It reaches out for the Universe as its kingdom. It presumes to dictate the way you shall cloth, house, live and die. It will command whether you shall marry and rear the like of you, or whether you shall have to stay single, as none of your like are wanted.

And to cap the climax of its audacious demands, science now claims as its function to decide whether or not a mortal be allowed to exercise his right of a free man, his right to vote.

It may be that the demand of science will have to be acceded to. It may be that the scientific way, the anatomical way, will prove the best, the wisest way, that human genius will ever learn to employ; perhaps it will be so, at some future day. Would it be wise for humanity to trust it, life and liberties, to the decision of the anatomist, or medical man of to-day-this is quite a different question.

Time there was when the scientists and doctors formed a class by themselves, living on the outskirts, so to say, of the ordinary struggle for life; where, serving humanity, they were not called upon to participate in the war between exploiter and exploited. They served man as man, and in this noble vocation have developed tendencies and instincts of their own, which crystalized into a code of ethics that walled in the medical profession into a caste dissimilar to any other civil class or caste. The doctor or scientist knew no authority superior to science, no power above truth. Money, fees, remunerations; the amount of these have been established by common usage, for the doctor, too, must live.

But the fee was the last, and the prompt and consciencious aid to the sufferer preeminently the very first consideration of the doctor. Verily his word could have been taken, as the word of truth itself; and the clauses of the Hippocratic oath that say: "Into whatever house I enter, I will go into them for the benefit of the sick . . . . . With purity and with holiness I will pass my life and practice my art . . . were by no means mere words, but presented a true image of the soul of the practitioner of the Medical Science and art in days gone by.

But capitalism came. Under no other form of society was money-hunger so deeply and so universally rooted into the human heart.

Has the doctor been exempt, did he save his holy scroll, his ethics, his honor and his speriority over man in his strife?

Let facts speak for themselves.

Professor Koch, the famous physician, to whose work we owe a great part of what we know about Tuberculosis, announced to the world in an article in the "Deutche Medicinische Wochenschrift" of April 1st '97, that he had discovered a new, Tuberculin -that is a remedy for the cure of consumption-(a former similar

discovery by him having turned out more or less useless), the article peculiarly being dated November 14, '96.

A controversy as to the merits of the works of Professors Koch and Buchner, arose immediately, and not only suggested that plagiarism' was not altogether inapplicable to the state of affairs, but brought out also the fact, that both professors, believing their discoveries to be of the greatest value to suffering humanity, held them back for months attempting meanwhile to secure patents, and thereby more profitably to exploit their supposed specific remedies.

About a year ago the world was rejoiced and at the same time shocked, when Professor Behring, I believe, announced that he discovered a specific remedy for the White Plague, but would withhold its formula until he was enabled to accumulate so, and so many millions of dollars!

Such is the change capitalism wrought on some of the pillars of the medical profession in the Old World.

How about America?

Let us turn to our own community.

A few years ago an old man died under suspicious circumstances. Another man was arrested under the charge of having caused said man's death by poison.

The state hired medical experts, who at the trial proved that the deceased died of poison; the defendant hired medical experts who proved that said deceased might have died of any known disease but poison.

And to this day the question has not been definitely settled; for although the State still holds the prisoner ready for execution, only a few months ago some prominent medical men started circulating, among the medical profession, a petition for the release of the unfortunate prisoner; for these medical petitioners claim that the deceased did not come to his demise through poison.

Now the discovery of poison in a case like the above, depends upon a very definite and rather simple procedure, which would never cause differences of opinion among chemists, if an opinion were dependent merely upon the interpretation of a chemical reaction, and not upon the heart rending fact, that a big fee will or will not be paid, according to the results of the finding.

A short while ago, a millionaire took the law into his own hands and fired a bullet into the body of another man, with fatal effect. The shooter was arrested. At the trial the prosecutor claimed that the accused man was sane, consequently punishable; counsel for defendant claimed that said defendant was insane, consequently not punishable.

The prosecutor hired medical experts who learnedly proved that the defendant was sane. The defendant hired medical ex

perts who equally learnedly went on proving that their employer was insane.

And there the question stands to-day.

Now, the question of whether a person is, or is not sane is surely more complicated, and more difficult of solution than the question of whether there is or there is not any poison in a given stomach.

Still such questions, relating to sanity and insanity are being answered by experts daily without great ado, whenever a large fee does not come with the way the answer of the expert, goes.

There is scarcely a man in this land who does not know the meaning of the word "Patent Medicine".

It is a mixture of medicial ingredients, patented under the laws of the state, the formulae being kept secret. It is compounded and pushed by medical men and chemists. It is advertized loudly as a sure cure, usually for some incurable disease, as cancer, consumption, or blindness. It is absolutely useless, as far as the accomplishment of the promised cure. But most of the time it contains a large amount of alcohol, morphine or cocaine, which by temporary stimulation produce a sense of bouyancy which the unfortunate victim mistakes for the curative effect of his secret nostum; he continues imbibing it until his original trouble becomes complicated by chronic alcoholism, cocainism or morphinism.

In this manner hundreds, nay, thousands, of the most unfortunate, are being robbed, and under the false promise of a cure that is impossible are the more quickly hurried to their death instead of having the fatal end delayed.

It is true that these patent-medicine men are the traitors to the medical profession, the quacks, the charlatans: those who yield to Manimon without the least show of resistance; but, it is true also, that never before capitalism did such a large percent of physicians desert the ranks, as is witnessed to-day.

However many, or few-these are the outcasts, of the honorable pharmaceutical and medical professions, and pointing to the yearly slaughter produced by the patented drugs the regulars of these professions may rightly say: "Our hands have not spilled that blood!"

I would not like in the same breath to mention the patent-man, with the sins of omission and commission chargeable to many of the regulars. But the regulars are not all clean either.

There is a book known as the "National Formulary", containing many recipes of great usefulness for certain ills that flesh is heir to. Now some "reputable houses", pick out some such recipes, alter them slightly or nothing at all, label them with fancy name, and put them on the market at fancy prices. And some regular, mark you, regular professor, stops to push those

brazen-faced imitations of well known formulae and dump them into the sick-room and hospital at their extremely high prices. As example I will mention at random two such preparations: Cataplasma Kaolini, is a well known salve, very useful and rather cheap.

Liquor Antisepticus Alkalinus is a beautiful fluid preparation that has certain curative power under certain conditions and is very cheap besides.

Now, certain respectable houses have put on the market imitations of the above, that have absolutely no greater healing power that druggist, doctor or patient could discover, and such. imitations sell at 3, 4 or even 5 times the price the decent well known pharmacopoeial preparations can be bought.

And regular professors push those shameful impositions, and regular and respectable physicians have got to follow suit.

Now, some of the above named concerns boast that their products are being sold by the tons to the city hospitals. Of course even respectable houses are not compelled neither by laws nor otherwise to stick in their statements to the absolute truth, but you cannot help asking: suppose this particular boast does contain some truth, and the city is being taxed to pay 300 percent over the real value for drugs supplied to the poor sick in the public institutions—and such taxation made possible by a little graft distributed to the proper person, which in many instances must be a regular medical man of the better class. Then such would be the depth to which a medical man can sink and still remain a regular. It does not quite harmonize with the language of the Hippocratic oath.

But, strange to say, such conduct under capitalism might be called with propriety "business methods" and would not at all be out of tune with the notions of right and wrong, as the world understands such notions now, under capitalism. And the average citizen, and many a doctor, while not approving, would fail to see in it any thing particularly revolting.

A few weeks ago the street cleaners of New York quarrelled with their chief, he having introduced a custom of fining them out of a considerable portion of their wages upon the merest pretext.

It was the hottest week of the summer. The chief, an employee, of the tax-payers, did not hasten to adjust matters so as not to leave his employers in the lurch, but high-handedly provoked a strike. The street cleaners ceased to collect and remove the garbage.

In three days the offal accumulated in mounds on every sidewalk, and the smell rose to the heart of heaven. How many young children were choked to death; how many sick, struggling with death had the balance turned against them, just by the eman

ations of the fast decomposing animal refuse, will never be known. If these "christian" "gentlemen" who forced the strike will ever read a judgement-book, they may find it there. It was evident that the health of the strongest and the lives of the weaker ones were seriously threatened.

And still the "respectable" news papers had found out experts who declared to them that the accumulated decomposed garbage is only disagreable on account of its odor; but that there really was no danger at all to health or life. These experts were so cited at that particular time by the "Times" and "Globe" for instance, for the purpose of quieting popular indignation, which if roused, might have forced the public officials to end the strike not entirely on their own terms.

But if the citizens would ask why they should be taxed yearly to the tune of so many millions of dollars for the removal of garbage that is merely malodorous, those very experts and those very "Times" and "Globe" would have no difficulty in proving that the accumulation of garbage is not only malodorous, but also breeding a fearful number of deadly infections diseased, citing a host of authorities to prove their point.

We had the Haywood trial. Class was arraigned against class as openly, as is witnessed but seldom. The socialists and the more intelligent workingmen insisted on their right to hold their comrades innocent until proved otherwise, and fearing the repetition of the Chicago outrage of 20 years ago, organized demonstrations to secure a fair trial, and a fair charge by court.

The capitalists, assured contrary to law, that Haywood was guilty, indeed-some of them in spite of the verdict-still announce their such unchanged belief and treated Haywood from the start as law would not allow them to treat even an escaped convict.

At the trial the veracity of the statements made by the psychopathological monstrosity, known under the name of Orchard, was naturally of great importance. Science assumed the part of an overzealous servant of the dominant class, taking as its cue the shout and clamor of the blood-thirsty wealthy mob; science came to the rescue in the person of Professor Munstenberg, who after a superficial farcical examination announced Orchard to be a truth-telling man.

I could enlarge upon the difficulties, inherent and organic, to scientifically demonstrate whether a story told by a normal subject, is truth, or mere "embroidery".

I could step by step show how the difficulties increase to an unanswerable enigma when the story, the veracity of which is to be scientifically demonstrated, is told by an Orchard, i. e. by one that is vitally interested, has been presumably, amply and ably tutored, and is a rare pathological monster at that.