224 Medicine : Present and Prospective 



they have done little more than postpone the fatal 

 end. Their value might, indeed, be educationally 

 useful were there the least hope of teaching the 

 average British Philistine, who travels daily to busi- 

 ness in a well-filled railway compartment with both 

 windows carefully closed, that he breathes out 

 poisonous gas and that fresh air, even when it 

 feels fresh, is salutary, and will not give him a 

 cold and seduce him to his bed under doctor's 

 orders. Certainly the public will always do wisely 

 to receive with caution, if not distrust, medical 

 theories hastily promulgated on popular platforms, 

 especially when they are calculated to excite 

 vulgar astonishment, and to furnish sensational 

 "copy" for enterprising newspaper reporters in 

 an advertising age. 



