An even greater danger, in some respects, is the drug-taking professional nurse. Whatever has been said of physicians both in the way of extenuation and of warning may be repeated of nurses. They have the same exposure to the habit, and, once addicted, are likely to exhibit signs of irresponsibility. They are more dangerous in that their opportunity for mischief is greater, since they are closer to the patient and able to thwart the doctor's orders with perfect freedom. "I have had several nurses on this drug case," a doctor once said to me, "and I find that they have all smuggled morphine to my patient." This was, no doubt, an exceptional case, but the fact remains that nurses, because of their close alliance with druggists and doctors, find it comparatively easy to purchase drugs and hypodermics at any drug store without causing the slightest suspicion or reproof. Nor should one censure them too severely for clandestine compliance with the demands of a patient. It should not be overlooked that the nurse, in being paid by the patient and not by the doctor, is ordinarily subjected to great pressure when the patient clamors for morphine. In such circumstances the protection of a physician's monopoly of the drug would be most welcome. But how much worse is the pressure when the well-intentioned nurse also is a drug-taker! The morphinist has an abnormal sympathy with those who have undergone or are undergoing experiences similar to his own, and there is no stronger bond than that which unites two morphine victims. As a matter of the most elementary precaution for all concerned, no nurse should under any conditions be allowed to buy habit-forming drugs.