ANovemberhia£?'  }       Pharmacologic  Superstitions.  ^9 
of  intellectual  development,  were  willing  to  confess  to  a  more  or 
less  profound  belief  in  some  pet  superstition  as  foolish  as  the  old 
notion  of  a  black  cat  or  a  broken  mirror  as  the  harbinger  of  mis- 
fortune. If  a  patient  with  pneumonia  recovers  when  we  sprinkle 
the  bed  with  sawdust  why  not  sprinkle  the  beds  of  all  pneumonia 
patients?  When  we  combine  apiol  with  ergot  and  the  menorrhagla 
ceases  shall  we  not  attribute  mystical  synergistic  powers  to  the  apiol? 
Herein  lies  one  reason  for  the  survival  of  many  of  these  thera- 
peutic superstitions,  namely  the  simultaneous  exhibition  of  inert  and 
potent  drugs  and  then  assuming  that  the  diluent  has  played  some 
part  in  the  effects.  The  so-called  Towns  treatment  for  the  morphine 
habit  includes  a  mixture  of  hyoscyamus,  belladonna  and  xantho- 
xylum;  but  dare  anyone  with  any  knowledge  of  pharmacology  at- 
tribute any  part  in  the  results  of  this  concoction  to  the  fluidextract 
of  prickly  ash?  A  host  of  these  vegetable  "  simples  "  owe  their  repu- 
tation to  the  fact  that  they  are  almost  universally  exhibited  with 
some  real  remedy. 
Another  group  of  drugs  owes  its  vogue  to  the  exploitation  by 
manufacturers  of  proprietary  preparations.  When  day  after  day, 
from  glowing  blotters  on  our  desk,  from  pages  in  our  medical  jour- 
nals, in  blackest  type,  glares  out  boldly  the  statement  that  so-and-so's 
extract  of  viburnum  cures  amenorrhea  or  that  somebody  else's 
elixir  of  euphorbia  cures  bronchitis,  it  is  a  man  of  more  than  ordi- 
nary intellectual  firmness  who  will  not  come  to  believe  it.  Few 
men  realize  how  potent  is  suggestion,  or  how  many  of  their  beliefs 
are  based  on  the  dogmatic  assertions  of  others,  rather  than  on 
reason. 
It  is  well  that  all  physicians  should  from  time  to  time  analyze  the 
reasons  for  the  therapeutic  faith  that  is  within  them.  Especially 
searching  should  be  the  self-examination  of  those  who  are  looked 
up  to  by  their  confreres  or  pupils  as  authorities,  and  unflinching 
should  be  their  determination  to  recommend  no  measure  of  whose 
utility  they  cannot  give  material  evidence,  either  scientific  or  empiric. 
