The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1885-06-11

4 Few Words Of Advice to Psopls who
Are Inclined to Medication

00S4VxsO IAN - A<S~ &N~SANS 49,
4 Few Words OF Advice to Psop1s who
!. Are Inclined to Msdicatiou;
From the London Truth.
Do we believe in doctors? Whether
We do or not, we generally send for
them when we are i'll. Still, if I were
asked my opinion, I should say the pro.
fession is largely over crowded. Ply
sic is hugely overdone. Half the COM
plants people-especially idle people
suffer from are imaginary. l do not
deny thas men and women get i'll, and
occasionally die, but hold that, in a
vast number of cases doctor is nnIiee
essary at first, and quite helpless al
last-that is, so far as his physic is con-
cerned, and I have pretty good author
ity for what say.
Sir William Jenner has the courage
to declare that "the science of medicine
is barbarous jargon-svery dose OF
medicine is blind experiment." When
the great Majendie assumed the Profes-
sor's Chair of Medicine at the College
of France, he thus addressed the aston
ished students: Gentlemen, medicine
is d humbug: Who knows anything
about medicine Fl tell you frankly L don't.
Nature does good deal: doctors do
very little -when they don't do harm. y
Maiendie went on to tell the following
pungent little professional tale out Of
school:
when I was head physician at The
Hotel Dieu I divided the patients into
three sections. To one 1 gave the regu-
lation dispensary medicine in the regu-
lation way to another I gave bread,
milk and colored water and to the third
section | gave nothing at all. Well,
gentlemen, every one in the third Sec
ton got we'll. Nature invariably came
to the rescue"
Now, of course, we must allow some
thing for the obstructive candor of pro-
fessiUnal which Is always
apt to overleap the mark and give the
oppon ent a few, more points than he
asks for, really for the sake Of placing
him at a disadvantage. Still there is
truth in the candid jest, if jest it be
and the truth is this 1.-The doctor is
often superhuous, sometimes mischiev-
Gus and occasionally fatal. Physicking
as Sir VIM. Jenner Quoted by DR..
Ridge admits, is largely speculative
operation. The ingenious "doseist,
as Artemus Ward would say, has theo-
ries about what is the matter with you
he physics according to his theory, and
then physics to correct his theory
This he calls changing the treatment.
Wrong again! Try back; alter diet
then physic away at the new diet
Wrong again! Patient gets worse.
Perhaps it is change of air, not change
of food he wants-br1ght idea! Sepd
him out of town. Off he goes into the
country; forgets te take his physic
feels better; gets well; doctor look.
bland, mods his head and says: II told
you so; change Of air-thats what you
wanted" What he really wanted yas
to be let alone. Leave off worrying
nature-that is what is required; not in
all cases, but in good many and that
is probably what Majendie and Jennel
and all the wise doctors think. They
aim ut diet and discipline-they assist,
they do not try to force, natures hand
and they every now and then admit
this in burst of confidence.
There is an other dubious side of the
question. Doctors often say to you,
"Be sure you come to me at once. ]
can arrest disease at an early stage
but delay-hesitate! hesitate and
you are lost!" This is just one of those
dangerous half-truths whereout doctors
do suck no small advantage. If you
call the doctor in for every little all.
ment, you will get into an artificial
state. Nature will strike work, and
you will never be we'll without the doc
tor-nor with him either: If you al
ways take opiates, you will never sleep
without them; or tonics; you will never
eat without them; or stimulants, you
will never work without them.
It is law true in sociology and physics
alike that dependence grows by what il
feeds on. There are doctors who al
ways send people to bed directly they
have little cold-and those people are
forever catching cold-they have no re-
sistance left: You are somewhat out Of
order, instead of exercise and modera-
ton, in comes the doctor with his dose
and, next time, nature will refuse to
have anything to do with you. II am
not going to trouble myself about you,
she virtually says. "Send for the doctor
you prefer his physics to my more slow,
but more sure and more healthy. recu-
perative power. Take physic-I strike
work"
Not only do we often begin too soon,
but we go on too long with the doctor,
He calls and calls again he refnes his
prescriptions until its gradations of eff
cacy are quite lmperceptible, but they
are just enough to keep nature in lead.
ing-strings and to make each step de-
pendent upon the therapeutic art.
Of course, I admit that there are many
cases to which these remarks are wholly
inapplicable. Bronchitis, incipient can.
Ger and others, both functional and or
gan1c-to take these in time may be
everything. There are cases where the
diagnosis of good physician is simply
invaluable; his hints about food are not
to be neglected, yet they should be
taken, perhaps, cum grano, and checked
by personal experience. There are
cases, too, where cod-liver oil, quinine
and one or two other drugs are absolute
specifics. Who can not realize DIR.
Livingstone's gloomy death warrant
when he determined to so forward after
losing his medicine-chest of quinine in
the dismal river?