HEALTH AND WELL-BEING 77 



and upon their alcoholic content to arouse an entirely false 

 hope of speedy recovery from illness. Only a trained and 

 experienced physician may safely be trusted to determine 

 the nature of any serious ailment (" diagnose" it), and to 

 prescribe the. treatment to remove its cause. 



"Soothing syrups" for infants, and " headache powders" 

 for adults, depend upon the presence of powerful narcotics 

 in small quantities to deaden pain, and to induce a more or 



FIG. 31. Percentage of alcohol in a patent, medicine formerly having 

 a large sale. 



less unnatural sleep. Continued use of soothing syrups and 

 "colic cures" with infants is likely to stunt their development 

 in body and mind, and leave them sickly and unfitted to 

 ward off the diseases of infancy and childhood. The various 

 cough mixtures, remedies for catarrh, and "cures" for colds 

 are likely to contain narcotics whose purpose is to deaden the 

 sensibility of the inflamed linings of throat and air passages. 

 While temporary relief in some cases may be experienced, 

 the system at large is seriously deranged by use of these 

 drugs. That the ill-effects of these drugs may not be imme- 

 diately apparent does not lessen the harm wrought every 

 time they are administered, nor avert the risks taken in 



