The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1881-09-15
THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE.

THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE.
prevention is better than, cure and
far cheaper" said John Locke, two hun.
dred years ago; and the history Of med.
iCal science has since made 1t more and
more probable that in stricter sense of
the word, prevention is the only possible
cure. By observing the health laws Of
nature, a sound constitution can be very
easily preserved, but, If violation of
these laws has brought on a disease, all
we can do by way of "Curing" that dis.
ease is to remove the cause; in other
words, to prevent the continued operation
Of the predisposing circumstances.
suppressing the symptoms in any 9TH
er way means only to change the form
of The disease, or to poi tpone it's crisis.
Thus. merCurial salves will cleanse the
skin by driving the ulcers from the sur
face to the interior of the body; opiates
stop a flux only by paralyzirg the
bowels u. e., turning their morbid activ.
ity into a morbid inactivity; the symp'
toms of pneumonia can he suppressed
by bleeding the patient till the exhaust
ed system has to postpone the crisis Of
he disease. This process, "the breaking
up of sickness" in the language Of the
old school allopathists, is, therefore, in
reality, only an interrupting of it, lem.
porary interruption oi the symptoms.
We might as well try to cure the sleepi-
ness of weary child by pinching it's
eye'ids, or the hunger of whining dog
by compressing his throat.
Drugs are not wholly useless. If my
life depended upon job of work that
had to be finished before morning, and
the inclination to fall asleep was getting
irresistible, l would not hesitate to defy
nature, and keep myself awake with cup
after Gupfull of trong, black coffee. If l
we're aftl lCted with a sore, spreading rap
idly from my temple toward my nose, l
should suppress it by the shortest pro-
cess, even by producing larger sore
elsewhere, rather than let the smaller
one destroy my eyeSight. There are al
80 two or three forms Of disease which
have, thus far, resisted ALL unmedicsted
cures, and can hardly be trusted to the
healing powers of nature-the IueS Uer1e
rea, scabbies, and prurigo-beCause, as
Claude Bernard suggests, their symptoms
are probably due to the agency OF mi.
sCro iC parasites, which oppose to the &C
ton of the vital forces a life energy Of
their own, or, as DR.. Jennings puts it,
because art has here to interfere-not
for a purpose of breaking up diseased
action, but for the removal of the cause
of that action, the destruction of an act
i've virus that possesses the power Of self.
perpetuation beyond the dislodging aSil.
ity of nature"
But with those rare exceptions it is
better to direct our Efforts against the
cause rather than the symptoms-i. e in
about ninety cases out of humid
red is not only the safer but also the
shorter way, to avoid drugs, reform our
habits, and, for the rest let nature have
her cours,; for, properly speaking, dis
ease itself is reConstrnCtive process, an
expulsive effort, whose interruption COM
pels Nature to do double work;to resume
her operations against the ailment after
exoelling worst enemy--the drugs. If
a drugg3d patient RECEIVERS, the true ex-
PLANTATION is that his constitution was
strong enough to overcome both the dis
ease and this druggst.-Dr. FsIir s OS.
Wald, in Popular Science Monthly.