The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-08-16
DOCTORS EXPERIENCES.
MANY STUPID NOSTRUMS PRE-
SCRIBED FOR THE SICK.

move Pimplcs-Thc Queens Apoth-
ecnry-The Worm in the BRg-Am-
Der BeadS-Sore Eyes.
From the New York Times.
Il was attending patient" said a
young physician. 'and the man had a bad
attack Of Chagres fever. He was waiter
on a Panama steamer. and / think he
showed symptoms Of alcoholism. Anyhow.
he gave a great deal OF trouble. and the
regulation treatment did him apparently
but little good. The mans mother, who
was a German woman. was. Of course,
most solicitious about him. After a while
l suspected that she never gave him the
medicine 1 prescribed. and before long 1
was assured OF the fact. She was seen
to go to the dyspensary obtain the regular
medicine. and throw II away in the gut
ter. and, supposedly. she substituted
something else. taxed her with this,
and she did not deny it, She told me she
possessed a marvellous cure. which she
had never known TO fail.
Il managed somehow to make her show
me what 1t was. Our hospital chemist
analysed it, and he said It was perfectly
innocuous; that there was bitumen in II,
and under the microscope what seemed to
him to be fragments Of bone and cuticle
and shreds Of some kind of stuff Then 1
was satisfied that the old woman belived
in the virtues of what is designated i'm
books treating OF medicine published as
long ago as the fifteenth century as mu-
mia. or portions Of emblamed bodies de-
rived from Egypt or elsewhere. Notwith-
standing the old womans appeals, l put
the whole of the stuff-there was not over
a spoonful-in the stove. then sent for
nurse-at my own expense-who stuck by
the patient 1 crammed him with qui-
nine and he at once got better. My father.
who was a doctor before me- told me that
when he began In his profession he came
across many cases where this silly stun
was given.
You must understand" continued the
doctor, that even up to the close of the
last century mumia was supposed to have
specific value, and when II was found
useless apothecaries were abused because
II was held that they had adulterated II.
There was a French king who sent his
principal surgeon to Egypt so as to OBJ
tain the pure substance"
las we'll" said the Times man, give
man with chills and fever the scraplngs
of an asphalt pavement"
1t would be Just as good, providing you
eliminated the gravel. Whether or not
some peculiar charm was supposed to ex-
list IN old bones | cannot say. Only this is
on record! An oxford doctor. at the close
Of the seventeenth century, having come
across some prehistoric remains In cairn
containing the skeletons of a former race,
ground them all up, and boosted that he
had made a noble medicine
"Calcinations In the first place, or the
absolute cremation of animals, was car
ried out, and then making a solution of
u d "a NanNH al. 4
part in old medicines. These leechdoms
as they were called, were innumerable
OF course they were absolutely harmless
Tor II the calcination were perfect, all the
animal matter would have been dissipa-
ted, and IN the teachings there would only
nave been slight solutions OF the aka
line substances.
up to a recent date the Japanese phar-
macopeia used such things, and in China
such leechings are considered as good as
ever. The eye doctor OF the old Saxon be-
ueNed in the potency of the wolf and
When patient was losing his sight an
ointment made out Of the right eye Of a
Wolf was the supposable cure. All kinds
OF nostTVIms were used by the beauties of
the time OF Hengist and Horsa, for If a
falr lady's face had pimples, elephant
bones, burnt, powdered, and pounded,
with honey, was the dermatologist cure
Toothaches, were relieved by calcining
the teeth Of a hound and making a local
application"
You had then to take many things on
trust said the Times man; "and you
We're Obliged to put implicit faith In the
apothecary."
We'll, you have to do that now. How
can | tell If / make up a particular prs.
scrlptloh, containing some rather unusual
drug or preparation. that the apothecary
has that drug? l never knew a country
apothecary who did not pretend to have
the entire pharmacopeia in his shoD Din
you ever near how the Muspratts-I think
mat n "a Ia ~
apothecaries2 The queens own particu-
lar doctor went around right and left
among the leading London apothecaries.
ana ordered the same prescription. Sup
posedly, 1t was complicated one All
the prescriptions were subjected to anal
yses, and the concern that had the unrest
drugs alone had the royal authority to
physic the queen and her family.
The little apothecary in old japan had
about the same stock of goods as the Eng
lish one of the fifteenth and sixteen n
centuries. The queerest of all books is
Scotch, and its date is 1712. There are
cures, according to John Moncrief. for ali
human ills to be found in his precious vol
ume. Generally a calcined part of an ami
mai does the business, or If an amman
was not handy insects suhiced. Hens.
feathers burnt cured burns. II your nose
bleeds, steep a Hare's hair in vinegar,
put 1t in the Nose, and It win produce =
marvellous effect II the bleedine even
then does not stop, take "a toad, dry II.
itsenh WIN ~ SlfluS ABOUT the party
that bleedeth.' Failing with hens featb-
ers or toad, try "a pulverized spider sun
pose you were getting bald. then win
the blood of a shell crab anoint voiIr
head, for that breeds much hair Wo.
men with a tendency to grow too visible
q down on their upper lips would appi,y
the blood of a Bat or little FROG, fhe
powder Of a Swans bones, or the mill,
OF bitch, and that was a prime de-
pilatory.
"In this same Scotch category of med,-
cines," went on the doctor Is thai IA
nous receipt for Lilly of the Valley Wa
ter which the old dominic gives Davie
the hero of Stovenson's 'Kidnapped.' .the
flowers put into a glasse close stoDf and
set into ane hill of ants for a month. then
take II out. and you will find a liouor
which comes from the flowers, which keen
in vial; 1t is good, i'll or we'll and whetb,
er man or woman. Likewise for snraIns
rub It in, and for the chollc, a great spoon,
full in the hour
"Oh! the nonsense rife among peonJe ts
simply astounding. ! had a child with a
bad whooping cough the other dav. and I
brought II around-so / thought-buf n
seemed I didn't, for the mother said TO
me: Doctor, baby would be coughing
still If II hadn't been that put Jin's dim.
her husband, drove a carO horse bride
round the child's head, and ! made believe
TO take her to water She got better from
that very ffn1p Tho atbar d., =