Loudon free press. (Loudon, Tenn.) 1852-1855, 1854-08-09
Valuable Hints.


! the warm season of every year.
WHAT Is CHOLERA?
Cholera is the exaggeration of intestinal yer.
micular motion.
This definition, explained in language less
professional would do more good than all the
popular receipts for the cure of cholera ever
published, because it expresses the inherent
nature of cholera and suggests the principles
ofcure, in its early stage, to the most anrehec-
ting mind.
The public is none the better or WISER or
safer, for one of all the ten thousand "cures, T"
for cholera, proclaimed in the public points with
confidence which itself is a sufficient guaran-
| tee, that however well informed the author may
be in other Matters as regards cholera itself
they are criminally ignorant, for no man has a
right to address the public on any subject con-
nected with its general health, unless he under
stands that subject in its broadest sense, practi
! cally as well as theoretically.
AS cholera has become general, and per-
haps, al least for the present, permanent dis
ease of the country, and at this time is more or
less prevalent in every State of the UnioD--and
one, too, which may at any hour sweep any of
us into the grave-it belongs to our saftey to
understand its nature for ourselves, and dowhat
we may to spread the knowledge among those
around US.
A 'live" cheese or cup of fishing worms
may give an idea of the motion of the intestines
Z
in ordinary health; The human gut is a hol-
low, flexible tube, between thirty anG forty feet
long; but in order to be contained within the
body, it is, to save space, arranged as sailor
would coil of rope; forever moving in health
moving too much in some diseases-too little
in others. To regulate this motion is the first
object of the physician in every disease. In
headaches, bilious affections costiveness, and
the like, this great coiled up intestines usually
called ''the bowels, is torpid" and medicines
are given to wake it up, and what does that,
cures the man. Costiveness is the foundation
that is, Que ofthe first beginnings-or it is
the attendant of every disease known to man,
in some stage or other of its progress. But the
human body is made in such a manner that
single step cannot be taken without tending to
move the ntestines; thqs it is, in the main, that
those who move about on their feet great deal
have the least sickness, and on the other hand,
those who sit a great deal, and hence move
about but little, never have sound health-it is
an impossiblity; it is a rule to which l have
never known an exception.
Cholera being a disease in which the bowels |
move too much, the object should be to lessen
that motion. The very first thing to be done liz /
case of cholera is to secure quietude. 1t re-
quires but small amount of intelligence t. put
these ideas together and If they cou!d only lie
bu mt in on every heart, this fearful scourge
would be robbed of myri@ds Gifts victims.
There can be no cure ofchoera without qnie- /
tude-the quietude of lying on the back.
The physician who understands bis calling is |
always on the look out Tor the instincts of ma
ture; and be whe follows them most and inter- /
feres with them least, is the one who is oftencSt
successful. They are worth more to him than
all the rigmarole stories which real or imagi- |
nary invalids pour in upon the physicians ear
with such facile volatility. If, for example, |
physician is called to speccchlcss pat:eut-a .
stranger about whom no one can give any infor /
maton-he knows, if the breathingis long.
heavy and measured, that the brain is in dan
GER if he breathes quick from the upper part of .
the chest, the abdomen needs attention; or if
the abdomen itself mainly moves in respiration /
the lungs are suffering. In violent cases of
inflammation of the bowels, the patient shrinks /
invountarily from any approach to that part of
his person. These are the instincts of nature,
and are invaluable guides in the treatment of
disease.
Apply this principle to cholera, or even COM
mon diarrhoea, when the bowels donot act more .
than three or four times day; the patient feels 1
such an unwillingness to motion that he even
rises from his seat with the most unconquera-
bic reluctance; and when he has, from any
cause, been moving about considerably, the first |
moment of taking comfortable seat is perfect I
ly delicious, and he feels as if he could stay /
there always. The whole animal creation is
subject to disease, and the fewest number, COM
paratively speaking, die. of Sickness and yet in-
stinct is their only physician.
Perfect quietude, then, on the back, is the
first, the imperative, the essential step towards
the cure of any case of cholera. To this art may
lend her aid towards making that quietude more
perfect, by binding cloth around the belly
pretty firmly. This acts benegcially in diniin-
ishing the room within the abdomen for mo-
ton; man may be so pressed in crowd as
not to be able to stir. This bandage should be /
about foot broad and long enough to be doub- !
led over the body, pieces of tape should be sewn
to one end of the flannel, and a corresponding
number to another part, being saferand more
effective fastening than pins. If this cloth is
of stout wooden flannel, it has two additional
advantages its roughness irritates the skin and
draws the blood to the surface from the interior
and by its warmth retains that blood there;
thus preventing that cold, clammy condition Of
the skin which takes place in the last stages of
cholera. Facts confirm this When the Ash |
attic scourge first broke out among the German