Time  was  when  in  certain  forms  of  peritonitis  opium
was  the  chief  remedy,  because  it  "acted  as  a  splint  to  the


Baruch  :  Therapeutic  Reflections.  403

inflamed  surfaces" ;  to-day  Lawson  Tait's  teaching,  that
it  is  dangerous  and  that  the  opposite  treatment  by  saline
purgatives  is  more  useful,  is  most  successfully  followed.
Let  him  who  grows  fulsome  in  his  laudations  of  a  remedy
bear  in  mind  how  these  mighty  giants  have  fallen,  and
endeavor  to  rescue  the  remedy  he  espouses  from  a  simi-
lar fate  by  judicious  tests  and  unprejudiced  comparisons.
