=If the doctor cures, the sun sees it; if he kills, the earth hides it.=
"The earth covers the mistakes of the physician" (Italian,
Spanish).[754] "Bleed him and purge him; if he dies, bury him"
(Spanish).[755] It is a melancholy truth that "The doctor is often more
to be feared than the disease" (French).[756] "Throw physic to the
dogs" is in effect the advice given by many eminent physicians, and by
some of the greatest thinkers the world has seen. "Shun doctors and
doctors' drugs if you wish to be well,"[757] was the seventh, last, and
best rule of health laid down by the famous physician Hoffmann. Sir
William Hamilton declared that "Medicine in the hands in which it is
vulgarly dispensed is a curse to humanity rather than a blessing;" and
Sir Astley Cooper did not scruple to avow that "The science of medicine
was founded on conjecture and improved by murder." It is a remarkable
fact that "The doctor seldom takes physic" (Italian).[758] He does not
appear to have a very lively faith in his own art. As for his alleged
cures, their reality does not pass unquestioned. It is true that
"Dear physic always does good, if not to the patient, at least to the
apothecary" (German);[759] but "It is God that cures, and the doctor
gets the money" (Spanish).[760] Save your money, then, and "If you have
a friend who is a doctor take off your hat to him, and send him to the
house of your enemy" (Spanish).[761]
=The best physicians are Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, and Dr. Merriman.=
=Every man at forty is either a fool or a physician.=
=A creaking gate hangs long on its hinges.=
Valetudinarians often outlive persons of robust constitution who take
less care of themselves. A French saying to this purpose, which is too
idiomatic to be translated, was neatly applied by Pozzo di Borgo in a
conversation with Lady Holland. Her ladyship, exulting in the duration
of the Whig government, notwithstanding the prevalent anticipations of
their fall, said to him, "Vous voyez, Monsieur l'Ambassadeur, que nous
vivons toujours." "Oui, madame," he replied, "les petites santés durent
quelquefois longtemps." "Creaking carts last longest" (Dutch).[762]
"The flawed pots are the most lasting" (French).[763]
=A groaning wife and a grunting horse ne'er failed their master.=
=Seek your salve where ye got your sore.=--_Scotch._
=Take a hair of the dog that bit you.=
Advice given to persons suffering the after-pains of a carouse. The
same stimulant which caused their nervous depression will also relieve
it. The metaphor is derived from an old medical practice to which
Seneca makes some allusion, and which is commended in a rhyming French
adage to this effect, "With the hair of the beast that bit thee, or
with its blood, thou wilt be cured."[764] Cervantes, in his tale of
_La Gitanilla_, thus describes an old gipsy woman's manner of treating
a person bitten by a dog:--"She took some of the dog's hairs, fried
them in oil, and after washing with wine the two bites she found on the
patients left leg, she put the hairs and the oil upon them, and over
this dressing a little chewed green rosemary. She then bound the leg
up carefully with clean bandages, made the sign of the cross over it,
and said, 'Now go to sleep, friend, and with the help of God your hurts
will not signify.'"
=One nail drives out another.=
This is the doctrine of homœopathy. "Poison quells poison"
(Italian).[765]
"Tut, man! one fire burns out another's burning,
One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish.
Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning:
One desperate grief cures with another's languish.
Take thou some new infection to thine eye,
And the rank poison of the old will die."--_Romeo and Juliet._
=If the wind strike thee through a hole,
Go make thy will and mend thy soul.=
"A blast from a window is a shot from a crossbow" (Italian).[766] "To a
bull and a draught of air give way" (Spanish).[767]
=One hour's sleep before midnight is worth two hours after it.=