Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1884-04-24
Popular t,razes.

ed by q Telegram reporter, yesterday
IT ere are many kinds of peculiar
crazes, and some of the methods people
take to keep free from disease, or rather
try to. are 81 sply absurd. Take, for
instance, the man who goes the year
round with a pair of ,sea-beans tied
about his neck, as . preventive to dis
ca es of q contagious nature. Some
wear beans, some corn, some horse
chestnuts, and still others plain piece
of ribbon, all of which e Q mere cases
of superstition There are many wbs.
when suffering from a cold. will wrap
a wet sock, which they have worn dur
ing the day, about their necks, and re-
tire for the night. Others wear dry
sock, and still others a piece of cloth
saturated with lamp Oil. In the coun-
try it is standard remedy to wear a
piece of salt pork about ones neck
when suffering from q sore throat.
This. by the way, is a good remedy.
Some inhaie the smoke from burning
cherry wood, and others the smoke
from oak chips in an open fire place, as
a cure for cold in the head and nos
trils. There are a great many persons
who believe that when one gets thor
ough drenching with rain, or receives
wet feet, that they should not hasten to
their homes nd put on dry clothes, but
instead should let the wet clothing dry
upon them, as by SO doing they believe
they will never take cold.
1.-The hot water cure which amounts
to craze in points in the east. where
no breakfast is considered complete
without the addition of cup of hot wa
ter to rinse and stimulate the omach,'
is the latest of long list of odd cufes
1t is believed by great many that to
take drink of this kind before each
meal, or even a single drink on arts ng
each morning. will cure the worst pos
sible case of dyspepsia. Speaking of
odd cures and fashions, q few of them
may be II counted. Less than ten years
ago, a Parisian physician of some note
prescribed for a patient suffering from
a pulmonary complaint cup of fresh
calf's blood after break asst, another at
noon, and one just before supper. The
queer remedy proved etficacious. The
patient improved under it rapidly,
and finally became well and hearty
person. A statement of the ease was
read by the mercurial, excitable and
curiosity-loving Parisians, and started
an interest in the blood cure that in
We y short time spread among all classes
and became q veritable craze. Every
person in any way troubled with weak
lungs became convert The slaughter
houses in the suburbs of Paris were
thronged every morning with crowds
made up of all ranks, who actually
fought to procure blood of the dying
animals. There were delicate women
and men, old and young, who
came, some in their carriages. attend
ed by their servants, and some who
feebly crept along alone. The most
delicatelv organized persons and the
coarsest were on common level, and
it appears that the uninviting- looking
tuid was served imrartially by brawny-
handed butchers. The great majority
of the patients manifested no repug-
nance to drinking the fluid, and with a
great many taste for it was developed
that ran into a craving 1t acted much
killed by some who were unable to get
blood at the slaughter-houses. The de-
mand was great. and at some places
the blood was sold &C high prices, each
slaughter house having large run OF
customers, who would reach the pen
where killing was going on as early
went on in medical circles over the
merits of the cure. Many celebrated
physic ans were dragged into argument,
and were taken to see cured patients.
The burden of professional opinion was
a ainst tie cure, pronouncing it nom
sens cal and positively injurious rather
than helpful. This era reached its
limit in few weeks, to the grief of the
butchers, WI o had reaped golden har-
vest. - -
1.-The mud found at certain spa
in &c many, a few years ago, was
discovered suddenly to possess re-
mai kable medical properties. It was
an intensely black, pasty, thick, odorif-
erous mud. but thousands of persons
fastened from all parts of Europe to
battle in it. To battle in it was simply
to be buried in it for an hour or two,
and then to spend several hours in a
tub of water to get rid OF the reminis-
cence. The bath is des ribed as being
pleasant. and its curative effects in
cases of rheumatism. govt. and other
diseases, are well attested. The mud
was analyzed. aud was found to possess
active properties, magn tic and chemi-
cal. The mud baths have had their
day, and are now visited by on y q few
travelling invalids, whom the remedy
does not brighten. Similar to the
mud bath is the sand bath of which
joaquin Miller relates tragic story.
A party Of explorers were crossing
the sandy deserts. carrying six of their
c mrades ill OF a peculiar disease.
The sand bath was proposed to them.
They all assented and were buried in
the sand, their heads alone being /
left a4ove ground. In this position
they were left, chatting with each
other, the r comrades having retired
for the night in q tent close by, and
net the least noise was heard. In the
morning they were Mortified to find
II at wolves had sited the camp and
eaten off each sick mans head level
with the ground.
1.-The biue-glass cure is too fresh in
the public mind to need more than
pa sing mention. OF the thousands
and hundreds of thousands Of early be-
levers that the health-giv1ng and
strengthening principles of he sunlight
mi, ht be largely increased by pass no