If the average physician would examine his prescriptions at the end of a month he probably would be surprised to find what a small list of drugs he had made use of altogether. But to the fact that each practitioner has his own favorites, which in no case will exactly coincide with his neighbor's list, is due the enormous number of drugs which crowd the shelves of the apothecary. If, by a judicious system of elimination, two-thirds of these could be made to disappear, it is probable that, after we had accustomed ourselves to a proper use of the remainder, no one but the manufacturers would suffer.
The tendency of modern civilization is to surround men with a constantly increasing number of objects which are at first luxuries, and then, as their use becomes universal, finally come to be regarded as necessities. But for the soldier in war the process