The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-10-06
FASHIONS IN DRUGS
PUBLIC WILL HAVE NOTHING
BUT UP TO DATE
, DOPES
SOME BYGoNE INDICATIONS
Prof. Koch Reputed to BE Respon-
sibIe for Most of the Fads in
Practice of Medi-
d cine Today.

"Fashion wears out more apparel than
man. says that playwright who under
stood the gamut of human life better
than anyone, and fashion, according tt
the druggists uses far more drugs thar
ever passes down human throats Every
drug store can show a drawer or two
filled with medicines ana drugs which
have gone out of fashion. The dictate.
of the mode are memorable. Once a drug
toilet preparation or medicine has
gone out of fashion, it is no use to try
to dispose of it. The public will have
none of it.
There is a fashion in drugs. it seems
as severe as the fashion in women's hats,
and the fashionable doctor of today
would no more think of using a last
years drug than a woman would of
wearing an questionable gown. Drugs
that We're quite the thing last year are
out of date today diseases that were
accounted the proper thing to have a
year or two ago are now superseded by
others yet more modern Even surgical
operations rapidly go out of fashion.
Only a few years ago every person af-
flicted with a pain anywhere between his
collar bone and his knee was sure he had
symptoms of appendicitis though he
often failed to undergo an operation for
abe malady.
Next to feminine fashions, drugs and the
toilet fripperies one finds in the chem
lists shops are probably the most subject
to the caprices of what passes for fash
ION. In the days of our ancestors heroic
doses of medicines were in vogue. Gallo
mel was administered by the ounce;
Quinine by the dram; sulphur and mo-
i1asSeS was supposed to be the best fresh
ener of the complexion, and black
draught and blue pill-both in veterinary
doses-were esteemed the best form of
tonic. Surgery, being in its infancy, was
not much affected by the fashions of
7 those days, though the one safe opera
tion-that of cupping and bleeding-was
so fashionable that it was overworked.
; Today, we read with establishment, min
gled with amusement, the statement of
Lord Chesterfield that he was systema-
tically bled fifty ounces a month"; yet
seemed not to improve under the treat
ment" Fashion declared bleeding to be
barbarous and made the practice obsolete
about the same time that it eagerly took
up the theory and practice of inocula-
ton. Jenner's discovery of incubation
with vaccine as a preventive of small
poX quickly became the mode. Fashion
able physicians exploited Jenner's theory
and for while preventive incubation
for all sorts of diseases became the Gus
tom. Almost as quickly these things be-
came antiquated.
Then came homeopathy-in the minds
of some a natural revolt from the quart,
sized doses of medicine formerly con-
stdered proper. The vogue of the home
opath is not yet over, but it is no longer
subject for fashionable discussion, nor is
ats practice SO much in vogue as former
1y. 1t is only fair to say however, that
homeopathy has changed a good deal
since the days of Hahnemann, who, in his
teachings, wrote: 81 recognize nobody as
my follower but him who gives medicine
in so small doses as to preclude percep-
ton of anything medicinal in them by
means, either of the senses or of chem
1stry. The pellets may be held near the
young infant when asleep
The next scientific discovery upon
which fashion placed its seal was hy-
podermic medication. BY this method
the active principal of the drug was in
troduced under the skin and was brought
directly into the circulation, intended by
its discoveries to have a decidedly limit
ed application, fashion for a while repre-
scented it as an universal cure-all. No
more drugs were to be swallowed. All
were to be introduced directly into the
body. The vogue of this method was
such that at one time it was fashionable
for women to perfume themselves by in
jecting scented essences under their
Skins With the discovery of the coal tar
products a host of drugs had ephemeral
vogue. Because it had been officially an
nounced that the high temperatures of
certain fevers could be reduced by the
administration of drugs of which anti
pyrin was the tpye, it became fashion
able for all doctors to administer, or for
patients themselves to take every sort
of antipyretic.
Even today these antipyretics have a
great following, though they are no
longer the general fashionable remedy
for all forms of fevers. Phenacetin,
which is one of the same group of drugs,
is still the mode, and the widely used
headache powder is but another form
of these once stylish drugs But, gen
orally speaking, the antipyretics have
had their day.
Prof. Koch, though he may not know
II, is probably responsible for most of the
1ads In medicine of today. Microbes are
the style for 1901, and Koch may be said
to be the father of the microbe The
vogue Of all antiseptics is due to- the
pubic's realization of the general pres
ence Of disease germs, and, for a time
before the exact status of the microbe
was established, many forms of germ
killer medicines became fashionable and
were trustfully swallowed by the guile
less public. When later science decIar-
ed that not the microbes but the harm
1ul products, or toxins, which they pro-
duced We're the source of danger fash
lon dropped the germ killers and took
up the antitoXins.
AntitoXins of one kind and another are
IN fashion today There is an antitoxin
Tor pretty nearly everything, from the
plack plague to corns. Pasteur has rem
oered fashionable the incubation treat
ment for hydrophobia in which an anti
toxin is used. 1t has also hecoroa tho
custom--and statistics show that it is
highly beneficial to humanity-to admin
lister antitoXins for the cure of diphtheria.
Because Of the good that has been done
by the really beneficial antitoxins, fash
ION mas seized without discrimination
upon numerous absurdities For in
stance, an enthusiast recently announced
the elaboration of one for the cure of
Germs, While another antitoxin War her
aided as sure cure for drunkenness.
Ihat system of antitoxin medication
which has scientific basis, seems To
have attained a fashion that is likely to
endure
In the old days it was supposed that
sickness was due to certain 'thnmors,' in
the blood, and it has been in conopara..
lively recent years that disease has been
Ielegated to the specific organ in which
1t originates. In other words thara Roc
grown up an anatomical system of medd
cine. Experiments made upon animals
showed scientists, some time ago. Thai
extracts made from certain healthy or
s sytst anu sIanos when introduced into the
benehcially upon the corresponding or
gans, or glands, in the patient E,ron,
TINS discovery there has grown into
means of animal extracts The thvroigg
gland. for instance, has been f9rnS
When reduced to an extract, to reach