204  Private — Secret — Personal.        {  AmAj?iir' ig?™' 
implied  altruistic  use  of  the  word,  with  "  I  will  have  nothing  under- 
hand." Between  these  rests  a  line  of  shadings  that  nearly  parallel, 
in  their  contact  meanings,  the  questionings  of  a  fungus  expert  per- 
plexed in  his  art.  And  yet,  in  the  ethics  of  some  authorities  in 
medicine,  but  one  thought  applies  to  him  who  practices  any  phase 
of  therapeutic  secrecy.  He  is  not  of  the  Code, — altogether  had,  he 
is  "irregular." 
These  years  ago,  this  writer  filled  prescriptions  for  a  talented 
physician,  a  regular  of  the  regulars.  In  those  days,  oftener  than 
now,  the  "Code"  was  used  as  an  implement  to  distinguish  between 
him  outside  the  pale  and  him  blessed  by  the  code's  all-wise  protec- 
tion. This  physician  stands  yet  in  memory  as  a  conscientious,  gifted 
man,  second  to  no  other,  professionally  or  ethically. 
Consider  now  one  of  his  patients,  whose  face  rises  to  memory's 
call.  Unconscious  was  she  that,  a  hypochondriac,  she  was  a  repre- 
sentative of  a  peevish  class.  Medicine  she  must  have,  to  live.  To 
her,  the  (this)  physician  was  next  to  the  Infallible.  And  yet,  time 
after  time  his  prescriptions  for  her  use  were  bread  pills,  dusted  some- 
times with  cinnamon,  again  with  licorice,  and  occasionally  with  wood 
ashes.  Varied  in  size  and  color  were  they,  to  serve  this  lady's 
need,  and  well  did  they  accomplish  their  purpose. 
And  yet,  some  there  are  who  might  argue  that  in  comparison  with 
deception  such  as  this,  quackery  need  not  blush, — a  problem  each 
reader  is  entitled  to  settle  to  his  own  satisfaction.  Another  might 
assert  that  mind  influence  (cure)  might  justify  its  "cause"  by  this 
bread-pill  example,  a  subject  it  is  also  unnecessary  for  us  now  to 
discuss. 
Ask  the  physician  of  the  olden  time,  whose  patients  would  not 
take  calomel,  How  many  prescriptions  of  Hyd.  Chlor.  Mit.  were 
written  for  these  "  fanatics."  In  those  days,  some  persons  believed 
that  quinine  "  wracked  the  bones,"  and  bred  untold  disorders.  Cin- 
chona, "the  Jesuit's  pernicious  powder,"  was  by  some  considered 
of  the  Devil's  brew.  Ask  the  physician  of  half  a  century  ago  how 
many  prescriptions  he  wrote,  for  "  Huxham's  Tincture,"  where 
quinine  would  better  have  served  their  purpose? 
In  those  days,  it  was  the  duty  of  the  druggist  to  refrain  from 
explaining  to  any  layman  the  prescription's  content.  Is  not  this  yet 
the  proper  rule?  Did  not  this  secrecy  of  the  physician  in  his 
methods  of  prescription  mysticism  give  rise  to  charges  and  innuen- 
does innumerable?    Were  not  the  very  framers  of  the  code  against 
4 
