106 THE NEW ZEALAND FAMILY HERB DOCTOR. 
and had them well in a week. His treatment, the steaming 
feeding process, was soon adopted by other progressive men 
on both sides of the Atlantic. It is said of a very successful 
doctor in London who when dying was asked what he would: 
have on his tombstone, he replied, ‘‘ only these words, I have: 
fed fevers.’’ That was the secret of his success. Now that 
cayenne is found in nearly all the text books, doctors are 
beginning to use it. Although acting on the doctrine of 
contraries, some of them decry its use in inflammation of the: 
brain or some of the organs. It seems to us that their 
objection is very unreasonable. If we take, for instance, 
apoplexy, which is caused by an overflow of blood to the 
head, and becomes fatal when the vessels of the brain are 
engorged and congested ; it is not theory but actual practice 
that a half-teaspooonful of cayenne given in a little 
warm water sweetened, causing a heat in and stimulating the 
stomach, has lessened the blood pressure in the head and 
restored the patient. It is often said that a little knowledge 
is a dangerous thing. This may be true in some respects, but 
we think that even a little medical knowledge is good if if 
keeps people from following old and injurious customs. The 
temperance cause has helped to abolish the custom, which was 
to fly to spirits in all kinds of emergencies, as accidents, 
sudden pains. Many a time schemers have got a drink on 
the cheap from the false idea that it was a panacea for all ills. 
We have known of men doubling themselves up, rolling on 
the floor for a glass of whiskey. A complete cure for all that 
sort of thing is to substitute cayenne pepper as the stimulant 
par excellence for all who really need one; especially in fits, 
cramps, spasms, &c. The general opinion found in standard 
works on Materia Medica is that it stands first as a pure 
stimulant. Taken into the stomach it imparts a glow of heat 
which ramifies through the system, or as some express it, even 
to the tips of the toes. We remember reading of a young 
married lady who was foolish enough to ask a young brother- 
in-law, who professed to have some knowledge of medicine, 
for a cure for her cold feet, especially ia church. He 
