Sacramento daily record-union., 1883-10-31
FOR GOOD HEALTH.

Professor Fisher of Munich has sue.
ceeded in obtaining from distilled coal a
white crystalline substance, which, as far
as regards its action on the system, is ex.
actly the same as quiniDe, though it assim-
ilates with the stomach more easily than
quinine does.
DR.. E. H. Thurston thinks he has found
true antidote for the sting of bees. 1t is
carbonate OF ammonia, powdered and kept
IN tightly corked bottle. When a sting
Is received the surface over the wound
should be wet and small amount of the
powdered carbonate applied. The pain is
instantly relieved, and the injured place
never swells. Exchange.
DR.. J. Murray Gibbes, of New Zealand,
declares that Eucalyptus globulus, the
blue gum tree, " contains properties which
are perfectly antagonists to the germs of
diphtheria," and that he has used the plant
in his practice with such remarkable sue
cess that he feels justified in pronouncing
1t cure for that disease. His treatment
includes the keeping of the patient away
from the slightest draught of cold air, in
warm room in which the atmosphere is
impregnated constantly with steam from
boiling infusion of the blue gum leaves.
The theory that copper exerts pro-
tective influence against cholera is con-
tirmed by the observation that the disease
has never appeared at the famous copper
mines at Fahlun, Sweden, which are de.
scribed as the largest and oldest III the
world. 1t is even related that members
Of the royal family once sought Fahlun
as a refuge during a cholera epidemic
Mons. Bailey has lately denied the pro-
tective action of copper, and has shown
that copper. workers in a certain locality
had fallen victims to cholera and typhoid
fever. To this Mons. Burg replies that
the substance worked by these men was an
alloy containing only a very minute pro.
portion of copper.
1t is to be feared that to most people
medicine is not an erudite science or
learned art, but is little more than the
commonplace administration of physic
They cannot understand medicine without
drugs, and its virtue and power are popu-
larly measured by the violence of its opera
tions. Its very name is in ordinary par
lance synonymous with physic. Take
from il pills and potions, and for them you
take away its whole art and mystery.
They do not believe in scheme of treat
ment, however deep laid and skillful,
which does not include statutory dosage.
So that, as rule, medical men are practi.
cally compelled to give their patients Wis.,
ible object of faith in some form of physic,
which may be at most designed to effect
some very subordinate purpose. And it is
remarkable how strongly, even among the
educated classes, this feeling prevails.
Cure by the administration of mixtures
and boluses is so fixed and ancient tradi-
tion that it is only very slowly that the
world will give it up. The anxiety of the
friends of the patient wants to do more
than follow the simple directions of ''nurs.
ing, which have been so carefully incul.
Gated and possess apparently SO little rem.
edial power. There is nothing of the un.
known about them in which huttering
hope of great advantage can nestle. Thus
it is necessary to educate the world into a
belief in medicine apart from drugs, which
finds its power of curing in adaptations of
the common conditions of life and appli.
cations of physiological facts--a medicine
which takes into its hands the whole life,
and orders and fashions its every detail
with scientific detiniteness. 1t is found in
every day practice that this popular mis-.
understanding of the modern spirit of med
icine constantly checks the little tentative
advances of a more scientific treatment,
and it is necessary that it should be gener-
ally understood how powerfully the vari-
Gus processes of the economy may be
affected by the manipulation of the condi-
tions Of common life.