Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-08-17
THE .EL1x1Ru CRAZE.
10 the Editor of the Eagle.

| tivated by novelty. While the Brown
| Sequard elixir sensation is novel it is b
no means unique. DR.. Brown-Sequar
has for long years been Justly regarde
as one of the most distinguished phys
| ologists of his day, and his contribution
to the science of biology have been gen
orally accepted as authority by the pro
fession. But the venerable doctor i
now "a years old, and if not in the ''sea
and yellow leaf, is so near to it that thi
fact, and the greed of the public for some
thing startling, may account for abou
all that has been said concerning tn
elixir of life" If this life renewin,
fluid has the powers attributed to it, VIII,
has not the discoverer renewed his Owl
youth with it? Is it not a little strange
that the good doctor will continue Il
witness its marvellous effects upon 9th
ers and himself remain in hopeless de
crepitude? Such is not human nature
| rather think. however, that the press i:
more responsible for the propagation O.
this ignus fatuus than the physicians
nevertheless it will afford certain
members of the profession ev
erywhere an opportunity fol
getting little cheap notorietJ
which will doubtless be as ephemeral as
its ridiculous source. About all the ben
eft, if any, that patients have derived
from the elixir can be easily accounted
for on the we'll known principle of eager
expectancy. venture to say that liz
every case just as marked results fol
good can be obtained by injecting into
the patients arm the juice prepared from
any other portion of the animal, pro
vided only that the subject of the exper
iment be impressed with the belief
that he is receiving the genuine
Brown-Sequard elixir, and that
1t will so unbind his fettered limbs
and SO reiuvenate him that he
may ''leap as an hart" Every jim.
telligent physician knows something OF
the wonderful influence of the mind
over the body and the power of sugges.
ton and expectancy. Life has often
been saved, and sometimes destroyed by
these two forces. A well authenticated
case occurred in Lafayette, Ind, abou;
80 years ago. A most worthy journey
man was arraigned for practical joke
and made to believe by the members OF
his society that for the offense they al
legged against HIM he must suffer death
by being beheaded. The whole proceed
ings of that mock trial and execu-
ton were conducted with such profound
gravity as to convince the unfortunate
subject that they were real; aud when
his neck was barred and laid upon the
block, surrounded with sawdust to alb
sorb the blood, and the order given the
executioner to strike. instead Of the
bright cleaver which the doomed man
had last seen just before the cowl was
drawn over his face, the executioner
merely let fall gently across the neck a
twisted towel dipped in ice water, and
the young man was as dead as if the
cleaver had actually severed his head
from the body.
Dr. Luke in his work on the Influence
of the mind upon the body" gives nu-
merous instances of similar character.
These and kindred effects are more
easily produced upon persons Of pecu-
liarly impossible nerve organization.
But the idea that an old rheumatic,
whose joints, ligaments and tendons
have for many years been stiff, atrophied
or thickened from repeated infianma-
tory deposits, can be rejuvenated by the
"inspissated juice from the reproduc-
tive glands of the sheep, seems to me
about as worthy of credence as were the
"Galvanic Tractors" of Benjamin Per-
kins, the "Weapon Ointment of Fabri-
cius Hildanus, the "Sympathetic Pow
der" of Sir Kenelm Digby, and
the once famous "Tar water" of Bishop
Berkeley.
l said in the beginning that this elixir
craze is not unique. The four things
above mentioned, and few others like
them, once commanded the implicit
confidence of thousands, embracing
many Of the nobility of England, but
they were all short lived, and have long
since been numbered with kindred de-
lusions and consigned to merited obliv-
ion. Thus it is. One delusive sensation
treads close upon the heels Of another,
and like Byron's
"Cowpot tractors, galvanism and gas,
Each in turn appears to make
The vulgar stare
This wonderful elixir. made from the
guinea pig, rabbit and lamb, reminds
me of the decoction of Macbeth witches,
who
"Round about the cauldron go;
In the poisoned entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one,
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i the charmed pot"
Then, "Fillet of Jenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
" DOL of bat and tongue of dog,
A = 60 HI i'd rt,
Lizards leg and owlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble.
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble"
Now, "Cocl it with baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good"
If the Brown-Sequard elixir be found
to reJuvenate octogenarians
and rheumatics, perhaps the witches
might Notwithstanding all
this, | am always open to conviction,
and If the physicians throughout the
who are testing the claims of
the elixir succeed in demonstrating its
virtues all honor to them; if failure re-
ward their efforts: they will always be
So" chiefly from those who never had
an opinion on the subject and could not
evolve one if they should try.
W. +. I,
WICHITA. KAN, Aug. 10.
TheWickedeSt and Best.
Joe Howard in the New York Press
1t is said that New York is the wick
edest city in the country. 1t is the larg-
est, and vice thrives in crowded COM
munities. Yet if it is the wickedest city
it is also the best on the continent If 1t