Alcohol: A Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine, How and Why: What Medical Writers SayAllen, Martha Meir
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Alcohol: A Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine, How and Why: What Medical Writers Say
Allen, Martha Meir
Alcohol -- Physiological effect; Temperance
LA GRIPPE:--"Alcohol has no place in the treatment of _la
grippe_; on the contrary it is because of the too frequent use
of this, and other narcotics, that epidemics make such fearful
headway in our land, and such must be the rule until the people
study the laws of health and obey them. Profuse sweating,
followed by a careful bathing of the body in tepid water,
gradually cooling it to a normal temperature, and avoiding
unnecessary exposure, will relieve. The patient should sleep in
pure air and eat as little as possible, and that only when
hungry. * * * * * Quinine is essentially a nerve poison, and
capable of producing a profound disturbance of the nervous
centres. A drug of such potency for evil should be employed with
the greatest care, and never when a milder agency will secure
the result. Exceedingly pernicious is the habit of dosing
children with this drug."--DR. CHARLES H. SHEPARD, Brooklyn, N.
Y.
"A late surgeon of the gold coast of Africa wrote the following
to the London _Lancet_ of Jan. 2, 1890: 'Some of the worst cases
of this disease, the grippe, remind me of an epidemic I saw
among the natives of the swamps of the Niger. * * * * *
Irrespective of disinfectants and inhalations there is a simple,
effective and ready remedy, the juice of oranges in large
quantities, not of two or three, but of dozens. The first
unpleasant symptoms disappear, and the acid citrate of potash of
the juice, by a simple chemic action decreases the amount of
fibrine in the blood to an extent which prevents the development
of pneumonia.'"
The Syracuse (N. Y.) _Post-Standard_ contained the following during the
epidemic of 1899:--
"Dr. George D. Whedon declared to a _Post-Standard_ reporter
yesterday that there is practically no subsiding of the grippe
in this city. Dr. Whedon said that the weather conditions have
little, if anything, to do with the disease, and that it is
impossible to define the conditions which produce it. It is some
morbific agency, the influence of which, Dr. Whedon said, is
exerted upon the pneumogastric nerve.
"_Dr. Whedon was emphatic in denouncing treatment by means of
alcoholic stimulants, and coal tar derivatives._ In discussing
the subject at some length he said:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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