or taking the precautions that are necessary in order to ward
off disease. This ignorance, it must be confessed with sorrow, is in a
measure the fault of the medical profession, which has not in the vast
majority of instances lived up to its ideals in this connection. Petty
and unworthy rivalry has played an extremely important part in this
failure of medical men to do their duty in this particular--none of the
physicians of a community being, as a rule, willing that others should
instruct the public, however vital this might be for the general good. As
a consequence, that class of vultures known as medical quacks has
furnished to the laity by far the greater proportion of their
instruction on hygienic subjects, with the result that the average man
has a greater misconception and less real knowledge of such matters than
of anything else in which he is vitally interested.

Another, and very curious explanation for our general disregard of the
laws of health is that our strong belief in ourselves impels us to think
that however much others may suffer from things generally regarded as
unhygienic, we, ourselves, will be immune. This belief is fostered by the
fact that in early life there often seems no end to our capacity to
endure, and we find ourselves constantly defying without apparent harm,
what we are told by others is directly contrary to all rules of proper
living. But it is unfortunately true also that the reserve force and
great power of resistance that enables us to do these things begins to
wane towards the end of the third decade of life, and we, therefore, find
ourselves sooner or later breaking down after we have become thoroughly
convinced that we were made of iron, and that while other people might
not be able to do as we were, it could not possibly result in evil in our
own cases.

What a pity it is that the young will not learn from the experience of
those who have gone before them! Could they only do so, how much
suffering and woe could be avoided in this world. Unfortunately, however,
there are few men so constituted that they are willing to be guided by
the experience of those who have preceded them, and there is but a faint
possibility, therefore, that any good can be accomplished by warning the
coming generation of the troubles in store for them should they not heed
the advice of those who have suffered before them. Notwithstanding this,
the writer feels that these words of warning should be spoken t