Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-05-03
THE VILLAGE DOCTOR.
"REMINISCENCES OF THE TIME WHEN
 EVERYBODY PRAcTICED MEDICINE.


 EVERYBODY PRACTIcED MEDICINE. In Former Days There Was Paucity
 of Illnesses- Calomel ns,d Jalap."
 Sweating It Out = Patients Warned
 Against Cold Water.
 If one could disentangle himself from the telegraph wires of today, get the shriek of the locomotive out of his ears and then take Q backward leap into old. plantation times he would be nightly amused. Among the op- jects Of interest would be the pantry of the great house, where the housewife kept her stores. If he peered curiously about he would see q certain rather retired shelf on which would be punches of herbs and roots, also bottles of decoctions made thereon. These vert. the household remedies, formuia E copyrighted by traelitio,l, proprietary to the family. in the country, where the doctors bailiwick :as of extended area and where drug stores were non-existent, everybody was to 8 large extent his own doctor AS consequence ne wanted to be everybody elses doctor, while everybody else yearned to be his
 PAUCITY OF AILMENTS
 Alas! Our repertoire of illnesses was hm- ited indeed, compared with today. There was a paicity of available diseases. A man could not possibly have cerebro spinal men, ngitis: it was not to be had. If he had pain in his chest no one soothed his anguish by telling him he had pneumonia The word pleurisy was rernorselessly flung at him. Diphtheria was uncomatable; putrld sore throat filled that vacuum in the list. If a man was wheezy and had trouble with his breathing the rugged word phthisic was lal kr,b is,,. n hrOnchltlS. Bright's disease had not been invented in our region, and peoples hearts never troubled them save when in love. Hence old time people, when they came to cie, had con- tracted list of ailments from which to choose, and they died as they lived, plain and unro- mantle.
 When the amateur doctors of the conimu- nity desired assistance then the village doc tor was called in, and he confined himself to two remedies-calomel and jalap-admlnls- tered by the shovelful. There must have been fall in the price of these drugs when the last of these doctors died. If man sprained his ankle, was bitten by mad dog or had sick headache he was told to take calomel or jalap; if he refused and died, it served him right. If he took them and died, it was evidence that no human power could save him. Castor oil and paregoric some times appeared, but they were dwarfs com pared to calomel and jalap. The only rem edies feared were the private remedies of the people. The moment an old woman thought she could make a valuable medicine out Of some herb or herbs, she burned to administer it to some suffering neighbor.
 The good Samaritan Mrs Perkins, often walked miles to urge the use of snake root tea in the measles to bring the disease rapidly to the surface. An old negro, Aunt Kitty, Al.,% fnSo Its principal constituent was ducks fat, but the fowl must be killed at certain phase of the moon and the fat melted over a fire kindled with certain sorts of wood. As this salve was said to work miraculous cures, 1t may be loss to- humanity that the astro- nomcai and botanical secrets of its manu- fracture were not perpetuated.
 SWEATING OUT DISEASE.
 Tbere was a multiplicity of remedies for colds, and they generally were based on sweating out the disease. Boneset tea, tea of wild cherry bark, onions stewed with sugar, and vinegar and molasses all had their warm advocates, but highly esteemed remedy was Thomsonian mixture bearing the rather indefinite name of Composition. There was nothing undefined about its taste or effect however. It was of an ardent, inn pulsive nature. It burned the tongue when first tasted, then it charred the windpipe ana liver as it went down, and finished by par boiling the soles of the feet Its forte was causing sweating, and it did it's duty to the letter It brought the cold out, and 1t brought the original sin out and the hearts secrets out. Nothing that could be moved rested beneath the cuticule after compost tion seance.
 One old idea of the doctors has greatly ! changed-the objection to their patients drinking water. No matter how much the | invalid craved it he was told that even @ moderate indulgence would be fatal and the attendants were solemnly warned to turn @ l deaf ear to his entreaties. At the tender age l of ten years I aimed the first blow at the anti water regime, and it happened in this | manner: was visiting on plantation and the planters father, man of advanced years, was at deaths door, owing to a pro tracted case of dysentery. Day by day the old man drew nearer to the grave, and the family awaited the coming of the destroyer with sad hearts. The one desire of the dying man was a draught of cold water from one of the sparkling springs which abounded on the farm. No traveller, sand blinded and thirst stricken in the arid desert, could have cried more piteously or more unavailingly, for the doctor had declared draught of water fatal to the sick man, and had sternly commanded the family to refuse his requests.
 1 One morning was in his room, for hedearIy loved children, and he begged me to stealth | lily fetch him pitcher of water from the spring. hesitated, for while no one had forbidden me to give him water, knew the family refused it to him. Then the old man asked me to bring him his watch from of the table. I did so, and he told me I should have it if would bring him a pitcher of
 water. The watch was of silver, as large as a small saucer, and longed to possess such
 U treasure. brought the water At times
 I try to think humanity made me bring it, but then think of the watch and doubt
 The old man swallowed the pitchers con-
 tents at a draught and died-ton years after,
 of old age, and have the watch yet.-"J. c.
 F." in Philadelphia Times.
 | IT. H H A Wholesale and Retail dealer in Foreign and Do
 .1nestic Ales, Wines, Liquors and Cigars,