The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-07-09

Chinaman to fancy that he can .bs cured Of
an illness by taking bugs and snakes, and
centipedes; but how long is it since respecta-.
BILE and highly civilized doctors Of our own
had full faith Cor pretended to have in'simi-
lar absurdities? Read, for instance. the ac-
count in Macaulays history of the treatment
to which, in his last hours, poor Charles the
Second was subiected-his fixed teeth forcsd
open that a salt extracted from dead mems
bones might be administered to him. Read
anv old book of medical practice and see
what monstrous messes our ailing grand
parents were compelled to swallow. Indeed.
we have ourselves seen a prescription for a
bolus written by highly respectable physi-
clan still living (unless he has been taking bis
own medicine) which contained a dozen IN
gradients, two-thirds of which must have
been pernicious or inert Read the fun
with which DR.. Holmes, only the other day.
enlivened the annual dinner of the Mass
Med Soc the treatment by which Rip Van
Wrinkle, NJ. D.. didn't cure the Squire:
"The Doctor sent for-doube quick he came;
Ant Tart. gran, duo, and repeat the same
II no, ct cetera. Third day-nothing new;
Percussed his thoraX-set him cussing too
Lung fever threatenng-sOmething of the sort
out with the lancet-lct him bleed-a quart
Ten leeches neXt-then blisters to his side
Ten grains of calOmel-just then he died."
Does the reader suppose that DR.. Lien Chi
Fun can do anything more miserably absurd
ludH lldi h6 uO uOI huOW uOW IL may DO
in China, but we do know that empiricism in
our own enlightened land has been carried so
far that even the professional associates of
those whom it would be high heresy to call
quacks have protested, in prose and verse,
against any more blind and laundering expert
ments. Look at the innumerable bottles, Jars,
gallipots, and drawers Of druggists shop
and then remember that one of the most
venerable physicians of Boston declares as the
result of his observation and experience that
there are no more than two articles of the
mote7f0 medtcd of the precise operation of
which we know any thing with the least cer-
tainty. Iet until the infnitesimal doses of
the hompopathists came to amuse u.s. our
physicians with some praiseworthy excep-
tions) went on with their dosing and drug
ging and drenching-with their emetics aud
purgatives and venesections aud blsterings
and salivations-the patients dying or getting
better according to their luck and the
strength of their constitutions. Look at the
way, for example, in which typhus was
treated thirty years ago. Fresh air was
excluded from the sick chamber: the poor
patient was denied cold water, the very thug
which he needed most; the main reliance
was upon persistent doses of mercury, when,
in point of fact, the sick man wanted
nothing but fresh air, plenty of water and the
most careful nursing at the crisis. Of course,
this heroic and horrible treatment has become
pretty nearly Obsolete but it is not SO long
since that we can afford to laugh or sneer at
DIR. Chinaman's medical notions. Aud while
the people of this country continue to swallow
every year thousands of bushels of patent
pills and hogsheads without number of cheap
tinctures called ''bitters, to the ruin of their
own insides and the exceeding emolument of
unmitigated quacks, we respectfully suggest
that 1t does not become us to oppose any OBJ
stacle to the importation of the medical
snakes, flies, bugs, and centipedes of the
Chinese dispensatory.