The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1896-10-02
STUPID NOSTRUMS.
A DOCTOR SAYS MANY OF THEM ARE
PRESCRIBED FOR THE SICK.

DOCTOR SAYS MANY OF THEM ARE
PRESCRIBED FOR THE SICK.
Medicine Made From Mummies-Lcach-
ings and CaIcined Bones Arc Still Used
In China How the Queens Apothscary
Was Selected.
~ was attending a patient" said q
young physician, land the man had bad
attack of chagres fever. He was waiter
on Panama steamer, and / think he
showed symptoms of alcoholism. Any
how, he gave great deal of trouble, and
the regulation treatment did him appar-
entity but little good. The man mother,
who was German woman, was, of course,
most solicitous about him. After awhile
/ suspected that she never gave him the
medicine prescribed, and before long
was assured of the fact. She was seen to
60 to the dispensary, obtain the regular
medicine and throw 1t away In the gutter,
and, supposedly, she substituted some
thing 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.
II managed somehow to make her show
me what 1t was Our hospital chemist
analysed 1t, and he said 1t was perfectly
innocuous; that there was bitumen in 1t,
and under the microscope what seemed to
him to be fragments of bone and cuticle
and shreds of some kind of stuff. Then
was satisfied that the old woman believed
in the virtues of what is designated in
books treating Of medicine published as
long ago as the fifteenth century Us
mumia. or portions Of embalmed bodies,
derived from Egypt or elsewhere. Not
withstanding the old woman's appeals,
put the whole of the stuff-there was not
over spoonful-in the stove. then sent
for nurse, at my own expense, who
stuck by the patient. l crammed him
with quinine, and he at once got better.
My father, who was a doctor before me-
told me that when he began in his profess
sion he came across many cases where
this silly stuff 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 1t was found
useless apothecaries were abused, because
1t was held that they had adulterated it.
There was a French king who sent his
principal surgeon to Egypt 80 as to obtain
the pure substance"
"As WE'LL" said The Times man, "give
man with chills and fever the scrapings
of an asphalt pavement.
ut would DO Just as good providing
you eliminated the gravel. Whether or
no some peculiar charm was supposed to
exist in old bones l 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 o former
race ground them all up and boosted that
he had made noble medicine.
Calculations in the first place, or the
absolute cremation of animals, was carried
out, and then, making solution Of what
was left, that played an important part In
old medicines These leachdoms, as they
were called, were innumerable. OF course
they were absolutely harmless, for, If the
calcination were perfect. all the animal
matter would have been dissipated, and in
the teachings there would only have been
slight solutions of the alkaline substances.
"Up to a recent date the Japanese phar-
mac9peia used such things, and In China
such teachings are considered as good as
ever The eye doctor Of the old Saxon be-
lievcd III the potency of the wolf, and
when q patient was losing his sight I'm
ointment made out of the right eye Of q
wolf was the supposable cure. All kinds
of nostrums were used by the beauties of
the time of Hengist and Horsa, for, if
fair lady's face had pimples, elephant
bones, burned, powdered and pounded,
with honey, was the dermatologist cure.
Toothaches were relieved by calcining the
teeth of hound and making local ap-
plication."
"You had, then, to take many things on
trust" said The Times man, "and you
were obliged to put implicit faith in the
apotheoary."
"Well, you have to do that now. How
can tell if I make up particular pre-
scription, containing some rather unusual
drug or preparation, that the apothecary
has that drug? / never knew country
apothecary who did not pretend to have
the entire pharmac9peia in his shop. Did
you ever hear how the Muspratts-1 think
that was their name-became the queens
apothccaries2 The queens own particular
doctor went around right and left among
the leading London apothecaries and or
dercd the same prescriptions Supposedly,
it was complicated one. All tho pre-
scriptions were subjected to analyses, and
the concern that had the purest drugs
alone had the royal authority to physic tho
queen and her family.
"The little apothccary in old Japan had
about the same stock of goods as the Eng
lish one of the fifteenth and sixteenth cen.
turtles. The queerest of all books is Scotch,
and its date is 17l2. There are cures, &C.
cordng to John Moncrief, for oil human
ills to be found in his precious volume.
Generally calcined part of an animal
does tho business, or If an animal was not
handy insects suf1iced. Hens feathers
burned cured burns. If your nose bleeds,
steep hare's huir in vinegar, put it in
the nose and it will produce marvellous
effect II the bleeding even then does not
stop, take a toad, dry 1t and hang witha
string about the party that bleedeth.
Failing with hens feathers or toad, try n
pulverized spider Suppose you were get
ting bald, then with the blood of shell
crab anoint your head, for that breeds
much hair. Women with tendency to
grow too visible down on their upper
lips would apply the blood of a bat or a
little frog, the powder of swans bones,
or the milk of n bitch, and that was a