vocabulary of words, meaningless to the average mind. If scientific minds will make the proper investigation, all things pertaining to life in time may be fairly well understood by studying causes and not effect, the laws of nature and not their products. At all event I will make a start in that direction by offering the following theory for the solution of the problem, hoping that others may improve on it and finally become familiar with the mysterious working of the human system, and thereby learn the effects of drugs on the human brain.

As the brain is the seat of life or the dinamo of existence, all vital actions must be executed through it, be it food, drugs or electrical forces, which is proven in the actions of drugs in various ways, but especially on the organs of digestion and the lungs. If the direct contact of medicine with the diseased organs would produce a cure, the stomach should never be seriously diseased, for it is an easy matter to empty its contents, wash it thoroughly and apply the remedy, which would take effect as readily as a salve on a sore on the surface of the body, nor would the stomach have to be removed from its appointed place for the comfort and convenience of its possessor.

But dyspeptics are as common as they ever were, and indigestion causes as much complaint as does lumbago. The lung cells too can be reached by inhalation, but still we hear the consumptive's hollow cough all over the country of schools, colleges, medical institutions filled with students, Deans, doctors.

Druggists making an army of sufficient size to frighten any species of microbe over the borders of civilization, if they had any fear of the boasted microbe destroyer. But the dainty little things continue to enjoy their usual sport of destroying life, mock at medical presumption and laugh at man's skill in compounding pills, potions and patent medicines, the latest discovery and the only sure cure for consumption, indigestion, Bright's disease of the kidneys, cough, colds and diabetes. The sure cure of ten years ago is valuless now since doctor Puff Hard has made his latest discovery, but the number of undertakers grow no less and the doleful sound of the church bell tolls on. One, two, three, oh it is a little child, the doctor did not know what was the matter with it, and the little white hearse went shimmering by. Four, five, six, seven, it is the funeral of a bright-eyed boy. He came home with the measles, the doctor was called but his medicines did no good, the mother said, and the light soon went out of his beautiful eyes. Eight, nine, ten, eleven, this is the funeral of a little girl; she took diphtheria and grew worse in spite of medical skill, the tears of the father, the prayers of the mother and the drugs forced on her tired brain. The cells refused to work when she closed her eyes forever. Twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen it strikes. They said it was a young student, the pride of his father and the idol of his anxious mother; was just ready to graduate from college, accidentally was exposed to small pox, the

doctor was called but he could not stay the progress of the disease, his medicine seemed to have no effect on the ravage of the malady. It started in with fatal energy and halted not till the physical forces were exhausted and the place in the family circle was made vacant forever. Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty. A young lady, in the bloom of youth, out of school and in society; she was taken suddenly ill of a fever; three physicians were summoned, they councilled, shook their wise heads and pound down the drugs. Last week she was arranging her bridal gown, to-day it substitutes her burial robe. Listen, the great bell struck thirty. It is a mother this time. She lingered in consumption, day by day; she grew worse; she clings to life as her little ones cling to her; she swallows her medicine with avidity and pleads with the doctor to save her for the sake of her loved ones. He is a kind man and deeply interested in his patient, he studies her case, reads his books and compounds the best remedies he can find in the Matera Medica; but her cough grows worse, her breath grows short till finally it ceases altogether and... the mother is no more. Doctor, why did you not save that young mother from that premature death? Why did not your boasted remedies cure her and save her to her family from that untimely grave? "I don't know." Thus, from infancy to old age, the same story is repeated at almost every death where doctors are called. Did not understand the case; the medicine did not have the desired effect; the patient was too far gone; was not called in time,

etc., etc., etc. But the fact of the matter is, that drugs are not medicines for diseased brains. And here is the testimony of some of the honest ones, whose evidence corroborates the above statements:

WHAT PROGRESSIVE PHYSICIANS THINK OF DRUGS.

Prof. Alonzo Clark, of the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons, says, "Every dose of medicine diminishes the patient's vitality."

Prof. Parker, of New York, says, "Hygiene is of far more value in the treatment of disease than drugs."

Bostwick's History of Medicine says, "Every dose of medicine is a blind experiment on the vitality of the patient."

Sir John Forbes, M. D., F. R. S., physician to Queen Victoria, says, "Some patients get well with the aid of medicine, some without it, and still more in spite of it."

Professor Barker, New York Medical College, says, "The drugs which are administered for scarlet fever kill far more patients than that disease does."

Professor E. H. Davis, of the New York Medical College, says, "The 'vital effects' of medicine are very little understood. It is a term employed to cover ignorance."

Professor Joseph M. Smith, M. D., New York College of Physicians and Surgeons, says, "All medicines

which enter the circulation poison the blood in the same manner as do the poisons that produce disease."

Professor A. H. Stevens, M. D., New York College of Physicians and Surgeons, says, "The older physicians grow the more skeptical they become of the virtues of medicine, and the more they are disposed to trust to the powers of nature."

Professor J. W. Carson says, "We do not know whether our patients recover because we give medicine, or because nature cures them. Perhaps bread pills would cure as many as medicine."

John Mason Good, M. D., F. R. S., says, "The effects of medicine on the human system are in the highest degree uncertain, except, indeed, that they have destroyed more lives than war, pestilence and famine combined."

Perhaps the following verses from the Chicago Times-Herald will be as appropriate a closing as I can find for this chapter:

THE WONDERFUL DOCTORS.

They have found out how consumption may be positively cured;

Ills that used to worry people need no longer be endured.

They've discovered lymphs and serums, so we have been plainly told,

That will stop the sad necessity of ever growing old; They are finding out the microbes, they're advancing day by day,

But people keep on dying in the same old-fashioned way.