Norwich bulletin., 1917-09-26
LETTERS TO THE EOIIo1
After Prohibition What7

MT. Editor:-The above is the title or an article written by physician
 Few Yerk word ana of rseent date a While it is not my purpose to dis
 cuss this question from this partic-
 ular writer's standpoint. his utter
 later there will be a sequel attached to an action so radical as this pro
 posed by the advocates of world wide
 prohibition. Hence it behooves the
 inteiligent layman to look at this
 the political and social, and it is cer-
 tainly germain to ask ourselves the
 question what is to follow.
 If we read between the lines and
 note the pernicious activities of the
 tested by the volumes of literature daily thrown at our doors advising us
 to take all sorts of dope from nux-
 ated steel tablets for stupid people to
 ing us to employ a liquid nurse for
 the baby should he chance to cry
 when his mother was attending a so-
 cial function. This suggests to my
 ansH5eTea nnan5sn n1lhd that we are up
 with the drink habit. I very much
 fear that our temperance advocates
 have never looked on this phase of
 the question. Certain it is however.
 that the patent medicine monger is onto his job Perhaps however, we
 may obtain light on(fhis subject if we consult our old family doctor who
 while not posing as a modern scien-
 tist, certainly gained credit for pos seSSlng a goodly amount of common sense, which he distributed impartial ly and without stint when he thought his advice was more needed than his potions. Such man was the late Dr.
 Kinney, who practiced in Norwich during and many years after the Civil war. Dr. Kinney was consulted by
 soldier returning frarn three years service in the army in 1885, his health badly shattered. The doctor, after
 thorough examination and carefully noting his condition, bluntiy made tho announcement that he was suffering from too much euinine. adding in eidentally that unless the fndiscri7n- mate dosing xwith this and kindred tlnued our insane asylums would dou- ble in size within the next half cen tury.
 Statistics show that they doubled in slightly more than forty years. This warning should convince the laity that 1t is high time to look at both sides of the question and take into aecount its bearing on the welfare DO brief from the liquor interests. nor did ever cast vote for licensing the traffic, but if town wide, state wide or nation wide prohibition means opening the dOOr 70 a Tar worse evil than the saloon it certainly is time to give little more considera- tion to the subject and study the question thoroughly.
 To those of our citizens who think that the drug habit is an incense Guential matter and Of no moment I would quote from another old fash toned. blunt spoken family doctor, who practiced in Waterbury about the same time that Dr. Kinney practiced in Norwich. I refer to Dr. A. R. Nor gan, who in addition to his family practice lectured in one of the med ical colleges in New York city. At the end of the college year his leEt talk to the graduating class consist ed largely Of good advice, during which he always took occasion to say to the students, Young man, when you have entered practice make it your rule never to prescribe for your self. always has a fool for a doctor and fool for a patient" If advice cf this kind is necessary to the young graduate in medicine. it certainly is of vital importance to the 1aity who are many of them. too prone to seas relief from their ills at the hands of the Pfnkhams. the WfnsIows and dozens of others of that ilk Now if in lieu of whiskev and beer --flich we propose to prohibit the use of we are to substitute the dope dealt out by patent medicine vendors much of which consists of discarded prescrip- tions of a by-gone day, which hon. est. intelligent doctors of the present time would hesitate to give to a dumb beast; it certainly is time to