the
most eminent of them had him under his care for a long time. I believe
he even visited, and staid a week or two, at a Water Cure Institution.
Yet he never acknowledged any benefit from this treatment. He finally
tried to unite allopathy and hydropathy, and to invoke their combined
forces. A meeting of myself and an eminent hydropathic practitioner was
appointed and held, but even this did not result in his recovery.

And yet he finally recovered, though I hardly know how. Such cases
force me to the acknowledgment that human physical nature is tough, that
we are machines made to live. Were it not so, this dyspeptic friend of
mine must, at a comparatively early age, have sank to the grave, a
victim of ignorance. He has, however, acquired wisdom in the school of
experience.

A brother of his, who was my patient in a similar complaint, and from
similar causes, recovered in a very few months. But he was not a mere
weathercock.

CHAPTER LXXXIV.

MEASLES WITHOUT SNAKEROOT AND SAFFRON.

In the early part of the year 1854, measles prevailed considerably, and
was rather severe even under the most favorable circumstances. In our
cities, such as New York and Boston, it destroyed a great number of
valuable lives. It was by no means confined to children; it attacked
adults, who had hitherto escaped it, as well as children.

One of my most intimate female friends, who was over forty years of age,
had often been exposed to it without taking it, and had begun to hope
she should escape through life. The family to which she belonged had it,
and in the end a blow fell on her. It alarmed her most fearfully. She
declared, again and again, that she should not and could not survive it,
and her fears greatly aggravated the severity of her symptoms.

She was well acquainted with the most enlightened views on the subject
of disease, and though her fears were great, she endeavored to pursue
the proper course at first, which, as she knew, consisted mainly in
supporting her strength as much as possible, in the most appropriate and
healthful ways. She had no thought, it would seem, of taking medicine.

But she had neighbors,--some of them of the gossiping kind,--who called
on her frequently, to convince her of the necessity of _taking something
to bring out the measles_, and to relate the pitiful story of Mr. and
Mrs. Such-an-one, who perished because they would do nothing to save
themselves, and to entreat her to take at least