DRUG ABUSES 463 



the right to make free choice of the treatment for his bodily ailments. 

 Yet the practise of self-medication is one of the most deplorable relics 

 of the dark ages when the treatment of bodily ailments was confused 

 with matters of conscience. 



Consider for a moment the gravity of a peril for which it is difficult 

 to see a remedy. These aggregations of capital must sell to maintain 

 themselves. If the market is oversupplied they must make another 

 market. If physicians do not wish to use such preparations as they 

 furnish, they must be induced to do so, their hands must be forced. 

 If the manufacturer sells directly to the public, via the druggist, every 

 device must be employed to increase retailing to the consumer. If a 

 man has no ailment he must be taught to think he has one. If he 

 has recovered from an ailment he must forsooth thereupon be made 

 fat or thin. Women are educated to believe they require a host of 

 remedial articles, in reality quite supererogatory. Babies who would 

 thrive best by instinctive maternal teachings are made to appear in need 

 of special foods, soothing agents, etc. In short, healthy folk are 

 taught to become hypochondriacs. All this merely to furnish a brisk 

 market when selling has grown languid. 



One closing thought we commend to all, especially to clergymen 

 and religious folk. Can anything be more venal, more opposed to the 

 fundamental principles of ethics, more an earning of money by en- 

 couraging misconceptions of our physical and mental feebleness, than 

 many of the ordinary advertisements in the public press of remedies, 

 of drugs, or other semi-medical materials, waters, instruments, etc.? 

 If these bold emphatic advertising statements contain some elements of 

 truth they are too often grossly overstated. The sale of t get well 

 quick ' remedies for venereal diseases causes a confidence unwarranted. 

 Thus thousands of innocent women are infected, rendered invalids 

 for life. 



There is only one safe rule when in trouble. Seek expert, honest, 

 reputable counsel and be guided by it. This is of paramount im- 

 portance when the body is disordered because then also is the mind, 

 the judgment, likewise impaired. . 



