deeply mistrust, because it not only advocates and practises the
most revolting cruelties in the pursuit of knowledge, and
justifies them on grounds which would equally justify practising
the same cruelties on yourself or your children, or burning down
London to test a patent fire extinguisher, but, when it has
shocked the public, tries to reassure it with lies of breath-
bereaving brazenness. That is the character the medical profession
has got just now. It may be deserved or it may not: there it is at
all events, and the doctors who have not realized this are living
in a fool's paradise. As to the humor and conscience of doctors,
they have as much as any other class of men, no more and no less.
And what other men dare pretend to be impartial where they have a
strong pecuniary interest on one side? Nobody supposes that
doctors are less virtuous than judges; but a judge whose salary
and reputation depended on whether the verdict was for plaintiff
or defendant, prosecutor or prisoner, would be as little trusted
as a general in the pay of the enemy. To offer me a doctor as my
judge, and then weight his decision with a bribe of a large sum of
money and a virtual guarantee that if he makes a mistake it can
never be proved against him, is to go wildly beyond the
ascertained strain which human nature will bear. It is simply
unscientific to allege or believe that doctors do not under
existing circumstances perform unnecessary operations and
manufacture and prolong lucrative illnesses. The only ones who can
claim to be above suspicion are those who are so much sought after
that their cured patients are immediately replaced by fresh ones.
And there is this curious psychological fact to be remembered: a
serious illness or a death advertizes the doctor exactly as a
hanging advertizes the barrister who defended the person hanged.
Suppose, for example, a royal personage gets something wrong with