158 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



2. The Nostkum Fallacy. When a child complains of head- 

 ache, lassitude, or want of appetite, the nurse concludes that he must 

 "take something." If the complexion of a young lady grows every 

 day paler and pastier, her mother will insist that she must "get some- 

 thing " to purify her blood. If the baby squeals day and night, a doc- 

 tor is sent for, and is expected to " prescribe something." What that 

 something should be, the parents would be unable to define, but they 

 have a vague idea that it should come from the drug-store, and that it 

 can not be good for much unless it is bitter or nauseous. Traced to 

 its principles their theory would be about this : " Sickness and deprav- 

 ity are the normal condition of our nature ; salvation can come only 

 through abnormal agencies ; and a remedy, in order to be effective, 

 should be as anti-natural as possible." Perfectly logical from a Script- 

 ural point of view. But Nature still persists in following her own 

 laws. Her physiological laws she announces by means of the instincts 

 which man shares with the humblest of his fellow-creatures, and health 

 is her free gift to all who trust themselves to the guidance of those 

 instincts. Health is not lost by accident, nor can it be repurchased 

 at the drug-store. It is lost by physiological sins, and can be regained 

 only by sinning no more. Disease is Nature's protest against a gross 

 violation of her laws. Suppressing the symptoms of a disease with 

 drugs means to silence that protest instead of removing the cause. 

 We might as well try to extinguish a fire by silencing the fire-bells ; 

 the alarm will soon be sounded from another quarter, though the first 

 bells may not ring again till the belfry breaks down in a general con- 

 flagration. For the laws of health, though liberal enough to be ap- 

 parently plastic, are in reality as inexorable as time and gravitation. 

 We can not bully Nature, we can not defy her resentment by a fresh 

 provocation. Drugs may change the form of the disease i. e., modify 

 the terms of the protest but the law can not be baffled by complicat- 

 ing the offense : before the drugged patient can recover, he has to 

 expiate a double sin the medicine and the original cause of the dis- 

 ease. But shall parents look on and let a sick child ask in vain for 

 help ? By no means. Something is certainly wrong, and has to be 

 righted. The disease itself is a cry for help. But not for drugs. In- 

 stead of "taking something," something ought to be done, and oftener 

 something habitually done ought to be omitted. If the baby's stom- 

 ach has been tormented with ten nursings a day, omit six of them ; 

 omit tea and coffee from the young lady's menu ; stop the dyspeptic's 

 meat-rations, and the youngster's grammar-lessons after dinner. But 

 open the bedroom-windows, open the door and let your children take 

 a romp in the garden, or on the street, even on a snow-covered street. 

 Let them spend their Sundays with an uncle who has a good orchard ; 

 or, send for a barrel of apples. Send for the carpenter, and let him 

 turn the nursery or the wood-shed into a gymnasium. In case you 

 have nothing but your bedroom and kitchen, there will still be room 



