The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-09-05
PHYSIC-TIPPLERS.
A Plea for Temperance in the Use of Medi-
cinal Beverages.

A Plea for Temperance in the Use of Medi-
cinal Beverages.
Philadelphia Record.
One of the most interesting of the papers read
before the State sanitary convention, held in
this city last May, was in the form of a warning
against intemperance in the use of drugs. The
writer. Dr. Frank Wood bury, of this city, has
permitted the publication of this noteworthy
contribution to popular knowledge in advance Of
the annual report of the convention and it is
certainly worthy of careful study. The habit of
taking into the system drugs OF whose ultimate
effects the partaker Is either ignorant or SUI
premely careless has grown very common of
late among a large class of people who
are usually credited with more than ordi-
nary intelligence. DR.. Woodburys expert
ence leads him to the conclusion that it
has attained to such considerable proportions as
TO command attention and consideration from all
medical practitioners. He finds the physic-tip-
pier and medicine bibber everywhere-not the
solictous and overanxious citizen, who, with
every slight cold or sore Joint, rushes off to a
doctor for a course of constitutional treatment,
altogether the devotees of narcotic and stimu-
liant drugs, but a great mass of people who use
almost every description of real Or pretended
medicament without knowledge and without
stint Even the comparatively harmless and in
nocuous soda-water fountain has been diverted
to the uses Of the physic tippler, for upon in
quiry DR.. Woodbury. found that numerous pow
erful tinctures. extracts and elxrs as we'll as
potassium and sodium bromide, soda mint So
dunn bcarbonate, acid phosphate and aromatic
spirits of ammonia, were regularly served out
to patrons of sodawater fountains in the drug
stores. Probably very few of these customers
could give logical or pathological reason TOR
this form of indulgence in extemporized mix
lures, which might or might not prove harmless,
but which, in any case, could not be classed as
remedial agents. For decentralization is a dan
ger against which the physician guards no less
carefully than against the earlier stages of an
a n adj 1ipicf
and when to withhold. But the slave of a habit
of drugging often persists until an enfeebled
digestion and collapsed nervous system sound
imperative notes of warning.
In the immense increase noted of late years IN
the preparations of narcotic and alkaline drugs,
as we'll as in the continuous accessions to the
amount of capital invested in making patent
medicines, DR.. Woodbury. finds reasons for be-
lieving that the practice of medcine-bibbing is
more than keeping pace with the growth Of
wealth and population. Especially has there
been increase in the demand for those drugs
that act specifically upon the nervous system
But few years ago the bromides were little
known or used; at the present time it is esti-
mated that over 200 tons are annually used in
this country. Choral hydrate has been
in but fifteen years, yet its con-
sumption in Europe and America
amounts to many hundreds of
tons each year, while of the opium products of
ether, chloroform and the iodides, there is con-
slant flow from a severely taxed yet apparently
exhaustless source of supply. DR.. Wood bury
tells of formula for mixture containing
choral which he saw conspicuously posted be-
hind druggists counter. It was found on in
quiry that the posting was merely matter of
convenience, since the calls for the mixture
were exceedingly frequent Alcoholic mixtures
he learned were similarly redemanded, often for
months after the occasion for their use had
passed away. Intemperance in drugs and medi-
cines, it appears. is no less common than are
other forms of self .indulgence.