PICK-ME-UPS: A WARNING.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2707, 16 November 1889, Page 6 (Supplement)

PICK-ME-UPS: A WARNING.

The St. James' Gazette had an article on pick-me-ups, which went into unnecessary details, and was less likely to act as a warning than to point out a course which some might have remained ignorant of. Customers are supposed to be seen going into a chemist's shop iu the city; a customer of decidedly nervous aspect will be treated to u morning draught of tincture of capsicum, bromide ot potassium, bromide of ammonium, and salvolatile. "A very nice nerve-restorer and brain-tonic indeed," so the chemist says ; " and ' bromide ' is really very harmless." With regard to the salesman's remark about the harmlessness of " bromide," it is permissible to differ very strongly from him. If we coul.l do so, wo would rather prefer to forget thau to remember tho fact that a man well known in Loudon literary circles a few years ago, who was everywhere acknowledged as one of the most brilliant classics and talented journalists of the age, helped to destroy himself quite as quickly by " bromide " as ever he did by careless living. Another popular pick-me-up—liquor strychnia, tincture of orange, and disulphate of quinine. And strychnine, so you are told, must be harmless, for certaiu pick-me-up drinkers can take ten grains at a time. Wo cannot help people from taking poison in small doses save by warning them of tho insidious nature of pick-me-ups, and pointing to tho many tragedies which might have beeh averted if evil habits had never been begun. — The Hospital.