The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1911-10-27

the blood of dogs. and pigs, and fed
to anemic people as q substitute for
iron: dried and powdered chicken gig
yards. fine for dyspeptics, fcrmic acid.
used in rheumatism and neuralgia and
secured by distilling the bodies OF red
ants; ra%ttlesnake venom. in which
there Is quite a business now done. ad-
ministered as Il specific for consump-
ton. and phynin. extracted from the
skin OF hoptoads. an effective nerve
quieter and heart stimulant. and the
essence Of plain ~cockroach, which
Is useful IN affections Pf the kidneys.
Owe In England the tincture made
from the red or wood ant. is valued
as a cure for govt. as we'll as rheu-
mattsm: the potato bug. in extract. is
used for back pains and trembling of
the limbs. To homeopaths has been
credited the use OF the familiar lady
bug as a cure for toothache and neu-
the eyes and face: and of the bodies of
c~ockroaches. crushed in alcohol for
sore throat n e%rysipelas. In the
chemist" shops sometimes old bot
ties can still be seen containing the
dried bodies OF earwigs. which were
popular as nerve tonic more than 100
years and of wood lice, which
were administered in cases OF jaundice.
Go back another century or two and
one nears the time when William Penn
sailed from England to found his col
onN in the new world and was solicit
tous to include In his library the very
latest. most reliable work on the prac-
tice of medicine as embodies in
"~Schroeder's Dispensatory." 1t is
Penn's own copy is in the library of
Frof. Joseph P. Remington. dean of
the Philadelphia college of pharmacy
and chairman of the committee of the
revision of the pharmacopeia of the
United States. They made a speciality
in those days of drinking the liquors
that sweated from the tombs OF the
up to date corpses for he sake of en-
tracts. which were good for cough.
wind. stopt terms. and outwardly heal
wounds" A fine. wholesome num-
my could be made by Strengthening a
red haired nan "a years Of age and
drying the flesh. 1t may he hat this
suggestion was the first of the pure
because the red headed mummy flesh
takes us from the fear that our shop
mumm is the JUICE of a rotten car
cass inspissated and dangerous"
Side by side with the corpse en-
tracts. the tincture of human skulls
for epilepsy. appears h am old toad
still fiourishing in the modern phar-
macopeia. but urged by wisacre
Schroeder as a cure for dropsy.
These queer remedies explained
Prot. Remington. ARE all we have re-
naming Of the horrible things includ-
ed in the ~dispensatory of the ancient
days and they are steadily being re-
duced in number and frequency of use,
Medicine has long since learned its
lesson of employing the active princi-
pie of the drug administered and of
using only those substances which
have. in their essential natures. RENEE
dial effects Independent of the old hor.
rors and fables as to character and
virtues.
Yet there is one modern tendency
in medicine which. quite apart from
the queernesses that linger because of
some intrinsic merit they are thought
to possess is bringing us back toward
the ancient ~copiousness of dose in
certain drugs. Not a few physicians
in prescribing drugs liable to lead to
dangerous habits. are reverting to
large volume by means of infusions OF
dilutions and so make the patient take
a maximum of stuff which might we'll
have been swallowed in smaller ap-
parent quantity. This is to make it inn
possible for the patient to overdose
himself and so safeguard him from be-
coming a slave to that particular drug.
But this is only a.matter Of form,
an expedient in prescription. and it
eral return to the old dccoctions. eth
err in volume or substance. Those
freak remedies we haze escaped from
will never overtake snsa. again: and,
those still With us ard being gradual
IL eliminated from our practice"