rs himself cured.
But the original condition persists: it may in the meantime be
improving, but it may on the other hand be growing worse.

Not infrequently it is best to check symptoms, and to check them by
means of drugs. When they should be checked, only a thoroughly trained
physician is qualified to decide. The question is not one for amateurs,
since the whole practice of medicine, including the prescription of
drugs, constantly becomes more nearly an exact science. People should
obtain and follow expert advice in regard to health as they would in
regard to other affairs of life. The constant self-dosing practised by
thousands of people is harmful and unintelligent; it is, however, no
less irrational to go to the other extreme and refuse to take medicine
prescribed by a competent doctor.

AMATEUR DOSING.--Amateur dosing either of oneself or of others is
dangerous in more ways than one. In the first place, time is lost.
Moreover, symptoms are characteristic; checking or altering them
increases the difficulty of finding the real trouble. The man with
eyestrain who takes one drug to stop his headache and another to "cure"
his stomach, is simply delaying the time when properly adjusted glasses
will relieve both. In this case the result may not be serious; but such
a loss of time in finding the trouble and beginning proper treatment
might prove fatal in the case of tuberculosis.

Another objection to amateur prescription of medicine is the fact that
most drugs have more than one effect. In addition to their main action
they have others, subordinate or ordinarily less marked. These minor
effects may be serious in some cases. Many headache remedies, for
example, affect the heart; a dose that is harmless for a normal person
may be strong enough to injure seriously a person with a weak heart. A
doctor, and a doctor only, is competent to decide when and in what
quantity medicines will be beneficial, because he alone understands both
the condition of the patient and all the possible effects of the drug.

In no circumstances should medicine prescribed for one person be taken
by another. This rule seems obvious enough; yet every day people pass on
their pet remedies to friends. Some medicines deteriorate after
standing, and others grow stronger; nevertheless, medicine supposed to
have cured a cough or a tonic supposed to have strengthened some member
of the family after an attack of grippe is cheerfully administered
months l