useless survival, and that if he extirpates it the patient will
be well and none the worse in a fortnight, whereas to await the
natural cure would mean a month's illness, then he is clearly
justified in recommending the operation even if the cure without
operation is as certain as anything of the kind ever can be. Thus
the conservative surgeon and the radical or extirpatory surgeon
may both be right as far as the ultimate cure is concerned; so
that their consciences do not help them out of their differences.


CREDULITY AND CHLOROFORM

There is no harder scientific fact in the world than the fact
that belief can be produced in practically unlimited quantity and
intensity, without observation or reasoning, and even in defiance
of both, by the simple desire to believe founded on a strong
interest in believing. Everybody recognizes this in the case of
the amatory infatuations of the adolescents who see angels and
heroes in obviously (to others) commonplace and even
objectionable maidens and youths. But it holds good over the
entire field of human activity. The hardest-headed materialist
will become a consulter of table-rappers and slate-writers if he
loses a child or a wife so beloved that the desire to revive and
communicate with them becomes irresistible. The cobbler believes
that there is nothing like leather. The Imperialist who regards
the conquest of England by a foreign power as the worst of
political misfortunes believes that the conquest of a foreign
power by England would be a boon to the conquered. Doctors are no
more proof against such illusions than other men. Can anyone then
doubt that under existing conditions a great deal of unnecessary