GENERAL HEALTH HINTS 685 



that more harm than good would result by so doing, 

 since unqualified persons would thereby be led to under- 

 take the management of cases which required the edu- 

 cated judgment and skill which are possessed alone by 

 the physician who has had a long course of training 

 in the schools and an extensive experience at the bed- 

 side. We have long believed that this objection was 

 based on a partial or prejudiced view of the subject, 

 and that a consideration of its various bearings from 

 a more liberal standpoint would lead candid thinkers 

 to a different conclusion. It would not be urged that 

 because every one cannot become proficient in all the 

 abstractions of modern theology, the masses should be 

 kept in utter ignorance of religious theories, notwith- 

 standing the possibility that such knowledge might be 

 used in an unwise manner under some circumstances. 

 Every man who desires to do so has as good a right 

 to learn all he is capable of comprehending of the sci- 

 ence of medicine, as well as of the science of mathe- 

 matics, astronomy, law, or any other department of 

 human knowledge. 



We are glad to be able to quote the following very 

 sensible paragraphs on this subject from an address 

 read before the Michigan State Medical Society, by 

 Thomas N. Reynolds, M. D., of Detroit, Mich., Pro- 

 fessor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics and of 

 Clinical Medicine in Detroit Medical College, and vis- 

 iting physician to St. Mary's Hospital: 



"In view of the fact that there is still in the world 

 the most extraordinary misconception with regard to 

 the true functions of medicine and medical men, it may 

 not seem wholly unfit that we should somewhat briefly 

 advert to it here. 



"As it existed among the people in earlier times, it 



