Year: 1875

"It will surely kill you if you eat that
hard boiled egg. DR. says So"
We heard a woman say this to her
daughter at a hotel the other day. We
made no audible comment, but could
not help thinking quietly how many
times we run the risk of life in the
same way And when at supper table,
we saw this parent eating sponge cake'
which was unexceptionable, we tried to
tremble for her rashness, and wondered if
baking the egg made it more digestible
than boiling. And then we wondered if
DR.. Blank ever said so. And then we re-
membered how many times We had heard
that DIR. this and DR.. that had said one
thing and another thing, which we know
they had never said. And we remep Der
thestory of the three crows that some
body vomitted. And, on the whole, we
thought that it is not best TO trust much
to what somebody says DIR. Blank said.


But, in the first place, about hard
boiled eggs. We have seen dyspeptics
who suffered untold torments with al
most every kind of food. and torments
of which they dill tell after some medi
cines given for relief. No liquid could
be taken without suffering. Bread be-
came a burning acid. Meat and milk
we're solid and liquid fires. We have
seen these same sufferers trying to avoid
food and drink, and even going to the
enema syringe for sustenance. And We
have seen their hunger relieved by liv-
ing upon the white of eggs which had
been boiled in bubblIng water for thirty
minutes. At the end of week we have
given the hard yelk of the egg with the
white, and upon this diet alone, without
fluid of any kind, we have seen them be-
gin to gain flesh and strength, and re-
freshing sleep. After weeks of this treat
.nent, they have been able, with care, to
begin upon other food.


"And what medicine?" says DR.. Doser.
Why, no medicine. We advised them
to throw physic to the dogs; to avoid it
as poison; that medicine had been partly
to blame for the dyspepsia. But, Doc
tor This and That think we injured
the profession by talking against medi-
cine. We don't mean TO talk against
medicine. 1t is a very useful thing
sometimes useful when we give it, and
sometimes when we don't. But we don't
mean to use it, when it is not needed
and especially when something else will
do our work better. Physicians need
not fear that there will not be work
enough for them, and if without medica
ting, why, so much the better.


Thus much for hard boiled eggs. No
half so bad as half-boiled ones, and tel
times as easy to digest as raw eggs, ever
in egg-nog.


In the second place, about what CDR
Blank said" We wish to caution TIL


reader not to believe a tithe of the state


ments quoted in that way. A set o


busy bodies like to tell what he said
| u0y piiC-Idlit anu III


vent the other You know that ther


are fools in every profession, but yor


know, if you stop to think for a mo


ment, that DIR. Blank is not one of them


And then there is an occasional old foo
generally female fool, who talks for


living, who has had everything that nor


tai ever had happen to her-except tn


risks of becoming parent; who alway


had every disease more severely tha


any one whom Dr. Blank ever knew t


have it, and recover; and who had ever


sickness more than any one else. Thi


is the person to whom you can general
trace DR.. Blanks opinion [Correspon
dence of Boston Medical and Surgica


Journal.