Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1867-02-28
INJUDIcrOUs USE OF mEDIcrsr.


that, leaving out opium, certain specifies,
wine, and an9sthetics, "if the materia
as aoU used, could be sunk to
the bottom of the sea, 1t would be all
the better for mankind, and all the worse
for the fishes.n We do not think that
the doctors need TO have been startled,
and some of them were not. There is
vastly more medicine used in the world
than there should be, under the admins
tration Of doctors, quacks, old women,
ect., 80 that the assertion Of DIR. Holmes is
true. But there is a judi
cious use Of 1t, and we believe that this
is becoming more and more prevalent in
the medical profession, which will surely
though slowly abate the indiscriminate
and abundant use in the world at large
and therefore, instead Of poisoning the
fishes by dosing them at random with
the whole materia medica, we would
preserve 1t entire, and with DR.. Holmes,
do all that we can to urge forward the
change that is going on.
Medicine injudiciously used gives afatal
issue to muititudes of cases that with ju-
dicious treatment, would have resulted
favorabiy. But this is not the point that
we wish to illustrate now. 1t is rather
the influence of bad medication, pro-
fessioBal, qtackish, and domestic, in pro-
uuclnR lll-nealLn ana ulsease.
In the treatment Of disease the object
of the judiciOus physician is not merely
to carry the patient through the sickness,
but to bring him out Of it in the best
possible condition. 1t is just here that
inappropriate treatment most signally
fails. Residues of the sickness are un-
necessarily left, laying foundation for
continued ill-health and future attacks
of disease. This may come from giving
too much of those medicines which are
appropriate to the case in hand precisely
as one in mending machinery, though
his blows may be directed Alright, may
put so much force into thesH as to do
more harm than good. Or the proper
medicines may be administered in such
small amounts as to prove Intellectual.
Or, again, medicines entirely unfit for
the case may be given, increasing rather
than lessening the disease.
Recovery may occur in all these cases
from the recovering powers of nature
alone, though the laundering medication
may get all the credit. But, nevertheless,
the damage done by the treatment is not
wholly removed, but results are left here
and there in the organs, or in thesystem
as whole, that impair the health and
predispose to disease.
This often happens. An attack Of dis
ease, which might be broken up at once
by proper treatment, is suffered to go on,
resulting at length in confirmed and Sc
we're sickness, and the medical attendant
-quack or perhaps doctor-makesa large
bill, and, what is more, has his praises
sounded as having raised his patient from
the borders of the grave, when, in truth,
he brought him there, and the rescue was
effected by natures recuperative power.
In this case this needlessly prolonged suf-
fering from disease must leave residua
that might have been escaped by rapid
and early recovery.
The enormous amount Of advertising
of nostrums shows how much of random
dosing is done Independent of medical
attendance. True, some are benefited,
for the same reason that some would be
hit by one firing into crowd, though he
may be poor marksman. These, of
course, praise the medicine they have
used, while the multitude who have re-
ceived no benefit say nothing about it.
1t is by the recommendations of these few,
uttered among acquaintances and appear
ing in advertisements, that nostrums get
their currency. Meanwhile those who
have not been benefited have received
actual injury, for dNindppropridte medi-
cine does more or less harm. 1t does not
merely fail to do good, as is very COM
monty supposed. Considering the great
prevalence of this indiscriminate use OF
nostrums, we can not avoid the conclu-
sion thatit is quite large cause of i'll
health and disease. Not only is ii di-
rectly so, but often indirectly; for it fire.
quently leads on the individual beyond
the possibility of recovery, when the
outset might have effected cure.
Much medicine is taken unnecessarily
by those who are a little ailing, and those
who imagine themselves to besick. With
some extra attention to diet and regimen
nature is ordinarily competent to the re-
moval of slight ailments. And "a to inn
aginary ones, the directing the mind to
every uneasy sensation, together with
the constant tinkering of the system with
drugs, will in very short time produce
positive disease where none existed be-
fore. Let us not be understood as wholly
discarding the use ofmedicine in all cases
that fall short of positive and marked
sickness. A timely use of it will often
prevent the developement Of grave dis
ease. But it should be resorted to not at
hap-hazard but Understandings, from
instruction gathered from the family
physician, ifnot by the prescription.
There are some invalids who make O
business of invalidism. They are not
satisfied unless they are taking some
medicine all the time. They would fee
lost if the health which they are so earn
estly seeking for should actually come tC
them, and force them toabandOn hewidt
field of the materia medica. They gettc
bevery wise on medicine, and weary theil
friends with variations of their com
plants, and the many victories obtained
overthem by drugs; the victory, however
never being complete and final. AS fol
the doctor, he gets poorly paid at ordi'
nary fees for the time which he mus
spend in hearing their long and tedious
! stories and disquisitions, and answering
as well as he can their numberless qucs
tions. In all such cases, unless the doc
| tor have both tact and firInness, there !:
too much of dosing; and this, of course
| tends to confirm, If not to aggravate, the
! invalid condition. l.r. -L.I,
Most people have much less confidence
| in nature than they have in drugs; ant
yet nature Is the great cure Of disease
and the drugs are at best durRidrtes,-
Let this grand truth be thoroughly be
lleved, and there would be vastly les
medicine taken in the world; and ther'
would be consequent diminution in th'
amount of disease. .r alao.l u. .4f
| DRESSED turkeys stuffed with cotton Were sol
4 in Petersburg last week.dEx, Al III. ..,-il.
I Cotton stuffiinQ in this country Is lnD