be publicly scrutinized. Such is the nature of his ministrations, and
such too is the confidence habitually reposed in his integrity, that he
is and must be implicitly trusted in matters in which, if he happens to
be unworthy of his vocation, he may be guilty of the most outrageous
wrongs.

The highest interests of earth are in his hands. If he is not
conscientious, or if he lets himself be carried about by every wind of
modern speculations, he can readily persuade himself that a measure is
lawful because it is presently expedient, that acts can justly be
performed because the courts do not punish them; and thus he will often
violate the most sacred rights of his patients or of their relatives.
Who has more frequent opportunities than a licentious Doctor to seduce
the innocent, to pander to the passions of the guilty, to play into the
hands of greedy heirs, who may be most willing to pay him for his
services? No one can do it more safely, as far as human tribunals are
concerned. As a matter of fact, many, all over this land and other
lands, are often guilty of prostituting their noble profession to the
vilest uses. The evil becomes all the more serious when false doctrines
are insinuated, or publicly advocated, which throw doubt upon the most
sacred principles of morality. True, the sounder and by far the larger
portion of medical men protest against these false teachings by their
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 know