at the food did not pass through
the pylorus, the opening into the intestines. The operation consisted in
making a new opening and connecting it with an intestine. This bright
woman now complains that the operation was not a success, because she
still has times of great distress with indigestion. Upon being asked
what she eats, she laughed and said, "Everything, peanuts, mince-pie,
sauer-kraut, frankforts; whatever is going. I have a vigorous appetite,
and keep peanuts and figs in my room, for I often have to eat in the
night."

Until multitudes of people like that business man, and that bright
woman, are educated in matters of health, it will not be easy for
physicians to bring Sir Frederick's prediction to fulfilment.

The popular supposition is that drugs _cure_ disease, and all that the
medical adviser is for is to choose the drug that will produce the
desired effect with the greatest speed. Consequently the physician is in
many cases driven to prescribe drugs that simply allay pain without
removing the cause of the pain. He cannot remove the cause without the
patient's co-operation, and as that would require the abandonment of
wrong habits few are willing to accept health at such a price. What man
will abandon beer to escape rheumatism, or smoking to save his eyesight
if he has weakness there? Or, what woman will cease tea-drinking if she
has neuralgia?

The _Journal of the American Medical Association_ for November 16, 1907,
contained an editorial article in which, after reference to drugs
necessary in the practice of a physician or surgeon, this is said:--

"The remark of Holmes years ago that it would be better for the
patients, but worse for the fish, if most of the drugs were
thrown into the sea, is probably even more true to-day. The vast
majority of these drugs have not the slightest excuse for
existence."

Dr. T. D. Crothers, in his valuable book upon Morphinism and other drug
addictions, reports a case of murder where it was shown that the
assailant was delirious from large doses of quinine. He says assaults
are often clearly traced to the drug taking of the assailant. A surgeon
from a New York hospital, in speaking of drug habits before an audience
at Chautauqua, New York, said that some of the ovarian difficulties
which demand operations are the result of over-dosing with quinine.

There are people who keep morphine in the house all the time lest some
little pain or ache should