Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1891-05-08
RANGERS In DRUGS
..,oulne TO THOSE DISPOSED TO
ICE THEM CARELEssLY.

.,,ora men are killed by drugs than
,.o,oo n is an expression one OCCASION
W. hears. How much truth it con-
~, &c of course. problematical. But,
' "ithout doubt, no small proportion Of
,""deatbs occurring are directly or in
t nUootIv due to an unwise use Of medi-
IN Children furnish the readiest
III time 70 the direct destructive infiu-
ences of drugs
,,,tolv harmless in anything like reason
ahle doses, may yet be the cause Of death:
The patient is an infant, and it suffers
t.an, diarrhea. The mother doctors it
herself She goes to the nearest drug
1ist and asks for a diarrhea mixture.
e. oives her one made up Of catechu
and chalk mixture, two of the simplest
Of agents, with which almost every
mother is familiar This she admins
tsrs to her child in the proper doses.
The diarrhea lessons, but the chiId's
condition does not improve. 1t even
crows rapidly worse. Fever is on, the
bowels are swollen, and, WHIST is more
alarming, "head symptoms" have APP
peared
THE PHYSICIAN POWERLEsS.
physician is called, but he is power
lass for the brain is affected. The little
one fingers along for days and days per-
hans. and finally dies from disease of the
brain. Now for the child's death the
catechu and chalk mixture, harmless as
thev are, were yet responsible. The
mixture lessened the diarrhea, but IN so
doing invited an Inflammation of the
bowels; the little ones brain, always ex-
ceedingly sensitive and susceptible to in
Jury, became songested as natural con-
seouence, other and more serious changes
followed, as in all such cases, and it
finally died-a victim to dosing Had
not the bowels been damned up by the
catechu and chalk mixture, but instead,
had they been unloadcd and then treated
properlv, neither the inflammation
therein nor the brain trouble would have
occurred. In mu. u t..- N3y described
are thousands upon thousands of chill
dren killed every year. And this terrible
mortality will only lessen when people
learn the dangers of trihing with drugs
have been for several weeks discuss
ing in The Sunday Herald the remedies
In common use. Continuing to do so,
come now to calomel, an agent which
has been much abused AS every one
knows, it is a preparation of mercury.
1t bears the name mild chloride" in
contradistinction to corrosive sublimate,
which is called the corrosive chloride"
Of mercury. Calomel is very nearly
three times az strong as blue pin. In
one respect it is fortunate that there is,
on the part Of the people, the strongest
prejudice against this agent. 1t is likely
to deter them from ever using it on their
own responsibility. So strong is the
prejudice there is scarcely a day passes
in the life Of the busy practitioner that
some patient or other does not question
him about MS medicines and enjoin that
there be no ca!omel in it, Without doubt
there is good and sufficient reason for
this distrust of the drug. In times past
it was, unqucstionably, not only used too
often, but in much too large doses. Sail
walton was then the rule, and by some it
was believed that calomel only had a
curative effect when carried to that point
But all that is changed now.
PROPER AND IMPROPER USE.
Physicians no longer hold that it has
such great power over the liver, nor that
tconuol5 inhammatory attacks, as their
fathers before them believed. When
calomel is given them now they never
push 1t to salvation. That condition is
very rare indeed at the present time, and
never occurs when the drug is wisely
given, unless the patient is very suscepti-
Die to It. Physicians occasionally en-
counter people who have the popularity
OF constitution that makes salvation
easy for them. With the compound
cathartc pill almost every one is ia
mlllar 1t contains one grain of calomel
ana three pills are purging dose. They
are usually given at bedtime, and, if
lalllng TO act the next morning. it is
quite common custom to give two
more OF them. This treatment is prac-
tcaIly safe, and no one would expect
salvation to follow. And yet it has done
So but very rarely indeed, however, be-
cause OF the peculiar susceptibility of
The patient to the drug.
Ihe prejudice against calomel seems
10 have grown with general cnlighten-
Ieht' 1t does not exist with those "be-
hlhd the times In the far western
country, it is still held in high esteem,
ana given IN enormous doses-even more
Than half toaspoonful-for almost every
conceivable ailment. After taking one
eatnaruc dose Of calonel alone, no one
likely tocourt another such experience,
uHiess ms confidence i'm it il absolute, for
II causes intense pain. For that reason
II was IN olden times given with jalap,
!" quicken its action. But after what
mas been said, and all that can be said
aooul caiomel, it is not an agent which
Gah tee dispensed with. Given IL proper
uoSeS IN cases wisely selected, it will
prove one of the most efficacious rene
uleS Known to man. And so admins
'erea It Is perfectly safe. One who does
Io' thoroughly understand all about it
ehoulu not, of course, NEEDLE with it, for
IT Is IKE an open razor in a child's hand.
Out Out II an Intelligent physician ever rec
ouiilehds II for patient. either old or
!Uuug' 1t should be unhesitatinGly I'D
NAlllsIered. -Roston Herald.