St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-10-31
PLA YTNG WITH DRUGS.

the domestic doctor, and none more
frequently and fatally employed. 1t
very often seems to the mother of a
family too trivial an affair to send
for the real doctor every time that
the child ais slightly. She is trained
to small economies and fears the eX-
pense, 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 Ill
that the thought of it frightens her.
Thus she takes the chances, and APP
plies the remedies herself; and per
haps 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 poison.
For it is not she, the totally ig
norant practitioner, who can detect
the first symptoms of scarlet fever or
diptheria or peritonitis; but, for all
that, she unhesita tingly gives, for
the fever and malaise that she does
detect, a dose of physic that destroys
all the little patients chances, and
then she calls in the doctor only when
hope may perhaps be over.
There are really few remedies that
it is safe to administer without skill
ed advice, and those are the simplest,
and might all be included in a list
comprising only hot water, castor
OIL and a very little tincture of rhu-
barb When a child has been indulg-
ing in illicit food, swallowing cherry
whose hard seeds lodge in the little
sack that seems to be in the bowels
for the express purpose of making
trouble, the poor mothers first idea
is to give it at once q relieving and
discharging potion; and she puts the
child under immediate sentence of
death in doing so, the physic having
an InflammatOry influence which is
the very thing to be avoided. And,
on the other hand, when a child gives
evidence of q diarrh9al disorder of
the bowels, the poor mother flies to
her medicine closet, takes down the
phial of chalk mixture, and admires
herself for stopping the Immediate
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 I'M
loading and clearing dose of castor
oil. That she is deferred from giving
the oil by the difficulty of making a
child swallow the nauseOus draught
is not to be allowed in her excuse );
for the child need not know what is
4 of
making it tasteless besides that of
administering it in capsules; for,
when given i'll wine, beaten up with
the white of an egg, as if for what is
called 'eggnOg," with some sugar
and dash of lemon juice added, or
drop of essence of peppermint, the
child will think it is having some I'M
usual indulgence granted.
OF course in the wilderness, on re-
mote farms and suburbs, the mother
of n family must, in spite of any dan
ger from ignorance, keep many RENE
dies on hand and administer them as
best she can, because a physician is
unattainable there at short notice.
But, Ill that case, as much her duty
as it is to have the medicines, it is to
know how and when to administer
them.
But when Il 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, and contents herself un-
til educated help can be had with
making use of cOpiOus draughts of
hot water and of soothing sweats.
As unwise as it is to administer
other medicines in ignorance, it is to
take the various patent medicines
prescribed by no one in authority,
and compounded of no one knows
what-those things that are recon-
mended for the "blood'-tonics,
purifiers, and universal cure-alls-
made in reality, and as a general
thing, of the strongest drugs and the
vilest alcohol, and capable of produc-
ing the worst results in the system,
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 APP
proaches. The youth who is treat
ing" and being treated by his COM
panions, with the idea that he is
making a man of himself. his father
who is taking a little something
for his stomach's sake before dinner.
are both, even if in perfect health
now, doing the same thing for their
vital organs that the patent medi-
cines are doing for those who are not
in perfect health, and both customs
are the result of ignorance, and
should be corrected equally If one
is so poorly as TO feel the need of a
stimuIant, 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 whose bust
ness it is TO be familiar with such af-
fairs, and who, with patience and
obedience on the part of the sufferer,
will put things into as nearly right