The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1892-06-03
Especial Correspondence. |


enthusiastic graduates of the "gold
rure, that propose to tell the result
Of my own investigation. If a man has
been in the terrible thralldom of alcohol
and has found any deliverance from il
by any means, it is natural and right
for him to praise God and any of his
instruments that may have ministered
toward his release.
But it is pertinent and really neces-
sary to look further into the matter be-
fore deciding on the testimony of one.
or one thousand or ten thousand per
sons who believe that they have derived
benefit from it, that any proprietary
medicine is really safe and good Be-
cause Smiths pills have cured lie man
of rheumatism it by no means follows
that they will cure another man of a
broken leg or of fits.
What, then, is this remedy? Its author
is a man who has achieved great fame
by treating victims of alcoholism, the
morphine and the cocaine habits. Many
of his patients claim honestly to be
cured Many have relapses, some have
gone mad and some have died. 1t is
manifestly within the province of the
medical profession to decide whether the
cures are permanent, and whether the
disasters are in any way traceable to the
treatment
Doctors, however, have been unable
until recently to even study these cases
because the gold curist refused to tell
what he was using. All they knew was
that he took thousands of patients widely
different in habits, constitutions, dis
eases and conditions and subjected them
all to the same treatment. He injected
into them what he called bichloride of
gold, and different results followed
They knew only two or three things:
l. That the treatment was not profess
sional. for no doctor would think of
treating all sorts of patients in the same
way. 2. That the method was unpro-
fessional, for doctors do not conceal
their methods from one another g.
That there was no such substance as
bichloride of gold.
Manifestly they could tell little about
the whole matter until they knew what
this medicine was, and until recently
they did not know. Now, however, they
do know. There are lying on my table
as write two walls, one of which con-
tains some of this mixture put up by the
inventor of the gold cure, and the other
some that was put up by a well known
physician. The two are identical, and
the fact has been conclusively proven by
chemical analysis
In this mixture there is no gold,
There is not the shadow of trace of
gold Neither is it bichloride of any
description.
What is it? Well, it would be fool
ish thing for any man to publish to the
world the exact formula of medi.
cine that is capable of doing much
harm. The main ingredients, however,
may be told properly enough. Briefly,
then, the gold cure is composed of the
nitrate of strychnia and atropine. q GER
tain proportion of caffeine, some cadeine |
and little "a very httle-cocaine.
These form the bulk of the composition.
Traces, and only traces, of other drugs |
may be found in the mixture
AS matter of course this statement |
is likely to be disputed | hold myself
Some thirteen years ago Dobronravoff,
Russian physician of great eminence
and the head of the Russian military med
ical service, was instructed by his govern
ment to study the subject of drunken
ness, as it prevailed among the officers
of the Russian army. Dobronravoff
studied, and presently originated treat
ment He published it in the medical
journals of Russia. 1t was republished
in Buda-Pesth, Berlin, Vienna and Paris
in the leading medical journals of those
cities. Thence it was copied into the
London Lancet, and thence into the
New York Medical Record. Since that
time it hos been included in the stand
ard medical books. Here is Dobronra-
volts formula:
Strychnie Nitratis grl.
AQUA Destilat8 3 Hiss.
NJ. For subcutaneous injection.
S. Daily to injections, commencing with
minims, later reducing TO minims, 10 to l6
injections suffcing for cure. Sodii Bromide
may be given at the same time.
A similar search of the books shows
that atropine given similarly technical
details are hardly needed lust herel is
hUOWu as Iut SldHudIu remedy Tor Ile
morphine habit, as the strychnine is
known as the standard remedy for alco-
holism and delirium tremens. These two
drugs are the principal part of the new
secret formula What are their effects:
Both are deadly, or worse, unless there
exists in the patient a condition or dis
ease or the traces of drug antagonistic
to them. Atropine makes maniacs I'M
less there is morphine in the system of
the patient who takes it, Similar things
may be pOstulated about the other drugs
used in the formula.
Now the doctors unhesitatingly affirm
that these things occur to the people
who use these drugs. The question re- !
mains, What happens to the gold cure
patients? 1t has been publicly declared
that out of 10000 patients treated. 95
per cent, or &C. 500 of them, are perlna-
nently cured. while $500 have relapsed
owing to unusually adverse causes.
| have. however. lying before me a
list of 125 patients who have taken this q
rxs+l,s-, Z