CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 57, 16 June 1910, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

THE DRUG HABIT. No person who has not a knowledge of the properties of drugs has any light to pour them into himself or into any other person. The average civilised person, when he is a little -! oll'-co.or" ilies to some alleged specific put up, oftentimes, by unqualified persons, whose sole idea is to make money. The patentee never sees his patient, so it is impossible for him to prescribe for the tens of thousands of people he serves, and, as a general thing, he may be looted upon as a greater scourge than any common com,plaint. If one might be led by printed allegations, one may be cured of any disease, from cancer to indigestion, by spending money on proprietary medicines. The same person who gives himself time to think, must see the utter fallacy of self-drugging, and, if he thinks a bit harder, lie will understand that when he is ill he not only has to fight the disease, but cue drugs that he may have been taking for a .period of years. Naturally, the medical men and the pharmacists (who do not make large profits out of pro-, prietary medicines) are enemies to the alleged specific that is given a highfaJutin' name and scattered broadcast over the world; and medical men, who, if they are clever, conscientious persons, and use less drugs than commonsense, and more skill than minerals, have the best right to fight the habit of selfadministered drugging. Dr. Giesen, of Wellington, lately made some excellent remarks in the matter, and his main point seems to 'be that many irieawal men recognise that patients will not believe they are being treated properly unless alleged specifics are poured into them. It is quite true that most patients have the most entire faith, in medicine if a doctor orders it. DOCTORS AND PROPRIETARY , MEDICINES.

Dr. Giesen made the further point that many medical men depended on proprietary medicines in prescribing for patients. That is to say, that a firm of chemists might prepare a specific, intended to counteract a certain dis.ease in all persons afflicted with it. The contention is, of course, absuiv. Medical men, therefore, according to Dr. Gie-

sen, depend sometimes, not on their own experience, skill or conscience, but upon firms of advertising chemists. The man who has been relieved of a, symptom by a drug naturally recommends it to friends similarly suffering, although he has no possible method of diagnosing the case, and may be the means of bringing serious, trouble. Dr. Giesen pointed out that in almost all houses nowadays there could be found an airay of medicine bottles. Most of these bottles are, of course, there because of what he called "the power of suggestion," hut the truest reason is that there is no surer way to amass a fortune than by making people imagine they are ill and selling them alleged remedies. Not lon'g ago a man died .of heart disease. An inquest was held. There were exhibited at that inquest a bottle of chalk mixture, a bottle of everyday o<Ju CT Ii mixture (containing opiates which merely prevented the power of coughing) and some headache powers (containing antiipyrine), three varieties of pills, and a quarter of a dozen of irritant plasters. None of these things could keep the man on earth a moment longer than he stayed, but he had been so habited to believe there was cure in nastiness that lie would cheerfully have swallowed tar if so advised by chemist or doctor. The great disseminators of drugs are rich, and frequently, unscrupulous, and, knowing how easily duped the public is, they will continue to thrive. An extraordinary amount of damage is done by folks who systematise the selling of curealls, and the only people who can adequately fight this sort of thing are the medical men and the conscientious chemists, who wall speak at every opportunity of the evil of drug administration by people who know nothing of them. The doctor who has the courage to throw the family patent medicine chest into the dustbin is frequently a better friend than the doctor who fills it—at s price.

A POINT FOE EXHIBITORS; To return to the Winter Show. Yon exhibited an onion that was fair to see, of marvellous gize and of great quality, lou had special 'knowledge, or you would have been unable to show that onion. How did you do it? Some Mdv else swept the board in the potato class. If all Taranaki potatoes were such marvels of beauty and quality, what wealth could »e dug out of potato patches! And so on. iSome-body suggested yesterday that shows are valuable for educational purposes. In reality, the educational aspect should be the predominant one. It is (better for Taranaki to have 500 medium onion growers than one pre-emin-ent one, and of course it is desired that all shows shall ibe generally and not personally payable, demonstrative and excellent. To go back to the simple onion illustration. The successful prize-taker desires naturally that his fellow grower shall be as successful as himself. Therefore when he stalls his exhibit, he might give fuller particulars than those usually given. He could say,'for instance, that the onion was Spanish, that it was grown in such and such a place, that lie had prepared: the ground in such and such a manner, that he had used Somebody's manure, that he hart sown at a certain time. If he happened to be extra scientific, he might state the constituents of the soil, the rainfall, the aspect-of the field, the local conditions existing, his method of dealing with enemies, arid so on. In all classes of exhibits it seems necessary to tell the public how it was titne. A prize onion is an interesting object, but the man who sees it would rather know how to grow the one than to see one. There is no doubt that intense cultivation thrives on agricultural exhibitions, and that the spirit of emula-i tion is one of the largest factors in the increase of output. It •would ibe a greater credit to the grower of a prize' exhibit if Ihe disseminated his knowledge i to other .possible exhibitors and then beat him. A'lthough the suggested system of definiteness might give exhibitors more trouble, they would be repaid by larger competition and even better exhibits. One swallow does not make a summer, and one apple does not represent the fruit industry of New Zealand. If skill and knowledge are widely diffused, the results will ibe generally moro ■beneficial than the holding of the. secret of success by a clever few.