Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-11-07


 farms and suburbs, the mother of family must, in spite of any danger from igno- rance, keep many remedies on hand and ad- minister them as best she can, because a physician is unattainable there at short notice. But, in that case, as much her duty as 1t Is to have the medicines, it is to know how and when to administer them; and so she must make her own a sufficient knowledge of the simpler and more con- mon ailments to be able to treat them prop erly in their preliminary stages; and this ought to be as much part of every girls education as bread-making, sewing, read ing and the multiplication table.
 But when doctor is in the next street or within easy call, and drugs are at hand round the corner, 8 mother Is wise who takes nQ more upon herself in this regard than she can not help, and contents herself until educated help can be had with making soothing sweats. As unwise as 1t is to administer other medicines in ignorance, is to take the va rious patent medicines prescribed by no ope in authority, and compounded of no one knows what-those things that are recom- mended for the s'blood''-tonics, purifiers and universal -alls-made in reality, and az a general thing of the strongest drugs and the vilest alcohol, and capable of
  even to the inflammation of the stomach, the induration of the liver, the weakening of the heart and the degeneration of the kidneys, every one of which evils can be wrought without the patients knowledge of what is going on until the end approaches. The youth who is ''treating'' and being treated by his companions, with the idea that he is making man of himself, his father, who is taking a "little some thin cr11 for hiS atOmach1c salxo hofora din. ner, are both, even if in perfect health now, doing the same thing for their vital organs | that tho epatentmedicines are doing for those who are not in perfect health, and both cus- toms are the result of ignorance, and should be corrected equally. As no one nowadays would think of taking calomel in the huge doses formerly given, and scarce l and even then, possibly, with some doubt and questioning, so it may come to pass thatin time the patent medicine l and the unneeded stimulant will be looked at l with similar dlstrust and disfavor. If one is so ''poorly'' as to feel the need of 8 stimu- lant, which is, after all, of but temporary relief; if one is miserable and does not know what the matter is-the only course to be pursued IS to call in a practitioner l whose business it is to be familiar with such affairs, and who, with patience and obe- dience on the part of tho sufferer, will put things into as nearly right shape as 1t is possible they should be. We are apt to say that to call doctor is to make ourselves ill, in accordance with the old epitaph begin | ming: I was well; wanted to be better," | forgetting that 1t would not have occurred l to us to call doctor at all if we had not | been ill already; and that, at any rate, one whose business it is to know, as it is the doctors, is more presumably safe in the di- | recting of such affairs than one who, like l ourselves, know nothing about the way | in which we are SO fearfully and wonder l fully made, Eternal though the life beyond l the grave, there is but one life here, and that has to be lived in connection with the body; and it would seem that at the slight est hint of disaster to thls so necessary body, we should put the care of 1t into the hands of those most skilled in xuoh matters, and not run the risk of parting with 1t, or of doing It an irremediable damage.