Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1884 — THE FAMILY DOCTOR. [ARTICLE]

THE FAMILY DOCTOR.

It is said that dusting finely pondered chlorate of potassium on the surface of ulcers and ulcerating epitheliomata relieves pain and promotes healing, by changing the character of the morbid processes. The surface should be cleansed and the powder dusted thickly on twice a day. Dr. Haley, in an Australian Medical Journal, claims that minimum doses of iodide of potassium are of great service in frontal headache. A two-grain dose dissolved in half a wineglass of water will often cure a dull headache which is situated over the eyebrow. The action of the drug is quite rapid. A boy, aged 10 years and a half, died in Washington, D. C., after long suffering, from a swelling of the abdomen, which defied diagnosis. The small intestines contained twenty large plum stones, a copper cent, a nickle, a tooth, two buttons, and other foreign substances. The liver was enlarged. It is bad practice to probe a penetrating wohnd produced by a missile entering either the abdominal or thoracic cavity. After ascertaining to a certainty that a cavity of the trunk has been entered, stop all probing at once and hermetically seal the wound and leave the rest to nature. Exclude the atmosphere, and then the chances of restoration will be largely increased. Old Dr. Hunter used to say, when he couldn’t discover the cause of a man’s sickness: “We’ll try this and we'll trv that. Well shoot into the tree, and if anything falls, well and good.” “Aye,” replied a wag, “I fear this js_ too com-_ mbnly the case, arid in your shooting into the tree, the first thing that generally falls is the patient.” And the wag was not very far from the truth. Preventive Medicine in China.—lt is recorded that on a certain occasion the Emperor of China inquired of Sir George Stanton about the manner in which physicians were paid in England. When he was made to understand what the custom was, he exclaimed, “Can any man in England afford "to be ill ? Now I have four physicians, and pay all of them a weekly salary; but the moment J am sick that salary is stopped until I am well again; therefore, my indisposition is never of long duration.”

Right Living vs. Drugs.—An extract irom the biography of the late Gen. John A. Dix gives an account of an interview with the em inent Abernethy, whom the General had consulted for professional advice. It is gratifying to note that the common sense advice of the illustrious physician, was taken in a common s’ense way by the distinguished patient, and that the result was a ripe and robust old acre (80 years), of which the dyspeptic youth of the General scarcely gave promise. After hearing a few words of his patient’s story, Abernethy cut him short as follows: “Sir, you are pretty far gone, arid the wonder is you are not gone entirely. If you had co insulted common sense instead of the medical faculty, you would probably have been wellyearsago. I can say nothing to you except this: You must take regular exercise, as much as you can bear without fatigue, as little medicine as possible, of the simplest kind, and this only when absolutely necessary, and a modest quantity of plain food, of the quality which you find by experience best to agree with you. No man, not ever a physician, can prescribe diet for another. ‘A stomach is a stomach,’ and 4t is impossible for any one to reason—with safety from his ewa to that any other person. There are a few general rules which any man of common sense may learn in a wedi, such as this: That rich food, high seasoning, etc., injurious. I can say no more to you sir; you must go and cure yourself.”