Newark evening star and Newark advertiser., 1914-11-25

Don't Drug Your Body; Aid IL To Cure
Itself.
How are your old friends, tha
porous plaster, the liver pad ana the
liniment--"for man and beast The
principle upon which some of these
aids to the injured are based Is that
of counter-irritation, which, under
certain circumstances, is almost re-
spectacle. But, as a rule, the idea
expressed in the directions and I'M
planted in the minds of the users is
that the powerful drugs in the plaster
or the liniment penetrate the skin
and do battle with the sore muscles
or disease germs within.
AS q matter of fact, we have the
word of a scientific pharmacologist
for the axiom that "the human skin
except when blistered, is almost i'm
pervious to any drug but mercury.
In other words, the epidermis OF a
healthy man is as much chloroform-
proof or camphor-proof or other hni-
ment-proof as the side of q warship.
And vet, who of us hasn't found
comfort and solace in porous
plaster? My father would as ier
be without his dinner. All the same
IL the imagination invested 1t with
the same virtues, a coat of green
paint would do as much good
Massage Not Medicine.
You urge against all of this the
fact that YOU. yourself, have cured
sore muscles and stiff necks with
YOUR favorite liniment There Is no
doubt of 1t whatever; you are VIII
ness to it. And you are perfectly
right. You played tennis too long
and your forearm felt as II II mao
been run through rollers. You got
ont your bottle of Eminent" shook
II according to directions, and gave
your arm a good hard rubbing. Next
day the muscles were plant again and
the pain was gone. All or these
things undoubtedly happened, but
the fact remains that 1t was the
rubbing and not the liniment that
effected the cure. If you don't pc
lieye it, try cottonseed oil or hot
water or tabasco sauce next time,
Vigorous massage is propaoly .he
best of all remedies for muscular
pains. 1t causes q healthy clrcuiatlon
Of the blood in the affected part, ana
In addition the rhythmic motion has
a necuIiar psychic effect. There Is
raaIlv more than a mere superstition
IN tb,s laying on of hands. Stroke
the hair of a person suffering pain
and sometimes the pain abates. Hup
,,o,,r hand over the brow of head
3che natient and now and then you
cure the headache. Hypnotists, osteo-
paths, physical culture advocates ana
other dealers in near-Science take
profitable account of this mysterious
method of bringing tangled nerves
back into tune.
A Logical Prescription.
Another fortunate circumstance for
,he makers of lotions and liniments Is
the fact that nine-tenths OF all human
aches and ills are normally OF snort
d,ration. The pains OF so-calleo
rheumatism" for example are ues
cidedly evanescent. Iney conie anu l
thew 90. and it Is quite unusual for
theyo 10 continue in one place with
,nahated intensity for any great
,nnoth Of time. A patients forearm
anbss and when the pain reaches a
certain degree, he rushes OH LOT
hottIe Of liniment and rubs the mus
o1os I,;eorously. Half an hour later
tI,a main disappears. Perhaps Its dis
snnaarance is due to the massage
q aforesaid; perhaps, again. It Is due to
the fact that the pain, in the regular
| course of nature, has supsioed.
| This tendency Of the human nouy u
| darstood. 1t Is the popular impress
sio,, that ther is a specific for every
rnoIodv and that nothing but this
anac;fic will cure it. AS matter o1
| fart the great majority OF minor ois,
aaaa cure themselves, and so DO no.
SeU very serious ones. AS an ex'
annie of the first, may mentor
co11n1on colds" AS an example OF
the second, there is pneumonia.
changing Medical Principles.
,rhere are on the market today more
tban thousand ready-made cures
For colds. and every adult American
according to Mark Twain, mas .
nrivate remedy of his own. But In thf
vast majority of cases colds cure
themselves. Like pneumonia ano
other more serious diseases, they rui
a dafnite course. They appear, they
| make their victims miserable, ano
| then they disappear Nature effects
The cure. and some one Of the multi
tude of specifics gets the credit. once
when DR. William Osler was asked by
a natient to write a prescription for q
cold in the head, he said: 81 will give
vou four days" The patient abfdeo
the time and was cured.
Mustard foot batns, not ieinonaoe
hot Scotches, whiskey and quinine
powders and all the other familiar
remedies have little or no direct eff
feet. Their value--if they have anS
at all. lies In the fact that they ease
the patients mind and satisfy the
universal yearning to take something
for It,"
The popular idea that it is possible
to take cold in a boil, and that tht
result is dangerous. Is utterly anc
lhopeIessly nonsersica1. By cold in {
wound of any sort the layman means
an infection. A boil Is already in
fected. else 1t wouldn't be boil
Hence it is absurd to believe that /
may be infected again. A clear
scratch or cut, OF course, may becom