The Kansas herald of freedom. [volume] (Wakarusa, Kan. Territory) 1854-1860, 1855-06-23
Jggiieqic.
From TIE Buffalo Democracy.
A Spring Pill. :

A Spring Pill.
Our friend, Bolts LOVE, Esq, met us
some weeks since with a downcast and
anxious look, and inquired ouropinion as
to the prospect for cholera. He told us
he had not yet taken his spring medicine
and that he was "bilious wanted
cleaning out'-must get rid of the
t'winter aceumulations"-felt that he
needed renovation" ''and them" said
he, "eholera may come and welcome; no
man need care for cholera ifhe only takes
a good course of medicine nthe spring.
We saw him, soon after, with box of
somebody's "Liver Pills." and bottle
of some other body's '.Hepatic Elixir"
the next we heard of poor LOVE be had
been very sick, and was just able to
crawl about; all of which he attributed to
his not having taken the "good dose of
medicine" earlier.
BoLus is not the only man Of his way
of thinking, and not the sole adherent of
the cleaning OUT theory. Far from it.
There are many thousands such, and
hundreds die annually, martyrs to falla--
cy as dense as it is Stubborn. The belief
that the intestinal canal is sort of main
trunk sewer; that the human frame is the
better for thorough system of drainage,
and can be purified and sweetened by the
operation of medical scayenging and
flushing, I" is unfortunately too prevalent.
1t is rendered more so by the irrational
statements put forth upon the labels and
wrappers of quack remedies, the makers
of which all treat the subject in this way,
and calmly inform their patients that the
priRa via is monstrOus drain, fed and
choked by side bitches and cutters, all
of which, by the judieious exhibition of
the remedies so cheaply offered, are to
be cleansed, expurgated, and opened to
the current of sewerage! And the senti-
ment is SO common, among our people,
that there is scarce a family in the whole
country which does not, as the springap-
proaches, prepare its many miles of in
testinal canal, for the summer navigation,
by dredging with drastic purges, flushing
with Stops, flooding with syrups, and
securing with abominable drugs. The
tone of the stomach and other organs of
digestion and assimilation is deranged,
the manufacture of chyme is interfered
with, and the result generally is, if the
business of the internal system is not en-
tirely broken up for time, that tempo
rary check is put upon its usefulness, and
the delicate machinery is impaired.
Medicine in this country is handled
and taken with the same carelessness that
attends the most ordinary affairs of life;
men swallow pills just as they pay post
age or get into an omnibus; they think no
more of engorging lump of blue mass
than of playing rubber at whist, and so
familiarized do all become with drugs
and remedial agents, that it is no I'M
common thing to see medicine chests in
the private closets of families, along side
the pickles and the cheese. 1t is this
constant intimacy with the materia medi-
ca that renders our people so prompt to
take doses. and so eager to fancy some
ailment that shall give them the excuse.
1t is quite the custom of the country;
calomel, quinine, aloes, are household
words with lis, and the child who grows
up to mans estate without having been
through course or two of medicine per
annum, is a curiosity-a black swan
among the rising generation. Hence
comes much of the real sickness of Amer
leans, and the pallid faces and gaunt
limbs of many of our countrymen may
be traced directly to the improper adj
ministration of drugs to their youthful
| system.
How different is it in other lands. In
Europe, the medical man is seldom called
except in cases ofsevere illness, and then
the case is left entirely to his care; there
are no side pills, no extra potions, no in
tercallary drenchings and sloppings, to
aid the course of the cure, but the patient
lives or dies, secundem arten. In France
the ease is little different, it is true
There, OH the appearance of an ache or q
pain. but not till the overt ache or pain
IS developed, comes the exhibition of the
everlasting tisane, that omnipotent slep
protean In form, diverse in tase and color
but always tisane-always harmless
OIL how harmless! Marsh mallows, dan
delions, clover tops, rose leaves, and &
thousand other simples shed their bitter
their mucilage, their fatness, for the con
coction of the panacea, which sugared
and nutmegged and prepared as French
chafngdish magiciahs know so well how
to do, makes gentle, pleasing drink, tht
greatest of whose virtues is that it can By
no mischance do injury to sick. or well
1t is strange superstition, but infinitely
better than that which makes Americans
resort to the drug shop and the pill box
After few tubs full, more or less, o
tisane, the patient comes out as gay as
lark, and with fresh appetite for thin
soups and thick GRAVES; while Yanke.
who has gone through his ':spring course
of excavation is melancholy object t.
contemplate.
When will the people of this country
learn to let well enough alone, and to rely
upon the curative powers of nature?-
When viii they learn to look upon all tn.
drugs in the pharmacop@ia as poisons
only to be taken at great need and under
proper directions? Why, as well Nigh
children be turned loose in an arsenal, Il
riot at their viii among bayonets, bombs
and rockets, as for men and women t.
dash recklessly among the unknown con
tents of the apothecary's shop and selec
their own remedies for real or fancied all
ments.
4 Nature has great recuperative power
of her own, and very competently treat
any deyiations from her standard Q
health. Let her alone, and in nine case
out of ten she viii heal the disease with
out the aid of medicine, other than fresl
air and proper abstinence. Diet and re
gimen viii cure the larger proportion o
maladies in their inception, while medi
cines viii often exacerbate and proion;
the case, even when the selected remed,
may be conceded to be proper one il
tiudicious doses and at proper intervals