Palestine daily herald. [volume] (Palestine, Tex.) 1902-1949, 1908-09-09
THE ELIXIR OF LIFE
SUBJECT OF LECTURE
DR.. D. S. BOOTH ENTERTAINED
AND INSTRUCTED AUDIENCE
AT THE CITY HALL.
Was a Splendid Lecture
Following the Lecture the Visiting
and Local Doctors Enjoyed a
Banquet at the LindeII
HoteI-Meeting Closes
This Afternoon.

AS was announced, last evening at
the city hall DR.. D. S. Booth of st.
Louis, who is a guest here, attending
the meeting of the Eleventh District
Medical Society, lectured before an
appreciative audience, his subject be-
ing "The Elixir of Life.' 1t was a
| splendid lecture and a great treat to
those who heard the distinguished Wis
| itor. 1t was serio-humerous address,
having for it's object the enlighten-
ment of the public upon the work of
medicine for the veal of the world,
as well as the relation of the physi-
clan and public, the trend of which
was to demonstrate that the science
of rational medicine Tin contradistinc-
ton to the various systems, sects and
cults which have sprung up from
time to time) has been progressive
and has fully kept pace with the pro.
| gress of all other arts and sciences,
and that its insufficiency is more ap.
parent than real and then more the
fault of the public than of the physi.
clans.
The speaker said:
AS instruments to the surgeon and
tools to- the mechanic, so are drugs
to the physician, in whose care they
are no more harmful than tools in the
hands of the craftsman, though all
may prove injurious if instructed to
children and FOOLS.
Thus logically are we brought to
the consideration Of the oMnagshil|
and control of the written prescrip
ton. While the recipient doubtless
holds the ownership, that ownership
and control should cease so soon as
the prescription has been filled by the
druggist, to whom it is but an order
from the physician, since it has serv-
ed the purpose for which it was in
tended, just as is the case with a
check which has once been cashed.
WV Wv NV SApOSL' d SllCCh " UO IC-
paid nor returned for future use.
Self-regulation of medication is as
irrational as home treatment, and
both often prove disastrous.
The adage which says, "He who
is his own physician has fool for
patient" is certainly true in the case
of the non-professional and the
pseudo physician.
The position of the physician is
that of pilot, while the attitude of
the patient should be that of voy-
ager who resigns himself to the care
of the pilot with full confidence of his
ability to perform the duties pertain
ing to his occupation, and, truly, the
true physician is deserving of your
confidence and trust
So long as people die will laymen
believe drugs impotent and physicians
powerless to contend against disease,
Notwithstanding the wonderful reduc-
ton in the mortality of almost all
diseases.
Infant mortality in cities has been
reduced as much as eighty per cent
within the past thirty years; the NOR
tally of diphtheria has been reduced
from about forty-five per cent to less
than seven per cent; smallpox, from
about twenty-five per cent to one
fifth of one per cent, and doubtless
could be entirely eradicated by proper
vaccinations.
Of the last 3,0S9 cases of smallpox
reported from the state of Texas by
the Marine Hospital Public Health
Service, there was not single death. |
Lockjaw and hydrophobia, hereto
fore practically incurable, are now
that opprobrium medi-
corum, epidemic cerebro-spinal men,
nights has at last become a durable
disease
Many fatal cases of all acute dis
eases are attributable to delayed or
insufficient treatment and to the ex-
sting constitutional condition of the
patient, which itself would probably
nave responded to treatment had the
patient placed himself under timely
medical care.
Nervous diseases, alone, are ram
'ant, due to our mode and habits of
ife, and to delayed treatment, since
hey are so insidious in their devel.
pment that the subject often does t
OF appreciate his condition until com. I
lete collapse, which, if it does not I
nd either in suicide or the asylum. F