of Ethics is to remedy these acknowledged imperfections of our system.

Dr. Putnam. By drawing a line between regulars and irregulars; or more correctly speaking, between doctors and charlatans. The State has failed to draw this line, and we must do it ourselves.

Dr. Warren. This State has drawn a line, and one which seems to me unobjectionable. It declares that a man who has not a diploma from a legally constituted medical college, shall not be authorized to practise. He is therefore practically declared to be a charlatan.

Dr. Putnam. True, but, in the first place, this line has only been established in a few States. In the second place, it may be changed at any time by an act of the Legislature, and made to include those who are now excluded from its protection; and third, admitting that the line drawn by the State is useful and important, we need also a "color line," which will separate the white from the black.

Dr. Warren. You have admitted that there are a great many men graduated from our regular medical colleges who are imperfectly educated. According to your own statement there does not seem to be any natural point of sepa

ration between our poorest scholars and their best.

Dr. Putman. I don't agree with you upon that point. Between our poorest men and their best there is, with rare exceptions, a very marked difference. If you entertain any serious doubt on the question of their relative scholarship, read their medical journals, and inform yourself in other ways, as you may have opportunity. Recite to me their contributions to medical science. The interval between the two classes the Regulars and the Irregulars-is at every point of the line, even where they approach most closely, too wide, in the matter of scholarship alone, not to be easily recog. nized.

But if it were otherwise, this is not the only line which medical men have to draw. We need, I repeat, a color line, drawn between the white and the black, so as to prevent their mingling with each other. Experience has shown that, when inferior races become closely intermingled with superior races, neither one is improved, but that in the unnatural embrace both go down together.

The code draws the line at a point where there

is not only a considerable intermediate space, due to differences in culture and education, but, what is much more important, at a point where the whole nature and the aspirations begin to diverge. On the one side there is a hereditary tendency to improve, and on the other a hereditary tendency to depreciate. On the one side we are sustained by the high examples, traditions and lofty purposes and teachings of the fathers in medicine; while on the other side there is no incentive to conduct but present gain, and the ignoble examples of famous charlatans.

Dr. Warren. Then you propose to draw the line where it will include a good many very poorly qualified doctors. Are those men worth so much care and anxiety on your part? Can you afford to take them to your embrace?

Dr. Putnam. Yes; and for the same reason that a wise shepherd saves and nurses the sickly lambs. He knows that if they are of good breed, and they are properly fed, they may in time become healthy and useful. A great many of the young men who are born into the profession of medicine feeble and sickly, sub

sequently by dint of study and teaching become strong and prove to be an honor to their profession; but in order to do this their instincts must be right, and they must be protected from the social pitfalls into which their unsteady limbs are apt to precipitate them.

FIFTH CONVERSATION.

Homœopathy-The Abracadabra-Peculiarities of American Character, Customs, and EmpiricismsDr. Warren's letter to Dr. Putnam describing the Medical Empiricisms of Europe.

Dr. Warren. You seem to think, Doctor, that one of the greatest duties of the code is to take in its gentle but strong arms the weakly lambs and to coddle them: to build around them a high fence, to prevent them from tumbling into pitfalls; and to dry-nurse them when they are taken from the breast of their Alma Mater.

Dr. Putnam. I do, Doctor.

Dr. Warren. If this is one of our duties as medical men, I think we ought to publicly advertise ourselves as professional nurses for sickly and badly disciplined babes, under the sign of the nursing bottle and slipper.

Dr. Putnam. I am glad to see that you have that nice sense of humor which enables you to see the funny side of a serious proposition.