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inference being that they were cured by them. Now wider generalization and more accurate induction establish either that they were inert, or that the patient recovered in spite of them. Great modifications have taken place in the most enlightened medical opinion in regard to the use of water in different diseases, and the relative value of bleeding and the occasions in which it is indicated. The growth of the idea that one or two remedies are sufficient for every disease is one, and the list of thousands of specifics for ten times that number of symptoms another, illustration of deception by coincidence. In 1813 Sir Benjamin Brodie published a work on diseases of the spine and joints, lauding the advantages of calomel, setons, blisters, and bleeding, with long confinement to a recumbent position. In 1834, in a new edition, he confirmed what he had enforced twenty-one years before. In 1850 he thus recants:

A more enlarged experience has satisfied me that, in the very great majority of instances, this painful and loathsome treatment is not only not useful, but absolutely injurious. For many years I have ceased to torment my patients thus afflicted in any manner.

SO-CALLED "LAWS OF CHANCE"

In the realm of pure chance it is impossible to fix the limits of coincidence. Mr. Proctor's recent work, "Chance and Luck," quotes from Steinmetz this fact:

In 1813 a Mr. Ogden wagered one thousand guineas to one that seven could not be thrown with a pair of dice ten successive times. The wager was accepted (though it was egregiously unfair); and, strange to say, his opponent threw seven nine times running. At this point Mr. Ogden offered four hundred and