A Confession by a Patient
A Confession by a Patient
“THE healthiest people can be found at the greatest distance from the drug shops.” The extent to which drugging is carried by some may be seen from the following experience related by a frail little anemic woman to her physician at the Sydney (Australia) Sanitarium. She was requested by one of the guests to put it into writing, which she did:— “I started with medicines prescribed by doctors, and took them as religiously as though they were life drops. Then I took a case of wine to strengthen me, followed by a case of porter—four dozen bottles. Then followed in succession Mother Siegel’s Sirup and Irish Moss. Clement’s Tonic was next resorted to through the advice of a friend. I smoked cigarettes and Nimrod’s Powder, alternately had a few draws at a pipe, but my husband asked me to try to do without the pipe. My husband heard of Webber’s Vitadatio; accordingly, I took forty bottles. Next came a course of Viava treatments, which cost me twenty-five pounds. Then I took Wood’s Peppermint Cure, Sheldon’s New Discovery, another case of porter, a bottle of overproof rum, Warner’s Safe Cure, and Eucalyptus bottles I have used without number. I have tried Pink Pills, and Holloway’s Pills, in fact, about all the pills on the market.
“I have taken, inwardly, kerosene, turpentine, cod-liver oil, and Scott’s Emulsion.” This lady’s suffering was due to drugging. A short stay at the sanitarium resulted in a wonderful change. This experience reminds one of the incident which is related in the biography of Mr. Priesnitz—the so-called father of modern hydrotherapy. Mr. Priesnitz met with such marvelous success in his efforts to help the sick with water and diet that naturally it stirred up some of the medical practitioners of that day. Finally Priesnitz was brought before the court. One of the witnesses called was a certain miller who had been under medical treatment for a long time but got no better, and was cured through the efforts of Priesnitz. When asked, “Who helped you?” he replied, “They all helped me, the doctors, apothecaries, and Priesnitz; the two former helped me to get rid of my money, Priesnitz helped me to get rid of my disease.”— Australasian Good Health.