Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1888-02-09
MEDICAL INFORMATION.
Some Of tho DOines Of . Young Dako
lsrave-Y1-t Starter.

Nsr8Vesx8~N St0ft0gs
"When should the young physicia,
ask advice?" inquiries q medical paper.
Doubtless rs good an answer as any
to this would be: Before the patient
dies" 1t doesn't help the subject
much after he is dead to have the
young physician who treated him 90
AROUND asking if it wouldn't probably
have been better to have given him a
sweat instead of putting q cake of ice
at his feet and administering pint of
lemonade.
1t also makes good deal of differ
ence where the young physician goes
to seek his advice. l remember u
young physician named Slade who
came out to Dakota to practice. I
never SO thoroughly realized before
what it was for young physician to
practice till saw hi IN administer a
different medicine to patient every
fifteen minutes. 1t was practice for
him, but death to the patient. There
was an active immigration association
hard at work booming the town and
inducing settlers to locate in the vicin-
ity. but it couldn't make much head
way at building up the population SO
long as Slade kept practicing.
He was always very free to ask ad-
vice, but he always went to the drug
gist for it. The druggist invariably
recommended certain kind of patent
medicine which came in large bottles
at one dollar per bottle; dose. three
swallows every half-hour. He said
there was more profit in it than any
other medicine he had in stock. Slade
didn't think much of this medicine
and wouldn't prescribe it at all until
the druggist offered to do the fair thing
on the profits Of all he helped him
dispose Of Even then he didn't use it
much; he said it produced no results
what he wanted was rcsults-that re-
suits always followed his own line of
treatment and the result of his pratice
was death. still heirs were usually bet
ter pay than recovered patients. and
as long rs the INN grafton society
kept bringing in people he was bound
to follow his own ideas of medicine.
Old Doc Barker. who lived out in the
country five or six miles. always in
sisted on a poultice made on the hide
side of the skin of a black cat which
was killed at midnight in the dark of the
moon. He said here You had common
sense and science to back it up. Sladc
and the druggist both looked on this as
being rather unprofessional and never
used it unless the patient had been adj
dicted to its use during former sick
nesses.
Slade used to admit that he needed
experience. He didn't believe in
young doctor acting as if he couldn't
learn any thing. He said he wasn't
proud. So he used to practice on sick
horses when the owners would allow
him. He said he got some Of his best
points while treating horses. He was
once attending u large. rawboncd bay
horse which was sick ut the Red Front
livery barn. 1t was peculiar case
and he asked the druggist what he
would recommend. The druygis:
thought a few minutes, looked in
big. overgrown book. which resembled
a city directory. and said he thought
that that patent medicine which came
at a dollar a bottle. three swallows
every thirty minutes, was what the
horse needed. Siade shook his head
and went behind the counter and got
a book, entitled Every Man His Own
Family Physician and Horse and Cow
Doctor" and went back to the barn.
After awhile he said that what the
horse needed was sleep. If lie could
only get him to take a good nap he
would come out all right So he gave
him "A lot of morphine. darkened
the windows. and went back to
the drug store and argued for
half an hour with man about the
catskin poultice. He told the man it
didn't stand to reason. If the poultice
was made on the hair side there might
be some sense in il. but on the hide side.
never. Then he went back to the barn
and looked cautiously in. The horse
was lying perfectly still and sleeping
calmly. He went up every little while
all day. but still the horse slept He
said he never saw horse sleep better |
He took half the people in town around
to peep through the crack to see that
horse sleep He sat up half the night
the calm, peaceful sleep the
horse had dropped into. He said that
hen he woke up he'd be new horse.
When Slade visited his patient the
next morning he was somewhat
to find that he was still sleep
ing. He concluded that he would
awaken him. SO he opened the door and
went in. He walked up to the animal
and hit him gentle kick. Still he did
not move. but continued to slumber. He
took hold of his hind leg and gave it
short pull. 1t was cold and stif. The
horse was dead. The hired man said
he had died the day before shortly after
Slade gave him the morphine.-E H.