his individuality and submit to the impersonal dictates of a trades-union which absorbs both the personality and the conscience.

The objects to be attained by measures so restrictive, are the attainment of a high character in the profession, and the suppression of irregulars and quacks. Has fifty years' experience of a code attained these results? The answer calls for an historical retrospect: That the profession has made substantial advancement, not only in the average intellectual attainments of its members, but also in their methods of thought and work, is most cheerfully conceded. Not only has the plane of medical education been materially elevated, but the preliminary character and culture of the men who seek admission to its portals have been markedly improved. But are these conditions, even by the most forced hypothesis, to be attributed to the teachings as to behavior or to the trades-union restrictions of the Medical Code of Ethics? Never before has there been displayed such activity in all the avenues of thought and research. Whole branches of physical science, which fifty years since were but in an embryonic state, have been developed and perfected; with rich and boundless fields for research and speculation, medical minds have eagerly engaged in inves

tigations, have freely appropriated the aids which successful study in other fields have rendered, and medicine rescued from speculation and hypothesis stands on a more exact basis than ever before; on the other hand, as society grows older, intellectual culture more acute, and competition more active, a higher state of preliminary attainment in knowledge is demanded, a more refined and courteous intercourse required from those who seek either the emoluments or honors of the profession. All these advances are but the natural outgrowth of a more active, refined, and intellectual civilization. If this condition is taking place not only in countries where codes of medical ethics are unknown, but even here, where its workings have been undisputed for so many years, why shall the profession be still belittled by formulas of deportment, when there is the broader, unwritten, instructive, self-convicting expression, “conduct unworthy of a gentleman"? This is the comprehensive expression to which all these formulas of the code can be brought. This is the only code which any of the other liberal professions demand. This relieves the medical man from his thraldom, places him upon his integrity and self-respect, and leaves him to follow without restrictions the humanitarian impulses of his

calling. Who rears best his children that they may grapple with the moral problems of life; the parent, who inculcates the broad principles of truth and justice, of truth to ourselves as well as to others, or he, who, by sophistical reasoning or implied innuendo, causes the plastic mind to suspect wrong and falsity in every act?

Is it not conceded that in schools where a system of espionage prevails, the temptation to do wrong and the performance of ungentlemanly acts are far more common than in schools where the sense of personal honor is instilled and personal responsibility encouraged? Medical men, also, will reach a higher ethical plane, when the broad principle of gentlemanly behavior replaces expressions, which even at their best, give an imperfect idea of what constitutes this high prerogative.

Thus far, the necessity of an ethical code to control the actions of medical men, has been considered with reference to their relations to each other and those entrusted to their professional care. There still remains to be considered the necessity of a code to govern their action toward those who may be termed "irregular." This may be viewed both from its utilitarian and humanitarian aspect. As the

great majority of those termed irregular are comprised under the appellation of homoeopathists, they alone are alluded to in the discussion. When the absurdities of this sect first came to the attention of the public and the profession, no theories of therapeutics, could be more at variance, than were those of the new sect, with that which had ever been accepted by the profession. The use of drugs in infinitesimal proportions, was so revolting to commonsense, that the profession unanimously denounced the methods of homeopathy and placed it under the ban of non-professional intercourse and recognition; so vigorously and acrimoniously was this course pursued that a sympathetic reaction took place in public sentiment, and in spite of anathema, denunciation, and the ban of nonprofessional recognition, homeopathy has grown steadily in numbers, strength, and professional attainment, until to-day its practitioners constitute in every city, village, and hamlet a large percentage of the medical influence of the land. They are legally recognized in a large number of the States; they have their colleges, societies, and medical organizations equipped and disciplined for regular work; they have the confidence and patronage of many of the most intelligent and wealthy

in every community. Their absurd doctrine of infinitesimals, is almost wholly abandoned, and their peculiar dogma is now alone similia similibus in the application of medicine to disease.

Wherein lies the cause of this wonderful success? No dispassionate, educated man, be he physician or layman, would claim that it resided in their potential attenuations,-now abandoned by themselves! And yet, under these potential attenuations, they exhibited remarkable data of recovery from disease. The answer, in my judgment, must be sought in far different causes than their discarded infinitesimals. At the time of their appearance the school of heroic medicine held almost undisputed sway throughout the medical world. Disease was a foreign element, which, at all extremities, must be driven or eliminated from the system, and the whole armentarium of heroic measures were promptly called into requisition: Bleeding, "coup sur coup," mercurials to salivation, catharsis and emesis to vital toleration, were the special and daily means employed by every physician; and when the patient survived these violent assaults his cure was attributed to the prompt and vigorous measures employed. If a case