"Take cod-liver oil and die!" has become proverbial. The oil is utterly
worthless as a medicine, and the whiskey usually recommended to be taken
in connection is decidedly injurious. It is poisonous. I defy one to
obtain a pure article of whiskey in this country. If it could by any means
be obtained in its purity, it would not cure this disease any more than
the nasty oil from fishes' livers. The oil is often given, not as a
medicine, but as an article of nourishment. If the patient so understands
it, all right; it will do no harm; but if he thinks that he is taking a
remedial agent, he is deceived thereby, and losing the precious time in
which he ought to be employing some remedy for his recovery. The
statements that cod-liver oil contains iodine, lime, phosphorus, etc., is
all bosh. A most reliable druggist of this city, who has sold a _ton or
two_ of the oil, told me that "all the iodine or phosphorus that it
contains you might put into your eye, and not injure that organ."
If good, wholesome bread, butter, milk, eggs, and beef, will not give
nutriment to the wasting system, cod-liver oil will not, and the patient
must die--provided he has trusted to nutriment alone.
I have never known a consumptive patient to recover upon cod-liver oil. I
have known them to recover by other treatment, particularly by the use of
the phosphates, as "phosphate of lime," and iron, soda, and other
combinations. I have intimated that a patient should be advised by "his
physician;" but if that physician is one of the old-fogy style who insists
upon cod-liver oil and whiskey as a cure, why, you had better "change
horses in crossing a river," than to perish on an old, worn-out hobby!
There are two classes of patients which the doctor has to deal with; one
will follow no instructions accurately, the other swallows everything
literally.
I remember a story illustrative of the latter. A dyspeptic applied to Dr.
C. for treatment. The doctor looked into the case, gave a prescription,
telling the patient to take it, and return in a fortnight.
At the designated time he returned, radiant and happy.
"Did you follow my directions?" inquired the physician.
"O, yes, to the letter, doctor; and see--I am well!"
"I have forgotten just what I gave you; let me see the prescription," said
the doctor, delighted at his success.
"I haven't it. Why, I took it, sir."
"Took it--the medicine, you mean," explained the man of pills and powders.
"Medicine? No. You gave me no medicine--nothing but a paper, and I took
that according to directions. That's what cured me."
The clown had swallowed the recipe!
The consumptive requires nourishment. He must derive it from wholesome
food,--even fat meats are beneficial,--not from medicines. Let food be one
thing, medicine another. I believe that a man would starve upon cod-liver
oil. He would not upon bread or beef.