Facultative Carnivore

THE Natives of this Stoney Region subsist wholly by the chase and by fishing, the country produces no vegetables but berries on which they can live. The term " hunting " they apply only to the Moose and Rein Deer, and the Bear; they look for, and find the Beaver, they kill with the Gun, and by traps the Otter and other animals. Hunting is divided into what may be termed " tracking " and " tracing." Tracking an animal is by following it's foot-steps, as the Rein Deer and the Bear and other beasts; tracing, is following the marks of feeding, rubbing itself on the ground, and against trees, and lying down: which is for the Moose Deer, and for other animals on rocks and hard grounds. My remarks are from the Natives who are intimately acquainted with them, and make them their peculiar study. 

The first in order is the Moose Deer, the pride of the forest, and the largest of all the Deer, [it] is too well known to need a description. It is not numerous in proportion to the extent of country, but may even be said to be scarce. It is of a most watchful nature; it's long, large, capacious ears enables it to catch and discriminate, every sound; his sagacity for self preservation is almost incredible; it feeds in wide circles, one within the other, and then lies down to ruminate near the centre; so that in tracking of it, the unwary, or unskillful, hunter is sure to come to windward of, and start it; when, in about two hours, by his long trot, he is at the distance of thirty or forty miles, from where it started; when chased it can trot, (it's favorite pace) about twenty five to thirty miles an hour; and when forced to a gallop, rather loses, than gains ground. In calm weather it feeds among the Pines, Aspins and Willows; the buds, and tender branches of the two latter are it's food: but in a gale of wind he retires among the close growth of Aspins, Alders and Willows on low ground still observing the same circular manner of feeding and lying down. If not molested it travels no farther than to find it's food, and is strongly attached to it's first haunts, and after being harassed it frequently returns to it's usual feeding places. 

The flesh of a Moose in good condition, contains more nourishment than that of any other Deer; five pounds of this meat being held to be equal in nourishment to seven pounds of any other meat even of the Bison, but for this, it must be killed where it is quietly feeding; when run by Men, Dogs, or Wolves for any distance, it's flesh is altogether changed, becomes weak and watery and when boiled; the juices separates from the meat like small globules of blood, and does not make broth; the change is so great, one can hardly be persuaded it is the meat of a Moose Deer. The nose of the Moose, which is very large and soft, is accounted a great delicacy. It is very rich meat. The bones of it's legs are very hard and several things are made of them. His skin makes the best of leather. It is the noblest animal of the Forest, and the richest prize the Hunter can take. In the rutting season the Bucks become very fierce, and in their encounters sometimes interlock their large pal-mated horns so strongly that they cannot extricate them, and both die on the spot, and [this is a thing] which happens too often: three of us tried to unlock the horns of two Moose which had died in this manner, but could not do it, although they had been a year in this state, and we had to use the axe. In the latter end of September [1804] we had to build a trading house at Musquawegun Lake/ an Indian named Huggemowequan came to hunt for us, and on looking about thought the ground good for Moose, and told us to make no noise; he was told no noise would be made except the falling of the trees, this he said the Moose did not mind; when he returned, he told us he had seen the place a Doe Moose had been feeding in the beginning of May; in two days more he had unraveled her feeding places to the beginning of September. One evening he remarked to us, that he had been so near to her that he could proceed no nearer, unless it blew a gale of wind, when this took place he set off early, and shot the Moose Deer. This took place in the very early part of October. This piece of hunting the Indians regarded as the work of a matchless hunter beyond all praise. The Natives are very dextrous in cutting up, and separating the joints, of a Deer, which in the open season has to be carried by them to the tent, or if near the water, to a canoe; this is heavy work; but if the distance is too great, the meat is split and dried by smoke, in which no resinous wood must be used; this reduces the meat to less than one third of its weight. In winter this is not required, as the flat sleds are brought to the Deer, and the meat with all that is useful is hauled on the Snow to the tent. The Moose Deer, have rarely more than one Fawn at a birth, it's numbers are decreasing for, from it's settled habits a skillful hunter is sure to find, and wound, or kill this Deer, and it is much sought for, for food, for clothing and for Tents. The bones of the head of a Moose must be put into the water or covered with earth or snow.

Considering fresh meat, or the muscular part of animals, chemically, I see no reason why it should not be efficacious in preventing or curing the scurvy. Oxygene it contains, when raw , in a state of loose combination , though probably not in such large proportion as vegetable substances, even such as are not acid. I had noticed in travellers of great respectability passages that confirm this idea. The nations inhabiting the cold and dreary regions on the eastern shores of Asia , and the opposite coasts of America, seem to have learned from experience, that fresh, or at leaſt unsalted fish is a preventative of the scurvy, or a remedy for it .

Thus Dr. Pallas (Reise, iii. 47) describes the Ostiack Tartars of the Oby, as preparing their winter stores altogether without salt. “They are extremely apt, when disabled by age or infirmities, to become scorbutic. In winter they ravenously devour their frozen fish raw, a practice which the neighbouring Russians imitate , esteeming them a preservative against the 'scurvy.' (46.) 

Mr.Meares (Voyage, Introd. p. 30 .) speaking of an American tribe, says, “She made us sensible that the same disorder (scurvy) prevailed in her nation; and that whenever the symptoms appeared, they removed to the southward, where the climate was more genial, and where plenty of fish was to be obtained, which never failed to prove the means of their recovery.”

The reader will probably agree to consider the frozen as fresh fish. If it were possible to preserve meat on ship board, in this simple manner, one great source of the scurvy would probably be cut off. Cookery combines the oxygene anew; would our sailors eat raw animal food?

Dr. Lind, though he has full confidence in green vegetables, and affirms that the scurvy never can become a general, fatal, and destructive calamity, where they abound, and the proper method of treatment is known and pursued (p. 541.); he concludes from a number of comparative trials (p. 538), that certain patients in Haslar hospital in general grew better, notwithstanding they abstained altogether from vegetables.

"This strict abstinence from the fruits of the earth," says he, "was continued long enough to convince me, that the disease would often, from various circumstances, take a favourable turn, independent of any diet, medicine, or regimen ." We have nothing, I presume, to oppose in point of conclusiveness to such experiments made by a physician so intelligent and so experienced in this particular disease.

The Esquimaux are a people with whom we are very little acquainted, although in a manner surrounding us, they live wholly on the sea coast, which they possess from the gulph of the St. Lawrence, round the shores of Labrador to Hudsons Straits, these Straits and adjacent Islands, to Hudson's Bay, part of it's east shores ; but on the west side of this Bay, only north of Churchill River, thence northward and westward to the Coppermine River ; thence to the McKenzie and westward to Icy Cape, the east side of Behring's Strait. Along this immense line of sea coast they appear to have restricted themselves to the sea shores,* their Canoes give them free access to ascend the Rivers, yet they never do, every part they frequent is wholly destitute of growing Trees, their whole dependence for fuel and other purposes is on drift wood, of which, fortunately there is plenty. The whole is a dreary, monotonous coast of Rock and Moss without Hills or Mountains to the McKenzie River, thence westward the Mountains are near the shore. In the latter end of February and the months of March and April, from the mouth of the River seaward for several miles the Seals are numerous, and have many holes in the ice through which they come up : how these holes are made in the apparent solid ice, I never could divine ; to look into them, they appear like so many wells of a round form, with sides of smooth solid ice and their size seldom large enough to admit two seals to pass together. 

The Seals do not come up on the ice before nine or ten in the morning as the weather may be, and go down between two and three in the afternoon ; they are always on the watch, scarce a minute passes without some one lifting his head, to see if any danger is near from the Bear or Man, apparently their only enemies. Three of us several times made an attempt to kill one, or more ; but to no purpose, however wounded they had always life enough to faU into the ice hole and we lost them ; and I have not heard of any Seal being killed on the spot by a Ball. The Esquimaux who live to the northward of us kill these animals for food and clothing in a quiet and sure manner : the Hunter is armed with a Lance headed with Bone or Iron, the latter always preferred : the handle of which, sometimes is the length of twenty yards (measured) made of pieces of drift larch wood, neatly fitted to each other, bound together with sinew, the handle is shortened, or lengthened, as occasion may require. The Esquimaux Hunter in the evening, when the Seals are gone to the sea, examines their holes, the places where they lie, and having selected the hole, best adapted to his purpose, early in the morning before the seals come up, goes to the ice hole he has selected, on the south side of which he places his Lance, the handle directed northward, the point of the Lance close to the hole, for the seals He on the north side of the ice hole, and directing his Lance to the spot [where] the Seals have been lying, having firmly laid the helve of his lance, he retires to the end of it, and there hides himself behind some broken ice, which if he does not find to his purpose, he brings pieces of ice to make the shelter he requires. Lying flat on his beUy he awaits with patience the coming up of the Seals ; the first Seal takes his place at the north edge of the hole, this is also the direction in which the Lance is laid ; the other seals, two, or three more, are close on each side, or behind ; if the Seal is not in the direct line of the Lance, which is sometimes the case, he gently twists the handle of the Lance until it is directly opposite to the heart of the Seal ; still he waits with patience until the Seal appears asleep ; when with all his skill and strength he drives the Lance across the hole (near three feet) into the body of the Seal, which, finding itself wounded, and trying to throw itself into the ice hole, which the handle of the lance prevents, only aids the wound ; the hunter keeps the handle firm, and goes on hands and knees to near the hole, where he quietly waits the death of the seal ; he then drags the seal from the hole, takes out his lance and carefully washes the blood from it. When the hunter shows himself all the seals for some distance around dive into the ice holes, and do not come up for several minutes ; this gives time to the Esquimaux to place his lance at another hole, and await the seals return, and thus he sometimes kills two of them in one day but this is not often, as the weather is frequently stormy and cloudy. 

The Esquimaux are of a square, plump make, few of them exceed five feet eight inches in height, the general stature is below this size, and the women are in proportion to the men, their features though broad are not unpleasing, with a tendency to ruddy, they appear cheerful and contented, they are supple active and strong ; from the land, in the open season, they have berries, and a few reindeer, but it is to the sea they look for their subsistence : the sea birds, the seal, morse, beluga, and the whale ; living on these oily foods, they are supposed not to be clean, but the fact is, they are as cleanly as people living as they do, and without soap can be expected [to be], all their cooking utensils are in good order. 

In summer part of them dwell in tents made of the dressed skins of the reindeer, these are pitched on the gravel banks, and kept very neat, they make no fire in them to prevent [them] being soiled with smoke, which is made near the tent. The salmon and meat of the reindeer they cure by smoke of drift wood of which they have plenty. They are very industrious and ingenious, being for eight months of the year exposed to the glare of the snow, their eyes become weak ; at the age of forty years almost every man has an impaired sight. The eyesight of the women is less injured at this age. They make neat goggles of wood with a narrow slit, which are placed on the eyes, to lessen the light. They all use Darts, Lances, Bows and Arrows, as weapons of defence, and for hunting ; their Darts and Lances are made of drift Larch wood, headed with bone of the leg of the Rein Deer,^ or a piece of iron, the latter preferred, and the length of the Dart is proportioned to it's intended use — for Birds, the Seal, the Beluga, Whale or the Morse ; * to the Dart or Lance for the three latter, a large bladder made of sealskins, and blown full of air is attached by a strong line of neatly twisted sinew. This not only shews the place of the wounded animal but soon tires him, [so] that he becomes an easy prey, though sometimes with risque to the Hunter and Canoe. 

In their conduct to each other they are sociable, friendly, and of a cheerful temper. But we are not sufficiently acquainted with their language to say much more ; in their traffic with us they are honest and friendly. They are not of the race of the north american Indians, but of european descent. Nothing can oblige an Indian to work at anything but stern necessity ; whereas the Esquimaux is naturally industrious, very ingenious, fond of the comforts of life so far as they can attain them, always cheerful, and even gay ; it is true that in the morning, when he is about to embark in his shell of a Canoe, to face the waves of the sea, and the powerful animals he has to contend with, for food and clothing for himself and family, he is for many minutes very serious, because he is a man of reflection, knows the dangers to which he is exposed, but steps into his canoe, and bravely goes through the toil and dangers of the day. 

*^ In a general way, this statement that the Eskimo Hve exclusively on the sea coast is correct. Nevertheless, while exploring the Kazan river, which flows into Chesterfield Inlet, in 1894, I encountered a tribe of Eskimo who live on its banks and rarely visit the salt water. They subsist chiefly on the meat of the caribou, which they kill with their spears in great numbers, and from the skins of the caribou they make their clothing and the coverings for their kayaks or small canoes.

From Dr. Cleghorn, Lecturer in Chemistry, and one of the Physicians to the Infirmary at Glasgow. Glasgow May 19 1797. 

SOME months ago I was honoured with your excellent pamphlet on Diabetes. At that moment I had two diabetic patients in the Royal Infirmary of this place, and I began infiantly to treat them on your plan. They are both cured ; and I have delayed fo long to thank you for your politenefs, in the hope that I might be able to inform you of this new fuccefs. 

CASE II. John Roger, age 40, a Shoemaker. January 10th 1797:

 For two months his urine has been profuse, amounting daily to 20 pounds or more. It is limpid and sweet, yielding by evaporation an ounce of thick sweet matter, like treacle, from every pound. He is thin and weak; habitually thirsty; for some days pain has felt a pain between his shoulders, and for a week his legs have been cedematous. Appetite keen ; pulse and belly natural. Knows nothing to which he can attribute his complaint. Has used bitters, and other medicines, without material benefit. The astringent pills, and alum whey, were ordered for him, as for M'Lean, 

12th. Urine 36 pounds. 

13th. Urine 30 pounds. 

14th Urine 23 pounds. 

15th. Urine 20 pounds.

16th Urine 21 pounds; thirst excessive ; sleeps ill ; pulse full and hard. The medicines were omitted. He was directed to drink a folution of lixiva fulphurata, one drachm to four pounds of water, and to use animal food. 

April 3d. Issues by means of caustic were ordered to be formed over each kidney. He was directed to drink sparingly, chiefly lime water, and his diet was regulated with more care. For it was found, that all along he had used a great proportion of vegetables for food, and had been guilty of irregularity also in drinking. He was ordered to get no vegetables ; however, he was allowed one roll a day ; the rest of his diet consisted of soup, blood-puddings, and butcher's meat roasted, or boiled, as he chose. 

11th. Three stools. Feels himfelf stronger, and in better spirits. Pulfe 80. Drink 3 pounds (no lime water) ; urine 6§ pounds, nearly natural. 

12th, 13th and 14th. Thirst abated ; urine from 6 to 7 pounds/of natural taste and smell, and when evaporated yielded no sugar. Thus he continued free from thirst, though his mouth was parched and dry during the night ; he gained ftrength and flesh ; his urine never exceeded 6 pounds, and seemed perfectly natural till the 30th, When it again became sweet; having been strictly questioned, he confessed that he drank a quantity of small beer yesterday afternoon, and we have found that he has committed several other irregularities. 

May 1st. Urine again natural. This day he left the Infirmary, having promised to persist in the use of animal food, and to return if he should relapse. He is gone to Irvine, about 30 miles distant, and nothing has been heard from him since. 

These patients were examined daily in the Royal Infirmary of Glasgow, and the reports were dictated before the Students of whom many examined very scrupulously the changes of the urine, and all other circumstances respecting a disease to which their attention was strongly attracted both by the novelty of the treatment, and their having seen a case which ended fatally not long ago. In copying the reports I have omitted every circumstance that seemed uninfluential, and I have abridged the language so far as I thought consistent with perspicuity. I have dropped the Latin form of prescribing, though it gave me some trouble to exprefs the prescriptions shortly in English (and many of them look awkward enough) because I was desirous of making the cases intelligible to those who do not practise physic, as I hope this very interesting inquiry will soon excite the attention of the public. After stripping the cases of every necessary detail, I shall not load them with many additional remarks. They seem to me very strong confirmations of your doctrine, in every point, except what regards the hepatifed ammonia. At first perhaps it was not properly prepared, after a little while, however, it was ; and it seemed to have very little power over the urine. In one patient (but he was querulous and fanciful) it seemed to affect the head ; in the other, it seemed to act like common volatile alkali, by producing an agreeable sensation of warmth in the stomach. Our patients, indeed, were in many respects different from yours ; and it is very common to find the operation of medicines strangely modified by the varying habits and susceptibilities of patients. The alum whey (formed by boiling a drachm of alum in a pint of milk) seemed to produce considerable effect, at least in reducing the quantity of urine. The castor oil appears to be the most useful laxative; but no medicine was of any permanent advantage without the aid of animal food. This is more powerful than any medicine, and very probably this alone, properly managed, may be found sufficient for the cure in many cases. Whether the cure in our two patients be complete or not, is a question which I shall not labour to decide by argument. For my own part I think they are cured, though they may never perhaps be strong as they were, and both may probably relapse ; because, being poor, they are exposed to the double risk of severe labour, and improper food. Besides, on many other occasions, a tendency to relapse is not considered as a proof of imperfect cure. Is an intermittent not cured, because one who has had it this spring, will be found very subject to it next season, if he shall be exposed to the cause which commonly produces it?

From Dr. Gerard, Liverpool 

The following case is that mentioned in Dr. Curriers letter to us, and we communicate it with the greatest pleasure to the public as being drawn up with the utmost accuracy, and containing details of procedure of the utmost importance towards perseeling our views of the nature and treatment of the disease, as well as of confirming them.

THE CASE. 

John Clarke, aged 38, was received into the Liverpool Infirmary, under Diabetes, on the 9th February, 1797.

 He was a soldier in Lord Darlington's Light Horse when they were reduced in February, 1796. 

At that time he was in good health ; thinks he might then have weighed about 140 pounds in his clothes; he is 5 feet 7.5 inches in height; has dark hair and grey eyes. He always enjoyed good health, but was subject to pyrosis, and accustomed to perspire much. Happening to reside near the seacoast, he has from a boy been used to bathe frequently during the summer months, not for any indisposition, but merely for gratification ; sometimes he went into the water twice the fame day, and staid in it 10 or 15 minutes; being always of a coflive habit, he also drank of the water occasionally. He discontinued the practice of bathing, however, while the weather still continued warm, as early, he thinks, as the beginning of August; his habitual perspiration leflened afterwards by degrees, and he continued in good health till about the end of November, 1796, when the perspiration entirely ceased, and the cuticle became unnaturally dry, harm, and rough, and is now to all appearance dead, and incapable either of perspiration or absorption, or any kind of transmission. About this time some headache also came on, and the bowels became in general more costive, though he was sometimes troubled with a lax for a few days. 

With the preceding symptoms he was afflicted with a most distressing thirst, which was not to be satisfied. His appetite was increased, and yet he loft flem daily, and grew weaker very felt, particularly in the thighs and small of the back, attended with pain in the region of the kidneys. He also observed, that he made much more urine than usual, and that the quantity increased from day to day. It should be remarked, that having no other means of getting here, he was under the necessity of walking from five, to eight miles each day, for three successive days, before he reached Liverpool ; but this was a whole day's work, and a great fatigue to him. Considering this to be a cafe, that from all former experience might almost be deemed incurable, I wished to consult my Colleagues, Dr. Brandreth and Dr. Currie ; therefore I only ordered him a dose of castor oil, to remove, the costive state of the body. Those gentlemen saw him with me on the 1 1th February. At this time Dr. Currie had just received a publication from Dr. Rollo, Surgeon General to the Royal Artillery, at Woolwich, of a case of Diabetes that he had treated with success ; he had not read it ; but he understood that much was attributed to animal diet. On this authority our patient was ordered to live chiefly on flesh and milk; he was also directed to use the warm bath, and with a view of ascertaining whether the generally received opinion that absorption takes place in this disease be true, he was defined to be weighed naked, both before he went into it, and upon coming out (Dr. Currie having observcd in a case of a different nature, that no absorption took place in the warm bath) ; the pulse to be counted; and the heat of the body ascertained by placing a thermometer under the tongue, and to note the whole down.

February 12th. He went into the bath for the first time, when the pulse was, before bathing, 

75, after it, 85. 

Heat of the body 91, —-—— 95. 

Weight of the body 112lb. 4oz. -- 112lb. 6oz.

February 15th. During the same time he took two pounds and a half of animal food, and twelve pounds of liquids, including milk, beer, and water. The directions for his living on animal food having been misunderstood, he has hitherto had only one meal of flesh daily, and with it a portion of potatoes and bread.

February 20th. Having read Dr. Rollo's publication, he was ordered this day to live entirely on animal food and broth, without either bread, beer, or any vegetable matter, and to persist in that plan without taking any medicine whatever; for as diet appeared to have had a principal share of the success experienced in Dr. Rollo's cafe, we wished to try whether that plan only was capable of effecting a cure.

Feb 24th. He took two pounds of beef, and 6 pounds of broth.

Feb 25th. The dead cuticle is peeling off, and he is obviously improving in every respect, and gaining weight. He continues the diet of animal food, with the daily allowance of a pound of beer.

March 2nd. Urine 6 pounds 5 ounces. The animal food,: with the beer, has been persisted in. I have hitherto thought the griping and looseness were accidental, but as they continue, they may perhaps be owing to the great change made in his diet ; on that idea, therefore, I have allowed him half a pound of bread daily, and have ordered him 30 drops of laudanum at bed-time. He feels himfelf considerably stronger, and can lit up much longer at a time. He has no extraordinary thirst ; the urine has neither sediment nor smell.

The griping and looseness do not abate by the admixture of vegetable matter, on which idea only the bread, as it may be remembered, was allowed. He loses weight daily. This reverse of the success we experienced in the beginning, would prompt me strongly to have recourse to the fulphurated kali, or hepatifed ammonia ; but the circumstance of his having gained so much advantage, and so rapidly, while he lived on animal food entirely, and the wish to try what that diet alone would effect (which should be remembered was the plan we set out upon), determines me to return to it again, especially as it may enable us to decide whether it is alone equal to the cure. I therefore ordered both the bread and beer to be discontinued ; and to rely on the laudanum, absorbents, to correct the diarrhoea. He was allowed milk in place of the beer.

March 14th. He is rather more thirsty ; his appetite is not so good, being satiated with animal food ; he was allowed an onion to his meal.

March 19th. Being desirous of gratifying my patient with any change of diet that could be indulged in without impeding the cure, I ordered him to have a meal of fish, two or three times a week, meaning at the same time to ascertain whether that deviation from the plan of animal diet might be allowed with impunity.

March 20th. He disliked the fish, and said it was not so satisfying to his appetite as the meat; he thinks his thirst and appetite are more craving. He had a very good night, with some perspiration over the whole body; griping quite left him ; and flatulency greatly relieved.

March 26th. He has bad a restless night, and vomited frequently till 3 o'clock in the morning ; his spirits are better, and he thinks himself stronger. He had a pudding made of milk, suet, and eggs, for his dinner, which he was fond of.

March 28th. The diet, with the pudding of milk, eggs, and suet, were given as directed.

March 31st. He continues better, and feels a more comfortable warmth than he has been accustomed to do lately. His pulse has been from 85 to 90 for a week past. He is so tired with broth, that he has refused to take any for some time, and owing to his fondness for the eggs and milk, either baked or boiled with suet, he has eaten too little meat lately. I therefore ordered that he should at leail eat one pound daily.

April 6th. It becomes very irksome to keep him to animal food, even with a very large allowance of milk; and I learn that he takes the suet off the milk when it cools. He feels himfelf better today. He continues the animal food with milk, eggs &c.

April 19th. The diet is continued.

April 25th. Finding that he has upon the whole been losing weight since the 17th, I questioned him very closely about his getting other food than what was allowed him, but he denied it, and shewed much impatience about staying longer with us, saying that he thought himself well and strong again, and that he would rather go, as he was watched like a thief. Though I do not confider him to be so well as he thinks he is, yet as the quantity of his urine is so much reduced, and its former nature so entirely reversed, I have, notwithstanding his having lost weight, allowed him four ounces of flour in his pudding, and two ounces of bread with his meat ; for fear he would run away, and leave us uncertain of the event.

May 6th. I have at length discovered, through the information of another patient in the fame ward, that Clarke adhered rigidly to the regimen prefcribed him, only for about 14 days at the first. In the course of the disease we have often had reasonto suspect that he was deviating from our plan, and three or four times the necessity of a fine attention on his part was particularly infilled on. After these cautions he attended to his regimen strictly for a day or two, but again relaxed, through the almost irresistible propensity to more or less of vegetable diet, which seems to be one of the characteristic symptoms of this disease. With thefe exceptions, it appears that he has generally partaken with the other patients in the common mixed diet of the house, and that he has drank water when thirsty, if he had no milk. I cannot learn that he ever gave any part of the flesh meat to the other patients. It is extremely vexatious to have been so much deceived, yet I don't think it lessens the inference, that animal diet has been the means of effecting the very great alteration in the quantity and quality of his urine ; for though he has eaten more promiscuoufly than was supposed, he has at all times taken a large proportion of animal matter, and a marked effect: has at different periods of the disease followed the more entire use of it, particularly in the beginning, when his apprehension made him adhere rigidly to the plan. The discovery, though vexatious, has perhaps made this a better case, in as much as it shows that an absolute exclusion of vegetable matter is not necessary, at least not for so long a time ; and also as it proves that he is nearer being cured than he was thought to be, by the characteristic symptoms of the disease not having been reproduced by the superior quantity of vegetable matter he has eaten to what he was supposed to have done. Whether his appetite is so strong as to constitute it a remnant of the disease I know not ; but from the impossibility of retraining him, and for the purpose of ascertaining whether the care was complete, he is ordered to have the diet of the house only.

April 7th. His. diet now consists of milk, meat, potatoes, and bread.

April 25th. He was discharged from the Infirmary to all appearance cured of the disease; which, to his own thinking, has long been the case ; and to the opinion of his being even cured I have no hesitation in subscribing.