Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1856-05-22
PATENT MEDICINES.


We have more than once had occasion to assure
our readers of the intention, formed in the begin
ming of our enterprise, TO exclude patent medicine
advertisements from the columns of the ENQUIRER.
1t is always the case that the pill-venders who
perambulate the country expect to use the COL
umns Of the country press at merely nominal pri-
ces, and il is really amusing now and then to re-
ceive visit from one Of them, bearing with him
the pitful price with which country papers are
usually bought up. 1t gives US q savage delight
to show such Yankee cattle the dimensions of our
sanctum.door aud We shall certainly continue to
do so, while they hold up inducements so far be-
low these We are accustomed to receive Mt the
hands of our home patrons. TO put full tax up
on local advertisers and at the same time to bar
gain with Yankee poison-venders at miserable
price, not only acts of sheer injustice, but of
trust that the day will soon when our brethren
of the press will disdain to sell themselves to such
base uses.
But We have another and stronger reason for
excluding this species of advertising from our
columns. 1t will be found in the following sensi-
BILE article from the pen of DR.. BoATwRIGHT, Of
Columbia. We have extracted it from the Caro-
lima Times:-
Gsnhemsn:-The propensity which many per-
sons exhibit to treat their diseases by the use
of Patent Medicines, is truly lamentable. The
press, from one end of the Union to the other,
with few exceptions is filed. with glowing ac-
counts of wonderful cures. And the mind, enfee
blcd by disease, is apt to grasp after any remedy
| that offers prospect Of relief Patent medicines
are concealed behind the veil Of mystery; and
mystery is the very soul of quackery. Withdraw
the impenetrable veil which covers the means en-
ployed, and the confidence of the patient is lost.
At one period, great prejudice existed against
the use of calomel and other mineral substances.
Crafty charlatans and patent medicine men avail
ell themselves of this delusion, and encouraged
the belief by all sorts of abuse of mineral sub
! stances and the dangers that would result from
their use &c. The consequence is, that all kinds
of vile and nasty compounds that have been VEN
ded for the last thirty years, have, as their great
est recommendation, the assurance that they are
composed entirely of vegetable substances.
If the community would take the trouble to
seek the advice of their family physician, he will
tell them that he uses comparatively but few Of
the mineral substances in his practice; the most
of the remedies he resorts to are found in the veg
etable kingdom, which, indeed, rs class of med
cines, are much more powerful and poisonous
than the mineral, when injudiciously prescribed.
The patent medicines are manufactured by
wholesale: they are made by machinery hete-
geneous compound is thrown into n mill, and out
pours the pills by dozens and scores; and how
little reliance can be placed in the quantity or in
the ingredients of each pill! The pills invariably
are manufactured in the North and our market
is glutted, and our stomachs are crammed, to fill
the pockets Of some crafty impostor, who laughs
at our credulity if not our ignorance whilst he
grows wealthy Mt our expense 1t is time that our
community should be awake to the horrible impo-
sition daily practised upon them.
How different with the judcious and honorable
practitioner, (of whom our city affords many skill
led in professional lore, and who would not stoop to
do an act that would impose upon the communi-
ty.) He always selects the medicines he wishes
to administer to patient with due reference to
the effect he desires to produce and the consttu-
tional peculiarites of his patient; and, whether
he takes them from the metals and their salts, OF
from the herbal riches of nature, will always pro-
portion his doses to the sex, age and condition Of
the sick, the season, the climate, and nature Of
the disease, and thus render all the productions
and powers of nature subservient to the great pur
poses of medication, the removal Of disease and
preservation of health,
JOHN H. BoATwR1oHT, Druggist