682 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



selves may do is changed to evil by reason of the actual or implied 

 sanction we give to the bad work done by others. Nothing is so 

 much needed just now as the rise in our midst of a stern and un- 

 compromising apostle of sincerity in science a man of unpitying ani- 

 mosity to humbug in all its forms, who will not hesitate, at any bid- 

 ding, to denounce wrong-doing and untruthfulness, let who may be 

 the offender. It is time that a spirit of manliness went out in our 

 ranks to chase away the lying spirit of mock courtesy the faint- 

 hearted and time-serving sentimentality which makes us so ready 

 to look kindly on any pretender, and so reluctant to expose any pre- 

 tense. 



There can not possibly be a " system " or " cure " in medicine. 

 There are no rule-of -thumb methods and no mysteries in true science. 

 If we do not know what a remedy is, and how it acts, we have no 

 right, as honest men, to employ it. The time has passed for the work- 

 ing of cures by charms and the recourse to nostrums. We pander to 

 the credulity of the unskilled community when we show ourselves 

 credulous. We patronize and encourage quackery when we extend 

 professional recognition to a quack. Every man is a quack whether 

 qualified or unqualified who employs a remedy without knowing 

 why, or who adopts a " system " in medicine. The profession must 

 speak out clearly and strongly on this point, and without delay. From 

 the highest places in society to the lowest ranks of the people, there 

 is just now a grievous readiness to " believe in " quacks and quackery. 

 We have ourselves to thank for this most adverse " feeling " and " in- 

 fluence." It is the stirring of the viper we have brought in from the 

 cold, where physicians and surgeons of more robust intelligence than 

 those of to-day left it the viper we have warmed and fed and brought 

 back to life ; and now it is preparing to rise and sting the hand that 

 caressed it. The way to encounter the charlatanry which is making 

 head against science is to be at once more candid and more conspicu- 

 ously honest in our dealings with the public. We must lay aside the 

 last vestige of the robe of mystery, and show by our words and works, 

 our conduct and policy, that medicine is not a science that admits of 

 inspiration, and that the practice of healing is not an art which can 

 be acquired by the unlearned. There is no system or cure, or charm 

 or nostrum, known to the profession ; our calling consists solely in 

 the rational study and treatment of disease on common-sense prin- 

 ciples. For those who pretend to a sort of inspiration we have no 

 professional friendship ; and toward the promoters of systems and 

 'pathies we can have no leaning, or any feeling other than that of sus- 

 picion, if not pity and contempt. They can have no place in our pro- 

 fessional intercourse, and we can have nothing to say to them or their 

 work. This is the only sentiment worthy of the medical profession in 

 its dealings with medical quacks, and the time has come when the re- 

 vival of its old spirit is most earnestly to be desired. London Lancet. 



