own conduct at least; but it very frequently happens that the honest man
is less zealous in his advocacy of what is right than is the
propagandist of bold speculations and dangerous new theories in the
spreading of what is pernicious.

The effect thus produced upon many minds is to shake their convictions,
to say the least; and I need not tell you, gentlemen, that weak
convictions are not likely to be proof against violent and repeated
temptations. In fact, if a physician, misled by any of those many
theories which are often inculcated or at least insinuated by false
scientists, can ever convince himself, or even can begin to surmise
that, after all, there may be no such thing as a higher law before which
he is responsible for even his secret conduct, then what is to prevent
him from becoming a dangerous person to the community? If he see much
temporal gain on the one hand, and security from legal prosecution on
the other, what would keep him in the path of duty and honesty?
Especially if he can once make himself believe that, for all he knows,
he may be nothing more than a rather curiously developed lump of matter,
which is to lose forever all consciousness in death. Why should he not
get rid of any other evolved lump of matter if it stand in the way of
his present or prospective happiness? Those are dangerous men who
inculcate such theories; it were a sad day for the medical profession
and for the world at large if ever they found much countenance among
physicians. Society cannot do without the higher law; this law is to be
studied in Medical Jurisprudence.

It is my direct object, gentlemen, to explain this law to you in its
most important bearings, and thus to lay before you the chief duties of
your profession. The principal reason why I have undertaken to deliver
this course of lectures--the chief reason, in fact, why the Creighton