes this author) as in the other affairs of life, regulated by the caprice, and supported by the authority, of a few leading practitioners, which has frequently been the occasion, of dismissing from use valuable medicines, and substituting others less certain in their effects, and more questionable in their nature."

An insurmountable barrier to the practice of medicine upon pure scientific principles, therefore, presents itself. The tempers of individuals, must, it appears, be studied, together with the follies and prejudices of the day; otherwise, the reputation, and consequently the interests, of the practitioner will suffer. Injurious as is monopoly in commerce, to the general interests of society, its consequences are utterly insignificant, compared with the injuries resulting from monopoly in the practice of medicine. The one does but affect the pecuniary interests, which will admit of reparation; the other goes far towards causing, and in many instances does actually cause, mischief to the constitution of an invalid, which it baffles all the skill of other physicians to repair.

Such are the prejudices accompanying modern professional education, that there appear to be but two alternatives for the young aspirant to

medical fame; namely, either to practise upon empirical principles, making the bodies of his patients perpetual receptacles for the contents of the apothecary's shop, or to give up his attendances altogether.

After an education involving much expense, great sacrifice of time, and severe study, it is hardly to be expected that the first of these alternatives will not be preferred; and, in fact, we see, that, rather than abandon practice altogether, the new member of the profession falls at once into the habits of his fashionable brethren, and readily conforms to their modes of treating diseases-modes which have become almost as variable as those of our dress, and not unlike them in their nature either, the overthrow of one system being frequently the signal for the introduction of its opposite. By this acquiescence in conflicting doctrines, the medical tyro, just emerging from his studies, is enabled to enter upon his momentous charge; and thus, it is to be regretted, too often makes medicine a mere trade; and a trade, too, which, unfortunately for the human race, has not, like other trades or liberal professions, its established standards and fixed rules to which all questions of doubt and difficulty may be referred. I am aware that it will be said, "We acknowledge the imperfect state of medical science; but, till it