214  Solution  of  the  Citrate  of  Magnesium.  {A\J™lmT' 
My  experience  is,  that  most  of  the  persons  who  take  the  solution 
are  satisfied  with  one  of  that  strength ;  and,  really,  nine  times  out  of 
ten  the  customer  is  better  off  than  he  would  have  been  had  he  taken 
a  more  powerful  cathartic.  It  is  a  universal  law  of  the  animal  econ- 
omy that  over-excitation  is  attended  with  a  corresponding  debility. 
Super-catharsis  is  almost  ever  attended  with  subsequent  inaction  of 
the  intestinal  canal  and  constipation,  the  only  exception  to  this  rule 
being  those  cases  in  which  a  degree  of  congestion  is  induced  sufficient 
to  maintain  considerable  serous  and  biliary  secretion.  The  injury 
inflicted  by  the  patent  pills  of  Jayne,  Morrison,  etc.,  is  very  great ; 
the  physician,  who  alone  has  an  intelligent  view  of  these  consequences, 
can  only  deplore,  without  the  ability  to  correct  or  even  modify,  this 
evil.  He  can,  however,  when  publishing  a  formula  for  a  commercial 
article  which  the  community  demand  and  will  have,  give  one  so  modi- 
fied as  to  open  the  bowels  when  constipated  in  a  gentle  yet  effective 
manner,  without  the  corresponding  debility  the  old  officinal  formula 
would  induce  on  persons  of  susceptible  bowels.  And  really  this 
cathartic  evil,  like  many  others  society  must  encounter,  must  be  en- 
dured, and,  if  possible,  modified,  without  a  chance  of  being  escaped. 
Super-catharsis  is  a  weak  point  in  regular  practice,  where  homoeo- 
pathy gains  decided  advantage  ;  in  fact,  the  leading  men  of  the  regu- 
lar profession  are  now  realizing  this,  and  while  shunning  the  charyb- 
dis  on  which  the  Hahnemannian  is  so  often  wrecked,  also  steer  safe 
from  the  scylla  on  which  the  allopath  was  formerly  unfortunate. 
While  I  do  not  denounce  in  toto  active  purgation  when  the  derivative 
effect  is  required  according  to  the  direction  of  a  physician,  I  cannot 
too  strongly  deprecate  the  use  of  active  medicines  in  the  hands  of 
ignorant  and  uneducated  persons.  I  am  aware  that  it  will  be  objected 
that  this  weak  citrate  will  not  move  the  bowels  of  some  persons  ;  I 
admit  that— -but  are  the  masses  to  pay  ten  cents  extra  for  a  bottle  in 
order  to  meet  exceptional  cases,  the  few  with  obdurate  bowels  ?  I 
cannot  see  the  necessity  of  it.  I  know  a  drug  store  in  this  city  that 
sells  on  an  average  thirty  bottles  a  week  made  by  my  formula,  and  I  am 
informed  it  is  very  seldom  that  a  complaint  is  made.  Mr.  Diehl  states 
that  my  formula  is  but  half  the  officinal  strength  ;  if  he  intends  the 
present  officinal  formula,  he  says  240  is  but  one-half  of  four  hundred 
— a  calculation  somewhat  at  variance  with  my  arithmetic.  In  filling 
physicians'  prescriptions,  the  officinal  directions  should  never  be  de- 
viated from,  unless  specified  by  the  prescriber  ;  and  as  we  have  now 
