The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1877-03-08
Dosing.

There are host of people who seem
to have little else to do but to consider
their physical condition, and admins
ter doses for its improvement; people
who are positively dissipated and in
temperate in their use of medicines,
and appear to think this world not so
much a vale of tears as of drugs; peo-
pie to whom new prescription affords
delight only equaled by that which
a savant would derive from the posses
sion OF bone of the extinct megathe-
rum. If they are troubled with in
somnia, instead of resorting to the nat
ural assistance of occupation and exer-
else, they turn to the bromides for aid,
and I'll in choral for their defense; if
they have low spirits, they lay siege
with blue pills; if rheumatism invades
their borders, they summon colchicum
rather than endurance; a slight attack
of indigestion is an occasion for Sed-
litz powder; if collie threatens, they adj
vance upon it with castor-oil; quinine
is their password, and camphor the
panacea for all their ills from hysteria
to heart burn; while they entertain
the idea that Death himself is
afraid of carbolic acid! In fact,
rhubarb, SIENNA, thoroughwort and
all the CHASTITY array of drugs,
the mere mention of which is agitating
to a well bred stomach, are familiar
words with them, and household gods
to whom they sacrifice almost daily.
If they are in the least degree under
the weather, it never occurs to them to
allow nature to work out her own sal
walton, but they take her affairs into
their own hands, and, having small &C
quaintance with her process, the result
resembles that of a novice attempting
the tasks of superior, and making
them the more difficult for that supe-
rior to accomplish. One of the pecu-
liar pleasures of such persons consists
in persuading others to try their
methods of cure. The most delicate
compliment you can pay them is to
swallow some nauseating mixture upon
their recommendation, which all the
while bears strong family likeness to
that of those who, with bad complex
ions, assure you that soap is wholesome
for the skin, or of bald people who ex-
toll the virtue of certain washes which
they have employed. This art of dosing
does not interfere, however, with the
usefulness of the family physician, but
rather supplies him with practice by
laying the foundations for positive dis
ease. The stomach which has been
unrighteously correctedrebels atlength;
the nerves which have been too often
artficially soothed finally refuse to ac-
knowledge the power of the charmer;
the strength engendered by stimulants
proves but a broken reed; appetites
fortified by frequent tonics surrender
one day without reserve. If the sci
ence of medicine itself is as yet only ex
detrimental, must not amateur dosing,
beyond question, belong to the most
Objectionable class of empiricismsP Al
most every body with whom it is hab-
it cultivates her favorite nostrum. To
one cod-liver oil is the fountain of per-
petual youth and health; another's sal
walton lies in sulphur-to the dispar-
agement of orthodoxy; third worships
blue pill and confdes in calomel; while
there yet remain those who have such
respect for all indictments that they
slight none.-Harpsr's Bazar.