A Bit of the Truth.

Manawatu Herald, 20 June 1899, Page 3

A Bit of the Truth.

* The most pertinent and startling question ever as):. <1 is this :— " What is truth? " A Roman Governor propounded it once, under circumstances which grratly worried and perplexed his official mind. And he was not the first man or the last — not by myriads, So far as I know ihere has been no satisfactory answer. Some people (radica's and come-outers of various sorts) fancy that in this, the tail end of a rather braggart and conceited century, they have flushed a fair-sized covey of truths by firing speculative shotguns into every wayside bush and bog. But have they done it? No, gentle reader no. They have put up crows and sparrows the same crows that picked the bones of the cave dwellers, in the time of Piate. There were plenty of foo's of old, and there are plenty now. The ancient doctors indeed, perscribed some horrib'e stuffs as medicine : — they us*d viper's flesh and recommended pomegranate seeds for toothache because those seed 3 resemble human teeth. Very shallow and silly, to be sure, this sounds to us. But if you wanted to find things that oome very near matching them in modern practice, I could show you where to look. On my table I have a list of about 800 " remedies " introduced to a suffering world within the past iwelvemonth. " Must be some good ones among them," do you say? Possibly. Time will tel 1 . Meanwhile let us stick to what W3 are sure of. "We learn how to cure diseases," said Celsus, "by experience, not by reasoning," '•Some of the greatest truths in medicine," said a learned Scotch doctor, came by the humblest means ; not by synthesis or venesection, but by the observations of peasants and the experiments of motherly women." Concerning a medicine discovered by one such woman, thousands of stories have been tod and letters written. Here is an example : — "For many years I have suffered from indigestion and weakness. I seemed to have no energy for anything. I had a poor appetite, and what little food I a'e caused me violent pains at the chest and between the shou'ders. Frequently I had attacks of giddiness, and when I stopped I suffered from an unnatural rush of blood to the head. The pain which I was called upon to bear was often very severe ; it affected all parts of my body, and at night 1 got little rroper and refreshing sleep on account of it. j " As time went on and the complaint grew fixed upon me, I came to be exceedingly weak, and now and again was ob'iged to take to my bed. I lost flesh and , and became quite thin, living, as I did, only on milk, beef tea, and other kinds of liquid food. It will be understood, of course, that I had medical care, besides attending the South London Dispensary. Yet I' received no benefit from what was done for me. "It happened that in January, 1789, a friend, Mr Pullen, tod me he had suffered in a si "nib r, manner and had been cured by a remedy called Mother Seige''s Syrup. Acting on his suggestion I got a bottle, and after having taken it I found great relief. Presently my appetite returned and food no longer distressed me. Convinced that Mother Seigel's Syrup *as adaoted to my ailment I continued the use of it until it was no longer needed. My health and strength were re-established, and I have since been well. This medicine had done what- no others had been able to do. My husband, who suffered from bi'iousncs, used it with th» same result. You have my free conse t to publish this brief statement if you desire to do so." — (Signed) Mr* Ju'ia Mossey, 133, Lorrimore Road, Kennington, London, S.E., January 20th, 1898. Thpre is no royal. road to the discovery of truth or knowledge. Anybody may find it anywhere. It is not always h« who I seeks that finds. Valuable discoveries are usually made by what, for lack of a better word, we call accident. The medicine that cures is the medicine we want no matter whether it is o'd as t'^e earth or was picked up yesterday in the field by a child. The Mother Seigel's Syrup cures is proved by a cloud of witnesses. It is a bit of the. truth. Therefore it wili not die out, and nothing can take its plaae.