GENERAL HEALTH HINTS 687 



ings, should enter largely into, and be assiduously car- 

 ried all the way through, the education of the young, 

 even if it be to the exclusion of almost no matter what 

 other branch besides. And if the use of drugs be re- 

 ferred to at all in their education, it should be with a 

 special care that they be taught the facts as they are, 

 —that the essential and useful drugs are really few, 

 and their administration rarely necessary; that in the 

 aggregate in the world it is probable enough that more 

 harm is being yearly done by their indiscriminate and 

 unskilled use than there is good by their timely and 

 judicious employment. 



' ' Physicians can do much more than is usually done 

 in this direction by their individual influence in prac- 

 tice. Each physician should constantly endeavor to 

 establish in the minds of his patrons the fact that they 

 should seek intelligent opinions and skilled advice more 

 than prescriptions. And even at an occasional risk of 

 losing patronage, when medicine is not required at all, 

 he should dare to say so, and give the right advice 

 instead. Doctors should be educators more than physic- 

 mongers. Whatever time the occasion demands should 

 be taken to fully explain the trouble for which persons 

 present themselves, and the best regulation of living to 

 be adopted under the circumstances ; and for this opin- 

 ion and advice alone, when kindly given, they should, 

 and generally will, expect to pay. 



"If imposition and quackery are ever removed or 

 lessened at all, it will be in exact proportion to the 

 amount of correct information and thorough enlighten- 

 ment the people may obtain on this entire subject; for 

 it can never avail very much that a few educated and 

 honorable practitioners labor to bring the compara- 

 tively few whom they reach, up to a reasonable and 



