The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1886-06-26

or steel bitters, tincture of bark. These
little hllips to strength come in most invii &
form, They are wrapped up in sugarplums,
frothed in sparkling beverages, distilled into
soups, disguised with lemonades and other
| fruit tayorings. Lozenges Of digestive
extracts and meats alernated with the acids,
AMI the phosphor eliXir--the brains and the
gluten of animal and vegetable, are com.
pounded with medical extracts; and wonder
ful Greek names describe medicines that a
Medea might call her own, for making old
folke new again In tad Of feeding and
sleeping properly, the excitable person TAX es
morphine in surreptitious ways. Instead Of
inhaling the fragrance from the fields and
orchards, the fine lady takes Whit Of ether
to compose her nerves. Scores Of tons of
bromides are said to be used every year in
this country; ton of choral a day, says
DR.. Woodbury., is consumed in America and
England. For a large part of the abuse she
doctorsare held primarily to blame, They
do not appear, as a body, to have been on
the alert to forbid the filling of opium, NOR.
phine, choral and bromide prescriptions
over again by patients who had found solace
in illness and continue the use of prescrip
tons long after the doctors last visit had
been paid. The alcohol habit used frequent
y TO be charged upon the dependence on
stimulants, which the medical man had fos-
tere IN his patients; and now the bromide
habit" the morphine habit, the "chloral
habit too often follow the seductive expe-
rience and recolections of the patient who
has once used, incidentally and after an
orthodox prescription, the now intoxicating
n fok an Hnliharat al n nj inotn Eau
novices, perhaps, would begin to take these
things without some such preliminary advice
or the cOnuivance of the pharmacy the
soothing nostrums, it must be remembered,
are not placarded and pulled as the pick.
me-up" preparations are. They do not come
in either sweets, "fizz' or beef tea, at least,
are not temptingly so set forth. But it is
not the fault of the doctors that the pOpulace
runs after patent" remedies. There must
be some survivals in modern civilized beings
of the old beliefs in magic. Cures are alleged
to be made by stuff that nobody knows any.
thing about-except its magical results and
the strength of testimonials in print. The
Alaskan buys his chill remedy, the Texan
his collie cure, the New Yorker his nerve IN
vigorator at a thousand.mile range of faith.
The American Indian is no more supersti.
tious about the powers of his medicine
man than the American people are in run
ming after "physic without Doctor There
seems to be Il belief that almost anything will
take" to a disease, if only it is by private
enterprise in much wrapped bottle Dr..
Woodbury's suggestions are well-timed and
rightly voiced. Instead Of true hygiene, of
selt-denial from unwholesome foods, wrong
/. L
ures and over-worry, people do as they
please, eat what they like, break every rule
of health from breakfast to bedtime, and
keep on dosing themselves with correctives,
instead of living temporarily. There is a
temperance in work, as in food and drink,
and in pleasure as in business, just as there
is growing intemperance in drugs.-Ledger,
Philadelphia, May IA.