ANOTHER FAVORITE BELIEF SHATTERED.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2104, 1 February 1908, Page 1 (Supplement)

ANOTHER FAVORITE BELIEF SHATTERED.

THIS USELESSNESS OE LINI- ' MEETS. It i« a pity that scientists will not leave us a few of our fallacies. One by one they are knocked on the head, and we are gradually being left with all pet beliefs shattered. In the “American Magazine” ,01'. Ilirschburg destroys any lingering faith in the eilicacy of liniments' and porous plasters. Ho says f POROUS PLASTER, LIVER PAD . AED LINIMENT. “Still other old friends are the porous plaster,. the liver pad and the liniment—‘for man. and boast.’ Tho principle upon which' some of these aids to the injured aro based is counter-irritation, which under certain cirucumstances, is almost respectable. But as a rule, tho idea expressed in the directions and implanted in the minds of users is that the powerful drugs in the plaster or I the liniment penetrate the skin and do battle with the sore muscles or disease germs within. As a matter of fact, we have the word of a scientific pharmacologist for the axiom that ‘the human skin, except when blistered, is almost impervious to any drug hut mercury.’ In other words, I tho epidermis of a healthy man is I as much chloroform-proof or camphor- I proof or other lininment-proof as tho I side of a warship. And yet who I of us hasn’t- found comfort and sol- I ace an a porous plaster? My father I would as lief he without- his dinner. I All the same, if the imagination in- I rested it with the same virtues, a I emit of green paint would do as much I good. I WHAT IT IS THAT REALLY CURES You may urge against all of this, 1 gentle reader, the fact that you your- [

self have cured sore muscles and stiff necks with your favorite liniment. There is no doubt of it whatever : you are a witness to it. And you are perfectly right. You played tennis too long and your forearm felt as if it had been through rollers. You got out your favorite bottle of Old Reliable, shook it according to directions, and gave your arm a good, bard nibbing. Next day the muscles were pliant again, and the pain was gone. All of these things undoubtedly happened, hut the fact remains that it was the rubbing and not the liniment that effected the cure. H von don’t believe it. try olive oil or hot water or Worcestershire sauce next time.”