460 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



disease to suffer neglect. It is conceivable that in the future an ade- 

 quate growth in knowledge of the inherent resources of the organism 

 may lead to their omission; but that day is not yet come. 



Wherever there is demand it is met by supply. An overmastering 

 desire of most people is to secure the largest material benefits for the 

 least money. Where a physician is consulted and medicines are 

 ordered, these must be paid for in addition to the fee for advice, hence 

 all manner of devices are employed to reduce the cost. The fact is 

 too often overlooked that only by the direct application of skilled advice 

 to the instance, then a suitable remedy being chosen, is safety to be 

 secured. The business man might otherwise as well depend on law 

 primers and omit to consult skilled attorneys. The unwarrantable 

 repetition of prescriptions emanating from physicians of admitted wis- 

 dom, and the recommending of these to friends and neighbors gratu- 

 itously, are obvious abuses of what is essentially an economically scien- 

 tific procedure. 



As commercial enterprises grew in complexity and breadth of scope, 

 these ' favorite prescriptions ' began to be manufactured, advertised and 

 distributed in wholesale fashion. People were encouraged to believe 

 that they might thus secure medical combinations of great power at 

 first hand, and the apparent but false economy was broadly welcomed. 

 These preparations were made agreeable, or at least acceptable, and any 

 one could secure a bottle full of promising potentialities guaranteed to 

 overcome whatsoever ills might occur, real or fancied. Hence arose 

 two classes of drug combination, the nostrum, offered directly to the 

 consumer, based on the commercial principle of exploiting ' favorite 

 prescriptions,' and the proprietary preparations offered to the phy- 

 sician, purporting to be improvements, the product of laboratory 

 researches, constituting true chemical discoveries or refinements and 

 specializations in scientific manufacture. As to the former (the 

 nostrum), it is impossible to see, viewed with the utmost charity, any 

 reason for its existence. Of many of the proprietary preparations, it 

 must be admitted that they evidence excellent advances made by the 

 reputable drug manufacturers, who devote much money and scientific 

 effort to the perfection of methods and products. They have, in many 

 instances, however, transgressed their just prerogatives and invaded 

 the territory of the physician. They make diagnoses, teach us pathol- 

 ogy and instruct us how to prescribe. 



The sales of nostrums have grown so large as to constitute an 

 overwhelming proportion of all medicines consumed. Their unguided 

 use induces drug habits, fetish worship, incalculable harm. 



The educated experienced practitioner of medicine has been forced 

 by the reckless drug consumption thus induced to take not only a 

 secondary position, but is placed low in the scale of guiding influence, 



