Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1871-10-26
Nature as a Physician.

Solomon says: I" A merry heart,
doeth good like a medicine - TIE
evidence is unmistakable- The wise
monarch thought that s'medicine"
does good. Probably Solomon sup
posed he had sufficient grounds for
such a conviction. He had a large
family, and he was not in the habit
of sparing the rod, very likely he sue
ceeded in DersuadiBg some of the ju-
veniIe members to swallow certain I'M
palatable doses which he thought nee
essary for their health and very like
" he then thought he observed good
results from the administration. tits
not probable that the jewish king,
having retired for the night after some
sultEy day, with every window of the
royal palace widely open to catch the
faintest zephyr, had been aroused in
the small hours to find that the chilly
northern blasts from the hills about
Jerusalem were driving in at the open
easement, and that the infant Reho-
boam, from his trundle-bed, long be-
fore the matutinal hour, was vigorous
ly growing with the spasmodic Group.
No doubt then, as would be the case
at the present day, the door-bell of the
family physician was energetically
rung, and the future hope of Israel
was duly fed with ipecac, hive syrup,
blisters and sina2isms. The boy sur
Yiving the treatment, the father then,
as parents do now, would forever af
terward point to the white headed
urchin as a living monument to prove
both the skill of the family physician
and the value Of hive syrup and ipe-
cac. Doubtless, under some aspira-
ton of this kind, Solomon assumed
that there could be no question that
medicine does good.
We make no pretension to any great
or wisdom than Solomon on general
subjects, but we do think that if he
were living at the present day he
would very carefully reconsider the
proverb we have quoted He undoubt-
edly had family physician who was
a regular practitioner, who frowned
upon all patent medicines, who had
never learned the value of infnitesi-
mails, and who treated his patients in
the original heroic style. Solomon
probably believed that the medicines
prescribed by his physician were or
thodox, and that all others were heath
enish and abominable. How would
it have puzzled the wise man to have
found, as we do, at the present day
that not only the regular system oi
practice is successful, but that many
other systems entirely at yarience with
it appear to be equally so. How would
it have astonished the king to learr
that his wisest and wealthiest sena
tors and prophets were using, will
much satisfaction and apparent sue
cess, Indian vegetable pills, and The
water cure, and the movement cure
and the extract of buchu, in all all
ments of every character and variety
How his temper would have been ruff
fed if the queen of Sheba on her visi
had pronounced his family physician
humbug, and urged his dismissal, whil'
she offered as a present, various mi
mute bottles of infnitesimal pilules
with glowing descriptions of thei
charming effect upon herself and tn
ladies and children of her court! Blu
Solomon, after carefully considerin.
tlae facts, would probably have draw
the inference from the great variet,
of medical treatment around him
either that everything which claim
to be medicine, no matter how un
skillfully applied, is just as etfectua
as the carefully prescribed doses o
the court physicians, or that all medi
cines are alike effective and do bu
little good And the new though
might gradually have dawned upo
his mind that nature or some inhc
rent agency would just as certain,
not as speedily, have cured the infan
Rehoboam, without the aid of the of
clal emetic, cathartic or sinapism. :
e. p. Buffet an Ltppeneott's Mage
cine.