Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1886-09-26
THEIR OWN DOCTORS
PEOPLE WHO HOPE TO CURE THEIR
ILLS WITH PATENT MEDICINE.

The Largest Trade Done with Elderly
Men-sales of the Various Glasses d
Proprietary Medioinss-The Medicine
Chest-Progress-
sMore people doctor themselves than
you would imagine" said an uptown
druggist to q reporter. The craze q
present is for patent medicines. The great
reduction in the price Of all proprietary
articles has induced many invalids or in
dividuals who suppose they are Ill, to give
up p%atronizing physicians and try the
many nostrums with which the market
Is flooded. have not kept track of the
number of patent medicines in the mar
ket in recent years, but the last time I
gave my attention to the subject there
were over 100000 proprietary medicines
manufactured in the United States. A
drug store is a great resort for hypochon-
driacs. Here men talk by the hour Of
tn various ailments which are OF no in
terest to me but to which I am obliged to
listen, or else lose the sick man g custom. 4
@What class purchase patent medi-
cines?"
@An classes, of course, buy proprietary
~ IAC W q kLCotS4 u ACoo CAtChtt oub tuo
largest trade in them is done with elderly
men. When a nan reaches, say 60years,
he usually has some ailment which may
either be trifing or serious. At all events,
after the first symptoms present them
selves, he makes a careful diagnosis Of his
case and hies him to the druggist. The
pill manufacturer patiently listens to the
customers statement Of his ills and pre-
scribes a remedy-usually one Of his own
preparations. Why, Because the profit
on the druggists goods are 100 per cent.
more than on others. Probably the rem
edy purchased benefits the patient, but
the chances are that ii doesn't.
THE WIGHT OF FOLLY.
"Would you recommend individuals
who ore sick to do their own doctorings"
Certainly not. No man can tell the
nature Of his disease. A symptom or
symptoms may indicate q dozen different
diseases, and when a man Is taking q
liver invigorator he may be suffering
from kidney trouble. 1t Is the hight Of
folly for one to buy a proprietary tonic,
the ingredients Of which are Of the poorest
and cheapest quality. Does it stand to
reason that a patent medicine firm would
put high priced wine in a beef, iron and
wine tonics No. The wine used is gener-
ally the cheapest kind Of cherry, and ]
shudder when l think Of the extract OF
beef and iron. The same principle ap-
plies to all proprietary articles In which
alcohol is supposed to enter. sui few bit
ters or nervines contain much alcohol, but
are mainly composed of cheap qua lities
Of French spirits. Good alcohol costs
money and Is far too dear to DO used
ll patent medicines which sell at 81 per
bottle"
GWhat class Of patent medicines has the
largest salei" was asked.
different articles are manufactured at
various seasons. For instance, in the sum-
mer months s~arsaparillas and ginger ton
les have the call, while in cold weather
cough syrup and consumption cures ere
largely sold. You would be surprised to
know the number remedies for coughs
and colds sold in Brooklyn, from Novem-
Der to June. They are Of various kinds,
good, bad and Indifferent, the latter pre-
Do l think syrups a cure
consumption No, sir. They no doubt
relieve the sufferer and loosen the cough,
but in many instances coughs are tem-
porarily dried up by their use, only to
break out again more severely than be-
II MEDICINE CHEST.
allow do the so-called medicine chests
SELF"
"Poorly. What man originally from
the country will ever forget his mothers
medicine chest and the good woman's
tea and mustard plastersf How,
on the first symptom OF disease In any o.
her loved ones, she hastens to the well
and ancient medicine book,
the malady and prescribes tho
The day Of the medicine chest
has, / think, passed. But whether the
remedies which our mothers prescribed
were efficacious or not, l don't pretend to
know, but any way we most always got
well. Good care and nursing go a great
way In the treatment Of disease
The reporters informant, who, in add
ton to being a druggist, is also a physi-
clan, continuing, said: an the sleepy
Long Island village in which l was born,
our doctor combined the duties Of physi-
clan with those Of dominic. His knowl-
edge Of the Bible far exceeded that OF
medica. The first body was dis
sected in this country In Philadelphia, in
175O, and from that date until 1867, when
the first medical school wa established
in New York, but little progress vas made
In the study Of medical science. The
rides made in the profession have been
phenomenal, but nothing compared TO
what will be discovered by future gener-