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Saves Her Husband. The author of the “Degeneration of Dorothy,” Mr. Franklin Kinsella, 226 W. ‘sth st. New York City, was the victim of a little by-play—but he can best tell the story himself. ‘I must confess that I have been the victim of an innocent de ception which turned out all ‘for ‘the best, fh however. “I had been resting under the belief, for some years, that coffee served as a lubri cant to my cerebral convolutions, in other words, ‘made the wheels go round,’ and I had an idea that I could not work with out it as a stimulant. “I soon paid the penalty in nervousness, loss of flesh, insomnia and restlessness, none of which troubles would yield to any or all medicines. I finally got in rather a bad way and my wife took a hand in the affair all unknown to me. She purchased a package of Postum Cof fee and first gave me one-half Postum and one-half coffee. In a little time she had me down to clear Postum, and I was mone the wiser. “I noticed that I was getting better, my nerves were steadier, and I began to a gain flesh and sleep nights. My work was performed far better than in my old condition. “Commenting upon my greatly im proved health one morning I was told the truth. ‘’Tis to laugh,’ so I submit ted gracefully and joined the Postum franks. “I experience teaches that boiling is one f half the game. When the directions are carried out the result will be as fine a cup of rich, fragrant coffee as ever de lighted the senses without ruining the ‘perves.” Rhody.” She said to him: “You ain't no doctor, no how, you can't cure ‘em, but I kin.” “What do you give them, Aunt Rhody? Aunt Rhody says: “I won't tel you, but tomorrow you bring me two bottles so long” (meaning about 4 ounces). He did so. She filled them up with a dark, thick fluid, very much of the consistence of Cuba molasses. Her directions were to “give them a teaspoonful four or five times a day.” The directions were faith fully carried out. Within a week the negroes were fully restored. He asked Aunt Rhody what it was, and she told him it was a strong tea of black haw root bark. This young doctor was so impressed with the quick manner in which Doctors Are Born, Not Made the patients recovered, he ever afterwards used this remedy in such cases. He im parted the secret to scores of his medical friends, many of whom adopted it; among others, his old classmate, the late eminent surgeon, Dr. Willis F. Westmoreland, of Atlanta, who begged him to give the pub lic, through the medical journals, the ben efit of his experience, which, however, was never done. This valuable remedy was afterwards introduced as an officinal preparation through the writing of Dr. Pharis, of Mississippi, during the year 1871, twenty-one years after “Aunt Rhody” gave it to this young doctor. “Aunt Rhody” says that when a girl, all of fifty years before that, when associat ing with the Indians, she learned the value of this medicine. Today black haw is regarded as being the most valuable anodyne and tonic by certain specialists in the known world, fifty-two years after Aunt Rhody imparted her knowledge to the young Georgia doctor. In the same manner and at the same time Aunt Rhody acquainted this young doctor with the valuable properties of the bark of the cotton root. This was at least twenty years before this article found its way in the books of the regular practitioner. At this writing, fifty years after this incident, thousands of pounds of cotton root bark are being shipped an nually from Georgia to northern and western establishments to be converted into pharmaceutical products. It is said that “poets are born, not made.” Sometimes, in other departments of life, we feel that probably the force of this remark might refer to others. For instance, why not say sometimes “Some doctors are born, not made.” In this con nection it might be well to state that during my early professional career, I had the honor of often meeting a most distinguished medical gentleman, one of the most learn ed men Georgia ever produced. He was truly scientific, a grand lecturer, and one of the most beautiful word painters that ever graced any profession. He could sit and talk learnedly by the hour of Ql of the principles of the arts and sciences, and yet, as a practitioner of medicine, he was a complete failure. It seemed as though he never really fully appreciated the routine and details of the practice of medicine. He was wonderfully unfor tunate; his patients often suffered from this irregularity, so much so that fatality followed in his wake more than that of any other known doator in the state. He was forced to relinquish active practice, but to the day of his death Georgia never had an abler divine or a more interesting lecturer than he was on scientific sub jects. He ably filled the chair of a pro fessorship in many medical colleges of the south, but he never could make a prac tical doctor of medicine. While within 20 miles of this able, learn ed divine, there started in life in Clarke county, a poor Georgia school teacher, a Mr. Lindsay Durham, who, when he mar ried, possessed nothing in the world but a Georgia male. After marriage he brought his wife a distance of 4 miles on the back of this mule to a rented farm. With out ever attending a lecture, and with very little training this man became one of the best known and most successful doctors that ever lived In Georgia. He was a natural-born doctor. He met a Dr. William, who had gained a great deal of information concerning the indigenous herbs of Georgia from the Indians. About this time this young married man was taken sick. Dr. Williams was his physi cian. From this a lifetime intimacy sprang up between them. This young man's attention drawn to the practice of medicine, and especially to the efficacy of the medicinal herbs of Georgia, was in duced by Dr. Williams to stay with him and learn to practice. He did so. He always gathered his own herbs and pre pared them himself. His wife was to him a true helpmeet. She assisted him in his new enterprise in every way. Her special province was to make his pills. Then there were no pill machines, and all pills had to be made by hand. Hence pill making in the coun try doctor's office, and especially his, was an important department. This young doctor developed into a very successful practitioner. His fame soon extended far beyond his immediate neighborhood and patients flocked to him for hundreds of miles. He began to prosper in finances, so much so that he soon bought the place that he rented when he was first married. He added to it many hundreds of acres. He gave undivided attention to the in digenous herbs and brought prominently before the profession at least twenty dif ferent herbs, all of them very valuable, that now find place in the physician's office. It is wonderful to relate, without chemicals or a chemical apparatus, this country doctor developed in knowledge and proficiency concerning the secretions of the body that scarcely the present sci entist, with all his improved parapherna lia, has acquired. I remember distinctly, when a boy, I visited this old gentleman with my father when there were patients there that day from South Carolina, Ala bama and Mississippi. The old gentle man never measured or weighed a medi cine. His experienced eye and educated fingers served to dish out the remedies successfully. Before his death he pos sesses many slaves and many broad acres. Once during a panic among the banks of Georgia he helped the Athers bank from utter failure by a loan of a large amount of money which had accu mulated from the daily recepts of his practice. About the time Dr. Durham commenced The New System Opposed to The Old the practice of medicine bilious fever and other inflammatory diseases raged very ex tensively in middle Geor gia, and it was the cus tom of the regular prac titioner to meet those diseases with the most heroic remedies, such as bleeding, vomiting, purg ing, blistering, etc., to such an extent that if the patient was alive at the end of a week he was very much reduced in strength. Dr. Durham, with his vege table tonics and alteratives and general builders-up of the system, would be ewsed in and soon restore the patient to strength and activity. This circumstance contributed largely to the popularity of the doctor. He was known to build up so many patients whose systems seemed to be wrecked from the treatment so heroic by the ordinary physician. It has been erroneously stated that he adopted to a large extent the theories of the botanic school, when the facts in the case are that he really was the in cipiency of the botanic school. Dr. Lind say Durham had been in the practices twenty years and was known for many states around when the botanic school was void and without form. The begin ning of the botanic practice originated with a certain Dr. Thomson, who gave much attention to this line of drugs and issued a small book, to which he had a patent right. He would sell his book and the right to practice medicine acccord ing to the principles laid down in this book for $20. I remember myself, when a boy, that an old neighbor bought this book and started to practice medicine. He was a farmer. In the morning he would go out to plow with an old-fashioned pair of traveling saddlebags full of roots and “yards, and there the old man would plow till somebody would come after the doctor. He would jump on his plow horse barebick and go to see the patient and administer according to Dr. Thom son. Within two or three years after this “ready-made doctor’ lost so many patients he quit in disgust and went back to the plow handles. With the ex ception of another old man, this was the end of this form of Thomsonianism in middle Georgia. This second old man read Dr. Thomson's book and digested it thoroughly. One of Dr. Thomson's pet theories was that heat was life and cold was death; that the more heat won the better pros much so that he pepper tea for a time. He also kept a “piggin’’ of h imself to drink all had cayenne pepper intf his foods, even had his corn breaded up with it. Once upon a time one off his negro women got sick and he consul Dr. Thomson. Thomson said give he a tablespoonful of cayenne pepper, and af this old man did so, and for many hours there was “music in that part of the town.’ The negro woman got well, and this old man re nounced the practice of medicine, but as long as he lived I clung to his hot pepper tea. 5 Dr. Durham subscribed to no such foolishness as the ableve, while without regular medical train, he was thor oughly practical in one way, and now, forty years after his entire regular profession throughout the whole United States has adopted scarety of his remedies. These remedies he got from Dr. Williams, who got them from the Indians in middle Georgia. After the vagaries of the Thomsonian system fell to pieces 7 by virtue of its own inconsistencies, ome good and strong men, impressed by the legacy left them by Dr. Ludsay Durham, adopted the botanic system of medicine, and from this has eventually and gradually evolut ed the present rapidly growing eclectic school of medicine. I state one other fact in connection with the Georgia roots and herbs. While I give Dr. J. Marion Sims, formerly of Alabama, full credit for bringing into active use the valuable remedy known as sueccus alterans, I am going to state a fact not generally known, that there is being manufactured in Georgia a pro prietary medicine almost identical in composition and proportions to the suc cus alterans. ‘This fact has probably never been made public before, and I give this history of it, that in 187) the proprietor proposed to myself while in the drug business to manufacture it for him. He disclosed to me its composition. Certain circumstances prevented my man ufacturing it, and I was very much in terested in finding with a slight excep tion it almost the same as Dr. Sims’ preparation which he found in Alabama. This middle Georgian obtained the recipe from an old negro doctor, who got it from the Creek Indians seventy-five years ago. All of the herbs eoomposing it evon in provision in Georgia and are gathered by the hundreds of tens from the hills and valleys of Georgia. The proprietors have established important depots In Eng land, France and Canada, where hundreds of thousands of dollars of this remedy are sold made from the roots and herbs gathered in Georgia. Dr Lindsay Durham
Newspaper Details
Atlanta Sunny South
Atlanta, Georgia, US
Sat, Mar 15, 1902
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Patrick P.
USA 08 May 2026
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