THE DOCTOR'S BOTTLE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 144328, 17 February 1914, Page 7

THE DOCTOR'S BOTTLE.

WHAT THE PATIENT WANTS. (From the Pall Mall Gazette.) There Is current a belief that the c “'doctor’s bottle” is about to follow the dodo and the great auk into extinction. No greater mistake could possibly bo made. So long as humanity continues to demand a sign for its healing, so long will drugs continue to be dispensed and swallowed. On the other hand, the long, complicated prescriptions of a few years ago are no longer met with. The idea that drugs are of themselves the chief means of cure 13 dead. Drugs, it is recognised, act, in the majority of cases, by suggestion, the patient receiving more or less what he expects, or has been told he may expect, to receive. Water, for example, if properly coloured and advertised, may be transformed into a really powerful emetic. It is no longer necessary,- in these circumstances, to ‘‘fling plenty of mud in the hope that some of it will stick.” A couple of simple ingredients made up into a “placebo” serve tho purpose just as effectively. What the patient really wants is an assurance that something tangible is being done for him. Advice is not tangible. BOTTLED INTELLIGENCE. The popularity of the bottle depends upon the basal idea that in some mysterious way it represent® the doctor’s intelligence and skill in a form capable of being swallowed, and so brought into direct contact with tho disease. A bottle, to bo really effective, should appeal to all the senses. It should look impressive j clear mixtures are deservedly unpopular and carry no conviction. It must taste ‘‘nasty,” since, obviously, demons are not to be exorcised with syrup. Moreover, a nasty taste is a moral discipline exceedingly gratifying to tho chastened mind of the sufferer. A bottle should above-all things show a good gritty deposit. This makes “shaking before taking” a necessity and reassures the patient that he is not being put off with mere coloured In. a similar fashion, the grit appeals to and convinces the tactile sense. Some bottles emit a pleasant little pop when the cork is withdrawn. This effect is usually achieved accidentally by combining bismuth subnitrate and carbonate of soda in a watery solution. Curiously enough, patients often welcome it as proof of the potent character of the contents. Finally, bottles should have a distinctive and not easily recognisable smell. For this reason essences like peppermint and cinnamon are useless as flavouring agents. Medical men are much too sensitive on the score of their professional dignity. They are much too anxious to defend themselves against the imputations of charlatanism. The strength, oven the usefulness, of medicine depends upon the mystery which surrounds its various processes. . In its heart the public docs net want to know. It wants to believe, and to go on believing; and it wants a token with every fresh piece of advice—as a guarantee of good faith. VIRTUES OP THE BOTTLE. To laugh at this sentiment is to confess oneself a- poor physician and a still poorer philosopher. The good doctor does not laugh. In perfect honesty ho goes on prescribing the drugs he may happen to have faith in, selecting and arranging them so as to combine the greatest therapeutic efficiency with tho maximum of satisfaction to his pationt. Medicino is still an empiricism; but the doctor’s bottle is a science and a philosophy.