ontents, whether favoring one side
or other of the argument, have been transcribed.

The title of the work requires a word of explanation. It is not
intended, or even intimated, that there are no facts here but what rest
on medical authority; but rather, that the work originated with the
medical profession, and contains, for the most part, testimony which is
exclusively medical--either given by medical men, or under their
sanction. In fact, though designed chiefly for popular reading, it is in
a good degree a medical work; and will probably stand or fall, according
to the sentence of approbation or disapprobation which shall be
pronounced by the medical profession.

The following chapter will contain the letters addressed to Dr. North.
They are inserted, with a single exception, in the precise order of
their date. The first, however, does not appear to have been elicited by
Dr. North's circular; but rather by a request in some previous letter.
It will be observed that several of the letters include more than one
case or experiment; and a few of them many. Thus the whole series
embraces, at the least calculation, from thirty to forty experiments.

The replies of nearly every individual are numbered to correspond with
the questions, as suggested by Dr. North; so that, if there should
remain a doubt, in any case, in regard to the precise point referred to
by the writer of the letter, the reader has only to turn to the circular
in the present chapter, and read the question there, which corresponds
to the number of the doubtful one. Thus, for example, the various
replies marked 6, refer to the length or duration of the experiment or
experiments which had been made; and those marked 9, to the aperient
effects of a diet exclusively vegetable. And so of all the rest.

CHAPTER II.

LETTERS TO DR. NORTH.

Letter of Dr. Parmly.--Dr. W. A. Alcott.--Dr. D. S.
Wright.--Dr. H. N. Preston.--Dr. H. A. Barrows.--Dr. Caleb
Bannister.--Dr. Lyman Tenny.--Dr. J. M. B. Harden.--Joseph
Ricketson, Esq.--Joseph Congdon, Esq.--George W. Baker,
Esq.--John Howland, Jr., Esq.--Dr. Wm. H. Webster.--Josiah
Bennet, Esq.--Wm. Vincent, Esq.--Dr. Geo. H. Perry.--Dr. L. W.
Sherman.

LETTER I.--FROM DR. PARMLY, DENTIST.

To Dr. North.

MY DEAR SIR,--For two years past, I have abstained from the use of all
the diffusible stimulants, using no animal food, either flesh, fish, or
fowl; nor any alcoholic or