Merely a Counter-irritant.

Otago Witness, Issue 2389, 14 December 1899, Page 63

Merely a Counter-irritant.

A physician knows the value of a counterirritant, but what form the latter shall take depends entirely upon the doctor.

Not long ago a young man, ill with intermittent fever, sent for a certain physician, who was noted for insisting upon literal obedienca. He came and' prescribed accordingly.

The next day he came again, found that the patient had not taken a drop of the modicine, had been seized with a chill, and had gono to bed, shaking with ague. Up went the angry doctor, slipped off the bedclothes, and thrashed his patient with a riding whip. Then he left him, roaring with pain and vexation.

A profuse perspiration followed, and neither the ague nor the doctor returned. But the young man, as soon as ho got out, sued the doctor for assault and battery. At the trial tho physician pleaded his own case. "I only did my duty," said he, "as a doctor. I had to prescribe, and -when I found my prescriptions neglected I had to administer. It was the crisis of the disease; there was not lime to make a mustard plaster, and I therefore administered the only remedy which the timo and circumstances admitted. I used & counter-irritant, and its effect was beneficial to tho patient's mind and body. The parient began to get well from that very hour." Tho court gave the patient nominal damages, and next day he received his bill for -"medical treatment _ in his intermittent fever." -.^^