SOME MATTERS OF GENERAL HYGIENE 223 



morphin; it leads to reckless and violent crime. There is 

 a popular impression that the habit-forming alkaloids 

 produce delightful subjective states. This seems rarely 

 to be the case after the first foolish ventures ; the most that 

 the unhappy wretch reports later is that the drug relieves 



and often incompletely the misery of abstinence. 



A final word may be added concerning the attitude which 

 we should maintain toward medicine and the medical pro- 

 fession. Physicians were once held in high respect by all 

 civilized people. At the present time, when the attain- 

 ments and principles of the profession merit, far more than 

 ever before, popular esteem and admiration, a hostile and 

 skeptical spirit is often manifested. Several causes for this 

 are evident. The fact that drugs are less relied on to 

 remedy diseased conditions than was formerly the case 

 has encouraged the hasty conclusion that they have no 

 value at all. Errant schools, using peculiar therapeutic 

 methods, have fiercely attacked the main body of prac- 

 titioners. Patients w r ho have been benefited by these 

 special measures have joined heartily in denying the virtue 

 of other kinds of treatment. Psychotherapy has led to the 

 same reaction in spite of the broad views urged by its 

 ablest exponents. Certain periodicals have made inces- 

 sant, malicious attacks upon the profession, charging 

 mercenary aims, unwarranted experimentation upon hu- 

 man subjects, and failure to effect cures. It is amusing 



even while it is irritating to note that those who write 

 such articles charge the physician with being unwilling to 

 adopt new methods, and in the next paragraph cry out 

 against his innovations. The dignified silence main- 

 tained by medical men in the face of these attacks is not 

 properly appreciated by a thoughtless public. 



When it is suggested that physicians and surgeons ask 

 excessive fees there are two or three reflections that should 

 modify judgment. It is a trite saying that restoration to 

 health has a value not easily expressed in money. Second, 

 we should consider the investment of time, strength, 

 and means which has equipped the doctor for his respon- 



