Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-11-05
WOMAN AND HOME.
A WARNING TO THE MOTHERS
PRONE TO PLAY WITH DRUGS.

Information for the Nurse-Handsomely
Decorated Luncheon Rooms--GirIs Who
Are Daring swimmers-A Sermon on
Dressing for Church.
There is no doctor 50 expensive as the do
nestle doctor, and none more frequently and
fatally employed II very often seems to the
mother of family too trivial an affair TO
send for the real doctor every time that the
child ails slightly She is trained to small
economies and fears the expense, and she
thinks the doctor may laugh at her, or be
vexed at being called from more important
cases TO one so trifing; and then to have the
doctor why, the child must be so i'll that the
thought Of it frightens her. Thus she takes
the chances, and applies the remedies herself;
and perhaps there was nothing the matter
that her little dose could not remedy; and
perhaps there was some great evil at work,
and her dose was no better than deadly poi
son.
For it is not she, the totally Ignorant prac-
titioner, who can detect the first symptoms
of scarlet fever or diphtheria or peritonitis.
but, for all that, she unhesitatingly gives for
the fever and malaise that she does detect a
dose Of physic that DESTROYS all the little pa
TENTS chances, and then she calls in the doc
tor only when hope may perhaps be over.
There are really few remedies that il is safe
20 administer without skilled advice. and
those are the simplest, and might all be in
cluded in list comprising only hot water,
castor oil and a very little tincture of rhu-
barb. When child has been INDUCING In
Illicit food, swallowing cherry stones or eat
ing unripe raspberries, whose hard seeds lodge
in the little sac that seems TO he in the bowels
for the express purpose of making trouble,
the poor mothers first idea is to give il at
once relieving and discharging potion, and
she puts the child under immediate sentence
of death in doing so, the physic having an in
hammatory influence, which Is the very thing
10 be avoided
And, on the other hand, when child gives
evidence of a diarrheal disorder of the bow
els, the poor mother flies to her medicine
closet, takes down the phial of chalk mixture
and admires herself for stopping the imme-
date symptoms, not knowing that the fever
and distress and worse ensuing symptoms are
due to the effect of the chalk mixture which
prevents the system from relieving itself, and
that she should have given instead an unload
ing and clearing dose of castor oil That she
Is deferred from giving the oil by the diff
Guilty of making child swallow the nauseous
draught is not 10 be allowed in her excuse:
for the child need not know what is given,
and there are many ways of making il taste
less besides that OF administering it in cap
sules; for, when given In wine, beaten IN
with the white Of an egg, as if for what Is
called egg nog, with some sugar and dash
of lemon juice added, or a drop of essence OF
peppermint, the child will think it is having
some unusual indulgence granted because it
does not feel well, remembering 10 its advan-
tage the old nursery lines:
Oh, yes, not wei: you're very sick.
Idon't believe it's true
You only want TO coax mamma
To make nice things for you
OF course in the wilderness. on remote
farms and suburbs, the mother Of a family
must, In spite Of any danger from ignorance,
keep many remedies on hand and administer
them as best she can, because physician is
unattainable there at short notice. But, in
that case, as much her duty as 1t is to have
the medicines, It is 70 know how and when
70 administer them; and 50 she must make
her own sufficient knowledge of the simpler
and more common ailments % be able to
treat them properly in their preliminary
stages; and this ought To he a. much q part
Of every girls education as bread making,
sewing, reading and the multiplication table.
But when doctor is in the next street or
within easy call, and drugs are at hand
round the corner, a mother Is wise who takes
no more upon herself in this regard than she
cannot help, aud contents herself until edu-
Gated help can be had with making use OF
copious draughts Of hot water and Of sooth-
ing sweats. -Harper's Bazaar.