A NATIONAL BOARD OF HEALTH. 
478 
medicines be allowed to be sold without a register of their con - 
tents with the National Board of Health, and only at the order 
of a regular legalized practitioner. (They are generally stolen pre- 
scriptions which an intelligent practitioner gave for specific pur 
poses and which unprincipled men generalize as “ cure-alls.”). 
The sale of patent nostrums to be taken internally should be 
regulated by law. But we will not allude further to this subject 
as it is our intention to devote a special paper to it in the not 
distant future. 
As said, it is statistics in reference to the prevalence and cause 
of the every day diseases which we want, and not the occasional. 
Phthisis consummation kills more individuals in ten years than 
any invasion of the present day is likely to do. What plays the 
chief role in the genesis of this accursed pest f Ignorance ! Stu 
pidity ! Blindness ! On whom rests the blame f Unhesitatingly 
we answer , the medico l profess ion ! No one has yet entered upon 
a crusade against this fell destroyer, which is spreading and dis¬ 
persing its devastating germs over the nations of the world. No 
one writes for the people, that her editor iness plays a great genetic 
role with reference to the same . We forget that the sins of the 
fathers are visited upon the children for generations. Who, of 
the medical profession lifts up his voice and tells the people, con 
sumptives dare not inter-marry. Aye ! dare not marry ! Ye fools, 
who shall warn you of the wrath to come ? The medical, profes¬ 
sion ever sets an example of their own incapacity, or else why so 
many of their members with consumptive wives and children ? 
Why study medicine unless to think ? Unless to see the truth ? 
Can you think, gentlemen ? We scarcely believe it Blind, blind ! 
Education ! Where have we heard the word ? Have we dreamed 
that such a thing existed ? Ignorance exists, to think the evidence 
of education is almost a myth. Perhaps it may be found among 
the lost arts. What right have we to damn our children to a 
longer or shorter time in a living hell of misery and pain f The 
cure is before us, consumptives, descendants o+ consumptive families 
dare not intermarry. We are not at all blind to the infectious na¬ 
ture of tuberculosis, as may be seen in the future, but that is another 
side of the question. IJow do the apostolic standard-bearers de 
