MEDICINE AND MORALS 



sive advertisements, betraying the sacred 

 secrets of a physician's confessional, bab- 

 bling lightly about the reverend agonies of 

 the sick body, breathing into the solemnity 

 surrounding the death bed a current of cold 

 indifference these weaknesses, manifest 

 here and there, convince the thoughtless 

 that the whole profession of medicine is 

 but sounding brass. The inference is far 

 too sweeping. The quack is a social para- 

 site who should be immersed to death and 

 dissolved in a solution of his charlatan 

 panacea, bottled in carboys of public cen- 

 sure, sealed with the skull and crossbones 

 signet of his own victims, and labeled 

 "malignant poison." But assuredly most 

 who profess the healing art are not quacks. 

 On the contrary, physicians have led the 

 world in developing and disseminating the 

 scientific spirit, in research, experiments, 

 induction, anti-dogmatism, regard for na- 

 ture, and acquiescence in natural law. 

 These virtues clearly attest most physicians' 

 opposition to quackery, their insistence on 

 reasons for doing and believing things. 



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