New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-03-10
A CTIVE REMEDY IN SICKNESS, AND A
"A pR0MpP -REGTon1AAnTIIVVE IN WEAK

he governed too much" That 1T Is physicked
foo much is apparent to every thoughtful OBJ
server. Scarcely a month passes in which some
new theory for the cure of all the disorders
incident to humanity is not broached Each
has its little day, its probationary or few
as the case may be-and then drops into OBJ
liyion. To use the words of Byron:
Every month and year brings forth new one
Till after coylng the gazettes with can't
The age discovers IT is not true one
Strange to say, all the so-called "infalllble
systems of treatment which gOod-natured
public is invited to patronize, propose to do
battle with disease after it has fastened upon
its victims; not to anticipate and battle Its at
tocks. Now. the grandest and most important
mission of medical science is not to cure sick
ness. but to prevent it. Remedial agents would
of course never be needed if, by means OF an
tidotes taken in advance, all disorders couid
be averted. This, perhaps, is not possible; but
il is claimed as fact, established by seven
teen wears of successful experience, that Hos
letters Stomach Bitters come nearer to the
standard of perfection, as q protective medl-
cine, than any preparation in use; while as for
q remedy for large class of complaints, and
a vitalizing, strength-renewing agent in cases
of physical debility, whether constitutional or
produced by adventtious causes, its great
value is admitted by liberal-minded medical
practitioners and avouched by the most vOlum-
nous array Of testimony that has ever been
accumulated in favor of any tonic and Alternative.
Fifty years ago the Faculty, as a rule, took
sides with disease against nature. Of course,
such was not their design; but such was UNI
questionaby their practice. Their intentions
were good, but their pathology and method of
treatment were atrOciOusly wrong. Blistering,
bleeding, salvation, violent purgation, and stu
pefaction with narcotics were then the main
resources of the profession. The lancet was
used freely in intermittent fevers, O. and if
the brain was excited off came the patients
hair, and was supplanted by a cantharides
plaster. Colonel and ialaD was administered
&" in heroic doses" in bowel complaints, and
the system was saturated with mercury as
specific for liver disease and scrofulOas distep-
pers. This source of treatment was a source
of profit to apothecaries and undertakes,
but deadly to the subjects of it. 1t brought
mourning into countless houses, and filed in
Vulnerable graves. a.
The era Of violent and indiscriminate deple-
ton has passed away, never, it is hoped, to
return. and the immense Importance OF in
vigoratOn is generally recognized. But until
the introduction of Hostetters Stomach Bitters
neither the public nor the physicians knew
where to look for pure and harmless invigor-
ant. For many years the ordinary alcoholic
stimulants had been becoming more and more
impure, until the careful and conscientious
practitioners were afraid to prescribe them;
and it was blessed day for the sick and
feeble when this nnocuOus and powerful vege-
table tonic was ushered into existence to sup
ply their place. Its advent was the great
sanitary event of the nineteenth century. The
spirituOus liquors of seventeen years ago were
much adulterated, but they were infinitely less
dangerous than the acids and consuming
poisons now vended under the same names in
grocery stores and tavern bars. On the other
hand, the stimulant employed in the manufac
ture of the Bitters is far preferable to the
finest ever distilled from the grape or the cane.
1t is, so to speak, the life-blood of tho most
wholesome of cereals, sound rye. But this
admirable stimulant is merely the vehicle by
which their active power is increased. The
vegetable ingredients, intermixed with the
alcoholic base, comprise thirteen of the most
potent vegetable tonics, correctives, and alter
atives at present known in medical botany
and it is to their operation, quickened as it is
by the pure exhilarant with which they are
combined, that the preparation owes its Won
derful efficacy as q means of regulating, re-
enforcing, and protecting from deleterous in
duence the human physique.
Although the medicaliprofcssion are alive to
the value of Hostetter's Bitters as a restorative,
and it has been introduced extensively in their
private practice, and into many public hospitals
and infrmaries, they do not seem to form a
proper estimate of its Importance as a means of
combating the predisposing causes of disease.
Far more effcacious than any sanitary Gordon
that could be established round an infected
district would be the use of this antidote by
such Of the inhabitants as had not vet been