The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-03-25

IRON Good Health for March. l

winch aftnOuSn aumlttcQ DIV medical
men, are not recognized by the world.
If our philosophers and discoveries
will not condesccnd to come down
from the heights and adapt their
teaching to the commonplace, needs
of common sense men, it is our duty
as public Journalists to enter the lands
lately surveyed by the pioneers OF
truth, and explain the elaborate and
laborous Investigations of our grea:
thinkers and workers in simple, I'M
technical language.
We hope 10 prove TO those who
Will follow us, that the art of curing
disease is not a mystery TO be ever
more enshrouded in the cauldron
fumes of alchemy and witchcraft, but
straightforward science, beset in
deed with difficulty, but. in its broad
principles and practical details, ra-
tional and comprehensive; 10 show
that health may be preserved, disorder
cured. by mastering and following
out simple laws.
The surface knowledge of the effects
of drugs, as possessed by ordinary
chemists and physic-loving LADY
Bountifuls." is indeed dangerous but
rational appreciation of first princi-
pies can scarcely fail to be of service,
and time will not be thrown away if
we succeed i'm persuading our readers
that the management of disease does
not consist in dosing with pills and
mixtures. This is popular notion,
and one which leads sick people 10
"go to the apothecary," who can
scarcely be expected TO have moral
courage enough to tell the applicant
that the sale of medicines is one thing
the understanding of medicine anoth-
ar, and that it is as absurd to apply
to q yender of drugs for the treatment
of disease as to call i'm Il surgical i'll
strument maker TO amputate limb.
The public desire specific" which
will cure tl.eircomplaint. The mar
vellous readiness, with which any
specific is jumped at, is sufficient
nroof of this: and there is wide
spread notion that doctors mind is
arranged like a dictionary, with the
name Of the disease on one side and
that of the appropriate remedial drug
OH the other.
IL is a common fallacy 10 suppose
that by reading a medical book a man
becomes qualified to treat disease
whereas it is easier for those ignorant
of arithmetic and algebra to work on
a mathematical problem than .ol
those who know nothing of physiolo
gy and pathology TO work out the
rapeutical one. Medical books evel
when they are not written with thi
end i'm view have wonderful effe:
i'm making the reader fancy that he i
sufferer from the disease described
medical men are not themselves eX
empt from this influence, for the earl,
symptoms of most diseases are vagu,
and Ill. defined, needing much judg
ment and experience to understand
them rightly.
People have often treated them
selves for SCOUT i'm the stomach,
when they have really been sufferin:
only from pork in the stomach! |
was the practice with doctors of th,
OLE school to tell their patients moth
ing about his ailment. The modern
go TO the opposite extreme, and keel
back nothing, till the patient think
he knows at least as much as the doc
tor, and is better qualified to trea
himself This might be true if the ar
of healing really consisted in discoy
ering the name of the disease and Civ
ing the appropriate specific, for il i
easy enough to find out that person
is suffering from paralysis" from
"jaundice,' or even from "infama
ton of the lung" but before the cas-,
can be successfully treated it is neces
saIy to know the cause and character
of the malady as well as the constitu
tional tendencies of the patient.
I'm many forms of indigestion, the
stomach is no more the cause of the
malady than the great toe is of thu
govt: for if the body is called upon to
do more work, whether muscular OF
mental, than the supply of food will
enable it to perform, we cannot fairl;
complain of the stomach or again il
more food is taken than is needed fol
the requirements of the body. the
blood gets ovcrcharged, ahd the gorg.
ed state called biliousness" results
not BECAUSE the stomach is weak a:
the patient thinks, but because NOR,
food is taken than the body wants.
We have alluded 10 the danger o
reading medical books: that of dab
bling with drugs is still more seduc
tive and dangerous. Ii needs very
little knowledge or experience to giv'
such dose of physic, for instance, a
will remove an obstruction or stop
secretion; but that this will beIlcf
the sufferer is quite another matter
for it often needs great judgment Il
determine whether the obstruction OF
secretion is beneficial or hurtful.
Such tale as this is frequent,
brought TO the physician: Il had ;
cough, but / took some syrup which
soon stopped it; then | had splitting
of blood, but the apothecary gave mi
some stuff which stopped that; then
had pain i'm the chest, and this yielded
20 physic: but now ] am low ant
sinking. and can't tell why" Such
person little thinks, perhaps, that tn,
cough and hemorrage were Nature'
method of removing a disorder whicl
but for meddlesome and mischievou
medication, would have proved Sigh
and temporary. The injury and dealt
wrought by druggists, and it is to bt
feared too by ill-informed medica
men, i'm checking beneficial hemor
rhage is frightful TO contemplate. L
is no exageration TO say that the Sc
verify and mortality of consumption
i'm this country are greatly influenced
by this narrow-minded notion thai
all bleeding must be stopped.
While there are are many facts con
nccted with the healing art which are
communicable only to those who arc
previously familiar with medical line:
of thought and reasoning, the public
cannot be too well acquainted Will
the broad general principles which
regulate practice thus only will they
be preserved from the precious dccep-
tons of designing quacks or super
stitious enthusiasts.
Ii is evident that, in order to treat
a malady, We must understand some
thing of its nature and its cause. To
expect a person to cure disease who
knows nothing of the structure and
functions of the body, is as irrational
as to tell man to repair watch OF
a broken down steam engine who is
ignorant of their machinery and OF
the forces by which they act b
The word "disease" means nothing
more than absence of ease, and the
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