"
for I have had none of the above diseases to contend with. But, since
your letter was received, I have been called to prescribe for a man who
has been a flesh eater for more than half a century. He was confined to
his house, had been losing strength for several months, still keeping up
his old habits. The disease which was preying upon him was chronic
inflammation of the right leg; the flesh had been so long swollen and
inflamed that it had become hard to the touch. There were ulcers on his
thigh, and some had made their appearance on the hip. This disease had
been of _seven months'_ standing, though not in so aggravated a form as
it now appeared. During this time, all the local applications had been
made that could be thought of by the good ladies in the neighborhood;
and after every thing of the kind had failed, they concluded to send for
"the doctor."

After examining the patient attentively, I became convinced that the
disease, which developed itself locally, was of a constitutional origin,
and of course could not be cured by local remedies. All local
applications were discontinued; the patient was put on a vegetable diet
after the alimentary canal was freely evacuated. I saw this man three
days afterward. The dark purple appearance of the leg had somewhat
subsided; the red and angry appearance about the base of the ulcers was
gone, his strength improved, etc. Three days after I called, I found him
in his garden at work.

He is now--two weeks since my first prescription--almost well. All the
ulcers have healed, with the exception of one or two. This man, who
thinks it wicked not to use the good things God has given us--such as
meat, cider, tobacco, etc.--is very willing to subsist, for the present,
on vegetable food, because he finds it the only remedy for his disease.

Early in the spring of 1830, while a student at Amherst College, I was
attacked with dyspepsia, which rendered my life wretched for more than a
year, and finally drove me from college; but it had now so completely
gained the mastery, that no means I resorted to for relief afforded even
a palliation of my sufferings. After I had suffered nearly two years in
this way, I was made more wretched, if possible, by frequent attacks of
colic, with pains and cramps extending to my back; and so severe had
these pains become, that the prescriptions of the most eminent
physicians afforded only partial relief.

On the 13th of February, 1833, after suffering