DANGER OF TONICS 211 



THE DANGER IN TONICS AND APPETIZERS. 



Prof. De La Vere of the Polytechnic in London writes: The numer- 

 ous nostrums, patent or otherwise, that are advertised extensively and 

 constantly urged upon a suffering public, often, we regret to say, by 

 members of the medical fraternity who are supplied with sample bottles 

 and laudatory articles free of cost, do as much to injure the public 

 health and the well being of the community at large as any other one 

 thing that may be named. 



Whoever induces people to throw overboard all such bolstering-up-of- 

 a-bad-case practices, and teaches them to lend a deaf ear to the induce- 

 ments offered by the venders of tonics and appetizers, is a public bene- 

 factor. 



The great injury of all these "remedies" or so-called "aids to diges- 

 tion, " lies in the fact that they only hasten the death of important tis- 

 sues that have been injured. Unless some of your organs are sick yoi 1 

 feel no desire for tonics. When some predisposing cause makes them 

 weak and nature demands rest, you take tonics to stimulate or fore* 

 action upon the sick parts to their certain undoing if persisted in and 

 their immediate further injury if indulged in at all. Infinitely better, 

 and of much quicker effect, is to find the cause and remove that. Rest 

 *or the sick organs is usually sufficient ; rest for a few days or weeks, 

 as the case may be. The simple matter of abstinence from food for a time 

 is very much more sure to cure than any tonic, and is cheaper. There 

 are numerous cases of serious gastric disturbance wholly and perma- 

 nently cured by living for six weeks or longer on a diet composed ex- 

 clusively of scalded milk, and that without losing a day's work or much 

 strength. At the end of the time nature had healed the sick tissues 

 that were not over-stimulated, and now the person could resume his 

 former habits and eat with impunity any decent food set before him . 

 When nature requires food she will call for it without the intervention 

 of any ' ' appetizer. " 



She Certainly Knows When it is Needed. Good food, that con- 

 tains the elements to make bone and sinew is the tonic, in something 

 that strengthens, is true tonic found. Our good judgment ought to 

 teach us that such a thing can't and don't inhere, cannot be found in a 

 tiny vial of medicine. Venders, though, of course, who make millions 

 out of these articles, will laud their virtue. 



PATENT MEDICINE FOLLY. 



No doubt in the early career of patent medicines there were good and 

 valuable remedies among them, but when it was found that the manu- 

 facture and sale of these medicines was a very lucrative business, coun- 

 terfeit and spurious articles at once began to make their appearance, 

 until now the country is flooded with scores of these remedies for each 

 and all of the ordinary maladies that afflict mankind. 



It must be evident to ordinary thinking people that there is not to 

 be found in the domain of - nature a multitude of efficient remedies for 

 all these diseases, and these remedies multiplying still more rapidly tha^ 



