."

It may be asked, "How is it if these mixtures are harmful only, that so
many people profess to have received benefit from them?" There are
different reasons for this.

1. The nature of such drugs as alcohol, opium and cocaine is to benumb
sensation, so that pain is stilled, and the pain, or functional
disturbance forgotten for the time, because the nerves are drugged into
insensibility. The person _feels_ better while under the influence of
the drug, so thinks it is benefiting him.

2. There are people who imagine they have diseases which they do not
have; since trained physicians occasionally err in diagnosis, it is not
strange if the laity should do likewise. Such persons are always ready
to aver that a certain medicine "cured" them.

A ludicrous example of this is a woman out West, whose picture graces
the advertisements of a certain nostrum, accompanied by a testimonial
that said nostrum cured her of a "polypus"! Upon being written to as to
how such a preparation could effect such a cure, she answered that,
after giving the testimonial, she found that she had not had a polypus!

3. Some of the cures attributed to drugs, are doubtless due to Nature.
It is estimated that from 30 to 90 per cent. of ailments are cured by
Nature, unassisted, and often in spite of, the drugs swallowed. Many of
the books advertising these remedies (?) give excellent rules of health,
which, if followed, would restore persons to vigor more speedily
without the accompanying medicine, than they can be restored while the
system has the poisonous drugs to throw off. It may be reasonably
assumed that a goodly number of recoveries ascribed to drug treatments
are due, in reality, to the resisting force of a good constitution, or
to obedience to the laws of health given in the circular.

4. It is not uncommon for people suffering from certain diseases to have
temporary remissions in the course of the disease. No doubt, some of the
cases reported as cures are such spontaneous remissions, which are
followed, after the testimonials have been written, by relapse. The
majority of people are ignorant of the natural course of diseases--of
what happens when no treatment is taken. They do not know that a great
many affections are characterized by periods of apparent recovery. For
instance in some varieties of paralysis, as well as in consumption, the
sufferer may to appearance recover completely for a few months or
longer; if a remedy was being use