Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-09-02

cases of women of high nervous temper
nent who imagine themselves afflicted
with all manner of disease that flesh is
heir to, when in reality their troubles are
only historical.
4 SAMPLE "PLACEBO.
Take for instance a woman Of slender
build with pale, thin face. Her stom-
acb is out Of order. She complains OF
pains in Ter heart and stomach. or she
says the pain goes away through to the
back; or sine has the feeling of something
rising in her throat; or she has pains in
her limbs and it tires her to walk; or she
tells You OF a hundred and one
other troubles If there are not too
many Of these aches and pains all at
once I give her something that will re-
lieYe her pain, but where woman has
all these symptoms of q dozen different
complaints and the case is plainly one Of
imagination, we usually give place
DO, , any harmless remedy, about like
this prescription: One drachm each of
tincture of caradamOn and lavender,
half an ounce Of syrup of tolu and
enough ordinary syrup to make up two
ounces, with the direction to take
teaspoonful three times day.
HEach dose contains eight drops each
of the tinctures, which will neither bene-
lit nor harm person.
''There is a woman in Detroit past fifty
years Of age who is not well when moth
ING ails her She has been coming to
me for year every few days, and most
always she has a different complaint.
We humor her like all the rest of that
class of people-amOng which, by ting
way, are but very few men-and always
give her the same medicine, only
vored a little differently. z
ga good many people who are afhictefE
with a disOrdered mind read the so-eEeffes
doctor books, and they have evenS all
ment they read Of What shalF9JEA do
with them? We must give them
'placebo, and they are glad to think it
cured them However, the cure is not
lasting, as they soon will be around again
with some other malady. In private
practice such patients generally drift
from one physician to another, making
the rounds of the medical profession.
remember the case of a relative Of mine.
When she was a young girl she
used to pore over the medical
books at home. She had nearly all the
diseases that a human being can have
in her mind of course. One day she
came running UP to me and in all earn
estness cOnfided to me that she had GER
tain disease. Oh, yes, she had read all
about it and she had all the symptoms.
Well, sir, never laughed so much III
my life, and thought l should 90 into
commissions. She had mentioned sick
ness which it was impossible for her to
have IN her stage of womanhood. She
died from q sickness which l think was
the only one she never imagined she was
afflicted with.
CAN'T DECEIVE A WOUID-BE SUICIDE.
''We do not attempt to deceive pa
tients when they are opposed to certain
medicines, for, as a rule, there is
foundation for their opposition, and then
we give them some other medicine which
will produce similar results. Some peo-
pie for instance, cannot take quInIne,
as 1t will produce a rash all over the
body: others cannot take morphine, as,
instead of putting them to sleep, it will
keep them awake, and so forth.
Sometimes physicians deceive women
who apply to them for a criminal opera
ton by giving them drug that viii have
the opposite effect. My opinion is that
they are doing wrong, as during the time
before the deception is discovered the
woman will tell her friends of the accom-
modating doctor, who in that way gets d
reputation which no honorable physician
WOulu envy
''No, deception of q wouldbe suicide
who has firmly made up his mind to die
and has swallowed poison, is impossible.
The pretext that his dose was not suffl-
cient and you would give him more-as
means of administering an antIdote-
will not win. The suicide is always sus
picious, and you must use force. Not
long ago I had the case of man who
had taken arsenic. He sWore like
a trooper that he would die. -Four strong
men held him down while l pried his
teeth apart with stick of wood and
poured a vomitive down his throat. He
evidently has changed his mind since
then, for he has not repeated his attempt
upon his life. If you have things handy,
q hypodermic injection of apomoTphia
will do the same service as
vomative, but be sure your suicide
can 1T kick. know the case of physi-
clan that was deceived by would-be
suicide whom he wanted to pump out.
The fellow kicked HIM so hard that he
turned a summersault. After several
men had overpowered the chap,
the stomach pump got in its work.
That man also changed his mind; he is
alive to-day.