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Physician an Educator
79
rid themselves of pain and inconvenience. So they resort to patent
nostrums, of whose real properties they know little, or they apply to a
physician for some remedy to counteract the result of their misdoing,
but with no thought of making a change in their unhealthful habits.
If immediate benefit is not realized, they try another medicine, and
then another. Thus the evil continues.
People need to be taught that drugs do not cure disease. True,
they sometimes afford present relief, and the patient appears to
recover as the result of their use. This improvement is because
nature has sufficient vital force to expel the poison and correct the
conditions that caused the disease. Health is recovered in spite of the
drug. But in most cases the drug only changes the form and location
of the disease. Often the effect of the poison seems to be overcome
for a time, but the results remain in the system and work great harm
at some later period.
By the use of poisonous drugs many bring upon themselves
lifelong illness, and many lives are lost that might be saved by the
use of natural methods of healing. The poisons contained in many
so-called remedies create habits and appetites that result in ruin to
both soul and body. Many of the popular nostrums called patent
medicines, and even some of the drugs prescribed by physicians, act
a part in laying the foundation of the liquor habit, the opium habit,
the morphine habit that are a terrible curse to society.
The only hope of improving things is to educate the people in
right principles. Physicians should teach the people that restorative
power is not in drugs but in nature. In case of sickness, the cause
should be ascertained. Unhealthful conditions should be changed,
wrong habits corrected. Then nature is to be assisted in her effort to
expel impurities and to reestablish right conditions in the system.
Natural Remedies
Pure air, sunlight, abstemiousness, rest, exercise, proper diet,
the use of water, trust in divine power—these are the true remedies.
Every person should have a knowledge of nature’s remedial agencies
and how to apply them. It is essential both to understand the prin-
ciples involved in the treatment of the sick and to have a practical
training that will enable one to apply this knowledge.