rely useless. The very fact that their
composition is kept secret is against them. It is a law absolute among
all honorable physicians that no remedial agent shall be kept secret.
Such physicians, if in their practice they discover a remedy for any
disease, at once make it known to the whole profession. To keep such a
discovery secret would be to lose caste, if not to be entirely excluded
from honorable professional association and recognition. If such an
examination as that proposed in Germany is needed there, here it is
required by a tenfold greater necessity. America is the great field of
operation for the patent medicine vender. Here he thrives. Here he
accumulates huge fortunes if he will only advertise persistently and
with sufficient disregard of truth. And his chief victims are women and
children. He is one of the pests of our society. We cannot exclude him,
or extinguish him entirely; that would interfere with the individual
liberty of the citizen; not only of the seller, but of the buyer. If
people choose to poison themselves gradually, they insist upon their
right to do so unhindered by government action. But at least we might
do what the German apothecaries ask to have done, and require as a
condition of the granting of a patent for a medicine that it should be
tested and its contents officially declared. The effect of such a
measure upon the general health would be in the highest degree
beneficial; and at least the public would be protected against the
fraudulent representations of the majority of patent medicine makers
and venders.

* * * * *

--IN another matter, church chimes, we have imitated Europe, and not
discreetly, and we have had our first check. A certain chime of church
bells in Philadelphia became annoying to the people in the
neighborhood, who complained to the courts, and obtained an injunction
restricting the use of the chimes to certain times of day. Even were
this often bell-jangling not the annoyance that it is, the whole
American public would owe something to these good Philadelphians simply
for the good example of their action in this matter. They were annoyed
by some one, the agent of a corporation, who, although he did not
commit murder, burglary, or arson, interfered with their comfort and
marred their enjoyment of life; and they, like sensible men, instead of
putting up with the annoyance after the American fashion, and saying,
"Oh, no matt