The Medicine of Literature.

and reading will take its place as a curative science. Here system will be arranged with regard to their medicinal value, of Literature. understood. Some day its properties and its effects on the LITERATURE is a medicine, but as such it has never been properly are some suggestions as to the lines on which such treatment should be laid: To begin, the basis of the mental food supply must be wholesome and free from deleterious adulterations. Tonics are needful, but should not be taken in over-quantities, and soporifics should be avoided as tending to a flabby, unformed condition of the brain. Pap should be eliminated from the treatment of adult mentalities except in rare cases of great debility where the mind is not strong enough to support a more consistent food. Great care should be exercised in the administration of strong drugs; only to the most healthy, for instance, should Browning, Whitman, and Meredith be given in small doses, a chapter, two verses or so, at a time. (Note: Persons liable to indigestion should avoid Browning.) Shakespeare is always a safe tonic, and one that may be given freely even to the most debilitated, those whose mental stomachs are so weak as to reject it excepted. Caine is an irritant that may be used with excellent results on a too placid mind, and Haggard, Crane, and Dickens are all good as mild lubricants where a too excited condition is not desired. Wilkins, MacLaren, Ford, or Crockett may be taken, before retiring, as a sedative antidote to mental efforts. When a strong excitative is needed a quatrain of Swinburne every two hours will produce the desired result.

      Pending the production of a completed pharmacopeia, or, more properly, materia medica, I append a specimen recipe, intended for the treatment of young persons suffering from weakness brought about by indulgence in Libby pap or afflicted with familystorypaper paralysis.

      "Do not withdraw the offending diet immediately, but gradually substitute for it doses of Humphreyward and Mebraddon. Continue this treatment for some months, and then make frequent applications of Quillercouch, together with occasional pellets of Rudyardkipling and Henryjames. At this stage of the patient's treatment extract of Shakespeare may be administered in short doses. The patient will be found gradually to like this preparation, and when the taste in that direction is firmly established, it will be found that strong and modern drugs, such as Henrikibsen (though some practitioners strongly denounce the use of this preparation), Georgemeredith, and Georgebernardshaw may be used with beneficent results."

J. P. Coughlan.