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Show tioxv It Started By Jean Newton Why It Is a "Nostrum" n'TpHE Infamous nostrums of mal- practitioners" used to be a favorite fa-vorite phrase of a certain medical writer. That the word "nostrum" should have this sense of a quack or disreputable dis-reputable proprietary remedy Is Interesting In-teresting when it Is considered that the word itself, in its original Latin, simply means "our own" (or my own). The word came to be applied orig inally to the products of those peripatetic peri-patetic medicine men who sold cure-alls, cure-alls, allegedly of their very own concoction, con-coction, the secret ingredients of which presumably were extremely valuable val-uable and known vonly to themselves. That these compoundings were generally gen-erally worthless, If not harmful, goes of course without saying ; but it Is in this way that the term acquired Its invidious significance. (. Bell Syndicate.) WNU Service. |