AmApri£  ip^y1"'  )        Private — Secret — Personal  205 
secrecy  in  medicine,  in  the  eyes  of  a  great  part  of  the  public,  the 
most  pronounced  of  all  secret  practitioners?  Did  they  not,  in  the 
opinion  of  many  men,  approach  perilously  near  the  "  Black  Art "  in 
their  use  of  cabalistic  formulae? 
Do  not  accept  that  by  citing  these  examples  this  writer  makes  an 
argument  favoring  the  open  door  between  physician  and  patient,  in 
therapeutic  agents.  Instead,  he  believes  that  the  physician  should 
not  be  hampered  by  unqualified  questioners.  He  should  be  im- 
plicitly trusted.  He  is  called  to  treat  our  loved  ones,  because  these 
patients  cannot  serve  themselves.  Never  does  this  writer  ask  his 
physician  the  names  of  the  remedies  administered  to  a  member  of 
his  family,  or  to  himself. 
The  object  of  this  phase  of  our  discussion  is  to  indicate  that  the 
term  secret  needs  not,  even  with  a  physician,  be  always  accepted  in 
the  sense  some  authorities  might  and  do  apply  to  it.  The  very  prov- 
ince of  the  physician  entitles  him  to  the  privilege  of  professional 
reserve  that,  for  special  service,  even  approaches  deception,  when 
the  patient's  welfare  so  demands.    And,  what  of  the  pharmacist? 
Knows  anyone  the  pharmacist  who<  to  a  physician's  patient  dis- 
closes the  ingredients  of  a  prescription?  Instead,  does  he  not  ever 
sacrifice  himself  in  financial  directions  to  preserve  inviolate  the  trust 
placed  in  him  by  the  physician?  Is  he  not  constantly  solicited  to 
explain  the  prescription?  Is  not  now,  as  fifty  years  ago,  the  answer : 
"Ask  the  doctor,  I  have  no  right  to  discuss  the  subject?"  Does 
he  not  accept  that  secrecy  as  to  some  of  the  ingredients  may  be 
very  necessary?  Have  we  not  examples  of  cases  where  the  care  of 
a  physician  as  to  overdoses  was  deplorably  disturbed  by  patients 
who,  getting  the  name  of  an  ingredient,  purchased  the  drug  in  bulk, 
to  his  distress?  Behold  we  not  today  the  evils  of  self-medication 
by  him  who  purchases  the  fashionable  synthetics  that,  in  this 
writer's  opinion,  should  be  administered  carefully,  even  by  the  physi- 
cian who  stands  with  his  hand  on  the  patient's  pulse.  Possibly 
greater  secrecy  might  today  be  serviceable  to  humanity.  Would  it 
not  be  better  had  greater  secrecy  long  since  been  practiced  in  some 
directions?  Who  knows  the  dire  effects  of  some  of  the  modern 
agents  unwisely  made  familiar  to  the  public?  Well  does  this  Na- 
tion comprehend  the  deplorable  results  of  such  as  opium. 
"  Come,  now,  and  let  us  reason  together !  "  Concede  that  some 
forms  of  secrecy  in  therapeutics  are  closely  akin  to  charlatanism,  but 
that  others  may  be  necessary  to  the  patient's  comfort  and  welfare. 
