Omaha daily bee., 1893-12-04

over the world, and the doctors began to
fight it with %antipyrin. Probably its use In
this disease tended largely to familiarize II
to the people. Its consumption in this
country in the last four years has been
enormous. AS might be suspected OF IA rem
edy that produces such rapid and great fall
in the temperature of the body, autipyrin
Is a terrible depressant. Its use is at
tended with very grave and serious dangers,
The suicidal mania that seemed TO sweep
over the land among convalescents from the
grip was very noticeable. "Despoudency
after the grip became "A stock newspaper
phrase in accounting tor these cases. The
truer characterization OF them would have
been "despondency after antipyrin,' for the
universal use OF this drug in combating the
disease was accountable, In q great measure,
for the peculiar melancholy and depression
of convalescing patients.
The drug Is particularly contaminated,
as the medical term goes. in cold climates,
like that along our central coast, where the
skin is not apt to be active and q good share
of its work Is thrown upon the kidneys.
Antipyrin diminishes the action of these
organs. Its weakening action on the heart
is also marked, and presents a great element
of danger.
But the victim Of headache will assure you
that he could not live without his special
form OF this drug. In fact, as druggists
could testify, n large proportion OF our PEG.
pie regard IL in the light of u household
~ ~ 80 - hssSt
nervousness" known to the laity.
How to Prevent Headache.
Prevention, however, is always better
than cure, and most of our headaches are
preventable by attention to the ordinary
rules of life. When these, systematically
followed, fail to work an improvement in
the case, then the thing to do Is to call In a
physician. There is no crank so utterly
without reason in his crankiness as he who
processes to scorn the doctor and who
'never takes medicine" He usually means
a general thing this type Of human
being is an inveterate 'doper," who
pins his faith on whisky, quinine and anti
pyrin. 1t will be some yeacs before this
world eau spare the physician. The gradual
adoption by man through long, slow ages OF
the upright posture has not vet resulted IN
his interior mechanism wholly adapting it.
self to the change. He is more liable than
the lower animals to internal accidents and
physical disturbances, because of the
changed relation of his organs to each other,
resultant upon his rising from all fours.
Hence, in a large measure, his headaches,
his stomachic difficulties and the various
other ills that human flesh is heir to. We
may account for the remaining measures by
The fact that man has not yet fully learned
the laws that govern his changed organism.
Those leaders who nave sought to establish
these laws have studied for the most part
the lives of the lower animals, reasoning
from their simple state as to how man should
govern himself, often forgetting, apparently,
the fact that man, in standing erect, has
practically altered his relationto the whole
animal creation. Until he has become fully
adapted to this he will continue to be heir tC
physical ills, and to need the assistance o.
special students of the human mechanism IL
overcoming them.