Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1884-07-26
-.EE SOBER TRUTH ABOUT MED.
ICKNE.
What n Candid Physician Says About
the Limits and the Accidents Of Doc

ICINE.
What n Candid Physician Says About
the Limits and the Accidents Of Doc
tors.
Address of George T WEIGH NJ D.. before New Jersey
Medical Society.
1.-The moderA physician In his multitudinous
drugs. finds few remedies The average of
human life is greater. but commerce and the
arts have given greater comfort. better food new
thoughts wider horizons, and none of the
sciences can claim too great share in the
worlds advancement. Medicine finds its highest
achievements in the prevention not in the cure
of disease. Cancer shows a steady relative in
crease in England in New Jersey the average
death-rate from this disease is one in fifty-four
| of all the deaths that occur. Malara dis
eases spread in wider circles Does not the raw
ares of tuberculosis go on? Who las won emil
hence in curing yellow fever? The eXanthemata
| sweep into and out of every neighborhood about
| once in live years. Who cures rheumatism. or
| typhoid fever or chronic Bright's disease? Who
| never recoiled before patient simmering in the
horrible slow flame Of pyamia? And yet who
refrains from prescribing? The journals TEEN
with fortunate prescriptions; the nostrums of
manufacturing chemists push braggart charla-
! tansm to the wall. No mOnstrOsity of theirs so
impudent that dozen college professors will
not laud the mixture. This was once the PROV
now.
1.-The young doctor believes in the magic Of
| drugs. the old doctor regards the majority of
them as mischievous, while the pathologist sus-
poets them all. We hear Of the so-called cures
but rarely do we hear of the failures. Truth
can never be arrived at until both sides are
known. AS to the drugs most Of them are
| pOisOns. Solutions of the majority of them de-
strOy plants and cOrrode the vital organs of
animals The test of new drugs upon animals,
/ ov,6 fpnvf To-
| instances highly fallacOus. Such drugs as NOR
phia and atrOpia have slender effects on birds
and herbivOrOus animals, while many others
have frequently toXical effects without
corresponding symptoms in man. As. for in
stance. citric and tartaric acids, camphOr coc-
culus. dulcimara and liq. ammOn. acct, poison
fatally In their order cats, rabbits, dogs and fish.
Some drugs act differently upon different ami
mails as cOlOcynth, which has feeble action on
horses, sheep and swine, while it purges dogs
and rabbits violently; cyclamen poisons fish,
while pigs can eat any quantity of the root;
hyoscyainus is eaten without harm by hogs. and
does not injure sheep or cows, while upon dogs
Ii has much the same effect as upon man.
1.-The only way to arrive at the average merit
of new drugs or the old is to record the results
of their application in the same classes of dis
ease under the varying conditions Of hygieniC
surroundings over vast areas But this is not
plod'lers. followers men of routine. One other
means presents itself, colleges of experimental
medicine conducted under the eyes of the state
or the supervision Of the highest medical au-
th0rites. Here should be rigorous system. eX-
act registration. frequent comparison and cor
rectiOn. At the same time we must recollect,
for all our attainments that but comparatively
little is kn0,rn of the natural history of diseases.
The tendency of nature to remedy Ills sriO,n inter
ference rOuid astOund the medical ,rorM could IL
he knO,cn Alright. Hundreds of diseases would
end in recovery If never drug were given.
We deceive ourselves with cures. The last drug
| gets the credit, where none deserves it. On the
other hand many diseases have continued to be
incurable for ages. though even the wsest physi-
clan would probably feel himself criminal not to
prescribe something. And given one thing. to
give another Is natural sequence.
Even to give an ample margin, after twenty
| five leading medicines. as iron, iodine, qunne.
strychnine, brandy and opium have been Sc
lected from the mass of drugs persistently
| thrust upon the profession. the rest might be
: in the flat sea SUNK and the death-rate be no
greater"
Saturday Smiles.
Sarah Bprnharsit. it is said. wants to commit
suicide. She had better use poison. Ten to one
she couldn't hit herself with a dagger.-B,a
tihgiOn Free Press.
Philadelphia father makes his baby sleep
with tile nurse thr1e-quarters of a mile OF. 1t
must be the second one CO,uier-JOurn0l. We
don't see the use Of a nurse tnree-quarters of a
mile otf.-BostC't Post.
''Soled again." exclaimed the young man as
he went flying down the front steps for the third
time inside of a week. propelled by the vigorous
foot of his charincrs papa.-Burlngton Free
Press.
Probabilities Perhaps clear, perhaps rain,
possibly SnOw.-BOStOi Post.
Grant & Wards assets were only nominal,
while their liabilities We're pienominal.-Bost
Transcript.
There are 263, 600 Indiansin the United States.
n 1nr llnr hicb do c,n
Congress ought to allow him cleIk.-Bu'iing
ton HltChpye.
little fishing pole attachment has been in
vented which registers the number of fish
caught. and now every angler with a tlsh-pOle
that doesn't register is regarded with suspicion.
Indianapolis Times.
There is one mighty good thing about Florida;
it doesn't raise enough bananas for expectation,
but consumes all its own crop. Skins and ALL
we reckon. At least, native FlOridian looks
as though he never stopped to peel anything he
wanted to eat. 2. S.-We retract. He does
skin the winter bOarders. Burlington Hd,rkeye
81 see you have got this COMPOUNDED rye bread
again" Kissed Plunkett at the breakfast table
Yes. dearie," smoothly replied the lady. 81
got it because you love it,
ME love it, madam? Ugh, the very smell of
it makes me sick. Who was so wise as to know
that loved rye bread?'
Nobody" stammered Mrs Plunkett, "except
heard you tell FitzgOOber few days ago that
you preferred rye to corn, and didn't know
what you referred to. unless it was bread"
When he went to work Plunkett kicked him
self out Of the dOOr.-Atdntd Constitution
The question which agitates the fashionable
housewife at present is not SO much 'Where
shall We go this summer" as it is "Where shall
We make the neighbOrs think we have gomez
Nesc York Graphic.
she-''Why did you come to the country so
late this year," He (recently married)-'I
have been ransacking the city to get stylish
flat for next winter, but l couldn't find one"
She-"iOu are not as lucky as your wife,
Life.
Bridget: "WOt's the most gentee thing for a
lady as is a lady to carry in the street, Nora?"
Cook: Sure. thin. some prefers a three-volume
book: but prefers IL roll of music. mesilf quite
careless and aisy like"
1t is improper to tip waiter girls in hotel din
ING rooms. Be just and fee her not.-Neso Or
leans Picdy,tne.
The bones of a Minnesota woman have turned
completely to chalk. New Workers think she
must have lived on pure Orange county milk"
-NOrTistO,rn Herald
There is nothing bashful about governor
who can pardon q criminal. He sets his iTnOr-
ance OF the case against the wisdom of the court