MEDICINE AND DRUGS 



3720 



MEDICINE AND DRUGS 



Medicines Usually Do Not Cure. In some 

 diseases we give medicines, not with any hope 

 of cure, but simply to help us bear the discom- 

 forts until the body forms its own medicine 

 inside itself and cures the disease for us. In 

 rheumatism, for instance, we have -no drug 

 which cures, but we can get from willow bark 

 a drug called salicin which relieves the pain 

 of the disease so that we are more comfortable 

 while waiting for our bodies to manufacture 

 their own medicine and stop the disease. Wil- 

 low bark does not shorten the disease, rheuma- 

 tism, at all, but it makes it much easier to 

 bear. 



Sometimes people's stomachs get too acid. 

 A very sour, biting liquid (which is always 

 there) is formed too fast and irritates the inside 

 of the stomach. Now there are medicines which 

 take away the bite and irritation of an acid 

 just as cold water takes away (for a minute) 

 the bite and irritation of sunburn. These 

 medicines are called alkalies. Alkali and acid 

 are opposites, as heat and cold are. Either 

 will check the other. So when people's stom- 

 achs are too full of acid we give an alkali 

 (cooking soda, for instance) as medicine, and 

 when their stomachs are not acid enough, we 

 put acid in, because a little acid makes it 

 easier to digest our food. 



Neither acid nor alkali cures stomach trouble. 

 The cause behind the overacid or underacid 

 condition is still untouched, and often cannot 

 be touched by any of our "outside medicines," 

 but only by the medicines which the body itself 

 will usually make if we give it time and rest 

 and fresh air. Air itself is something between 

 a food and a medicine. Part of it is given off 

 from the leaves of plants, and when we breathe 

 it in we have to thank the plants for it. What 

 we breathe out the plants in turn take in and 

 use to build up their own leaves and stems. 



One of the most valuable of all medicines is 

 one that we have to breathe in and get into 

 our bodies through our lungs, as we do the air. 

 This medicine is called ether. It is invisible, 

 like air, and rises from the surface of a color- 

 less, watery-looking fluid, just as steam rises 

 from hot water. Ether, like most drugs, does 

 not cure any disease, but puts us to sleep and 

 makes us insensible to pain, so that a surgeon 

 can cut into our bodies with a knife, cut off a 

 leg or sew up a wound or do whatever needs 

 to be done. 



Before ether was discovered, soon after the 

 year 1800, people had to bear the pain of sur- 

 gical operations or get along somehow without 



them. Now the patient feels nothing until the 

 surgeon has finished his work and the effect of 

 the ether has died out. Unfortunately, like 

 most drugs, ether does some harm along with 

 much relief to pain. When we breathe it into 

 our lungs it irritates them, makes us cough 

 and sometimes stirs up disease germs in the 

 lungs germs which the body's own medicine 

 had nearly killed off. Stirred up by the ether, 

 they may come to life and cause serious lung 

 trouble. No one with weak lungs should ever 

 take ether. On strong lungs it has almost no 

 bad effects. 



Dangerous "Secret Remedies." One of the 

 worst things a person can do for his health is 

 to take any medicine which is a "secret 

 remedy." Unless one knows what a medicine 

 is and what it is to do within the body, he may 

 be taking poison. No cook would put into the 

 food she cooks any ingredient that she knows 

 nothing about. But inside our bodies there is 

 going on all the time a sort of cookery which 

 can easily be made to go wrong and to pro- 

 duce poisons within us if .we drink medicines 

 about which we know nothing except what the 

 maker tells us in his advertisements. Many 

 "patent medicines" contain so much alcohol 

 that they are merely expensive forms of whisky. 

 It is always a foolish thing, sometimes a dan- 

 gerous thing, to take any "patent medicine" or 

 any "secret remedy." Before taking any medi- 

 cine one should always find out from a doctor 

 just what it is and whether it will do good. 



Above all, let it be repeated that for at least 

 nine-tenths of all diseases the best medicines 

 are those that the body itself makers . This 

 means that most diseases cure themselves or 

 are cured by nature, not by doctors or by their 

 medicines. Some drugs are useful because they 

 help us to bear the disease though not to cure 

 it, but in many diseases our man-made drugs 

 cannot do even this. Doctors themselves take 

 very little medicine when they are sick. Others 

 should follow their example and not expect 

 the doctor to give them medicine for most 

 diseases. 



If medicines are necessary they need very 

 seldom be nasty. That is an exploded idea. 

 Most medicines can be so covered in with 

 gelatin and sugar that we swallow them with- 

 out tasting them at all. It may take a little 

 more money or a little more trouble to get 

 medicines put up in tasteless form, but it can 

 usually be done. 



Never take a medicine without a doctor's 

 directions. Never take one without under- 



