What was the result? The new treatment was immediately “boosted” into world-wide prominence. Half a million dollars would not have paid for the publicity it obtained in one week. Indeed it would have been impossible to buy this kind of publicity—straight news—at any price. It made fortunes for the men interested. To-day, ten years after this publicity, these men are still reaping its benefits. Now these men, it should be remembered, were and are strictly ethical. They frown upon anything that smacks of violation of the code. They will not sell the 56treatment to physicians who advertise. Their dealings are confined to those who can show a clean bill of health in this connection. To those who meet the demands in this respect they furnish the treatment at $27.50 per 2-ounce vial; the cost of producing it is about 75 cents. Nice profitable business? Well, rather. The lesson of all this is that it pays physicians to advertise, provided they do it in the right way, and are clever enough to hoodwink their professional brethren as well as the general public on the question of ethics. The man who openly engages a real press agent and pays his money for “display ads” in the newspapers is tabooed, his name is anathema. The man who engages a press agent quietly to get up schemes by which the gentlemen of the press may be worked for valuable publicity is thoroughly ethical, and remains in good standing in the profession. Wherein lies the distinction? I must confess that it is too fine for me. Of the two the honor seems to be with the doctor who proceeds to ask for patients in a straight-forward business-like manner, and pays the newspapers for the space they give him. On the one hand we have the man who pays for what he gets, while on the other we have him who, in reality, is obtaining goods under false pretences. Just another point about ethics. It is strictly unethical for a physician to prescribe or administer a remedy the formula of which he does not thoroughly understand. But thousands of them are doing it daily. Where is the physician, for instance, who knows in reality, aside from the proprietors, the composition of Anti-Kamnia, but 57does lack of this knowledge stop its widespread use? Not at all. It’s the same way with acetanalid and scores of other preparations. Occasionally the proprietors of some remedies seek to ease the conscience of some extra scrupulous practitioner by printing what appears to be a formula. But in such cases there can be no assurance that the formula is correctly stated, the proper quantities given, or the method of preparation absolutely stated. In all such cases the alleged facts must be taken on faith.