It has been said, and with some degree of truth, that Americans are self-dosers, and that they are prone to attempt to cure themselves, even of serious diseases, without consulting a physician.
The sale of patent medicines is enormous, although I think it is diminishing in volume, due to the exposures which have appeared in many periodicals, and to the better education of the people.
A patent medicine, technically speaking, is a concoction or drug, or combination of drugs, claimed to be a remedy or cure for a specific ill or for all of the ills that the human flesh is heir to. It is manufactured in large quantities, and bottled or put up with attractive labels, with more or less directions given for its use. Many of the patent medicines are either absolutely ineffective or are positively dangerous. Many of them contain a large percentage of alcohol, which acts as a transient tonic, and produces an exhilaration which the sufferer is likely to consider beneficial. The effect of the alcohol soon wears off, and the taker is much worse for having swallowed it.
Other patent medicines contain cocaine and other dangerous drugs, which never should be taken without the advice of a physician. The effect of some patent medicines is likely to be immediate and to appear to be efficacious. Some patent medicines, however, are made of pure drugs, and are really valuable. I am, however, opposed to the use of patent medicines, even of those which are carefully and scientifically compounded.
It is obvious that the layman cannot diagnose his trouble, and the label on the bottle, or the pamphlet accompanying it, is likely to confuse him, and in many cases makes him feel that he is suffering from an ailment or disease which does not exist.
Headache powders, cough medicines, tonics of all kinds, soothing syrup for babies, should be conscientiously avoided, unless prescribed by a physician. They are likely to contain dangerous drugs, and may have no medicinal properties at all.
Because a certain medicine has worked well with one person should not be taken as evidence that another can take it to his advantage. Similar symptoms may exist, and yet the root of the trouble be entirely different.
Even if every patent medicine were pure and scientifically compounded, I would advise against their use, unless recommended by a physician, who is likely to diagnose correctly the trouble and to apply the right remedy.
Physicians are not infallible, but every reputable physician is a graduate of a medical school, a reader of current medical magazines, and is constantly in touch, by experience, with other physicians and with human ailments. Even if he is not an expert, his close proximity to disease makes him far more reliable than the label on the medicine bottle.
I would advise no one to place himself in the hands of any physician who is not a member of one of the great medical associations, maintained by both the allopathic and homeopathic schools.