SIMPLE REMEDIES.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 36, 2 December 1893, Page 6

SIMPLE REMEDIES.

Whoever (remarks an English paper) gives profound study to that,, passage of Roly Writ that says that the leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations, mast have; wondered why it is that the root and herb doctor, who formerly was somuch the fashion, has come to be spoken of with sentiments akin to contempt, and the “old woman’s remedies,” which were for the most part the simples of the field, have; fallen into such disrepute. It must be that the white light of sriemific research has withered the herbs and leaves, and that the old woman, lacking the ability to give flier chemical properties of her concoction, lias come 10 be regarded is a humbug and unworthy of even the least bit of public confidence. Certain it is, however, that the simples of lire are in many cases much more effective than the highly concentrated elixirs, triturations, and fluid extracts of the. modern laboratory, and often give relief when the resources of the; medical profession have been exhausted.

Many stubborn diseases have given way before the influence of the simple hot bath, and those who seek a remedy for t '.eir ills in the leaves of the forest, hx'.-e only gone back to the first: principles of medicine. It is a noteworthy fact that this science has made less progress during; the last hundred years than almost any other; indeed, medicine is one of the principal laggards in the race forimprovement. Tradition hampers it,, and bigotry is as rampant and as cruel in ths case as in any other. The average physician of the day would sneer at the ideas of cures performed by some of the simple remedies known to every household, and probably would dispute the efficacy of such applications. He would be unwilling to admit that the cranberry is an almost sovereign cure for certain cases of erysipelas, and that, grated potato has cured cases of rheumatism that have for years baffled the skill of physicians. This latter remedy, by the way, is much more efficacious than those who haves never tried woi 1 i be willing to believe-. I: is only necessary to gx-ate or crush; the potato to a pulp, or in absence of other means s ice it very thin and apply in the form of a poultice to the affected parf. It is not claimed that it will eradicate the disease from the. system, bnt that it gives instant relief and is, in certain families, tir regular use for this purpose.