Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1889-03-23
"EDIToH's BACK STAIRS
Tho Interesting Views of tho Late DR.. j.
G. Holland.

The columns of the newspapers sp-
pear to be flooded with proprietary med
icine advertisements. As we cast our
eve over them, it brings to mind an ar
ticle that was published by the late Dr..
Holland in Scribner's Monthly. he says:
"Neverthele:s, it is fact that many Of
the best proprietary medicines of the day
were more successful than many ply
siciars, and most Of them, it should be
remembered, were at first discovered or
used in actual medical practice. When,
however, any shrewd person, knowing
their virtue, and foreseeing their popu-
larity, secures and advertises them, then,
in the opinion of the bigoted, all virtue
went out of them"
Is not this absurd?
This great man appreciated the real
merits of popular remedies, and the alb
eurdity of those that derided them be.
cause public attention was called to the
article and the evidence of their cures.
If the most noted physician should an
nounce that he had made study of any
certain organ OF disease of the body, or
make his sign larger than the code size,
though he may have practised medicine
and been sleader in all medical counsels,
Notwithstanding all this, if he should pre-
sumo to advertise end decline to give
his discovery to the public, he would
be pronounced quack and q humbug,
although he may have spent his en-
tire life and all his available funds
in perfecting his Investigations.
Again We say, absurd"
II an ulcer is found upon ones arm,
and is cured by some dear old grand
mother, outside of the code, it will be
pronounced by the profession an ulcer OF
little importance. But if treated under
the code, causing sleepless nights for q
month, with the scientific treatment, viz,
plastere, washes, dosing with morphine,
arsenic and other vile substances, given
to prevent blood poisoning or deaden
pain, and yet the ulcer becomes malig
nant, and amputation is made necessary
at last, to save Life, yet all done accord
ing to the ''isms" of the medical code.
this is much more gratifying to the med
ical prote ssion, and adds more dignity to
that distinguished order than to be cured
by the dear old grandmother's remedy.
This appears Ike severe arraignmen:,
yet We believe that it expresses the true
standing of the medical profession in re.
gard to remedies discovered outside of
their special "isms." One Of the most
things of the day is the pop
ularity of certain remedies, especially
Warmers Safe Cure, which we find for
sale everywhere. The physician OF the
highest standing is ready to concede its
merits and sustain the theories the pro-
prietors have made-that is, that it ben
efts in most of the ailments of the human
system because it assists in putting the
kidneys in proper condition, thereby
aiding in throwing off the impurities of
the blood, while others with less honest.
and experience deride, and are willing to
see their patient die scientifically, and &C.
cording to the code, rather than have him
cured by this great remedy.
Yet we notice that the popularity OF
the medicine continues to grow year by
year. The discoyerer comes boldly
before the people with its merits, and
proclaims them from door to door in our
opinion much more honorably than the
physician who, perchance, may secure
patient from come catastrophe, and is
permitted to set bone Of an arm or a
finger, which he does with CREST dignity,
yet very soon after takes the liberty to
climb the editors back stairs at 2
o'clock in the morning, to have it an
uounced in the morning paper that "Dr.
So and-so wac in attendance" thus &C.
curing for his benefit beautiful and
prna aduarkiaamanf