160 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



treatment occur much less frequently than of yore ; increased 

 knowledge, mostly, however, of empirical nature, obtains of the 

 uses and dangers of various drugs ; whilst owing to a mar- 

 vellous and brilliant advance in the surgical art numerous 

 diseases formerly regarded as desperate or hopeless are now 

 cured with ease and certainty. Indeed, the glittering successes 

 of surgery serve in no small measure as a veil to conceal from 

 the public the failures of the medical profession viewed as the 

 custodian of the public health. Were it not for the wonderful 

 advance in the use of the knife rendered possible by the dis- 

 covery of chloroform and of aseptic methods, diseases of 

 metabolism would claim a tale of mortality and suffering so 

 shocking as long since to have called forth an imperative 

 demand for an effective prophylaxis. As it is, a certain portion 

 of the public, both in this country and in America, are beginning 

 to look askance at a profession which in an age of exceptional 

 scientific progress has failed so conspicuously in the prophy- 

 laxis of a large class of diseases, and to seek for themselves 

 some causeway out of the dismal morass of ill-health in which 

 the orthodox view would condemn mankind for ever to wander. 

 They regard with more than suspicion the constantly reiterated 

 explanation of the increase of diseases of the heart, of appendi- 

 citis, cancer, lunacy and so forth, as merely due to more accurate 

 diagnosis. The treatment of symptoms by drugs no longer 

 satisfies their aspirations ; they wish to know whether by some 

 radical alteration in the conduct of our lives it may not be 

 possible to avoid absolutely or nearly so all risk of diseases 

 of metabolism. 



Not for the first time, indeed, have these by no means 

 unreasonable aspirations cheered and encouraged the minds of 

 men. The fact is that after an interval of many centuries the 

 civilised world is once again beginning to realise the cardinal 

 importance of good health, not only in their happiness, but in 

 their morals and their intellectual outlook, to realise that a 

 healthy body forms a more satisfactory basis for a healthy 

 outlook on life than many tomes of ethics and of erudite dogma. 

 Amongst the ancient Greeks and Romans, especially the former, 

 the care of the body assumed the importance of a religious cult* 

 so much so that regular worship was accorded to the goddesses 

 of health, Hygeia and Salus. Medical science had reached no 

 standard of excellence ; bathing, massage, dieting, in addition to 



