FORTY YEARS
IN THE WILDERNESS
OF
PILLS AND POWDERS;
OR, THE
COGITATIONS AND CONFESSIONS OF
AN AGED PHYSICIAN.
BOSTON:
JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY.
NEW YORK:
C. M. SAXTON AND COMPANY.
ROCHESTER, NEW YORK: E. DARROW AND BROTHER.
1859.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by
JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the district of
Massachusetts.
LITHOTYPED BY COWLES AND COMPANY,
17 WASHINGTON ST., BOSTON.
Printed by Geo. C. Rand and Avery.
PREFACE.
The present volume was one of the last upon which its author wasengaged, the facts having been gathered from the experience andobservation of a long life. It was his design to publish themanonymously, but under the changed circumstances this is renderedimpracticable.
A short time previous to his death, the writer spoke of this work, andsaid, in allusion to the termination of his own somewhat peculiarcase,—"This last chapter must be added." In accordance with thisdesire, a brief sketch, having reference chiefly to his health andphysical habits, with the closing chapter of his life, has beenappended.
Boston, June, 1859.
TO THE READER.
In the sub-title to the following work, I have used the word"Confessions"—not to mislead the reader, but because to confess isone prominent idea of its author. It is a work in which confessions ofthe impotence of the healing art, as that art has been usuallyunderstood, greatly abound; and in which the public ignorance of thelaws of health or hygiene, with the consequences of that ignorance, arepresented with great plainness. The world will make a wiser use of itsmedical men than it has hitherto done, when it comes to see more clearlywhat is their legitimate and what their ultimate mission.
These remarks indicate the main intention of the writer. It is not somuch to enlighten or aid, or in any way directly affect the medical man,as to open the eyes of the public to their truest interests; to a justknowledge of themselves; and to some faint conception of their bondageto credulity and quackery. The reader will find that I go for scienceand truth, let them affect whom they may. Let him, then, suspend hisjudgment till he has gone through this volume once, and I shall have nofears. He may, indeed, find fault with my style, and complain of myliterary or philosophic unfitness for the task I assigned myself; but he[Pg vi]will, nevertheless, be glad to know my facts.
Should any one feel aggrieved by the exposures I have made in thedetails which follow, let me assure him that no one is moreexposed—nor, indeed, has more cause to be aggrieved—than myself. Letus all, then, as far as is practicable, keep our own secrets. Let us notshrink from such exposures as are likely, in a large measure, to benefitmankind, while the greatest possible inconvenience or loss to ourselvesis but trifling.
Some may wish that instead of confining myself too rigidly to naked factand sober reasoning, I had given a little more scope to the imagination.But is not plain, "unvarnished" truth sometimes not only "stranger,"but, in a work like this, better also, than any attempts at "fiction"?
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