yet perfect, however. Is it not worth while occasionally to return upon ourselves with the old question, Are we always and truly scientific in our modes of thought? Are we ready and willing, as were the early members of the Massachusetts Medical Society, to investigate with open mind new and strange things? Do we break through in season the shackles of convention? Or does tired cynicism sometimes prompt us to a denial of truths which seem evident to our more generous fellows?

Educated physicians are weary of old-time, meaningless terms applied to modern conditions. We hear still of schools of medicine, the old school, the new school, rival schools. The educated man knows that the study and pursuit of science does not admit of schools. Doubtless, all methods of treatment and therapeutic activity allow many diseases to run their course with the recovery of the patient. Doubtless different therapeutic measures appeal especially to patients of different temperaments. Doubtless, in a great many diseases, therapeutic eccentricity and voluble verbiage do no special harm. Such reflections are familiar to us all, and we recognize the truths of psychic influence expressed by such conceptions. We know, however, that genuine organic disorders require for their cure something more than empty phrases and placebos, while the weariness engendered of serious responsibility renders us skeptical of the outcome of all disease. Men have groaned over homoeopathy; fifty years ago they despised Thompsonianism; they have sneered at spiritualism; they have distrusted

mesmerism and mental healing; they have looked askance at hypnotism, and have questioned the value of psychotherapeutics as applied by responsible scientists of to-day-grouping indiscriminately the good and the bad. Our thoughts have been divided and our intelligence assaulted by such a multitude of semiquackeries and propositions of pseudo-science that often we are unable to winnow the grain from the chaff. Such is the diversity of modern-day conditions. More than ever, therefore, is it incumbent upon us laboriously and faithfully to seek for truth; not to assume it without proof; not to throw it aside without investigation; to recognize always the significance of good ethics, and to divorce captious etiquette from the painstaking pursuit of a genuine and enlightened knowledge.

INDEX

Abernethy, John, 47, 60, 95, 171, 181. “Ashley Cooper Set,” 172.

Aëtius Amidenus, 24, 272, 273, 274, Baillie, 47, 179.

American Academy of Arts and Bell, John, 81.

American Medical Association, 82, 213. | Belloq, Louis, 46.

Antyllus, 20, 24, 271, 272, 273, 275, Bleeding, 144.

Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, | Chiene, 109.

Brodie, Sir Benjamin Collins, 83, 95, Cock, Edward, 164.

"Chauvinism in Medicine" (Osler), Deadrick, W. H., 80.