New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-07-08

might imagine, from this fastidious reluctance,
that the learned leeches OF this enlightened
land never gave nasty doses and never "ex-
"hibitefn anything in the least degree poi
sopous. 1t is highly disgusting, of course, for
n Central Flowery Doctor to use dried flies
but we appeal to all who have been tormented
by a cantharides blister to say whether dried
flies are such medical novelty after all Tine
ture of Centipedes isn't any worse, We should
suppose. than even homeopathic dose of rattle
snake poison. Bugs look bad in print but
how many infants have taken cochnea for
that distressing juvenile affection, the whoop-
ING -cough, And as for nastiness, II there DC
ANYTHING furnished by the Chinese pharmacol-
ooists nastier than castor oil, EPSON salts,
tincture of rhubarb, and four humid
red and forty -four other tinctures which
we could name, many of which, for our sins,
when in no condition for self-defense, we nave
been compelled to swallow, then all we can
say is that, if Frustrated by anything likely 10
render us incoherent or speeches., we snail
leave pinned upon our pillow written dlrec-
ton "not to call in Chinese Doctor, under
any circumstances"
Unquestionably it is very 'absurd for John
Chinaman to fancy that he can be 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 Tor pretended to have) III SIM
liar absurditiesf 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 forced
omen that a salt extracted from dead mems
bones might be administered to him. Read
any old book of medical practice, and see what
monstrous messes our ailing grandparents
were compelled to swallow. Indeed, we have
ourselves seen a prescription for bolus writ
ten by a highly respectable physician still lly-
ing (uness he has been taking his own medi-
cine) which contained dozen ingredients,
two-thirds of which must have been pernicious
or inert. Read the fun with which DR.. Holmes,
only the other day. enlivened the annual din
ner of the Mass. Med. Soc.-the treatment by
which Rip Van Wrinkle NJ. D., did MT cure the
| Squire:
'The Doctor sent for-double quick he came
Ant Tart. gran. duo, and repeat the Same
fno, ct cetera Third day-nothing new
Percussed his thorax-set him cussing too
Lung fever MISUNDERSTANDING Of the sort
Out with the lancet-let him bleed-a quart
Ten leeches next-then blisters to his side
Ten grains of calome-just then he died"
Does the reader suppose that DR.. Lien Chi
Fun can do anything more miserably absurd
than that7 We do not know how it may be
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
bo, cd in
against any more blind and laundering expert
ments. Look at the innumerable bottles, jars,
eallpots, 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
materia medica of the precise operation of
which we know anything with the least GER
tainty. Yet, until the infnitesimal doses of
the hOmeOpathsts came to anlpse us, our physi-
| clans with some praisewOrthy exceptlOns) went
on with their dosing and drugging and drench-
| ing-with their emetics and purgatives and
venesections and blisterings and salivatiOns-
the patients dying or getting better according
| to their luck and the strength of their cOnsti-
| tutiOns. 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 thing 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
DR.. Chinaman's medical notions And while
the people of this country continue to swallow
every year thousands of bushels of patent pills
and hogsheads without number of cheap tine
lures called "Bitters," to the ruin of their
own insides and the exceeding emolument of
unmitigated quacks. We respectfully suggest
that it does not become us to oppose any OBJ
stacle to the importation of the Medical
Snakes, Flies, Bugs, and Cen1pedes of the
Chinese dispensatory.
THE ALMIGHTY "In