or no help can be expected from these so-called experts, because "they understand their business" and they either refuse to testify against the defendant, or make their testimony so weak, uncertain and half-hearted as to do no damage to the defendant or their profession. I do not wish to be understood that this is always the case, because where the wrong is so glaringly apparent, or the unskillfulness complained of so plain and about which there can be no shadow of doubt, the experts cannot and do not help themselves nor the defendant, and in such cases the plaintiff usually obtains justice and consequently relief in damages. Many cases could be enumerated which would demonstrate this condition of affairs had we space at our command. Enough has been hinted at to call attention to general conditions, and to also enable our readers to become more observing themselves and thus be better able to guard and protect their own interests.

The next article will be: "What Degree of Care and Skill is Required?" Address all communications to the writer in care of THE COLUMBUS MEDICAL JOURNAL.

Q

Compound Kargon.

UITE frequently I am asked, what is Compound Kargon? The inquiry is a very natural one to those who do not understand the tricks of advertising.

Compound Kargon is simply a name that some enterprising medicine man has invented. It does not mean anything at all. He has invented a name that he applies to a certain medicine, which he supplies to the drug stores.

After having supplied the drug stores with his Compound Kargon, he then puts a recipe in the local papers. The recipe, he says, is good for rheumatism. People read it and believe in it, for, on the face of it, it looks very unselfish. The recipe consists of fluid extract of dandelion, compound syrup sarsaparilla and Compound Kargon.

People afflicted with rheumatism are surprised at the philanthropy which

277

would impel any man to publish such a recipe. Where does the advertiser get anything out of it? I simply go to the drug store and buy it. The druggist gets his pay, to be sure, but the man who has been so good as to give out to the public the ingredients of this famous rheumatic cure, must be a very self-sacrificing, unselfish fellow.

But not so. The recipe may be good for rheumatism, but it is also good for the man who advertises it. The druggist can not get the Compound Kargon without buying it of him. This is only another way to advertise a patent medicine.

The Compound Kargon may be a good remedy for rheumatism, for aught I know. It may be salicylate of soda, or some one of the many vegetable remedies for rheumatism. Or it may be simply a bluff. But whatever it is it constitutes very cute advertising. average person is caught by it. Its seeming sincerity and fairness constitute a very subtle compliment to the advertiser. It is so rare to find any one willing to give away good advice, or to point out for nothing a remedy, that the average person is captivated by it. It makes good advertising, surely.

It may be a good remedy, also. I certainly would be the last one to condemn it on account of the way in which it is advertised. I do not approve of the evident attempt to deceive. If the advertiser was obliged to tell what Compound. Kargon is, probably he would not sell any of his remedy. But for all that the remedy may be a good one.

The only proof for or against any remedy is the testimony of those who have taken it. If they say it cures rheumatism, I should be inclined to believe it, whatever the source of the Compound may happen to be. may happen to be. But if they say it does not cure rheumatism, then I should not believe it, although it was endorsed by a hundred German physicians, accepted by the Board of Pharmacy of the American Medical Association, advertised in all the ethical journals, and prescribed by a thousand ethical doctors.

It is the people who really know whether it will cure or not. Their testimony constitutes the only real evidence.

The Vaccinationists' Vicious Circle. N order to grant that statistics on vaccination prove anything, we have to prove statistics to be true. The methods of gathering statistics by the Boards of Health are so absolutely unfair that they are thoroughly worthless.

We had in this city an alleged epidemic of smallpox. A great many people were quarantined and a great many vaccinated. From day to day there would be reported cases of smallpox, the majority of whom, it would be said, were never vaccinated.

I took the pains to obtain this list of people, who were put down as never vaccinated. I obtained the list from the books at the Board of Health, and started out to visit the list. There were over one hundred names on the list. I visited the first thirty, and without exception they had been vaccinated, some of them three or four times.

I went back to the office, demanding an explanation of their false statistics, and the reply I got was as follows: "It doesn't make any difference how many vaccination scars a man may be carrying, he has not been properly vaccinated if he gets the smallpox. The only proof we need that he has not been properly vaccinated is the fact that he catches smallpox. And. if he has not been properly vaccinated it is equivalent to never vaccinated." Therefore, they simply find out who has smallpox, and then put them down as never vaccinated.

They reason in a vicious circle. First, that vaccination prevents smallpox. Therefore, if any one gets smallpox who has been vaccinated they then assert that he was not properly vaccinated, no matter how many times he might have submitted to vaccination. Vaccination prevents smallpox. If the patient has smallpox he has never been vaccinated. If he has ever been vaccinated he doesn't have smallpox. This is the vicious circle in

which they reason, and nothing could be proven in this way.

I have carefully read the latest laboratory researches of the European bacteriological laboratories. I can say without fear of contradiction that the practice of vaccination does not rest upon any evidence furnished by these laboratories. Vaccination is not, has never been, scientifically verified. It is simply and wholly an empirical practice, based on alleged statistics. That these statistics are abso

lutely worthless and wholly misleading, is just as certain as anything can possibly be.

"He is the best doctor who knows the worthlessness of most medicines."

"Study your fellow men and fellow women, and learn to manage them." The above is what Dr. Osler said.

Dr. Jacobi, of New York, is sorry that Dr. Osler should have said any such thing. The following is what Dr. Jacobi wishes Dr. Osler had said:

"Be critical of the pharmacopeia, as of everything else."

"He is the best doctor who knows the worth and the worthlessness of medicines."

"Study your fellow men and fellow women to serve them. 'Therapy' means service."

I wish he had said that, said Dr. Jacobi.

sicians have received does not bring them to any agreement whatever concerning the practice of medicine, yet unless a man has received that sort of an education he should be branded as a criminal if he attempts to treat disease. College-made

279

doctors are all right, even though one does exactly contrary to what the other does. All other doctors are wrong, without reference to their ability to treat disease, or their use of remedies the value of which no one disputes.

I

or

DESIRE to call attention to the fact that absorption is the only method or means of reaching the circulation either by food medicine, and is recognized and depended upon by all the drug medical schools in the general treatment of the various diseases of the human body. It is no new principle, but is as old as the body and known for centuries.

You have read of sailors, no doubt, when out at sea and out of fresh water, resorting to bathing the body with ocean water to slake their thirst and escape death. Also of persons whose stomachs would not retain food being fed by being bathed with milk till tided over some crisis or till nourishment could be taken again by the patient.

Again, foods are often administered rectally to support a patient when the stomach cannot be depended upon, as in many forms of stomach trouble. All the plasters, ointments and liniments are used and made effective on the same principle. Many more could be cited in proof of the ability of skin to absorb either food or medicine administered either internally or externally, but let this suffice.

The principal avenues of absorption are the stomach and alimentary canal, rectum and skin.

All the mucous membrane lining the interior of the body may be called the inner skin, while that on the outside or surface the outer skin. Both of these are in direct communication with the blood or circulating system. All the drug medical doctors depend largely if not entirely on the one avenue of absorption, viz: the stomach.

Now the absorptive power of the stomach is limited often both by disease and amount of surface. The former is often the result of the strong, drastic, irritating medicines dumped into it.

I do not believe that God ever made a stomach large or strong enough to contain a modern drug store. I certainly pity the ones who are everlastingly called upon to swallow it. No marvel that it sends out a cry of protest against this monstrous, modern innovation.

A professor in Philadelphia lately in lecturing to a class of students, said there were only seven or eight drugs that were worth anything. What a contrast! Pardon the digression.

The stomach's ability to absorb being thus necessarily limited, we now turn to the skin or outer garment in which we came fresh from the hands of our Creator, to get a larger and more direct supply of blood, nerves and tissues, through the millions and millions of pores in the skin which are in immediate connection with the blood and nerves of the body by absorption.

By this simple, harmless, efficient method of treatment I find I can multiply the supply of food medication twenty-five to fifty times the amount of that of the stomach alone. I fancy I hear the stomach cry out, What a deliverance, relief, mercy and blessing not to have to submit any longer to constant dosing and dosing.

I do not mean to say that when it is in a proper condition that it cannot and may not be appealed to in a helpful and beneficial way. But if it is not in a good condition for either food or medicine, it

ready in existence, as an attempt to distribute, with some degree of fairness and justice, the legal protection and privileges which the druggers have claimed and procured for themselves.

There should be in every state a board of medical examiners, organized after the method of the State Board of Medical Examiners, already in existence. This medical board, however, should consist of members who are competent to pass upon the fitness of hydropathy, electropathy, masseurs, magnetic healers, mechanico-therapy, suggestive therapeutics, chiropractic, and all similar cults.

Candidates graduating from any college or school or course of instruction in any one of the above or similar modes of healing, should appear before this board. for examination as to their fitness to practice the peculiar art which they have. chosen.

The Board would at first labor under some difficulty as to the fitness of these various colleges and schools to prepare men, but by some effort and experience they could soon discover in each state the standing of the various schools that pretend to be able to teach these subjects. When a candidate has been examined and found to be trustworthy to practice, a license should be granted to him, concisely stating that he has been licensed to practice.

For instance, if he is a magnetic healer he is licensed solely to practice magnetic. healing. He has no right to attempt to practice osteopathy, homeopathy, electropathy, hydropathy, or any other of the recognized systems of healing. He has no right to use their titles, or in any way profit by their reputations. He is simply licensed to practice the particular system upon which he has been examined, under which he has applied for license.

Such a Board should be composed of men that have been properly educated themselves, and have a sympathetic attitude toward all the schools, some of whom at least should have been regularly graduated in the medical colleges where drugs and surgery are taught. Each state should have such a Board.

281

This would encourage all reputable and honorable schools of drugless healing. It would encourage men and women to fit themselves in such schools.

On the other hand, it would discourage all fake schools and worthless instruction. It would gradually define these various schools and differentiate them one from the other.

It would set loose in the country a host of healers who believe in hygiene, who practice only such harmless methods as are intended to assist Nature.

These people would come in contact with the druggers and surgeons in a free and open competition. This could compel the careless, indifferent drug doctor to look to his laurels, to have an eye on his own standing and reputation, and to make cures instead of trying experiments. He would have to produce results or lose his practice, because of the sharp competition between him and the healers that use no drugs. In short, he would be obliged to demonstrate the superiority of the use of drugs over other forms of healing.

In addition to this arrangement, there ought to be a college, located in some central city of the United States. college should be a Polypathic institu

This

tion. There should be a chair devoted to each form of the healing arts, those who use drugs and those who do not. For instance, an Eclectic, an Osteopath, a Magnetic Healer, a Hydropath, an Electropath, and representatives of such other cults as may arise from time to time.

After a physician has graduated from some school of the healing arts in his own state, has successfully passed the examination of the Board located in his state, and desires to broaden his education by attending this Polypathic institution, he could do so. In a year's course in such an institution he could be taught the essential claims of all the pathies above mentioned. He is not proposing to fit himself to practice any other school than the one from which he has graduated. An attendance upon this college simply fits him for a broad view of the