The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

THE HEALTH BULLETIN. 163That is a time-worn remedy for toothachethat was ancient even to ourgrandmothers. They used bags of hotsand or salt, or even a hot iron, whena "cold settled in a tooth," with excellentresults. Now why, in this dayand age, should we give the credit forsuch a cure to a nickel-plated gas pipe?Certainly some of us do like to behumbugged.Constipation is one of the subjectstreated at length in the joke book.Some four pages are devoted to thissubject. We quote again:"There io but one true way of overcomingand curing constipation, andthat is to begin at the fountain-heador source of the difficulty. Every oneafflicted with constipation should takean inventory of his daily habits as tobreathing, eating, drinking and exercise,and correct the faults that hesees hrve brought about his condition."Now, it is a matter of common knowledgethat such a course will cure mostcases of constipation without furthertreatment. But note what follows:"While correcting the causes of hisconstipation, which the patient can andmust do in order to be permanentlycured, let him aoopt the following program:Apply the Oxypathor at StrongForce with one disk over the liver atlower margin of right ribs and coverabdominal surface with cold water orapply, with the disk removed, a coldcompress for 2 or 3 minutes."And so it goes on giving the timehonoredtreatments for constipation,including proper habits and diet, hotand cold compresses, fruit and a glassof cold water before breakfast, and soon, but never failing to have the Oxypathorapplied in some spectacularway in every instance. And yet somepeople can be persuaded to pay $35for a piece of gas pipe and for suchinformation, which they have beentaught or should have been taughtfrom childhood up. In this joke bookthere are enough simple home remediesour grandparents taught us, togetherwith a little everyday hygieneand sanitation that the average schoolboyought to know, to remedy theminor ailments, but the constant referencetothe Oxypathor misleads peopleeasily susceptible to suggestion toattribute their recovery to the Oxypathor,instead of to the real cause.History ofthe Fraud.The Oxypathor has an interestinggenealogy and a varied history. Wehave examined its family tree for severalshort generations, and allbranches lead to the fertile brain ofone Hercules Sanche, who oscillated««u««>*s««o