06 THE TREATMENT OF DISEASES. 



It ruins you in pocket and it ruins you in health. And you, sir, you neither smoke 

 nor drink ] What, can we do for you 1 Have piles, have you 1 Had them for the 

 last thirty years 1 Ever since you were at college 1 And bleed very much every 

 morning, after you have paid your usual visit 1 Well, no wonder you're anaemic. 

 Just turn to what we said on piles, will you 1 Yes, hamamelis will probably be the 

 remedy for you. We'll stop the bleeding, and then we'll see about curing the 

 anaemia. Think the water is bad, do you 1 Have been told that it contains lead ? 

 Very likely. You had better have it seen to, and don't drink any more of it till 

 you are sure it's all right. Keep to beer or light claret for a time. 



Well, now you've removed the cause of your anaemia, what are you to do next ? 

 You must take iron. Iron is the remedy par excellence for anaemia. You've taken 

 it already, have you ] Well, you'll have to take it again ; you probably didn't take 

 enough of it. But you don't like iron ? It can't be helped, you'll have to take it 

 whether you like it or not. But it's sure to upset you 1 No, it won't, not if you 

 take it in the way we are going to tell you. You will have to try those sulphate of 

 iron pills (Pr. 63) we recommended when speaking of the preparations of iron. They 

 are the best remedy we know for anaemia, and they hardly ever upset the stomach. 

 You don't like pills 1 Well, these are not at all nasty to take, and they haven't a 

 bit of smell to them : well, very little at all events. And see how beautifully hard 

 they are : you might almost give them to the children to play marbles with. If 

 they are so hard, they must be insoluble, and can't do any good 1 Not at all ; just- 

 get a tumbler of water and drop one of them in, and you will see how quickly it 

 dissolves. That reminds us that we once knew a patient, a young lady, who really 

 couldn't take these pills ; they wouldn't go down, she said. And what did she do I 

 Why, she took a tumbler of water, just as you have been doing, and dissolved one 

 of them up, and drank the solution. And would they act as well that way 1 Even 

 bit as well, only if you want to take sulphate of iron in water there's no occasion to 

 make it up into a pill first. You don't like the taste of it ? Tastes like ink, does it ? 

 Well, of course, all iron preparations do more or less, and ink is made with 

 iron ; in fact, with sulphate of iron, the very salt you have here. Then ink might 

 do good in anaemia? Quite so ; in fact, years ago there was a physician who was in 

 the habit of prescribing a mixture of iron which looked so much like ink that 

 people called it after him " Heberden's ink," and he really cured a good many cases 

 with it. And there are other preparations of iron 1 Just so ; and by-aiid-by. 

 in the Materia Medica, we shall have to enumerate a great many, and discuss their 

 respective merits. If you don't like the pills you needn't go on with them, only 

 don't give them up without a fair trial say one twice or three times a day for 

 at least a fortnight. Yes, the tincture of steel, or tincture of perchloride of iron, 

 as we commonly call it, is a capital preparation. You may take it alone in a 

 wine-glassful of water, say thirty drops three times a day ; or if you like it better, 

 you may take it in the form of one of the mixtures (Prs. 1 and 2). But wouldn't 

 some of the milder preparations, such as the tartrate of iron, or the citrate of 

 iron and quinine, do equally well 1 We think not ; we have always seen more 

 benefit derived from one of the more astringent preparations, such as those we have 

 recommended. Very often it is well to humour the stomach, and to change the 



