one will question that it would affect the betting on his side
unfavorably; we will say to the amount of five per cent. Now the drain
upon the resources of the system produced in such a case must be at its
minimum, for the subject is a powerful man, in the prime of life, and in
admirable condition. If the drug or the blister takes five per cent.
from his force of resistance, it will take at least as large a fraction
from any invalid. But this invalid has to fight a champion who strikes
hard but cannot be hit in return, who will press him sharply for breath,
but will never pant himself while the wind can whistle through his
fleshless ribs. The suffering combatant is liable to want all his
stamina, and five per cent. may lose him the battle.

All noxious agents, all appliances which are not natural food or stimuli,
all medicines proper, cost a patient, on the average, five per cent. of
his vital force, let us say. Twenty times as much waste of force
produced by any of them, that is, would exactly kill him, nothing less
than kill him, and nothing more. If this, or something like this, is
true, then all these medications are, prima facie, injurious.

In the game of Life-or-Death, Rouge et Noir, as played between the Doctor
and the Sexton, this five per cent., this certain small injury entering
into the chances is clearly the sexton's perquisite for keeping the green
table, over which the game is played, and where he hoards up his gains.
Suppose a blister to diminish a man's pain, effusion or dyspnoea to the
saving of twenty per cent. in vital force; his profit from it is fifteen,
in that case, for it always hurts him five to begin with, according to
our previous assumption.

Presumptions are of vast importance in medicine, as in law. A man is
presumed innocent until he is proved guilty. A medicine--that is, a
noxious agent, like a blister, a seton, an emetic, or a cathartic
--should always be presumed to be hurtful. It always is directly
hurtful; it may sometimes be indirectly beneficial. If this presumption
were established, and disease always assumed to be the innocent victim of
circumstances, and not punishable by medicines, that is, noxious agents,
or poisons, until the contrary was shown, we should not so frequently
hear the remark commonly, perhaps erroneously, attributed to Sir Astley
Cooper, but often repeated by sensible persons, that, on the whole, more
harm than good is done by medication. Throw out opium, whic