The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1884-06-25
SOME PECULIAR REMEDIES.
QUEER METHODS or KEEPING PREE
FROM DISEASE.
Drinking Calls Blood The Mud
Baths, Sand.Baths, and Blue'
Glass Cures.

F6Om
Drinking Calls Blood The Mud.
baths, Sand.Baths, and Blue.
Glass Cures.
Unpopular crazes, did you ask about"
was the answer q well-known physician
made to IL question propounded by
Providence 9eiegram reporter. "There
are many kinds of peculiar crazes, and
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 q pair OF
sea-bcans tied about his neck as a pre-
~vcntivc to disease of a contagious nature.
Some wear beans, some corn, some horse
chcstnuts, and others a plain piece OIL
ribbon, all of which are mere cases OF
superstition. There arc many who, when
suffering from a cold, will wrap a wet
sock, which they have worn during the
day, about their necks, and retire for the
night. Others wear a dry sock. and still
others a piece of cloth saturated with
lamp oil. In the country it is a standard
remedy to wear a piece Of salt pork
about ones neck when suffering from a
sore throat. This, by the way, is a good
remedy. Some inhale the smoke from
burning cherry wool, and others the
smoke from oak chips in an open fire
place. as a cure for a cold in the head
and nostrils. There are q great many
persons who believe that when one gets
thorough drcnching with rain. or receives
wet feet, that they should not hasten to
their homes and 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.
THE hot water cure which amounts
to a craze in points in the East, where no
breakfast is considered complete without
the addition of a cup Of hot water to
rinse and stimulate the stomach is the
latest of a long list Of odd cures. 1t is
believed by a great many that to take a
drink of this kind before each meal, or
even a 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 ply
sician of some note prescribed for a
patient suffering from a pulmonary COM
plant q cup of fresh calf's blood after
breakfast, another at Don and one just
before. supper. The queer remedy proved
e~ficacious. The patient improved under
it rapidly. and finally became a well and
hearty person. A statement of the case
was read by the mercurial, excitable and
curiosity loving Parisians, and started an
interest in the blood-cure that in a very
short time spread among all classes and
became a vcritablc craze. Every person
in any way troubled with weak lungs he
came q 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, at
tended by their servants, and some who
fccbly crept along alone. The most deli
catcly organized persons and the coarsest
were on a common level, and it appears
that the u%ninviting 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
a taste for it was dcvolved that ran into
a craving. 1t acted much like rum
on many. and even fowls were killed
by some who were unable TO get
blood at the slaughtcr-houses. The de-
mand was great. and at some places the
blood was sold at high prices, each
slaughte~-housc having a large run OF
customers, who would reach the pen
where the killing was going on as early
as 5 A. NJ. Meanwhile a hot discussion
went on IL the medical circles over the
merits of the cure. Many celebrated
physicians were dragged into argument
and were taken to see cured patients.
The burden of professional opinion wa:
against the cure, ~pronouncing it non
s%ensical and positively injurious rather
than helpful. This craze reached its
|! limit in q few weeks, to the grief of the
butchers, who had reaped Il golden har'
vest.
"'The mud found at a certain spa in
Germany, a few years ago, was dis.
| covered suddenly to possess remarkable
medical properties. 1t was an intensely
black, pastv,. thick odoriferous 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 sew
| cral hours in a tub of water to get rid
of the "Reminiscences. The bath is de-
scribed as being pleasant aud its curative
effects, in cases of rheumatism, govt, and
other diseases. are well attested. The
mud was analysed, and was found to
possess active properties, magnetic and
chemical. The mud baths have had
their day, and arc now visited by
only n few travelling invalids whom
the remedy does not brighten. Similar
to the mud bath is the sand bath, of
which Joaquin Miller relates a tragic
story. 4 party of explorers were cross
ing the sandy deserts, carrying six of
their comrades. ill of q peculiar disease.
The sand bath was proposed TO them.
They all assented, and were buried in the
sand, their ncads alone being left above
ground. In this position they were left
chatting with each other, their comrades
having retired for the night in tent close
bv, and not the least noise was heard. In
the morning they were Mortified to find
that wolves had visited the camp and
eaten off each sick mans head level with
the ground.
THE blne-glass cure is too fresh in
the public mind to need more than pass
inc mention. OF the thousands and
hundreds of thousands of early believers
that the health giving and strengthening
principles of the sunlight might be large
~ increased by passing rays through blue
glass. there are thousands yet remaining.
1.-The sun-bath cure, the tish.oil cure
for consumption the severely simple diet
cure for all kinds of ailments; the celery
cure for nervousness, and many others
were the beginning, more or less, of a
craze. The best principle of each is now
included in every wise physicians array
of medicines. There have been cures
for corpulencc that found armies OF fol-
lowers, rs was attested in Byron's time.
when every man who laid claim to be con.
sidcred Il man of fashion was thin and
pale. in marked contrast to the we'll
rounded, comfortable BLOCKING. modern
young man"
Living With a Bullet in His Brain.