The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1884-10-04

AmaCeur uOCUOrinS Is cACoouinSty
common. Great as is the number of
ailments which every year are profess
sionaIly treated at the institutions for
which special appeals are to be made
all over London, it may be doubted
the cases in which amateurs
every year try their hand at setting
right the rickety human machine are
not vastly more numerous. Such efforts
are especially common in the lover
middle class. The wealthier and more
are of course chary of every
thing but the best professional advice
in matters of health, and the poor are
wonderfully ready to run to the hospital
and dispensary. lis not that they are
averse to amateur treatment-far from
it. The well-known story OF the cab
man who nearly killed himself by swal-
lowing some sort of black draught
which had been left in his vehicle, and
which he thought might do him rs much
good as the ''party it was meant for,
IS by no means an exaggerated illustra-
ton of the ludicrous readiness with
which the more ignorant of the popula-
ton will take anything in the nature OF
physic il they are in the slightest de-
gree indisposed. To go to the chemist
for medicine. however, is an expensive
proceeding for them, and when they
need doctoring, therefore, they do not
often doctor themselves. but they go to
the hospital. People little above them
in their station of life are able to buy
their own medicines, and find it cheaper
to do so than TO waste their time at the
hospital, or to go to the private practi-
toner; and if constant practice in drug
ging and dosing would make physicians,
probably . good half of the population
might Sc entitled to the "M. ID" II
this should appear to be asomewhat ex-
aggerated view to take, let one indls-
putable fact be pondered over. Last
year the duty paid in this country on
patent medicines amounted to fl5O,OO0.
If we reckon the selling value OF the
medicine at about eight times this, we
have for this one class of medicine
alone q total OF nearly million aud a
quarter of money, all OF 1t spent In
amateur doctoring. :
1t IS curious, when one comes to
think of it, that people should be so ex-
ceedingly ready to set about the remedy
| of anything amiss in the system Of
| either themselves or those about them
If mans kitchen clock wheezes and
whirrs little, and presently begins tc
betray difficulty in getting along, hi
| will admit at once that he does moi
know what is the matter with the thing
| and will have the clockmaker ordered
in to attend to it. II his watch gets
little slow, and does not seem to b'
amenabIe to the regulator, he will no
even run the risk Of touching it her
and there with little sweet oil; or i
his piano gets out of tune in only not
or two, he does not dream OF invcstiD;
three and sixpence in a tuning hamme
and put it in order himself. He doe
not understand the business, be viii
tell YOU, and might do more harm thai
rood. But il his own internal mechan
ism begins to wheeze little and t
show symptoms of running down, If b
himself feels somehow little out 9
tune, it is very likely indeed that b
will be quite confident that he know
all about it, and will forthwith resort I
the family medicine chest or the neare:
druggist. 1t may be argued that h
| OIOU6Oty kuOWS AAOAO VI AAsS ~ -
terror than be does of the inside OF
clock or a watch. On the other hant
he may have been studying his ow
constitution for thirty, forty, or fiji
years. Every man, it has been said.
fool or physician at forty, and thel
| Is lust enough truth in the saying
make it plausible. But then the r
markable thing is that the amatel
doctor is usually just as ready to pr
! scribe for other peoples constitution
as he is for his own. Give him ever
. slight hint of your symptoms, and
will at once prescribe for you. t
. Knows, of course, that your mechanis
!. is ten thousand times more intrica
. and delicate than that of any clock
! watch, and it might occur to him. o.
, would think, that in so intricate m
q chine similar symptoms might possib
> arise from very different cause
Nothing of the sort occurs. howeve
4 .Pains in your chest, eh? All, indig'
ton, my dear fellow. l used to ha
8 that sort of thing terribly. Try b
d of Quackle's pills. The finest thing
q the world for indigestion. "-Londt
a | (yIobe