Prominent among the drugs mentioned have been the preparations and alkaloids of belladonna, of hyoscyamus, pilocarpine, and some others. These drugs have by reason of more or less supposed specific action, alone, or in various combinations or in conjunction with purgatives, etc., formed the basis for many if not most of the various special treatments and “cures.” For example, what is described as the “specific mixture” of one of the most widely-known treatments contains as its active agents belladonna and hyoscyamus. These drugs are not mentioned here in condemnation of their employment as therapeutic measures in the hands of those skilled in the estimation of their values, indications and actions--and dangers if unskillfully employed. They have unquestioned therapeutic value in their proper places, as and when properly indicated, in individual cases. Routinely used, as specific curative agents, they seem to me to be demonstrating their failure. In the conception of addiction-disease herein outlined it is difficult to attribute to them specific properties. In a paper, “The Rational Handling of the Narcotic Addict” read before the Section on Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Annual Session of the American Medical Association, 1916, I stated, “It is not my purpose to enter into discussion of the various therapeutic methods and therapeutic measures which have been advocated and employed in the treatment of narcotic addiction. Their number is legion, and they include most of the therapies known to lay as well as to medical literature.