Aj^arry,Pi908rra  }      Mystery  in  Therapeutic  Agents.  27 
say,  I  do  not  pretend  to  treat  or  cure  any  disease.  My  effort  is  to 
safeguard  the  individual,  to  see  that  there  is  no  departure  from  the 
biological  laws  which  control  his  life  or  to  correct  such  as  may  exist, 
and  to  aid  and  abet  the  physiological  processes  by  which  the  organ- 
ism defends,  resists,  or  adapts  itself  in  that  departure  from  the  nor- 
mal, in  function  or  structure,  which  we  call  disease.  Have  we  under 
these  circumstances  any  use  for  mysterious  agents  ? 
The  greater  harm  in  the  use  of  these  agents  is  in  their  retro-active 
effect.  That  state  of  mind,  which  permits  itself  to  be  subordinated 
to  those  who  think  for  them,  will  silently  but  surely  lessen  in  vigor 
and  virulence.  That  success  in  medicine  which  alone  is  self  satis- 
fying, which  grows  with  the  possessor's  growth  in  power,  which 
reaches  its  acme  with  his  maturity,  and  continues  in  the  fulness  of 
his  power,  is  only  attained  by  a  scientific  habit  of  mind.  Precise 
observation  and  true  inference,  truth  sought  and  it  alone  retained 
as  of  value,  belong  to  this  habit.  Any  acceptance  of  the  false,  any 
compromise  with  mystery  will  surely  impair  it.  In  scientific  labors 
one  must  constantly  be  "  girding  up  the  loins;"  a  high  standard 
must  always  obtain.  It  is  most  easy,  from  perhaps  fatigue,  from 
stress  of  work,  from  eagerness  to  indulge  in  the  pleasures  of  the 
day,  to  lapse.  How  hard  it  is  for  one  to  compel  himself,  not  to  make 
a  "  snap  "  diagnosis  !  Just  as  a  snap  diagnosis  is  vicious  in  its  effects 
on  the  faculties  of  observation  and  the  processes  of  reasoning,  so  is 
a  "  snap  "  therapeusis  in  its  effects  on  the  art  of  treatment.  Any 
slipshod  method  of  action  begets  its  kind  and  soon  in  diagnosis  and 
treatment  a  charlatanism  arises,  worse  even  than  that  of  the  ignorant 
quack  or  the  credulous  enthusiast  in  therapy. 
The  profession  should  take  a  stand  for  its  own  sake  against 
haphazard,  trivial,  unscientific  prescribing,  which  dwarfs  the  mind 
of  the  actor  and  later  the  conscience,  far  more  frequently  than  it 
does  harm  to  the  victim  of  such  conscienceless  procedures.  It  is 
too  often  one  of  the  seductive  agents  which  leads  the  poor  fellow 
who  has  attained  a  success,  which  is  but  a  "  flash  in  the  pan."  Nos- 
trum prescribing  as  tallow  on  the  ways,  launches  the  physician  into 
the  seething  sea  of  irresolution  in  diagnosis  and  irresponsibility  in 
practice.  To  such  a  one  success  has  come  early,  in  part  from  for- 
tuitous circumstances,  or  in  part  from  a  fortunate  personality 
(another  snare  for  many)  and  does  not  have  for  its  foundation,  the 
power  which  comes  from  labor  in  the  laboratory  and  hospital  ward  , 
