to their bed or room have, through the support which they have received by our adaptations, been enabled to take a moderate amount of exercise, and to enjoy a state of comfort to which they had been for years strangers. They were returning to a second childhood; and as in the earlier stages of life we had to sustain the debilitated or yielding part, so in the decline of the body we perform the same duties. In some cases a simple bandage is all that is required, in others a more complicated contrivance, such as our invisible supports; but in all cases, even the most desperate, we can afford relief, and can give that relief too in many cases in which medicine is useless or positively injurious. This is the reason why we always have the patronage of medical men. We never meddle with physic; but when this is inappropriate, practitioners are always glad to refer to us.
As the slow neap-tide leaves yon stranded galley.
Late she rocked merrily to the least impulse
That wind or wave could give; but now the keel
Is settling on the sand, her mast has ta'en
An angle with the sky, from which it shifts not.
Each wave receding shakes her less and less,
Till bedded on the sand she shall remain
Useless and motionless."
Old Play.
