Untitled article by J. S. Lay, M. D.

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 12, 1865

Health. No. 4.

By J. S. Lay, M. D.

Probably there is no other cause which alone produces, directly and indirectly, so much disease and premature death, as does drug medication in all its varied forms and combinations. Under the most trifling ailments, people resort to poisonous drugs and noxious compounds, even, in many cases, resorting to them while in health, with the mistaken idea that by so doing they are going to preserve their health and ward off disease, when in fact they are taking just the course to make themselves sick, and are preparing the way for a heavy doctor's bill and a broken-down constitution.

I have often been surprised and astonished at the profound ignorance of the great mass of people in regard to the injurious effects of the so-called remedies of the day and the avidity with which they swallow any pernicious compound, no matter what, if it is only said or advertised to be good for any particular disease that they may suppose themselves to have, or expect to have, thinking that if it does them no good, it will do them no harm; not realizing that the medical compounds which are offered to the public, or are administered to the sick, are composed principally of poisons, and have a tendency always to make well persons sick, and also a tendency to kill instead of curing those to whom they are indiscriminately administered. How much better and more sensible would it be for people to obey the laws of life and health so as not to become sick, or if by a violation of those laws they become sick, to return to the obedience of the same and thereby get well. II. S. LAY, M. D.

Dansville, N. Y.