The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1883-04-18
A Phxaician,s Exncrisncn.

As medical student In various northern
| colleges and hospitals, the writer has offer
seen nj glance more than a hundred case.
in the same ward OF various forms and
grades OF strumous, cachetic, and other
contagious and hereditary blood-poison
diseases, and has watched those REMAINING
in those wards for n whole year. and still
not cured or even benefited. The mercu.
rial and other regular remedies had failed
TO cure them. IL Is admitted by our abesi
medical authors that though mercury il
still the sbect-ancbor Of confidence in the
treatment OF that monster contagion which
Is the great parent source Of nearly all
biood-poison diseases known. yet IL Is still
considered altogether unsatisfactory in its
results. In these convictions my own cx-
perience most decidedly concurs, for ] have
never had In my practice any satisfactory
results, but have more than thousand
times felt Inundated in not possessing a
curative remedy for these cases.
Such facts truthfully illustrate the cam
did admissions OF the medical profession OF
to-day: that for certain contagious and
pestiierous class Of blood diseases, they
possess no remedy with which they can as
sure a positive, radical cure. The ablest
medical authorities OF the world still re-
commend mercury as the remedy, but de-
cline TO assure that il will radically and
permanently cure.
Such exceedingly humiliating confess
sions have legitimately persuaded thou
sands OF medical practitionerS-who have
traversed and exhausted the list Of profess
sional remedies without cure--to try the
Swiit's Specific. They have risked their
ethical standing and tested this vegetable
remedy, which, ike a charm. has furnished
them the great deSideratum Of a remedy.
Now, uBder such humiliating confess
sions, what apology could be demanded or
explanation asked for employing 4 remedy
that is so positively and extensively known
aS an infallble and permanent cure. What
act in mans life could be more justifiable |?
Why should doctors hesitate , They are
seeking TO relieve afflicted humanity-to
arrest the natural course and tendency Of
diseases-to reinstate health and promote
comfort and happiness. Hence. they are
authorized and empowered to use that
remedy which eXperience-the only guide
in all medlcine-has shown 10 be efficient
as a cure. This Obligation on the part Of
the physician to his patient is clearly sub
yersiye OF all ethical restrictions. And
illbI'bNit. iut Notipl lpN>tN~', lii' lib-
fessiOnal right to use Swift's Specific from
the fact that il is strictly official. Every
ingredient composing this preparation is
official in the United States dispensatory,
ana hence presumed To be bnown-as to
its medical and therapeutic properties. II
is bat recipe Of official medicines, and
tAls combination is As ethical as any other
recipe: and may not-nay, cannot-be
claSsed as a nOStrum.
All the best remedies Of to-day were en-
pirically discovered, and the Swift's Spe-
cifc does 4 certainly possess the proper
ties claimed for it as does quinine or
opium. This fact time and experience
have abundantly established. The doctors,
for want Of satisfactory remedies in certain
cases, have resored to this Specific. They
have found it astonishingly eifectual. and
there is no doubt Of the fact, from positive
evidence, that large proportion Of the
medical profession are to-day using this
Specific in a large class Of cases for which
they know outside OF this remedy no cure.
They do Use it and report most satisfactory
results. In this they have actednght. They
are saving their patients and their own re-
putation. doing good to suffering humanity.
and NJ the same time have infringed no rea-
sonable claim OF professional ethics. The
entire medical faculty may consistently
employ this recipe, for in every reasonable
sense it is professional.
As to my own professional opinion Of
this Specific, l state truthfully that | con-
slider it beyond all comparison the most ell
cient blood Alternative known to medical
science. That. without an equal in is
charming curative properties. it becomes
indispensable, in that it happily meets an
increasing demand for remedy that the
learned medical faculty has failed to fur
nish. J. DICKSON SMITH, VI. ID.