Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1855-09-12
DIR. HARDMAN.
On the Cure of Consumption by Medi-
Gated Inhalation.
To The Editors of the Chronicle .

To Tie Editors Of tie Chronicle:
esprit of Love and Beauty, of Order, Justice and Truth,
Great Law Giver and Soul of the Universe-GoD;
Grant me, | beseech thee, a knowledge Of thy will"
The idea that consumption cannot be
cured-that it is necessarily from its
very nature, always fatal-has destroy.
ed more human life than the disease it.
self. This desolating disease has caused
more sorrow and tears, touched with
melancholy more hearts, served more
ties of affection and love, clad more hui
mainly in habiliments OF mourning, caus
ed more misery and death, than the COM
bined ravages of all the Presidential dis
eases, that from time to time, have
scourged the human race. The allied
powers at the terrible battle of Waterloo,
or, upon the ensanguined plains of the
horrible Crimea, lost not half so many
human lives by slaughter, as are annual
ly sacrificed, in either this country or
Europe by the whitening hand of On
sumption. All, consumption T! Terrible
Monarch--insatiable, devouring Tyrant
whence is Thy origin, and why hurlest
'hou the invincible shafts of death upon
the fairest and most beautiful of the race?
What mandate of authority has hereto
fore, darrell arrest thy terrible progress,
or reckon the ghastly victims of thy re-
~lentless march ? Why smitest thou
down, blooming and JOYFUL youth bound
ing hopefully into the arena of life ?
Why hast thou introduced sorrow and
weeping and badges of mourning and
woe to the homes of one third of the hui
man race? All, Destroying Angel !
Minister of Death Stay thy potential arm
stop thy wholesale career of deStruc-
tion-let thy deeds of tortuling death be
numbered
There is not, perhaps, in the whole
catalogue of human maladies, a disease,
the nature and cure of which is so much
neglected by the Profession Of Medicine /;
and which at The same time, more pre-
eminenlly demands the attention of that
Profession; than that melancholy disease,
known as consumption. 1t is so gener
al, so fatal in termination, and so univer.
sally diffused, hat scarcely a family is
to be found in the broad land, that has
not furnished one, or more victims, to
glut the appetite of this Unsuitable de-
stroyer of the race. Therefore, it is
scarcely necessary to offer an apology for
dispensing sound information to the Peo-
pie through the public press, in relation
to a class of diseases, heretofore defying
the art of mar inasmuch as the whole
community will be benefited thereby,
and perhaps hardly an individual of that
community, can be found, who has not,
either in his own person, or nearest rela-
tive or friend, a painful and melancholy
interest. What l say will be common
sense observations, based upon facts and
sanctioned by experience, and not meta
physical speculations and mysterious hy-
pothesis, clad in senseless and unmean-
ing technicalities. l choose to address
the plain understanding of the people iu-
stead of travelling that crooked, slippery
and conservative road marked out by
the superannuated Fathers of Physic,
called Professional Etiquette" by
which truth is SC often perverted in its
lofty mission of substituting itself for err.
ror and dispensing Light for Darkness"
and if ever triumphant, it is only by its
own int erent might, ilresistably bearing
down in its march, the allied powers of
c~onversativism, bigotry and dogmatism.
The press is potential in correcting all
error and wrong, in Religion, Politics or
Medicine, and wi list humanity calls for
a free and complete exposition of the
true principles of the two former, science
and philarthrophy, press a claim, de-
handing none the less for the latter.
1t may be that some of the ideas ad-
vanced in these letters, will appear novel
to my professional brethren, and call
down upon them the scanning eye of the
critic but however much my faith may
have been shattered in that " honorable
body" in these "latter days" l still
have faith enough to believe, they will
not ignore free discussion Of great prac-
Iical principles; and deny me a fair, calm
and impartial hearing. Let me exclaim
in the language of Thcnistocles to Eur.
blades, when the latter uplifted the staff
of his indignation 10 chastise him, "Strike,
bit hear me-"
Physicians have so long contended
themselves in viewing consumption, as
an incurable disease, that the public
mind has to a great extent been directed
into the same channel of opinion, that no
sooner is a person pronounced econ
sumptive, than all hope of a restoration
10 health vanishes, and then follows de-.
spondency of mind, with its depressing
and enfeebling influences upon the entire
body. The mind and body are very in
timately united, and it should not be
surprising that they should effect each
other, and that when strong impressions
are made upon the one, it would be re.
leeted upon the other. Many diseases
of a grave character, have acknowledge
ed such a cause. Spasmodic Asthma
and some affections of the throat and
heart are thus produced. Long contin-
ued depression and anxiety of mind,
brought on by the reflection, that " my
disease is an incurable consumption, -
may produce great irlegularity in the
process of digestion and assimilation,
perverting nutrition, deranging the ner-
vous system, producing debility, and
Fastening the fatal catastrophe.
Another plain reason why consump-
ton has been so uniformity fatal is, that
the patient believing it incurable, makes
no attempt to find a cure, contenting
himself with the use of paHiatives ; thus
lulling himself into a false security,
whilst the disease with steady and sure