Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1884-06-13
SOME PECULIAR REMEDIES.
QUEER METHODS OF KEEPING FREE
FROM DISEASE.
Drinking Calls Blood - The Mad-
Baths, Sand-Baths, and bit'e-
Glass Cures.

Drinking Calls Blood - The Mad-
Baths, Sand-BaIhs, and Blue
Glass Cures.
Popular crazes, did you ask about,
was the answer well-known physician
made to question prorounded by
Providence Teiegram reporter "There
are many kinds Of peculiar erazes, and
some of the methods people take to keep
from disease, or rather try, are simply
absurd. Take, for instance, the man
who goes the year round with pair OF
sca-beans tied about his neck as pre-
ventive to disease of a contagious nature.
Some wear beans, some corn, some horse.
chestnuts, and others a riain piece OF
ribbon. all of which are mere cases OF
| superstition. There are many who, when
suffering from cold, will wrap wet
seek which they have worn during the
| day, about their necks, and retire for the
night. Others wear dry sock, and still
| others a piece of cloth saturated with
lamp OIL In the country it is standard
remedy to wear a piece of salt pork
about ones neck wnen suffering from
sore throat This, by the way, is good
remedy. Some inhale the smoke from
burning cherry wool, and others the
smoke from oak chips in an open ire
place, as a cure for cold in the head
and nostrils. There are great many
persons who believe that when one getsa
thorough drenching with rain, or receives
wet feet, that they should not hasten to
their homes and pat on dry clothes, but
instead, should let the wet clothing dry
upon them, as by so doing they believe
they will never take cold.
''The hot water cure, which amounts
to a craze in points in the East where no
breakfast is considered complete without
the addition of cup of hot water to
rinse and stimulate the stomach is the
latest of long list of odd cures 1t Is
believed by great many that to take
drink of this kind before each meal, or
even single drink on arising each morn
ing. will cure the worst possible case of
dyspepsia. Speaking of odd cures and
, fashions, a few of them may be recounted.
| Less than ten yerrs ago a Partisan phy-
sician of some note prescribed for
patient suffering from pulmonary COM
} plant a cup of fresh caf's blood after
breakfast, another at noon and one just
, before supper. The queer remedy proved
, eficacious. The patient improved under
: it rapidly, and finally became we'll and
hearty person. A statement of the case
was read by the mercurial, excitabe and
q curiosity loving Parisians, and started an
Il interest in the blood-cure that in very
= short time spread among all classes and
became veritable craze. Every person
n in any way troubled with weak lungs be-
a came a convert. The slaughter houses
l. in the suburbs of Paris were thronged
every morning with crowds made up of
b all ranks, who actually fought to procure
W blood of the dying animals. There were
Is delicate women and men old and young,
who came, some in their carriages, at
IA tended by their servants and some who
re- feebly crept along alone The most deli
N cately organized persons and the coarsest
were on common level and it appears
= that the uninviting looking fluid was
. served impartia!ly by brawny handed
% butchers. The great majority of the
. patients manifested no repugnance to
drinking the fluid and with a great many
ry taste for it was devolved that ran into
d, a craving. 1t acted much like rum
elk on many, and even fowls were killed
ed by some who were unable to get
blood at the slaughter houses. The de-
le mand was great, and at some places the
lg blood was sold at high prices, each
ne slaughtc"-house having a large run of
ng customers, who would reach the pen
where the killing was going on as early
l, as 5 A. NJ Meanwhile a hot discussion
on went on in the medical circles over the
10. merits of the cure. Many celebrated
~ physicians were dragged into argument
and were taken to see cured patients.
The burden of professional opinion was
on on against the cure, pronouncing it nom
w sensical and positively injurious rather
cr- than helpful. This craze reached its
'or limit in few weeks, to the grief of the
butchers, who had reaped golden har-
en- vest.
nj ''Tbe mud found at a certain spa in
1al Germany, few years ago, was dis
1t covered suddenly to possess remarkable
1ia medical properties. 1t was an intensely
black. pastv, thick odoriferous mud, but
,he thousands of persons FASTENED from all
sh- parts of Europe to battle in it. To bathe
ON in it was simply to be buried in it fol
of an hour or two, and then to spend sew
are eral hours in tub of water to get rid
of the reminiscence. The bath is de
his scribed as being pleasant and its curative
rnl effects, in cases of rheumatism, gout, anc
MI. other diseases, are we'll attested. Ih'
he mud was analysed, and was found tC
IlV possess actlVc properties, IHdSHoIiO any
~ chemical. The mud baths have had
A.. their day, and are now visited by
IN! INC only few travelling invalids whom
eri- the remedy does not frighten Simila
Is to the mud bath is the sand bath, O
lwus- w which Joaquin Miller relates tragi'
, ,in0 story. A party of explorers were cross
'i0- ing the sandy deserts, carrying SIX
their comrades. i'll of peculiar disease
OBJ The sand bath was proposed 10 them
SO They all asscnted, and were buried in tn
OF sand, their heads alone being left abov
the ground. In this position they were lef
our chatting with each other, their comrade
llar having retired for the night in tent clos
by, and not the least noise was heard. l
ices the morning they were Mortified to fin
, in that wolves had visited the camp an
ida. eaten of each sick mans head level wit
and the ground
give ''rhc blue glass cure is too fresh i
her the public mind to need more than pass
inc mention. Of the thousands an
telv hundreds of thousands of early believer
lace that the th-giving and strengthenin
one principles of the sunlight might be larg'
inty ly increased by passing rays through blu
left glass, there are thousands yet remaining
raw 1.-THE sun bath cure, the fish. oil cul
the for consumption; the severely simple di
how cure for all kinds Of ailments; the ceei
cure for nervousness, and many o,he
wee the beginning, more or less, of